Netflix is the only application causing serious problems on this PC. It works in Chrome, but Firefox displays badly corrupted colors, as though the video were being rendered with a randomized 256-color palette. In Chrome, playback may suddenly turn the screen black and require a reload. Sometimes Chrome remains blank after reloading, and occasionally every Chrome window goes black. The display driver may recover once, but Chrome often stays unusable until all processes are terminated through Task Manager. After a couple more occurrences, the driver can fail to recover completely, leaving a blank display even though Netflix audio continues, forcing a cold reboot.
The system runs Windows 11 with a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, GeForce RTX 5090, and an Innocn 49C1R connected through both HDMI and DisplayPort in split-screen mode. Both outputs are configured for 10-bit color at 60 Hz. The latest 616.92 driver is installed, although the issue has existed since before the 600-series drivers. The same CPU and monitor worked without trouble with an RTX 3090. Games, other video software, and other streaming services work normally, including demanding titles using ray reconstruction, path tracing, and DLSS.
Older drivers behaved differently: Netflix worked in Firefox but caused distorted video, bad audio, and driver resets in Chrome. Could this be related to GPU video decoding, DRM or HDCP, hardware acceleration, the split-screen monitor configuration, or the HDMI KVM?
3 Answers
This sounds more like a GPU video-decoding or DRM hardware-acceleration problem than a general graphics-rendering failure. Try disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome, then restart the browser and test Netflix again. If the crashes stop, that points toward the GPU's video decode path rather than the game-rendering portion of the driver. Also test the monitor in single-pane mode, since driving the split display through HDMI and DisplayPort at 10-bit color is an unusual configuration that could expose a driver bug.
Since the problem follows Netflix across browser and driver versions while games remain stable, a Netflix-specific protected-video or hardware-decoding path is more likely than a failing GPU. Start with Chrome hardware acceleration disabled, then compare 8-bit versus 10-bit output and 60 Hz versus 120 Hz in single-display mode. If one of those changes fixes it, report the result to NVIDIA because it may be a driver compatibility bug involving this monitor's dual-input setup rather than a hardware failure.
Netflix uses HDCP and protected video playback, so the split-screen monitor, two active outputs, or the HDMI KVM could be involved even though ordinary games work. Check the graphics control panel to confirm that both display sections report HDCP as enabled. Use properly rated HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 cables, connect directly where possible, and try the Windows Netflix app as another playback path. The most useful isolation tests are DisplayPort only, HDMI only, and single-pane mode with the second connection removed.
Both sections currently show HDCP enabled. The KVM is difficult to remove because several systems share this desk, but I’ll test DisplayPort by itself, disable split-screen mode, and try the Windows app.
Hardware acceleration here means Chrome is using the GPU for tasks such as video decoding and compositing instead of doing everything on the CPU. Turning it off is a diagnostic test; it may reduce performance, but it can show whether the GPU's video functions are triggering the crash.