Comment on HP and Dell disable HEVC support built into their laptops’ CPUs
Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Is that a hardware or software issue? I.e. is it caused by the windows driver for these laptops’ graphic units?
Does HEVC work with the Linux drivers on these machines?
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
No, it’s a licensing issue. H.265 hardware support requires an ongoing license. And HP+Dell don’t want to continue paying licensing fees for PCs they have already sold. So they’re telling customers “get fucked, use a media player with software decoding instead of using hardware acceleration directly in your browser.”
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What is your source for it needing constant renewal?
This is for new hardware sales only, not existing.?
jim3692@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
This doesn’t answer the Linux part of the question.
What does “licensing issue” means for the laptop itself? Is HEVC disabled at BIOS/firmware level, or it is just disabled at Windows driver level?
In the latter case, HEVC should work with Linux, as it uses generic Intel/AMD drivers, instead of specific Dell/HP ones.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s enabled at the hardware level only if the hevc license is paid, usually by the OEM (such as dell or hp).