UHD content and the XZ2/XZ Premium

[JRC01]

Google Play has started offering UHD content that is payable on compatible devices, does anyone know whether that includes the XZ2 and XZ Premium handsets? I bought 1 movie but can't work out of there's a way to force it into 4k (like there is in the YouTube app) for Play Movies or not?

[viridis]

Play movies runs in the YouTube framework so yes, xz premium and xz2 premium can access this content.
I believe included with the free rentals Google lists in your offers, battle: Los Angeles is included in 4k so great way to try it out.

[EmilieT]

Hi @JRC01, I hope you found the reply above useful, but please do let us know if there's anything else the Community could help with!

Cheers for the info @viridis 

[JRC01]

That's useful to know, thank you, but I still want to ask whether there is a way to check if it is displaying in 4k? In the quality settings it offers only HD or SD on streaming quality, if I pick HD will it just automatically switch to UHD when playing content on a strong enough signal?

[viridis]

Let me check as I have a uhd Google film to test

[viridis]

They've locked all devices except Chromecast ultra and Android smart TVs out the 4k streams.
Gonna report it through to them as it was Sony pictures that activated 4k on their movies, doesn't take a genius to figure which devices should be able to see them.
But at the moment. No 4K, only HD

[viridis]

Currently talking to Google about this.
It should be as I said before, "if you can access the 4k YouTube framework, you can access the 4k Google play movies"
But we can't...

[viridis]

Possible work around being looked into by Google techies

[viridis · Accepted solution]

Ok, so it's now in an escalation with google,
It should play in 4k, but for whatever reason, that option is not showing for in either the app, or through the movie page on YouTube, it should.
The movie itself is held on YouTube and YouTube detects our handset resolution and offers playback up to the resolution available, on the Sony premiums, it should offer up to 2160/60P and in usual YouTube clips it does, But when it comes to play movies, even if viewed in YouTube app, only offer up to 1080p.
This isn't what should be happening.
Now the options on the app, might not actually change to represent 4k viewing options, but the work around may be that if we use YouTube as the viewer, we may get the option.
I say may, because it doesn't work right now.
It's been escalated and lots of device info ect has been forwarded to the technical team.
I will get an email at some point with some idea of what's going on and will post it here.

[JRC01]

Cool thanks 😁