From my knowledge, Widevine DRM has security levels like L1, L2, L3 where L1 being highest security level. Most flagship phones have L1 security level certification and hence are able to play HD,4K video. While for browsers like chrome on desktop, the certification level is L3 which is least security level. My question is how we are able to play 4K HD video in providers like Netflix, amazon prime in these browsers with L3 security level certification?
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On Windows/Edge they use Microsoft's PlayReady instead of Widevine as far as I know. For example Netflix's FAQ on UHD doesn't list other browsers. – aergistal Nov 05 '19 at 11:01
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Chrome have widevine cdm component. Just enter chrome://components, we can find widevine cmd module. I came across this source which says "Widevine L3 is used by default in Chrome, Firefox on MAC and PC". (source : https://bitmovin.com/google-widevine-l3-cracked-expect) – Ansh170993 Nov 05 '19 at 11:26
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Firstly, it is worth saying that media security is constantly evolving so you need to recheck the current status, especially if reading this some time after the time of writing.
Widevine's security levels reflect the different ways the content is protected in the application and on the device during playback.
For L1 Widevine security the requirement is for a hardware protected key and for the decrypted stream to be protected by a secure media path in the device so no other application or even the system can access the decrypted content.
As browsers use a Content Decryption Module to play encrypted videos. This is a pice of software that is used by the browser as part of the Encrypted Media Extensions mechanism within HTML5.
The CDM implementation is provided by the CDM provider - if they have a way to leverage a secure media path within the device then they can offer L1 security.
As mentioned in the comments some CDM's, the PlayReady one for Edge on Windows machines is an example at the time of writing, support this and hence offer L1 security. AFAIK, and again at the time of writhing, Widevine CDM with Chrome or Firefox on windows, Linux or Mac does not support L1 at this time.
Mick
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First of all, thank you @Mick for the detailed explanation. But still, my question is if Widevine CDM with chrome browser doesn't support the L1 security level, how it is able to play 4K media content in the browser with the L3 security level? – Ansh170993 Nov 11 '19 at 05:45
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@Ansh170993 - the content owner ultimately decides what policies they want. For low value 4K content or 4K content that they do not need to protect as strongly the content owner may allow 4K be players with L3. For high value content they may not allow it. – Mick Nov 11 '19 at 14:44
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