Stefan Mileschin

Undocumented in last week’s release of Radeon Software 18.4.1 Adrenalin Edition, AMD’s newest driver has brought beta support for PlayReady 3.0, Microsoft’s video playback DRM solution, to Polaris GPUs. First noticed by users successfully streaming Netflix 4K on Radeon Polaris video cards, AMD has since confirmed this functionality. AMD noted that a WHQL-certified driver providing production-ready PlayReady 3.0 support will be released in the near future.

Taking a step back, 18.4.1’s beta PlayReady 3.0 support for Polaris is in line with AMD’s previous guidance on the matter, where PlayReady 3.0 support was to come with driver updates this year. That being said, production-ready PlayReady 3-capable graphics drivers for Ryzen desktop APUs were originally intended in early Q2, an announcement quietly made alongside the launch of AMD's Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 220G. In any case, AMD gave a general update simply stating that PlayReady 3.0 support for discrete Vega graphics and Raven Ridge-based APUs remains under development and is planned for future driver releases.

As the 18.4.1 release is geared for users of retail channel products, this development is somewhat independent for OEM and mobile systems. For OEM and mobile systems, AMD naturally noted that PlayReady support depends on system providers, and in the meantime, AMD is working with the relevant partners in enabling PlayReady 3.0 on systems with discrete Polaris GPUs, the timelines of which would presumably be specific to the OEMs.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12720...-still-to-come