Microsoft has unveiled Video Super Resolution (VSR) – an “experimental” video upscaling feature for its Edge web browser that uses machine learning to increase the resolution of low-quality video. Announced on the Edge Insiders blog, Microsoft’s VSR technology can “remove blocky compression artifacts” and improve text clarity for videos on platforms like YouTube. The feature is still in testing and availability is currently limited to half of the users running the Canary channel on Edge in Microsoft’s Insider program.
If you want to try it for yourself, there are a few stipulations: Microsoft VSR only works with video resolutions of 720p or lower (as long as the length and width of the video exceeds 192 pixels), and the video itself is not possible. protected by digital rights management (DRM) technology such as PlayReady or Widevine, which makes frames inaccessible to the browser for processing. That particular restriction may affect what content you can stream in part, since the most popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max all use DRM technology to protect copyright.
Videos must be 720p or lower and not protected by DRM copyright technology
The device running Microsoft VSR must also have an Nvidia RTX 20- / 30- / 40- series graphics card or an AMD Radeon series GPU from RX5700 to RX7800. This support also extends to gaming laptops running discrete versions of these supported GPUs; however, the device must be plugged into a power source, and users must adjust their Windows settings to manually force Edge to run on the laptop’s discrete GPU. Microsoft did not mention whether VSR can upscale 720p resolutions to full HD 1080p.