HEVC support for chromium edge

Copper Contributor

 

I try to play HEVC on canalia Edge(Ver 85.0.531.1).
But this movie file can not play.

 

I looked up how to play HEVC on Edge.

Then I found that I need to enable two flags:
1.PlayReady DRM for Windows 10
2.PlayReady Experimental HEVC Decoding

 

But the second flag(PlayReady Experimental HEVC Decoding)
does not show up in the Edge I'm using.

(I installed Microsoft.HEIFImageExtension and Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension.)

 

Did Microsoft stop supporting HEVC?
What kind of things do you think could be the cause?

4 Replies

Also having the same problem; a bit annoying when Microsoft claims that you can 'Binge watch in 4K Stream in Microsoft Edge' in my Windows start menu. Currently 4K streaming is impossible on Netflix, when it was supported on old Edge.

There is a workaround I found today! Just disable either Widevine DRM or PlayReady DRM in edge://flags like in the images below. Both enabled (default flag is enabled by the way) does not work! On https://bitmovin.com/demos/drm you can check which one is enabled and below in the images you can see it works flawlessly for both DRM key systems. When you also want to stream 4K Netflix you need the HEVC video extensions from here:  HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer
I get 1080p and over 4000 kBit/s bitrate for the movie snowpiercer in Netflix (view with CTRL + Alt + Shift + Q). Bitrate in Netflix UWP App is even higher and supports 5.1 Dolby sound.

PlayReady Hardware DRM supportPlayReady Hardware DRM supportedge://gpuedge://gpuEdge flags for NetflixEdge flags for NetflixWidevineWidevinewidevine.png

There is a workaround I found today! Just disable either Widevine DRM or PlayReady DRM in edge://flags like in the images below. Both enabled (default flag is enabled by the way) does not work! And with override software rendering list set to enabled you even get hardware accelerated video decoding. On https://bitmovin.com/demos/drm you can check which one is enabled and below in the images you can see it works flawlessly for both DRM key systems. When you also want to stream 4K Netflix you need the HEVC video extensions from here:  HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer
I get 1080p and over 4000 kBit/s bitrate for the movie snowpiercer in Netflix (view with CTRL + Alt + Shift + Q). Bitrate in Netflix UWP App is even higher and supports 5.1 Dolby sound.

PlayReady Hardware DRM supportPlayReady Hardware DRM supportedge://gpuedge://gpuEdge flags for NetflixEdge flags for NetflixWidevineWidevinewidevine.png



@Girofox 

I can see that edge actually has the capability to play h265 videos but reports not supporting them. So what I did was make an extension: jlnsrk/h265ify: Enable HEVC(H265) in Edge (github.com) to get edge to report that it does support this format. This actually fixed it for me. Maybe this will help somebody else.