Does my gameplay recording have dropped or duplicate frames? Free stutter checker

How to use the dropped frames checker

1. Choose the original recording, the file OBS wrote, before any edit or upload. MP4, MOV and MKV are read directly.
2. Pick the part to check. Short files can be checked whole. For long sessions, start at a moment where the game moves (a fight, a chase, a fast camera turn): a still menu cannot show stutter.
3. Press "Check for stutter". The exact check decodes every frame with WebCodecs. If your browser cannot decode the file, the tool plays the part in real time instead and says so, because that check is less exact.
4. Read the timeline. Tall bars are seconds with repeated or missing frames, red bars are freezes of 0.1 s or longer. Click a bar or a row under "Worst moments" to see that moment in the player.
5. Fix the cause and test again. Record one minute with the same game and settings, check it here, and only then record the long session. For the rest of a clean recording setup, see my guide on how to record gameplay for your editor.

What the numbers mean

• Nominal frame rate: the frame rate written in the file (for example 60 fps), measured from the frame timestamps.
• Effective frame rate: how many new pictures per second the viewer actually gets while the picture moves. A 60 fps file where the game ran at 40 fps has an effective frame rate near 40.
• Repeated frames: frames that are a copy of the frame before while the scene around them moves. Still moments (menus, loading screens, a paused game) are left out, because there a repeat is normal.
• Freeze: one picture held for 0.1 s or longer while the game moves (6 frames at 60 fps). Holds longer than 2 s are listed apart as long still moments, since they can be a pause as much as a hang. In an edited video, a still shot right before a cut can look like a freeze too, which is why the check is meant for raw recordings: click each freeze to see it.
• Missing frames: gaps in the timestamps of a constant frame rate file, where the recorder wrote nothing for one or more frame slots.
• Constant or variable frame rate: constant means every frame lasts the same time. Variable means frame times change during the file, which editing software handles badly.
• Clean means under 0.5% of moving frames repeat, no freeze reaches 0.1 s and the timestamps have no gaps. These limits are the tool's own rule, set so that a stray repeated frame does not fail a recording.

How to fix stutter in OBS

First find out which part falls behind. In OBS, open View > Stats while you record a test:

• Frames missed due to rendering lag goes up: OBS could not render the scene in time. OBS renders scenes on the GPU (its guide explains why), so a busy GPU is the usual cause.
• Skipped frames due to encoding lag goes up: the encoder could not keep up. OBS can also show the warning "Encoding overloaded! Consider turning down video settings or using a faster encoding preset."
• Both stay at zero but the file still repeats frames: most likely the game itself ran below the recording frame rate. A game at 40 fps inside a 60 fps recording repeats about every third frame.

The fixes from the OBS "Encoding Performance Troubleshooting" guide, in its order:

1. Run OBS as administrator (Windows). The guide says OBS can then ask Windows to reserve some GPU capacity for it.
2. Close other programs that use the GPU, including a second game.
3. Limit the game's frame rate to your monitor's refresh rate or turn on V-Sync, and if that is not enough, limit it to the OBS frame rate.
4. Lower the game's graphics settings.
5. Uncheck "Multi-adapter Compatibility" in the Game Capture source, unless a laptop with two GPUs needs it.
6. Windows gaming features: turn off Game DVR (Captures, "Record in the background while I'm playing a game"). The OBS guide says Game Mode can stay on in Windows 10 version 1809 or newer.
7. Lower the output settings in Settings > Video: output resolution or frame rate ("If 60 fps is not working for you, try dropping it to 30").
8. Build simpler scenes: fewer browser sources and filters.

On Windows, OBS also has Settings > Advanced > Process Priority. It is not part of the official troubleshooting guide, so try the steps above first.

Why I check raw footage for stutter before I edit

Most of the Roblox and Minecraft channels I edit for send me OBS recordings. Stutter in that raw footage is one of the few problems the edit cannot undo: a frame that was never recorded cannot be brought back, and a game that ran slower than the recording judders on every camera turn, however good the cuts are. A single short freeze can sit behind a cut. A whole session of uneven frames cannot.

That is why a one-minute test recording, checked before a long session, is worth it for both sides. If the test is clean, keep the same OBS settings for the real recording. To get a clean file to me with the right export settings later, the export settings calculator helps too.

FAQ

Sources

• OBS knowledge base, Encoding Performance Troubleshooting: the "encoding overloaded" messages and the fixes listed above, in that order. Read October 19, 2026.
• OBS knowledge base, Windows Gaming Features Troubleshooting: Game Bar, Game DVR and Game Mode (leave Game Mode on in version 1809 or newer). Read October 19, 2026.
• OBS knowledge base, Audio/Video Formats Guide, Hybrid MP4 & Hybrid MOV Formats and Standard Recording Output Guide: recording formats (Hybrid MP4 on Windows and Linux, Hybrid MOV on macOS, MKV) and File > Remux Recordings. Read October 19, 2026.
• OBS Studio source code on GitHub: the Stats labels and the encoding overloaded warning (frontend/data/locale/en-US.ini), Stats in the View menu (frontend/forms/OBSBasic.ui), Process Priority in Settings > Advanced, and how OBS repeats the last frame when it falls behind (libobs/media-io/video-io.c). Read October 19, 2026.
• Adobe Community, FAQ: How to work with Variable Frame Rate (VFR) media in Premiere Pro, written by an Adobe employee: audio sync drift and converting to a constant frame rate. Read October 19, 2026.
• Method: the exact check reads the frame index of the file (MP4 and MOV sample tables, MKV blocks) and decodes the frames with the browser's WebCodecs VideoDecoder. A frame counts as repeated when its 64 x 36 grey copy differs from the previous one by almost nothing while the frames around it move.

Who made this

I'm Kevin Tabares. I've edited long-form YouTube videos since 2015 (1,277 videos and 152.2M+ views tracked on YT Jobs), mostly Roblox and Minecraft gaming, plus narrated documentaries. Stutter is far easier to fix before a long recording session than after it, so I built this check as a free tool. If you want an editor for your channel, get in touch.