Step-by-Step Tutorial for Perfect Playback of 4K UHD Content on Windows 11 Systems

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How to Play 4K UHD Videos on Windows 10 PC without Lag?

Posted by Kaylee Wood | Last update: July 18, 2019

Speaking of how to play 4K video on Windows 10 successfully, the first thing you should make clear is what a 4K video is? Simply put, 4K has four times the number of pixels of the 1080p HD, thus it can render much higher image definition and more details of a video than the 1080p resolution. If you use a professional 4K video player for Windows 10 like 5KPlayer to play 4K UHD videos on your Windows 10 PC, the viewing experience would be much greater than before.

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How to Play 4K Videos on Windows 10 PC Smoothly?

4K resolution never ends with what we commonly see, say 3840 x 2160 or 4096 x 2160 pixels. Actually, any resolution with a horizontal pixel count of about 4,000 can be 4K resolution, thus 4K resolution can also be 4096 x 3112, 3656 x 2664, 4096 x 1714 or 3996 x 2160 pixels. Besides, 4K UHD contents could be downloaded from online, ripped from DVDs or recorded by iPhone, GoPro, cameras or camcorders. Now that 4K resolutions and 4K videos are variable, your 4K video player should be quite powerful to the whole types of 4K UHD contents on Windows 10 computer without lag.

If you intend to play 4K video on Windows 10 with the default Windows Media Player, chances are that you may be disappointed by the poor performance of Windows Media Player when playing 4K UHD videos. Windows Media Player totally can’t play H.264 and doesn’t include the codecs required for FLAC, FLV and many other files, so Windows Media Player probably can’t play 4K videos in MP4, MKV, MOV and more. So, you should turn to other 4K video player for Windows 10 like 5KPlayer for successful 4K UHD playback.

Kindly remind, besides the 4K UHD video player is the priority you should think of, you should make sure that your Windows 10 computer is not that old as well. A 64-bit Windows 10 computer with a 4K-compatible monitor and HDMI 2.0 cable is better for smooth 4K video playback with great clarity.

Freely Play 4K UHD Videos on Windows 10 with 5KPlayer

5KPlayer is born to be a free 4K video player that could handle highly-compressed 4K HEVC/H.264 videos in MP4 MKV without lag. No matter the 4K UHD contents are 4K movies, 4K DVDs, 4K 360° videos or 4K recordings, 5KPlayer won’t die when attempting to play such high resolution videos.

5KPlayer is a hardware-accelerated 4K video player with great versatility

★ To play 4K videos on Windows 10 computer smoothly, 5KPlayer has also developed itself to be a 64-bit media player so as to make up for the deficiency of a 64-bit media player on the 64-bit PC. Then, it is able to take advantage of the 64-bit CPU and 64-bit operating system to help maximize the efficiency of the 4K video decoding process as much as possible. In case needed, the enhanced 5KPlayer also allows for the playback of H.264 8K and HEVC 10bit HDR highly-compressed videos.

★ With native support for various video codecs including HEVC/H.265, H.264/AVC, Xvid, DivX, VP8, VP9, etc, this free Windows 10 4K video player can easily play numerous MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc 4K UHD videos from online, DVD or cameras without external codec pack.

★ Empowered by Hardware Decoding and Software Decoding tech, 5KPlayer can turn itself into a GPU-accelerated video player that can utilize GPU to decode 4K UHD videos so as to reduce the burden of CPU and at the same time leave more CPU space for other processes. From 4K UHD, 5K, 6K to even 8K files, this 4K video player for Windows 10 can render super smooth playback on PC without glitches.

5KPlayer allows for advanced settings to your 4K UHD video playback

The most popular feature of 5KPlayer would be the video cut function that enables you to cut 4K video into segment if there is any part interesting. If you are trying to play a 4K 360° video on Windows 10 with 5KPlayer, you can click and drag the mouse to view the 360 degree video from all directions, top to bottom or side by side. No matter how big the screen size and how high the 4K video resolution of your Windows 10 PC, the 4K video playback window can perfectly match your computer’s display without losing any quality as 5KPlayer allows you to set aspect ratio to 16:9, 4:3 and more. Other great settings are also helpful when playing 4K video on Windows 10, like rotate video, add subtitles, sync video and audio, and speed up or slow down the video playback.

How to Play 4K Video on Windows 10 PC Smoothly with 5KPlayer?

5KPlayer is quite a simple 4K video player for Windows 10 that even your grandpa or grandma can use it to play 4K UHD videos on Windows computer without any trouble.

Step 1. Free download 5KPlayer on your Windows 10 computer, install and launch it.

Step 2. Play your 4K video on Windows 10 PC with 5KPlayer.
Way 1. Simply drag and drop your 4K UHD video to 5KPlayer to play.
Way 2. Click on the “Video” icon on the main UI of 5KPlayer and choose a 4K file o play.
Way 3. Just right-click on your 4K video and choose “Play with 5KPlayer”.
Way 4. Set 5KPlayer as your default Windows 10 4K video player first, and then double-click a 4K video to play.

5KPlayer Also Supports 4K Video Download and 4K Video Playback from Windows 10 to Smart TV

Besides playing 4K video on Windows 10 without lag, 5KPlayer also lets you play 4K UHD videos from Windows 10 PC on Samsung, LG or Sony smart TV. With the built-in DLNA feature, 4K video streaming is available for anyone who want to experience the immersive 4K video from Windows 10 on smart TV. If you need to download the online 4K UHD video contents, 5KPlayer could also help realize that.

Final Words

As the default media player Windows Media Player on Windows 10 could not play 4K UHD videos very successfully, choosing another 4K video player for Windows 10 to play 4K UHD videos is highly suggested. After detailed explanation about 5KPlayer, you can find that 5KPlayer is a great Windows media player to play high-res videos including 4K HEVC/H265, 5K, 6K, HDR, and H.264 8K videos without choke.

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