Posted Tue May 26, 2015 at 11:47 AM PDT by Brian Hoss
An interesting turn for Microsoft Edge.
It's no secret that Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 as an upgrade path for all users on a variety of hardware. Not only is it the OS to right the wrongs of Windows 8, but it's also being positioned as the de facto gaming and entertainment platform, and one that is friendly to the modern software development landscape. There's the free upgrade offering and the Xbox One crossover abilities to serve as prime examples, but today's Dolby announcement seems an even greater piece of evidence to suggest that Microsoft has a real vision with this new OS.
To wit, Windows 10 and the Microsoft Edge browser will feature native support for Dolby Audio, through which, all users will get Dolby Digital Plus playback of encoded content. This means that all content viewed through the Microsoft Edge browser has the easy potential to to be played back in Dolby Digital Plus. When added to the full Dolby Audio support, it means that users can expect a Dolby experience whether using headphones on a Windows 10 device (like a tablet or a PC), PC speakers, laptop speakers, or a home theater.
To make this happen, Dolby and Microsoft have incorporated a full range of content development tools and methods (including W3C media specific APIs, HTML 5 Media Elements, Media Source Extensions and Encrypted Media Extensions.) Dolby wants both existing 5.1 mixes to become Dolby Digital Plus mixes (for Windows 10 playback) and is directing content makers to Encoding.com to do so.
Furthermore, through Microsoft Azure, Dolby & Microsoft are offering to let anyone create Dolby Digital Plus mixes.
Even better, Dolby Digital Plus playback is available for all Windows store apps.
With the move, Dolby and Microsoft have their eyes on making multi-channel playback as ubiquitous as YouTube videos, or as a possibly even more exciting example, every new game that is sold as a Windows Store app has an easy route to providing multi-channel sound.
Thus, this move could be huge for both general entertainment and for gaming. If that doesn't users to make a free move to Windows 10, what will?
Source: Dolby
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