Increase the chroma value to 4:4:4 for Azure Virtual Desktop using the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) video codec

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The chroma value determines the color space used for encoding. By default, the chroma value is set to 4:2:0, which provides a good balance between image quality and network bandwidth. When you use the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) video codec, you can increase the chroma value to 4:4:4 to improve image quality. You don't need to use GPU acceleration to change the chroma value.

This article shows you how to set the chroma value. You can use Group Policy to configure your session hosts.

Prerequisites

Before you can configure the chroma value, you need:

  • An existing host pool with session hosts.

  • To configure Group Policy, you need:

    • A domain account that is a member of the Domain Admins security group.

    • A security group or organizational unit (OU) containing the devices you want to configure.

Increase the chroma value to 4:4:4

By default, the chroma value is set to 4:2:0. You can increase the chroma value to 4:4:4 using Group Policy.

Select the relevant tab for your scenario.

To increase the chroma value to 4:4:4 using Group Policy:

  1. Open the Group Policy Management console on device you use to manage the Active Directory domain.

  2. Create or edit a policy that targets the computers providing a remote session you want to configure.

  3. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment.

    A screenshot showing the redirection options in the Group Policy editor.

  4. Configure the following settings:

    1. Double-click the policy setting Prioritize H.264/AVC 444 Graphics mode for Remote Desktop connections to open it. Select Enabled, then select OK.

    2. Double-click the policy setting Configure image quality for RemoteFX Adaptive Graphics to Enabled, then for Image quality, select High. Select OK.

  5. Ensure the policy is applied to your session hosts, then restart them for the settings to take effect.

Verify a remote session is using a chroma value of 4:4:4

To verify that a remote session is using a chroma value of 4:4:4, you need to open an Azure support request with Microsoft Support who can verify the chroma value from telemetry.

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