Why can't the Windows desktop player play 4K?

[mavrc]

Greetings. I’m puzzled about why the Windows desktop player (or, for that matter, the web player running in a browser) is unable play a 4K file over my LAN from my server without transcoding it… Once the video is playing, there’s not even a “Quality” setting at all like there is on other media, so there’s no option to choose “Original.” It’s not a bandwidth problem, as I usually just end up playing it with MPC-HC. I’ve tried a few different files and it seems to behave the same way with each - they are forced to transcode with no quality option provided at all.

I ran this question by a couple of friends first and they have the same problem, but just never did anything about it.

Why can’t I just play these files back directly? It seems like everything needed to play the files directly is present and working.

Server Version#: 1.28.0.5999
Player Version#: 1.58.1.3380-ea159c52

Other notes: it’s definitely playing locally, because the local bandwidth graph in the server settings spikes when I start playing it (and the remote stays flat.) I actually disabled the bitrate limit for remote clients just for kicks. but that of course didn’t do anything.

[JaysPlex]

Look in your dashboard

It will tell you for sure if it’s playing local, although I suspect you’re probably right about that part

The part you want to pay attention to is where it shows the video and audio below that

Transcoding from 4k → to what will tell you why, or at least give you a good clue as to why

Edit: There are quality setting if you want to untick that box “Use recommended settings”
Generally speak that’s not going to be your issue. The problem is usually an unsupported format your device can’t natively play. i.e. a browser is typically the least forgiving player