Win8.1 IE11 can bring extraordinary streaming video function

Computer store news: Well-known streaming media service provider Netflix announced in June this year that their streaming video service has been able to support Windows 8.1 preview IE11. This week, Microsoft announced more details on the IE11 streaming features, and explained how IE11 without Flash or Silverlight plug-in supports "professional quality video".

Recently, Microsoft said in its official blog that the company has worked with the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to bring the new HTML5 standard to streaming video. These include: Media Source Extensions (MSE), a feature designed to reduce buffering time in streaming video. Another feature is Encrypted Media Extensions (ESE), which provides video content providers with a better DRM digital rights encryption solution.

Microsoft also mentioned the previously announced HTML5 Simple Delivery Profile, which provides better subtitle support for video playback. IE11 also optimizes the streaming video download function. IE11 will directly send the video data to the internal memory for easy reading, instead of storing it as a cache in the hard disk or flash memory.

In addition, IE11 can automatically drop frames when playing video to improve the life of Windows 8.1 tablet. When IE11 plays video, the display refresh rate will be reduced from 60Hz to 48Hz, and if it is full-screen playback, it will drop to 24 frames per second. This will reduce both CPU and display power consumption, which Microsoft claims will provide an additional 30 minutes of battery life for Win8.1 tablets. Windows 8.1 also pauses some CPU cores while playing full-screen video, which will again increase the life of the Windows tablet.