Microsoft Announces Support For Google Backed VP9 Codec In Microsoft Edge

Microsoft today announced that WebM/VP9 support is now under development in Microsoft Edge. VP9 is the WebM Project’s next-generation open video codec which offers efficient compression to stream HD content at lower bitrates, and is well suited to UHD streaming. Microsoft also announced that preview implementation of WebM/VP9 will be available in an upcoming Windows 10 Insider Preview build. Microsoft will support VP9 software decoding and hardware decoding if the device supports it.

We are committed to continually adding new formats to Microsoft Edge to ensure our customers have the best streaming experiences. As part of this commitment, this week Microsoft became a founding member of the newly formed Alliance for Open Media. This announcement represents a commitment from Microsoft and other member companies to specify and develop new open technologies and formats that meet the needs of future media applications. VP9 and other video technologies, such as Thor and Daala, will be a starting point for this new media format work.

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.