Yep, I had a 256Gb class 3 card in it and specifically went out and bought the fastest new sd card I could find. 256g Samsung Pro Plus, U3, V30, 4K (read 180mbs/write 130mbs)That makes me think more something related to the card then, either directly or how the cam handles moving data from it. You said you tried another card so unlikely the specific card itself.
Does anyone else have a card in theirs they could test? I'd try it but mine didn't work with the card I put in it and I haven't had a chance to pull it down yet.
For the moment I'm leaving it at H264, General Encoding, 15 fps, CBR 3840. This seems to provide the best, smoothest. I'd never changed the FPS from 30 to 15 until very recently. Maybe that was part of my issue.
Either way, I thank everyone for reading and helping out with suggestions and ideas. You guys are great and no one yelled at me to RTFM.