Choppy H.264 videos from iPhone on Macbook Pro

My videos taken from iPhone X in H.264 format are choppy on early 2015 Macbook Pro 13 inch in Photos app and Quicktime. These videos play fine with VLC player.

Any video taken from the same phone in HEVC format (probably since iOS 12) plays smoothly in Photos, Quicktime and VLC player.

I was wondering what is causing this strange playback behavior and is there any way to it resolved for Photos app and Quicktime.

Any suggestions? Thanks!