Playback freeze during speed change - Windows 11

[michalpl7]

Hello, I'm having weird issue with playback freeze for around 1 s when changing playback speed on laptop. On my second PC this does not happen playback speed change is invisible.

Checked in Netflix and Amazon Prime same problem.

Browser version on both the same: Edge 99.0.1150.46 ( 64 bit )

Laptop is: Windows 11 ( 21H2 ) PC is: Windows 7 SP1

Any idea what might be wrong on laptop?

Greetings.

[polywock]

Hello. Greetings to you as well. First time I'm hearing about this type of issue. A few steps to help diagnose.

1. Does reinstalling Global Speed fix the issue? If it did, the issue was probably Global Speed related.
2. Does this bookmarklet also freeze your playback? Make sure to uninstall Global Speed while trying this out. To create a bookmarklet, edit any existing bookmark (Edge Favorite) and set the url to the following code. Once clicked, it will toggle between 0.5x speed and 3x speed. Do you still experience that freezing issue?

javascript:(()=>{
    var video = document.querySelector("video");
    video.playbackRate =  video.playbackRate === 0.5 ? 3 : 0.5; 
})()

[michalpl7]

Hello,

I also checked another laptop with Windows 10 and there is the same issue with freeze.

Interesting thing I tested HBO Max and this is not affected ( only Netflix and Amazon Prime ), playback is smooth during change speed. Maybe this is somehow related to DRM - testing on Windows 7 is not affected maybe because that Widevine DRM? This is quite annoying :/

This is not related to Your extension because installing different one gives the same problem.

1. Reinstalling does not help.
2. Not sure how to do this, created Favourite Bookmark of Prime, and put there that code in URL. But nothing happen when I click it.

[polywock]

Didn't think about that, but DRM makes sense. I don't have access to a Windows 11 device so cannot diagnose. But, you can try disabling PlayReady DRM for Windows in edge://flags and restart Edge. If PlayReady is the issue, this should fix it. If not, try disabling the Widevine DRM flag as well. This isn't a solution, just to help diagnose. If you disable the DRM, Netflix won't load 4K content.

I found this Reddit post about some people complaining of issues with DRM and Netflix recently. It might be related to your issue.

https://www.reddit.com/r/edge/comments/tex5n0/netflix_tearing_in_edge/

You could also try going to edge://components and trying to update any DRM related components. Ctrl-F "drm", "playready" and "Widevine".

[michalpl7]

This is it! That PlayReady DRM is responsible for this issue! Now I can change speed smoothly. :) Huge thanks!

What is that PlayReady DRM? Do I need it for something? This might lower quality of HBO/NF/Prime?

[polywock]

Netflix will only pay videos up to 720p resolution without PlayReady DRM. However, there are extensions that can force up to 1080p playback, but if you have 4K Netflix Plan, you won't be able to play it. Maybe a similar thing for HBO and Prime.

[michalpl7]

Yes NF plays only HD 720p :/. I have 4K Plan.