
Confirmed: Only Microsoft Edge Will Play Netflix Content at 1080p on PC - vezycash
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3095259/browsers/confirmed-only-microsoft-edge-will-play-netflix-content-at-1080p-on-your-pc.html
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Piskvorrr
What I'm missing is this: will MS Edge play that _because it 's the only one
capable_, or _because Netflix sniffs the browser and only allows sending 1080p
to Edge_? The tiniest bit of a difference...brings back the memories of User-
Agent switching, because everyone and their dog was looking for the string
"Trident" :-/

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lucideer
This seems to be more about the DRM plugin used: Google Widevine (720p) -vs-
Windows PMP (1080p) -vs- Apple Fairplay (presumably also 1080p?)

IE seems to also get 1080p so their linking this to Edge performance seems
like fallacious marketing. Seems like an OS feature, not a browser feature.

 _also, I don 't think the string "Trident" was introduced into the UA until
relatively recently_

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tinus_hn
There is no way it's a performance thing if it doesn't matter what kind of
hardware it runs on. It's just a marketing deal of a company desparately
trying to remain relevant.

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lucideer
In fairness to MS, if you read the referenced blog post (instead of the
PCWorld OP), it doesn't actually link the 1080p serving to Edge or to
performance.

Their implication is that Netflix are serving lower quality content to
Widevine because they believe the DRM is inferior and are afraid of their
premium 1080p streams being copied.

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Piskvorrr
So, a marketing trick, as I suspected. "Let's explicitly deny other browsers
the capability - and claim them inferior for it." Circular reasoning at its
worst.

