Google’s VP9 Codec is Coming to Microsoft Edge

Microsoft is officially incorporating WebM/VP9 support into its Windows 10-exclusive, Edge browser to produce the smoothest video streaming functionality available today. The open-source VP9 codec compresses video streams at a lower bit-rate whilst maintaining the source’s visual clarity. As a result, this method is useful for 4K streaming and reducing bandwidth demands. According to Microsoft, their plan is to:

“Our implementation of VP9 will support software decoding and, when supported by the device, hardware decoding. Since decoding video is computationally complex, the best experience with the software decoder will be seen on more powerful desktop and laptop computers.”

Intriguingly, Microsoft hasn’t dismissed the idea of adding compatibility for other codecs, such as OGG and FLAC:

“Given this, VP9 will initially be implemented behind an experimental flag in Microsoft Edge as we continue to work with industry partners on broader support for hardware decoding, and as we evaluate support for additional audio formats.”

“Beyond this, there are other existing open source audio and video formats we are evaluating, beginning with OGG, Opus, and Vorbis. We will continue to regularly update Microsoft Edge Platform Status page to identify formats that are in development or under consideration for future releases.”

VP9 functionality will initially be available to Windows Insider members who have access to the latest testing build.

Thank you Ars Technica for providing us with this information.