Microsoft brings 4K Netflix to Chrome and Opera this year
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With the arrival of the new Chromium-based Edge browser to the Microsoft scene, many changes were brought into the spotlight.
So far, Edge came with a Windows spell-checker, better searching options and a more battery-friendly approach. Now it would seem that new changes are coming in the realm of digital entertainment.
Microsoft‘s latest statement has suggested improvements that could bring streaming of protected 4K content such as Netflix to Chromium-based browsers.
While this news has been around since last April, recent developments have revived the public interest in it.
All Chromium browsers get Netflix 4K support
It would seem that the technology needed to stream 4K content is already available as part of an old version of Edge.
Despite this, a recent post dated September the 4th indicates that Microsoft plans to release a new method for streaming protected 4K content.
This method could also become on all other Chromium-based browsers as well.
Current technology only allows Chromium-based browsers to stream 720p content, so bringing 4K streaming is an enormous improvement.
More so, the old version of Edge seems to be the only browser to support 4K streaming, as well as 5.1 audio support.
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Better in-browser Netflix streaming experience
Until this news becomes a reality, the only choice a user has to get better resolutions on streaming services is through the use of browser extensions.
As such, making 4K video streaming available for a wider range of browsers is great news.
Some users have expressed their concern regarding why some browsers already have exclusivity as far as 4K streaming goes.
Some have even speculated that it may have something to do with Netflix‘s DRM distribution scheme:
It’s not due to DRM at all. Every browser DRM on every platform can do 1080p, most can do 4k. Netflix has exclusive deals to allow higher resolutions on the OS native browser
Whichever the case, it can also be considered one of the biggest improvements to Google’s open-source browser platform for quite some time now.
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