Have you ever wanted to go back and enjoy your favorite old YouTube videos but got annoyed by their poor picture quality? This new innovative feature by Microsoft can help in upscaling those videos to high-resolution. It’s called Video Super-Resolution and will soon be available on Edge like the Drop feature. So before it makes its way to your desktop, let us learn more about video super-resolution and how to use video on Microsoft Edge.
What is video super resolution?
Microsoft recently announced Video Super Resolution (VSR). This is an upcoming feature for Edge browser Improve picture quality of videos with machine learning, This will remove blocky artifacts and make the video clearer and better.
The VSR kicks in automatically when low-resolution video is detected and will work with YouTube and other streaming services. But the media may not be DRM content like PlayReady or Widevine, which excludes most videos on streaming services.
Left: VSR Off / Right: VSR On.
Video credit: Blender Foundation / www.bigbuckbunny.org
Since video resizing is a difficult process, you will need a machine that meets the following Requirements for using VSR on Microsoft Edge,
- Video resolution must be 480p or lower.
- The device must be plugged into AC power and not a battery.
- Requires one of the following graphics cards (GPU): nvidia rtx 20/30/40 series or AMD RX5700-RX7800 series.
- The height and width of the video must exceed 192 pixels.
- As mentioned, content that is protected by Digital Rights Management will not be able to use VSR.
How does VSR work?
VSR technology on Microsoft Edge Uses graphics card agnostic algorithms, Microsoft built it using the Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) runtime and DirectML. This will allow Video Super Resolution to output video with better picture quality and support more graphics cards down the line.
Microsoft also created a DX12 (DirectX 12) flexible pipeline for Edge., This was done because Edge is built on the Chromium code base which uses DX11 (DirectX 11) for video decoding and rasterization. But the machine learning algorithms required to run VSR only work with DX12.
How to get video super resolution in Microsoft Edge
At the time of writing this article, VSR is only available to a limited number of users on the Edge Canary channel, with plans to roll it out to more users. Microsoft will also add support for a wider range of graphics cards.
But if you meet the above requirements, you can try to enable video super resolution in your Edge browser. Here is how you do it.
1. download edge canary From official website.
2. Open Edge Canary, type: edge://flags #edge-video-super-resolutionand click enter,
3. click on the box next to Microsoft Video Super Resolution,
4. Choose Active Option.
5. click on relaunch to restart the browser.
After the restart, you’ll see an HD icon in the Edge toolbar whenever you play a low-quality video.
6. click on hd icon,
7. toggle on for extend video,
Enable VSR on a laptop with a discrete graphics card
For those using a laptop with a discrete graphics card, you’ll need to manually configure Windows to run Edge on the GPU. This is because Edge cannot, until now, automatically activate the discrete GPU. This is how you can configure Edge.
1. open windows settings By pressing Windows key + I button.
2. go for System > Display > Graphics,
3. here, scroll down microsoft edge and click Option,
4. Now select your laptop graphics card and click on save,
Once configured, you should be able to use VSR, given that your device meets the system requirements.
How to fix video super resolution not working in Microsoft Edge?
Video Super Resolution is in its early stages, so there are bound to be issues and bugs. Also, it is not available to most Edge users, so if you are having trouble finding the VSR Edge flag or cannot use it, you can refer to these fixes.
- Get Edge Canary: You will need to download the Canary version of Microsoft Edge to be able to use the VSR feature.
- check for updates: New updates are released on Edge Canary every night, so if you can’t find the VSR flag in Edge, check for the latest update.
- Check System Requirements: Your computer must have a supported graphics card to use VSR. Also, this feature is limited to Windows devices only.
- Configure your laptop: Edge cannot automatically switch to your laptop’s graphics card. So you have to manually configure the app to use GPU from Windows Settings.
- Avoid DRM-protected videos: Another reason why VSR might not be working for you is that you are trying to watch a DRM-protected video. Try an open-source video clip to test the VSR, such as: Big Buck Bunny.
- Wrong video resolution: If the video you’re trying to watch already supports 720p resolution, VSR won’t work. It only works with videos of 480p or less.
- Clear site data: If you have been using Edge Canary for a while we recommend that you clear your web browser’s cache and other site data as this may help to fix the problem.
wrapping up
Video super resolution isn’t something new, as we’ve seen Nvidia and Intel try to come up with, but it is something that requires demanding hardware. Although it is the same with Microsoft’s version, it will soon try to bring it to devices with lower and older specs which is commendable. I can’t wait to try out the feature for myself. If you have any questions related to VSR, do let us know and stay tuned to BrowserToUse for more articles, guides and how-tos like this one.
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