4K video is nothing new. The first televisions with this resolution began to reach the public between 2012 and 2013, so we can talk about settled technology. Similar to what happened with high definition (720p and 1080p) about a decade ago, beyond the physical format, which requires new players, the problem for most computer users of some time ago is power and of compatibility. And solving it is not as easy as one would expect.

Until Kaby Lake, the seventh generation of Intel processors, which arrived last year, there were no desktop or portable processors capable of decoding and encoding via 10-bit video hardware under the HEVC or Google codec, VP9. This is a problem, because beyond videos that are downloaded over the internet, almost all the content that smartphones produce from now on will come under HEVC / H.265 for reasons of space optimization, and many computers have problems to reproduce them . With 4K video files under H.264 codec problems can also arise, particularly when we face a lot of bitrate files.

With the solutions that we are going to provide the reproduction to jumps of video in 4K can be partially or totally solved. Without them, in some cases, the applications used did not even reproduce the first frames of the files.

PotPlayer, the player that best does it on Windows

Potplayer 4k

After testing very diverse applications of reproduction, I found several mentions in forums to PotPlayer, a free player that is essentially KMPlayer, and that has a great variety of integrated codecs, with which you can play almost any content you find on the Internet. In its adjustments, it allows a great configuration and customization in the use of the general experience and of the acceleration engines, very convenient option before the variety of equipment with different hardware that exists.

How to watch Netflix in 4K from Windows 10

Windows 10 incorporates its own codec pack, but PotPlayer allows you to overwrite them. Thus, after trying to play 4K video files from a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone on a laptop with a first-generation quad-core i7 processor and failed in the attempt with many players, testing PotPlayer was one of the last options left, and It worked much better than the rest in a first attempt. If the played video had an H.264 codec, the playback was smooth. In contrast, the video in H.265 / HEVC format presented more problems. Diving in the configuration that we will see next, the reproduction can be improved.

After entering the preferences (F5), in Filters -> Decode video -> Configure codec / DXVA -> Configure Hardware Acceleration (DXVA), select the option “DXVA” and “Use D3D11 DXVA first”. In this way, it is achieved that the reproduction hardly has jumps. Not bad, considering we talked about a team from eight years ago.

Testing from the notebook from which this is written, which has a fourth-generation i5 dual-core processor, playback is completely smooth in H.264 with any player that supports software acceleration (such as “Movies and TV”), but with H.265 the problem is that the fans raise their revolutions to the maximum, and even Windows ends up showing messages to force closure in most applications. The integrated player does not even open the file, so we will comment below. With PotPlayer, marking the hardware acceleration with the settings mentioned above, playback is completely smooth in 4K videos at 60 fps recorded with an iPhone X.

Activate support for HEVC in Windows 10

In the Fall Creators Update version, Microsoft removed the HEVC codec from Windows 10. For users who started with the Microsoft system on new computers from that version, one of the most popular so far, videos recorded with devices from Current high-end in HEVC could not be reproduced. On the contrary, those who have spent more time with Windows 10 (before Fall Creators Update) can play without problems.

How to solve it? From the Microsoft Store. The Redmond company offers the possibility of installing the HEVC codec for free (or at 0.99 cents). In this way, not only local content can be displayed in the applications integrated in the system, but also to be able to play 4K video from Netflix on computers that support it (it is necessary to have Kaby Lake processors, due to the acceleration by video hardware in 10 -bit and the DRM).