Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Last week, Netflix announced that it was ending support for older devices from Samsung, Roku, and Vizio after December 1st, but it wasn’t clear exactly why those devices were losing support, besides the fact that they were old. And a Netflix support doc isn’t helpful, saying that the problem is due to “technical limitations.” But Netflix has shared a little more detail about those technical limitations on older Roku devices with Gizmodo, and it turns out the answer is quite simple: DRM.
Here’s what’s going on: Netflix has used Microsoft’s PlayReady DRM since 2010 so that it could more easily bring its streaming service to the loads of TVs, devices, and set top boxes you can find it on today while satisfying its content providers that…