HEVC Licensing Drama Is Making 4K ‘Optional’ on PCs
The article details how HEVC/H.265 patent licensing structures, rising royalty-rate uncertainty, and ongoing litigation are driving some vendors (including Dell, HP, and Synology) to disable or remove HEVC capabilities, impacting 4K/HDR streaming playback and transcoding on consumer devices. It outlines the roles of patent pools and licensors (notably Access Advance and Nokia) and notes device-market impacts such as sales injunctions in Germany and US lawsuits involving major streaming and hardware companies. The piece also frames AV1 as an alternative with broader streaming availability but highlights continued compatibility hurdles and emerging AV1 patent disputes that could affect adoption.
Key Takeaways
- OEMs are selectively bundling HEVC only on “premium” SKUs, leaving some new PCs unable to reliably play or accelerate 4K/HDR streams without workarounds (e.g., Microsoft’s paid HEVC extension).
- HEVC licensing isn’t neatly “covered by the chip”: patent-pool structures can leave OEMs responsible even when Intel/AMD hardware supports the codec.
- Litigation is now a product-shaping force: Nokia-driven actions have already led to sales blocks in Germany for Acer/Asus, and US suits span streamers and device makers.
- Access Advance’s HEVC pool is adjusting royalty rates (effective July 1), reinforcing uncertainty—even if some major OEM contracts are locked until 2030.
- AV1 remains the strategic escape hatch, but patent assertions (e.g., Dolby vs. Snap, InterDigital vs. Amazon) threaten to recreate “royalty-free, until it isn’t.”
Why It Matters
Streaming’s “it just plays” assumption is breaking at the device layer. If OEMs can disable a codec already present in silicon, codec support becomes SKU-by-SKU, region-by-region, and lawsuit-by-lawsuit—aka codec roulette. That raises real costs for streamers (more encodes, more QA matrices, more customer support) and complicates HDR/UHD growth plans. For platform and device strategists, this accelerates the business case for AV1 and tighter capability signaling, while reminding everyone that standards plus patent politics can override engineering roadmaps overnight.
Read full article at arstechnica.com
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