Unresolved visual glitch/bug with Dolby Vision videos in fullscreen mode on Edge

Question

Unresolved visual glitch/bug with Dolby Vision videos in fullscreen mode on Edge

Nic B 0

It seems there's a problem with the background/letter-boxing layer when streaming/watching Dolby Vision content exclusively in fullscreen mode (on a 16:10 display): a portion of the two black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are not in fact black but white or grey (depending if the Windows system is set on light or dark mode). If there are subtitles selected, these bars disappear when a subtitle line appears on screen but they do reappear right away when there are not subtitles visible, creating flashing white/grey bars at every phrase (therefore the subtitles' layer cover this glitchy background layer). Apart from this visual glitch, Dolby Vision gets triggered as intended and it's displayed correctly in terms of colours and contrast.

It's been like this for a month now and this bug appears in every Edge (from Canary to stable release) and on different Windows 11 versions (23H2, 24H2 and 25H2), making watching content quite annoying. BIOS and every drivers are up to date and local/offline playback of Dolby Vision demos works as intended so it's a bug within Edge. Is there a fix? I've sent feedback through the feedback channel within Edge Canary but nothing changed.

3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Currently, there is no specific fix mentioned in the provided context for the visual glitch you are experiencing with Dolby Vision videos in Microsoft Edge. The issue seems to be a bug that affects multiple versions of Edge and Windows 11, as you described. It is advisable to continue providing feedback through the Edge feedback tool, as this can help Microsoft identify and prioritize the issue for future updates. Additionally, keeping your browser and Windows system updated is essential, as fixes may be included in future releases.

If the problem persists, you might consider using alternative browsers for Dolby Vision content until a resolution is provided by Microsoft.

References:

Answer 2

Hendrix-V 9,320 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Nic B,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

From your description, the behavior aligns with a tooling interaction rather than a hardware or configuration issue. When subtitles are enabled, Edge briefly switches to a different overlay composition path, which explains why the bars disappear and then reappear or “flash” as subtitles show and hide.

Because local offline Dolby Vision demo playback behaves normally, this further points to the browser playback pipeline rather than the display, GPU drivers, BIOS, or Windows HDR configuration.

You’ve already done the right thing by submitting feedback through Edge Canary. While there isn’t a setting in Edge today that directly controls the letterbox rendering for Dolby Vision, you can try these options as workarounds to reduce the impact:

1 - Avoid exclusive fullscreen, try using windowed fullscreen (maximizing the window instead of pressing F11).

2 - Keep subtitles enabled to prevent the flashing effect, as the subtitle overlay masks the background layer.

3 - Disable Dolby Vision (temporary)

In Settings > System > Display > HDR, turn off Dolby Vision while keeping HDR enabled. Playback falls back to HDR10, where the bars render correctly.

4 - Using an alternative playback path (streaming apps from the Microsoft Store or browsers) that do not engage Dolby Vision on Windows may avoid the issue.

Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Hendrix-V 9,320 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-30T07:20:30.57+00:00

Hi,

I just wanted to follow up and check if the information I provided was helpful. If you have any further questions or updates regarding this issue, please feel free to let me know in the Comments section. I'd be happy to assist you.
Nic B 0 Reputation points

2026-01-30T11:27:15.45+00:00

Hi Hendrix-V,

Thank you for your reply and attempt to help me. In honesty and as you already said, we both know that your suggestions do not fix the issue at hand but they're just workarounds. Streaming Dolby Vision content in windows ecosystem is a gamble and a frustrating experience compared to other OS, especially if you have DV compatible hardware and pay a higher streaming subscription just for DV playback (like on Netflix or Disney+). Considering that 4K and HDR streaming are allowed only on Edge browser (especially for Netflix as its app is just a wrapped up Edge tab), it's quite shocking to see the sorry and buggy state that Edge and Windows 11 as a whole are. On top of that, at every update that Edge gets, there's a high chance that DV streaming stops working altogether, as it happened multiple times in the last one or two years. This bug has been around for a month and a half now (since the 144 version was released in early December) and despite the countless feedback reports, nothing has changed. This is not great.

By the way, keeping the subtitles enabled create the mentioned flashing, without them you have a stable and annoying bright white/grey letter-boxing, so one of your suggestions is not effective.

EDIT: after further testing, it seems the problem is not actually just related to Dolby Vision playback but it is caused by a buggy graphics hardware acceleration. Today, I was able to reproduce the same glitchy letter-boxing with SDR content on Netflix, although it doesn't happen all the time and, at the time of writing, I don't know why. Some SDR content plays fine, others display this issue. It always happens with Dolby Vision content as HDR and 4k streaming relies on hardware acceleration. Toggling off "Use graphics acceleration when available" in Edge settings gets rid of the problem but it disables altogether Dolby Vision/HDR as well as Atmos streaming. This is a mess and it happens in Edge Canary, Dev and stable.
Hendrix-V 9,320 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-31T03:11:23.97+00:00

Hi Nic B,

Thank you for taking the time to share such a detailed explanation of what you’re experiencing.

Based on your testing, it’s clear that this behavior isn’t limited to Dolby Vision alone but is closely tied to how Microsoft Edge handles hardware‑accelerated, protected video playback. High‑quality streaming formats like Dolby Vision HDR and 4K SDR on services such as Netflix rely on this accelerated path, which explains why the issue appears only with certain titles and not others.

While there isn’t a permanent resolution available today, the clarity of your findings, especially around hardware acceleration and reproducibility across content types, adds meaningful signal for ongoing investigation.

Continuing to monitor on the feedback channel is one of the most effective ways to help ensure the scenario is well understood.

Please note that I can provide suggestions and share any potential workarounds that might help while the issue is still being reviewed. In addition, I don’t have visibility into the internal workflow of Microsoft’s backend teams, so I’m unable to provide a timeline or guarantee when a fix or improvement will be released.

I hope you understand this limitation. I’m in the same position of waiting for updates, and I’ll continue to support you with any new information or alternative solutions I can provide in the meantime.
Nic B 0 Reputation points

2026-01-31T10:23:05.5033333+00:00

Hi Hendrix-V,

Are there alternative options to flag this bug to the dev team other than to submit feedback through Edge Canary? Considering it's been a month and a half since it appeared, I'd like to try every channel possible considering high quality streaming is essentially broken.
Hendrix-V 9,320 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-01T07:37:12.7933333+00:00

Hi Nic B,

It’s completely understandable to feel frustrated when you’ve invested in compatible hardware and higher‑tier streaming plans, yet the viewing experience remains inconsistent.

While there isn’t a direct way to escalate issues to development teams beyond the established feedback channels, continuing to consolidate your findings in a clear, reproducible way helps ensure they’re easier to evaluate.

Thank you for sharing feedback that can help improve the experience for everyone over time.

Answer 3

Supriya Gupta 5

This is usually caused by a hardware acceleration or graphics driver issue in Edge. You can update GPU drivers, turn off Hardware Acceleration in Edge settings, disable Dolby Vision / HDR in Windows display settings, and restart the browser to check if it works.

Nic B 0 Reputation points

2026-01-30T11:52:36.6366667+00:00

This is not the answer to the problem. Toggling off "Use graphics acceleration when available" in Edge settings doesn't solve the issue because it disables altogether Dolby Vision, HDR as well as Atmos streaming and defeats the purpose of this post. As you can guess, turning off DV/HDR streaming in Windows settings does the same thing. GPU drivers are up-to-date as well.

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Unresolved visual glitch/bug with Dolby Vision videos in fullscreen mode on Edge

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