diff --git a/apps/web/src/components/player-defaults.tsx b/apps/web/src/components/player-defaults.tsx
index 6a6b4ee5..aa386b5a 100644
--- a/apps/web/src/components/player-defaults.tsx
+++ b/apps/web/src/components/player-defaults.tsx
@@ -7,7 +7,11 @@ import {
   useMediaState,
   useVideoQualityOptions,
 } from "../lib/vidstack";
-import { includesOriginal, normalizeLanguageTag } from "./player-language";
+import {
+  hasMultipleLanguageTracks,
+  includesOriginal,
+  normalizeLanguageTag,
+} from "./player-language";
 
 const QUALITY_OPTIONS = { sort: "descending" } as const;
 
@@ -114,11 +118,14 @@ export function PlayerDefaults({
       : (audioOptions.find((option) => option.track.id === preferredDefaultAudioTrackId) ??
         audioOptions.find((option) => option.track.id === originalAudioTrackId));
 
+    const hasMultipleLanguages = hasMultipleLanguageTracks(audioOptions);
+
     const missingOriginalByContract = forceOriginal && originalAudioTrackId === null;
     const missingOriginalByHeuristic =
-      forceOriginal && originalAudioTrackId === undefined && !match;
+      forceOriginal && originalAudioTrackId === undefined && hasMultipleLanguages && !match;
     if (
       (missingOriginalByContract || missingOriginalByHeuristic) &&
+      hasMultipleLanguages &&
       !originalMissingNotified.current
     ) {
       originalMissingNotified.current = true;
diff --git a/apps/web/src/components/player-language.ts b/apps/web/src/components/player-language.ts
index 08fc13af..c2608844 100644
--- a/apps/web/src/components/player-language.ts
+++ b/apps/web/src/components/player-language.ts
@@ -8,3 +8,15 @@ export function includesOriginal(value: string | undefined): boolean {
   if (!value) return false;
   return value.toLowerCase().includes("original");
 }
+
+export function hasMultipleLanguageTracks(
+  options: readonly { track: { language?: string | null } }[],
+): boolean {
+  const languages = new Set<string>();
+  for (const option of options) {
+    const language = normalizeLanguageTag(option.track.language);
+    if (language) languages.add(language);
+    if (languages.size > 1) return true;
+  }
+  return false;
+}
diff --git a/apps/web/tests/player-language.test.ts b/apps/web/tests/player-language.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4473c184
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/web/tests/player-language.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+import { expect, test } from "bun:test";
+import { hasMultipleLanguageTracks } from "../src/components/player-language";
+
+test("distinguishes multiple bitrate tracks from multiple languages", () => {
+  expect(
+    hasMultipleLanguageTracks([{ track: { language: "fr-FR" } }, { track: { language: "fr-CA" } }]),
+  ).toBe(false);
+  expect(
+    hasMultipleLanguageTracks([{ track: { language: "fr-FR" } }, { track: { language: "en-US" } }]),
+  ).toBe(true);
+});
+
+test("ignores missing language tags", () => {
+  expect(
+    hasMultipleLanguageTracks([
+      { track: { language: "fr-FR" } },
+      { track: { language: null } },
+      { track: {} },
+    ]),
+  ).toBe(false);
+});