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Hardware-backed DRM in Chrome on Windows

· 2 min read
Johannes Jauch
Johannes Jauch
Axinom DRM Product Owner, CTO

Google has released a new Chrome version for Windows that supports hardware-backed DRM playback. It may come as a surprise but it was done by making Chrome support PlayReady. Starting with version 142, Chrome supports PlayReady Security Level 3000 which translates to hardware-backed DRM, similar to Widevine Security Level 1. There is a catch, though: it only works on Windows 11 and requires specific capabilities for the combination of CPU and GPU. It’s important to verify compatibility across your user base and plan for graceful fallback where needed.

This is a significant upgrade — allowing higher content security on the most popular browser on Windows. Previously, this level of protection was available only when using Microsoft Edge.

What to do next:

Some gotchas to be aware of:

  • The "DRM capabilities" reported by Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) on some systems seem to not tell the truth. Always try playback to confirm.
  • PlayReady Security Level 3000 is not available for audio tracks. If you encrypt audio and video tracks with the same key you cannot take advantage of the improved protection. If you want to enforce Security Level 3000 make sure to either protect audio and video tracks with different content keys and policies or don’t protect audio tracks at all.

Axinom DRM is a robust amd scalable multi-DRM service trusted by major Hollywood studios. Check documentation or sign up for a free trial.