DRM in legacy Windows and IE
There are loads of computers out there that are still using Windows 7 (https://www.netmarketshare.com/ says it is still about 49%) and many people are still using Internet Explorer (16.84% of all browsers) instead of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Opera.
Internet Explorer's standard approach to providing DRM and Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) streaming has been to use Silverlight as a plugin to support PlayReady and Smooth Streaming but it is notable that the use of Silverlight is being depreciated by Microsoft and it is effectively heading towards EoL. Also Microsoft is actively engaged with MPEG-DASH as a replacement for Microsoft Smooth Streaming, so that is EoL as well.
So, we have a decent market share of browser users which are dependent on a library which has no future and a streaming format which has been superseded. What is the answer for the industry?
We could ask people to switch to another browser which natively supports MPEG-DASH and a DRM, such as Chrome, Opera or Firefox. But that is asking them to change their way of using their computer and experience says that some people get confused with the idea of changing browsers. You don't want to create new problems for your streaming customers because they will reject the idea.
You could ask them to download an app to do join your streaming service but in this day and age no one wants to download things if they can avoid it. You could ask them also to download a plug-in which they add to their browser, but again this is a barrier to entry for customers.
I've outlined the problem, but what is the solution? I don't think there quite is one yet, but I wish their was and I want to share my wish so that someone in the industry might step up and get it done.
What it needs is for someone in our industry to step up and write a free plugin that consumers can download and which provides generic HTML5 Video, MPEG-DASH and a mainstream DRM in Internet Explorer. This plugin should be free to download and install and not tied to any particular website, kind of like Flash was previously. But why would someone do it for free?
I think it would be very viable for someone to find an alternative revenue stream from this plugin and here are my thoughts on that:
- A DRM vendor could do this because they want to promote their CENC compatible DRM mechanism. We don't need 'another' DRM but if it allowed us to get rid of Silverlight and Smooth Streaming it would get seriously looked at.
- The library could be Freemium, websites could use it for short clips or a limited quantity of streams, but above a threshold someone upstream (streaming provider, CDN, etc) could be charged for it.
- The library could be tied to a CDN provider, or at least provide something which directs traffic towards the CDN provider (such as UDP acceleration).
What do you think? Are you planning to stick with Silverlight? But for how long?
Experienced Media & TV Technologies Professional
7 年Hi Bob, Interesting thoughts. It seems to me that the issue here is not Windows 7 but the fact that people want to keep a browser that is old and that may have chosen to install in their computer because they didn't want to move toward newer and up-to-date browsers (I avoided to say standard compliant because Chrome probably is playing a role that IE was playing in the past in terms of adherence to standards). 16.8% is a big market share and I wonder if shouldn't be enough for the same Microsoft to build the plug-in you're suggesting because all the issues it will bring with it in terms of maintenance for possible security flaws and compatibility. It will make the adoption easier because I feel like the people using IE are in some way connected to the Microsoft brand (even if it is just for laziness) and when they may have to migrate to a newer Windows OS, they will decide to adopt a Microsoft browser that natively supports MPEG-DASH and any DRM Microsoft may decide to adopt. I feel plug-in is a pain choice that needs a lot of pressure to be adopted as solution to this issue and Microsoft has still the power to drive people to adopt "another" plug-in for their web browser.