Developing PlayReady Windows Store and Web Apps

Microsoft PlayReady is a set of technologies that prevent the unauthorized use or copying of digital content, such as music and videos, enabling content providers to distribute content securely over the Internet. PlayReady supports secure distribution of arbitrary content.

Content providers use Microsoft PlayReady content access technology to package digital content, defining the rules governing how users can access and consume the content. Rules can include content expiration dates, limits on the number of times the user can copy a content file, and so on.

PlayReady technologies incorporated into media apps on personal computers, digital phones, and other devices enforce the content access rules defined by the content provider.

This document describes various ways of providing play back of PlayReady protected content on your Windows Store app or on your browser as a Web app. Each section of this document provides information about the different means of inserting protected content into your app.

You can play back protected content by inserting the following types of components in your app:

• PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Store Apps—This component can be used if you want to specifically create Windows 8.1 Store apps. It works within the WinRT programming interfaces (and Windows SDK), which allow Store apps to take advantage of the Windows Store, Windows look and feel and behaviors (multiple window views, touch enabled controls, animations, tiles, standby/resume, lifetime management, and so on). When this SDK is used, you can take advantage of different programming languages such as C#, Visual Basic, C++ along with the XAML markup language. To begin, see PlayReady Client SDK for Windows Store Apps.
• Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)—This component is useful for those wanting to create JavaScript Web apps that can be used across platforms in an industry standards-based way. From the browser, EME Web apps can be created that work on different browsers with minimal porting effort for those browsers that support EME. To begin, see PlayReady Encrypted Media Extension.
• EME from within PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Store Apps—You can also use EME as part of a Windows Store app. You still need the PlayReady Client SDK for Windows Store Apps, and the Windows-specific programming APIs, to create a Windows 8.1 Store app experience. However, if that Store app is a Windows Web Application (WWA) JavaScript application, you can cut and paste code from your Web HTML5 EME app and use the EME extensions to the Video and Audio tags instead of using the ContentProtectionManagement object. This allows you to build and deploy to the store Windows 8.1 Store apps while leveraging code you will be developing for use with EME-based Web pages.

The following sections are included in this document.

See Also

Microsoft PlayReady Documents