Product Overview

PlayReady for Microsoft End Points

Microsoft PlayReady is a proven technology suite that enables Windows devices, Xbox, and a wide range of consumer electronics to consume high value, protected content such as movies and streaming music. There are a variety of options to choose from when it comes to developing clients with Microsoft end points.

Microsoft PlayReady for Windows and Xbox

PlayReady is built into Windows 10 and Xbox. This PlayReady Client is exposed and freely accessible through a high-level API to application developers.

Application developers can create Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications capable of playing PlayReady content while enforcing the access rules defined by the content provider. An application can freely use the PlayReady Client built into Windows and Xbox without signing any agreement with Microsoft or requiring any PlayReady fee or royalty due.

For additional information about PlayReady on Windows, visit our technical pages. Windows 10 PlayReady documentation can be found at PlayReady for Windows 10 and at Windows.Media.Protection.PlayReady Namespace. To learn more about designing an application that runs on Xbox, see PlayReady DRM on Xbox. Note: Apps must first be registered with Microsoft in order to be authorized to use PlayReady. Send email to pronxbox with your company name and Partner Center account information to apply.

Microsoft PlayReady for Edge and Browsers

Modern browsers, combined with current web standards, support playback using PlayReady. A web app running in a modern web browser which supports HTML5 and JavaScript will use the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) interface to do PlayReady operations. Microsoft PlayReady supports W3C web standards that allow Microsoft’s Edge browser to leverage native PlayReady via Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). Companies that develop web apps to DASH/MSE/CENC/EME based designs can follow a single encoding work flow enabled by CENC. This represents the most broadly interoperable solution across browsers, platforms, content, and devices going forward.

Read more about using DASH with PlayReady in this Specification.

Microsoft Azure Media Services and Adaptive Streaming

Azure Media Services makes it easy to use high-definition video encoding and streaming services to reach your audiences on today’s most popular devices. Azure Media Services also enables you to extract richer metadata though video AI, improve accessibility, distribution, and scalability —all while protecting your content. Learn more about the content protection services on Azure Media Services.

Windows and Xbox natively support adaptive streaming technologies such as Dash, HLS, and Smooth Streaming. This provides the best quality viewing experience based on the client’s connectivity and network performance for both on-demand and live video.

Read the Azure Media Services Blog for the latest news.

Getting started

Visit the Windows Dev Center for more information about PlayReady on Windows.

Visit our technical pages to learn more about PlayReady on Windows and Azure.