Why the new Edge does not support HEVC or HEIC content from websites ?

[MELERIX]

currently in the new Edge its not possible to play videos in HEVC format, neither watch pictures in HEIC format.

NOTE: I have both extensions (for HEVC and for HEIC) from store already installed but seems the new Edge ignore them.

[#2]

Hi, which channel are you using?

[#3]

Stable.

[#4]

It is available in the Insider channels. Will make way to the Stable release soon.

[#5]

@Rohit Yadav 

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@Rohit Yadav wrote:
It is available in the Insider channels. Will make way to the Stable release soon.

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Which Edge insider channel has it?

source?

[#6]

Hi,
can you mention the website with HEVC streaming content that you're referring to?

also when using this site with Latest Edge Version 82.0.425.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit)
HEVC (H.265) is still not supported, so no insider nor stable Edge channel has it:
https://html5test.com/

[#7]

@HotCakeX Hi,

I came across a previous thread in the forum itself, where somebody mentioned that it was working in some Canary build of v81. Though the result from html5test.com still shows H.265 as unsupported.

[#8]

Yup, first time i asked for H.265 support was a long time ago, around version 77/78 canary. still hasn't been implemented.

[#9]

the same website you have posted and also this one: https://codepen.io/cloudunder/post/hevc-html5-video

[#10]

Well that's a bummer that only safari supports that..

[#11]

@MELERIX Thanks for reaching out! To confirm, are HEVC and/or HEIC supported on other Chromium browsers? (And I'm not asking as a way to imply that Microsoft Edge couldn't/wouldn't, but to determine what's within the realm of possibilities.)

Can you also tell us more about your use case for this and how it would improve your experience with the browser?

Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

[#12]

sorry but I don't use other Chromium browsers, and about the issues everything is already explained in the comments above.

[#13]

Chromium doesn't support it, but Webkit does which was once the source code for Chromium.
Safari and Apple products support HEVC/H.265 codecs. when watching movies, I have to use 3rd party apps because Edge doesn't support them.
Microsoft should bring support for them to Edge as well. let the rest of the Chromium browsers figure it out on their own, Microsoft's user base is not even comparable to theirs.

[#14]

@Deleted HEVC and HEIF needs to be supported in the new Edge.

The legacy Edge used to support it which gave it an edge over Chrome. Only Edge & Safari used to support it. Having HEVC & HEIF support means we can have the advantages of consuming more rich media content being served by the codecs.

And when the Legacy Edge had support for this, the new Edge definitely needs to have support for these codecs.

[#15]

@Rohit Yadav @MELERIX @HotCakeX 

I spoke with one of our devs, and they wanted to know what devices y'all have tried this on? Theoretically, you may actually already be able to see support for HEVC in Microsft Edge if your machine supports PlayReady content.

Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

[#16]

Thank you very much,
I mainly use Windows 10.
I want to be able to play HEVC/H.265 video files that are in MKV video container (most popular video container these days). video files I want to watch are hosted on web servers and also in web-based video players.

could you ask them if it's possible? this would mean a lot to me and makes my life a lot easier for real!

[#17]

@HotCakeX  Thanks for the reply. To clarify: we would need to know specifically what kind of hardware you're using, since playing videos off of websites usually requires hardware that supports PlayReady (and if you also haven't disabled the edge://flags/#edge-playready-drm-win10 flag). 

Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge

[#18]

My CPU is I7 7700K, installed all the drivers, using IGPU that is built into the CPU and graphic drivers for it installed as well.
the flag was set to default but now I enabled it manually just to be sure.
I'm using latest Edge canary on latest Windows 10 insider ring.
when I try to play a HEVC MKV file on Edge, it starts downloading the file instead of playing it.

[#19]

Using the test site which you provided in the thread above, I was able to watch the HEVC video by using the video link from the HTML source & it was playing perfectly (opened it in another tab). However the player detects the video as WebM video.

Also for the PlayReady DRM check, I checked on http://playready.azurewebsites.net/Home/TestPlayer The videos played right. Am I going the wrong way? Can you please assist over here?

[#20]

What is the direct link to that video file you think is HEVC?
that azure website is playing nothing for me, it's so buggy.
I have lots of HEVC videos in MKV formats but they are copyrighted materials.