Improvements to video playback with NX 4 are basically a new way of encoding images and a smart mechanism to keep video and audio synchronized. Frames are now encoded into a video stream, this increases the efficency of the bandwidth usage.

With previous versions of NX, each new frame was encoded as a single image. Each image was then compressed, e.g by using the JPEG compression algorithm. This method was already efficient in most cases, but when images are generated by video playback, using a video streaming technique can bring further improvements. In effect, video algorithms don't restrict compression to the single frame. Instead, they minimize redundant information in the overall video, based on the fact that, in many cases, a video frame is very similar to the previous one and the next one.

Since encoding/decoding and playback capabilities have been transparently included into the NX 4 products family, no additional installation of codecs is required. Encoding and playback are automatically integrated in the NX session: the NX agent detects which areas on the virtual screen are showing a video. The content of such areas becomes input for the video encoder. Encoded video packets are then bundled into the overall NX transport layer.

NX Player includes the decoder, providing the capability to retrieve the video frames from the encoded stream and show the decoded frames in the NX Player window as a video.

Additionally the NX toolbar available in the NX Player session window, allows users to tune the video quality at runtime to better fit their network.