US Patent 9443280 Selective hardware acceleration in video playback systems

Embodiments of a system and method for enhanced video performance in a video playback system are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a video frame from a video element in a web page, which is to be presented in a web browser and is unobscured by any other elements associated with the web page, the web browser, or a user interface, is directly rendered by a hardware decoder and composited with any associated web content or other elements directly to a video playback display device. When a video frame from the video element is obscured by another element the video frame is rendered by a processor in the video playback display device in order to incorporate the non-video graphics element on the video playback device.