Microsoft Edge does not publish (send) H.265/HEVC video codec in WebRTC streams, even on hardware that supports HEVC encoding. Google Chrome supports H.265 publishing in WebRTC. This creates an interoperability gap for video streaming applications.
Expected Behavior
Edge should be able to negotiate and publish H.265 video in WebRTC peer connections, consistent with Chrome's behavior and the hardware capabilities of the device.
Actual Behavior
When attempting to publish an H.265 stream via WebRTC in Edge, the codec is either:
Not included in the SDP offer, or
Rejected/not negotiated successfully
The same application and hardware works correctly in Chrome, which successfully publishes H.265.
Steps to Reproduce
Open a WebRTC-based application that supports H.265 publishing (e.g., using RTCPeerConnection with H.265 codec preference set via RTCRtpSender.setParameters() or setCodecPreferences()).
Attempt to start a video stream with H.265 selected.
Observe the SDP offer — H.265 is absent or the negotiation fails.
Repeat in Chrome — H.265 is successfully negotiated and published.
Environment
Browser: Microsoft Edge (Version 147.0.3912.98 (Official build) (64-bit))
Edge Version: [Version 147.0.3912.98 (Official build) (64-bit)]
OS: [Windows 11]
Hardware: [GPU/SoC — relevant for HW encode support]
Chrome Version (working)
Additional Context
This is a blocker for video analytics and real-time streaming pipelines that rely on H.265 for its superior compression efficiency over H.264, especially relevant for multi-stream datacenter and edge deployments.
References
Chrome WebRTC H.265 support: https://chromestatus.com/feature/5186845683580928
WebRTC spec on codec negotiation: https://w3c.github.io/webrtc-pc/
Microsoft Edge does not publish (send) H.265/HEVC video codec in WebRTC streams, even on hardware that supports HEVC encoding. Google Chrome supports H.265 publishing in WebRTC. This creates an interoperability gap for video streaming applications.
Expected Behavior
Edge should be able to negotiate and publish H.265 video in WebRTC peer connections, consistent with Chrome's behavior and the hardware capabilities of the device.
Actual Behavior
When attempting to publish an H.265 stream via WebRTC in Edge, the codec is either:
Not included in the SDP offer, or
Rejected/not negotiated successfully
The same application and hardware works correctly in Chrome, which successfully publishes H.265.
Steps to Reproduce
Open a WebRTC-based application that supports H.265 publishing (e.g., using RTCPeerConnection with H.265 codec preference set via RTCRtpSender.setParameters() or setCodecPreferences()).
Attempt to start a video stream with H.265 selected.
Observe the SDP offer — H.265 is absent or the negotiation fails.
Repeat in Chrome — H.265 is successfully negotiated and published.
Environment
Browser: Microsoft Edge (Version 147.0.3912.98 (Official build) (64-bit))
Edge Version: [Version 147.0.3912.98 (Official build) (64-bit)]
OS: [Windows 11]
Hardware: [GPU/SoC — relevant for HW encode support]
Chrome Version (working)
Additional Context
This is a blocker for video analytics and real-time streaming pipelines that rely on H.265 for its superior compression efficiency over H.264, especially relevant for multi-stream datacenter and edge deployments.
References
Chrome WebRTC H.265 support: https://chromestatus.com/feature/5186845683580928
WebRTC spec on codec negotiation: https://w3c.github.io/webrtc-pc/