Desktop Widevine CDM Updates
Greetings. Our team just received an update from Google regarding the Desktop Widevine CDM issue we came upon earlier this month. Chrome (and other Widevine compatible desktop browsers, e.g. Firefox, Edge) will get an update on the 30th of November. This update is transparent to the end user and will roll in as part of normal browser update.
Note however, this CDM requires that the License Server SDK is at least 16.2.1+. This SDK was released early this year and incorporated into Inplay earlier this year. If your license server is older, the new desktop Widevine CDM will not function. Furthermore, Google/Widevine did make this new License Server SDK available for some platforms, such as Armv7. We need to get an update from Google before we can provide an upgrade.
Furthermore, there will be another CDM update during the January 2021 timeframe, similarly this update will be user transparent. The current Widevine CDMs will be removed in Feb 2021 timeframe.
In browser playback on Android won’t be affected by this.
We hope our readers find this information useful as it impacts not only our space, but gives a glimpse into technology changes coming in the new year.