Systems and methods for providing a media device capabilities determination mechanism in a networked computing environment are provided. Some of today's operating systems and applications deliver a set of remoting features to enable a networked ecosystem of remote media consumption devices. These devices connect to the host and display a remoted media experience via remoting protocols and technologies. In this regard, the device capabilities determination mechanism of the invention enables a remote device to specify a custom set of media capabilities that should be remoted from the host to the remote device.