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Microsoft: Only Microsoft Edge Will Play Netflix Content At 1080p On Your PC (pcworld.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via PCWorld: Microsoft made the bold claim on Wednesday that its Edge browser was the only browser of the big four browsers -- Chrome, Firefox, and Opera -- to play Netflix content at a 1080p resolution. PCWorld tested the four browsers and found this claim to be valid. The other three browsers capped out at a 720p resolution. Microsoft has been trying to boost Edge's reputation. Microsoft recently claimed that its Edge browser is more power-efficient than Chrome. (Opera later denied those claims.) This is the latest bold claim to come from Microsoft in regard to its Edge browser. Microsoft has even publicized a Netflix support document to show that Netflix streams at 1080p on Internet Explorer and Edge, and 720p on the other browsers. PCWorld used the "secret Netflix menus" that were first unearthed by Reddit users (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D) to display the resolution and bitrate and confirm that Microsoft's claims are true. "In a blog post, Microsoft claimed Microsoft Edge was built to take advantage of platform features in Windows 10, including the PlayReady Content Protection and the media engine's Protected Media Path," reports PCWorld. "The company said it is working with the Open Media Alliance to develop next-generation media formats, codecs, and other technologies for UltraHD video, and with chipset companies to develop Enhanced Content Protection that moves the protected media path into peripheral hardware for an even higher level of security, and one that could be used to protect 4K media."
You aren't even getting 5.1 channel audio with a browser, please use the netflix app for your ears. Well, at least in Canada, they should improve the audio bitrate all around, that would be even better!
can it also upgrade my eyes so I can tell the bloody difference? And get me a bigger TV while I'm at it. And unplug the $100 Amazon FireTV and replace it with a $300 ($400?) Windows 10 PC?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
First of all, big 4? Hardly.
Secondly, there is exactly one and only one reason why Edge would play in 1080p but everyone else plays at 720p. Settings. There is nothing technical about Edge that the others lack. This whole thing screams of Microsoft yet again playing some shifty game, most likely involving backroom deals that would be very interesting to read about if made public. This isn't a new thing. It's how Sony won the BluRay vs HDDVD war, after all.
doesn't have it in the repos?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I got old worn-out eyes; I don't see the difference and don't fricken care.
I only care when I want to zoom into Natalie Portman's [censored], but don't want to pay extra for that.
Table-ized A.I.
Back to using undocumented features to gain an unfair advantage?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
All I read was a giant ad for Microsoft sprinkled with marketing BS. Nice try BeauHD. I have some special Beans you can plant too.
The article is kind of unclear as to why Edge is the only one that can do 1080. Is it because it supports the DRM that others don't? Is it because the others don't support the right codec? Is it a partnership between Microsoft and Netflix? What's actually going on?
Seriously, folks, it's all about open hardware and software.
Wrong, wrong and wrong. Nobody outside of your mom's basement gives two shits about open anything. What matters is shit that works. Open, closed, nobody cares as long as it works. Make stuff that is open AND works better than stuff that is closed, and then you've got something.
So... they have renamed Windows Media Player - Edge?
here's what the real focus should be:
DRM Slows Down Videos; Most Browsers Only Capable Of 720p From Netflix
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Microsoft Edge was built to take advantage of platform features in Windows 10, including the PlayReady Content Protection and the media engine's Protected Media Path," reports PCWorld. "The company said it is working with the Open Media Alliance to develop next-generation media formats, codecs, and other technologies for UltraHD video, and with chipset companies to develop Enhanced Content Protection that moves the protected media path into peripheral hardware for an even higher level of security, and one that could be used to protect 4K media."
So essentially, Microsoft, in the pocket of big media, is working against the consumer to manipulate hardware manufacturers into taking control away from users of the data on their own computers. This is not a feature, this is anti-consumer racketeering. There's the headline.
Regarding the performance, I wouldn't be at all surprised that Microsoft is again leveraging its position on the OS to engage undocumented and secret OS APIs to gain this anticompetitive advantage in the browser.
You're lubing-up? What a softie.
Probably the other browsers have a lower/older tier of DRM and since they are primarily open source (and thus easy to isolate and RE the drm binaries) they've been punted to 720p in the same way non-HDCP TVs were punted to 480p, even though they could run up to 1080i.
Yay for DRM. Fuck you media industry.
Microsoft, in the pocket of big media, is working against the consumer to manipulate hardware manufacturers into taking control away from users of the data on their own computers. This is not a feature, this is anti-consumer racketeering.
What consumers want is AAA content for their 4K UHD sets, which are becoming very affordable in all screen sizes.
That content could be distributed through a universal and general-purpose web browser, like Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Opera. But chances are good that won't happen because the geek can't get it through his head that it isn't going to happen without sophisticated content protection.
That leaves the field wide open to the smart TV with its suite of 4K apps, the 4K Blu-Ray player, the next generation cable and satellite DVR, the Amazon Fire HD, the Roku set top box, the stream-casting tablet and so on.
The walled garden wins because that is where people meet and that is where the action is.
So where is the link to download and install Edge for my Android device? Or my friends iPhone? My customer's Mac? or my neckbeard brother's Linux box? I still use a Windows machine but more and more people are consuming most of their content on a mobile device. If I can't get Edge on the device it will never get the traction IE did.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Netflix app installed and working as of 10:25 PM EDT July 13.
for an even higher level of security
Security for who? Not for the people actually making content, not for the customers, not for netflix... Ah, I have it on the tip of my tongue... who's increasing security by screwing over everyone involved again?
Joking aside, most people will not care about "why" only Edge will support 1080p, because most people are not into technical stuff. However, a fair amount of people turns to their somewhat geeky relative/friend when some question arise; and those will know that the only reason for Edge to support this when other won't is content provider willingly screwing other by using DRM. I'm curious to see how this will play out in the long term.
"PCWorld tested the four browsers and found this claim to be valid." I guess that's double bullshit on you, dumbass.
Or maybe you can science that shit and what's different between you and PCWorld... and discover why you are an outlier. Or expose PCWorld as a shill. Otherwise you're not helping.
Dud you expect a bunch of replies so Microsoft and Netflix and your isp would triage your problem? That's not how this works.
YouTube 8k already works in both Chrome and Firefox, in both webm and mp4 format https://youtu.be/sLprVF6d7Ug
I don't watch Netflix on my laptop much. We have some tablets in the family for private viewing and TVs for shared movies. None of those devices run windows, but as I understand there is a dedicated app if we did have a Windows tablet.
I also don't browse the web for 10 hours non-stop because I have a job and a life, so battery differences will not have that much impact on me.
So, rather than beating around the bush, why doesn't Microsoft explain how Edge is going to be better for browsing the web. My pet peeve is autoplay videos on sites like CNN and Facebook. Is Edge going to be any good at disabling these by default and helping me resize the video or pop it out into a separate window when I do want to see it?
Open is always more robust. The tech isn't fighting itself. This nonsense is the perfect example. DRM is sabotage.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
What kind of loser used a pc for streaming services these days? You can just get a $50 appliance that works so much better.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
"Oh, God! Not IE6 again?!"
Microsoft is "working with the Open Media Alliance" AND at the same time working with chipset companies "to develop Enhanced Content Protection".
Maybe it's just me, but those two things seem diametrically opposed.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
How is Opera part of the "big four" with it's 2% market share? Edge, for that matter, isn't far ahead.
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-D works for the Windows Store App from Netflix, and it's doing 1080p just fine. I'm not switching to Edge anyways.
Funny that my movies from that website that rhymes with thefiratepay always play at 1080p. Added bonus, they don't play through a browser. Second bonus, what's DRM?
Resolution is a function of the underlying Operating System. The only way Edge browser would play at full resolution and not the others is if Windows was designed detect the running browser and reduce resolution if not running Edge.
"Microsoft claimed Microsoft Edge was built to take advantage of platform features in Windows 10"
In other words, and yet again Micosoft made sure to undocument certain API calls that makes viewing media on other browsers a "jolting experience". Or as in another example shifting the text 30 pixels to the left on detecting Opera, therefore rendering the text as slightly jagged. Of course the blame is entirely down to Opera for not following Microsoft industry standards.
Other than Netflix gimped their web service so that other browsers are delivered lower resolution content. All browsers are capable of hardware accelerated video playback and all of them should be capable of 1080p output providing the hardware is up to it.
A $40 (or less on sale) Fire TV Stick will play at 1080p. And it plays I think literally everything I want to play since you can sideload Kodi, and I have. And it doesn't tie up my PC while it's doing it; I can do something else with my PC while Netflix is being watched, with me not being the only one in the household.
What percentage of people are actually watching Netflix in a browser?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
As it's written by Netflix themselves, probably not. It appears to be the same as the pre-Edge Netflix app.
Listen just because MS renamed Internet Explorer does not mean that it isn't still Internet Explorer. Heck, the summary even admits it by calling Edge one of the "Big Four" browsers. The only way Edge qualifies as one of the big four is if you consider it the next version of Internet Explorer. If you consider it a separate browser it is number 5 (behind, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari).
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Security for who? Not for the people actually making content
It's for the studios that pay the wages* of "the people actually making content". If a studio wanted to allow Netflix to stream one of its films or TV series in 1080p without needing Edge, it could choose not to include a Protected Media Path requirement in its license of the film to Netflix. Reportedly some Netflix original series are this way.
* An hourly rate is harder to depress with "Hollywood accounting" than a percentage.
I see no cognitive dissonance. "Open Media Alliance" is for amateur video and ad-supported video, and "Enhanced Content Protection" is for subscription video.
Both Edge and the Netflix UWP app are qualifying for a particular security level of PlayReady DRM, and other browsers aren't.
Remember that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sits on Microsoft's board of directors.
The salt is strong in this one.
I used the key combo to put up stats on my screen in the Chrome browser on my Chromebook and after a short ramping up time, it read 1920x1080 as the resolution on the bitrate line. Seems like it is working at 1080p.
I've been following this thread and while the focus has been on 1080p browser support, something has definitely changed with Netflix and most videos don't get above 480p when streamed in Chrome or Firefox. Netflix originals still get to 720p (HD)..but most anything else is capped at 480p. I've checked titles that were streaming in HD prior to a month ago. I've contacted Netflix support and they've been useless, initially telling me that "HD" was never supported in Chrome or Firefox. I had to clarify that 720p is HD AND send them a link to their own page showing Chrome and Firefox are both supported for 720p. I'm thinking this is a change tied to the widevine bug/exploit that was reported on a while back.