Raspberry Pi 4 players run at 1080p on a 4K display

Video plays smoothly on a Raspberry Pi 4 connected to a 4K display. Until now the player would try to run at 4K, which is more than that board can handle, so video stuttered and the player looked slow when the real problem was a resolution too big for it.

These players now run at the highest resolution the display offers up to 1080p, at the fastest refresh rate available at that resolution, with nothing to set on the device.

This covers the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, the Pi 400, and the Compute Module 4, which share the same graphics chip. Raspberry Pi 5 and x86 players, such as Screenly Player Max, keep running at 4K.

If this affects you: a Raspberry Pi 4 on a 4K display drops to 1080p when it takes this release. There’s nothing to change on your side.