4K Videos Not Playing? Try These Fixes.

Read time 7 minutes

With the introduction of ultra HD resolution, 4K videos are much in use nowadays. A large number of professional as well as personal videos are recorded and saved in 4K. Such high-definition videos demand certain system requirements. So, many times users trying to run these trending 4K videos (lately the popular Netflix, Amazon Prime videos), get issues like choppiness, stuttering, crashing, lagging, freezing, etc.

Get Your 4K Videos Issues Fixed With These Manual Solutions

If you are also facing issues in running 4K videos, then you are reading the right blog. Here, we will guide you with some solutions which can resolve the issues while running 4K videos.

1. Check & update system specifications
   For ultra-high-definition 4K videos, certain system requirements are mandatory (software and hardware). Let us have a look at the common specifications to run a 4K resolution video smoothly in your PC.
   • Enough Hard Disk space – For example, 150GB for a 3 hours movie
   • Video memory & GPU frequencies – 6000MHz and approx. 1100MHz respectively
   • RAM – minimum 4GB
   • Monitor or Projector – 4K supported
   • Processor decoding ability should be more than or equal to 15
2. Perform Necessary Updates
   If you want a flawless view of high-resolution videos, just confirm that you are working with the latest updates, whether it’s Windows, video media player, or graphics drivers.
   • Enable Automatic Updates for your Windows through Control Panel
   • Get the updated version for the Graphics Driver
   • Update the current Power Plan to High-Performance plan by visiting ? Options
   • Use compatible Video Media players for 4K Videos, update them regularly
   • Other Solutions
     Clear Web Browser cached files, e.g. for Chrome, visit – chrome://settings/clearBrowserData
   • Disable browser plug-ins, extensions, and add-ons
   • Use HDMI cable supporting higher bandwidth for 4K Video files
3. Solutions for Videos not working with VLC Media Player
   If you are trying to open 4K videos with VLC Media player and getting the aforesaid issues, just try the below solutions to get the issue resolved.
   1. Enable Hardware Acceleration

   Doing this could resolve the lagging, freezing issues with the video file by increasing streaming, filtering, and decoding speeds. Before trying this solution, it should be confirmed that the system is installed with the latest drivers.
   Open the installed VLC Media player on your system. Go to Tools> Preferences.

   

   On the opened page, click Input/Codecs icon and then choose the desired option from the displayed dropdown list under the Hardware-accelerated decoding option.

   

   2. Enable Hardware Decoding

   Configuring or enabling hardware decoding to Automatic, Direct could be another solution to get rid of any problem related to 4K videos. On VLC Media player, navigate to Tools> Preferences. On the Simple References page, select All options under Show settings at the bottom of the page. Then on the Advanced Preferences page, move to Input/Codecs> Video codecs>FFmpeg. In the Hardware decoding dropdown, select the desired decoding options from the list. Finally, click Save.

   

   3. Modify Video Output Settings

   It is a trial & error method – change the current video output settings to Direct or OpenGL and check if the video plays after that. You just need to open VLC Media player, go to Tools option and select Preferences. Then switch to Video option and under the Output section, select the desired output settings and click Save to save the settings. Now, run the 4K video and check if the issue is fixed.

   

   4. Increase the cached value in VLC Media Player

   By increasing cached value in the software settings, stutter or lag issues in 4K Videos can be controlled.
   Open the VLC Media Player. Go to Tools>Preferences. Under the Show Settings section, select All option. Now, from the Advanced Settings, click the Input/Codecs option. Move to the Advanced section, modify the File caching (ms), Network caching (ms), and Disc caching (ms) values to about 10 000 or more. Close the VLC Media Player and try running the video again.

   Note: It is also recommended to select All option against Skip H.264 in-loop deblocking filter option under Input/Codecs feature in the VLC Media Player.

4. Try converting the file format

If you are unable to play a 4K or any other video in your media player, you should always try to convert that particular file format first. Changing the file format of any video can make it playable. Every video is originally made in a particular format as per the device’s specifications that is used to shoot it. But, different users playing the video on different platforms may change that file format to any other file format as per their requirement. The file format of these videos are changed and converted as they got circulated and shared. Hence, some video files may behave differently due to the changes in their original formats. Therefore, it is suggested to convert such video files to some other suitable video file format and try to play them again.

You can convert a video file with the help of many free video converter tools. If the video is quite important and contains sensitive content, it is suggested that you use a proper video converter tool for the same. Such a reliable and professional video conversion tool is Kernel Video Converter. It can convert multiple videos at a time and guarantees no harm to video quality or its length.

5. Repair Corrupt 4K Videos

Not only the file size or big resolution, but the corruption in the video due to any random reason also could lead to 4K video issues. In that case, you need to repair corrupt video files. For this, we suggest you a one-stop – Kernel Video Repair which supports almost all video file formats – MP4, MOV, MPEG, MJPEG, MTS, M4V, MKV, AVI, AVCHD, WEBM, ASF, WMV, FLV, DIVX, 3G2, TS, 3GP, F4V file formats of any size and resolution from any device. The repair process is quick and is accomplished without loss of original quality. Go for the trial version of the tool and save up to 30 seconds of video for free. The solution considered as best video repair tool of 2022 and is highly recommended for its compatibility, repairing ability, simple interface, and advanced features.

Conclusion

High-resolution videos need advanced settings and system requirements to play without issues; otherwise they would not play or open. If you miss any of these settings or requirements, you can set them appropriately to fix the issues related to 4K video playing. But if 4K video files are corrupted, you need an advanced solution – The tool – to repair the corrupt video files.