HP, Dell quietly disable HEVC on certain laptops over minute license fee increase

Inter-corporation bullshit screwing over consumers – a tale as old as time.

Major laptop vendors have quietly removed hardware decode support for the H.265/HEVC codec in several business and entry-level models, a decision apparently driven by rising licensing fees. Users working with H.265 content may face reduced performance unless they verify codec support or rely on software workarounds.
↫ Hilbert Hagedoornn at The Guru of 3D

You may want to know how much these licensing fees are, and by how much they’re increasing next year, making these laptop OEMs remove features to avoid the costs. The HEVC licensing fee is $0.20 per device, and in 2026 it’s increasing to $0.24. Yes, a $0.04 increase per device is “forcing” these giant companies to screw over their consumers. Nobody’s coming out a winner here, and everyone loses.

We took a wrong turn, but nobody seems to know when and where.