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Removing HEVC support wasn't their choice but probably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices [1]. Windows media player probably sees very litt
by est31 3mo ago
Removing HEVC support wasn't their choice but probably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices [1].
Windows media player probably sees very little usage nowadays and probably even less for HEVC, when most content playback happens via streaming and browsers today.
As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS native frontend APIs. The advantages are more on the development side of those apps, i.e. you can hire JS UI devs way more easily, and probably LLMs know way better how to deal with a react app than an UML one.
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/lawsuits-licensing-and-royalties-are-complicating-4k-video-support-in-gadgets/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/lawsuits-licensing-a...
- cf100clunk 3mo agoHEVC is provided by the official, licensed h265 standard. The open source ~HEVC-compliant codec library is x265 created by VideoLAN but was apparently not an option for Microsoft.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- cornstalks 3mo agox265 is an encoder, not a decoder. Also, being open source doesn't matter here: an open source library, even with a patent grant, doesn't give you a license to someone else's patents.
- izacus 3mo agoVideoLAN wants you to pay the royalty for x265 and you'll get sued by patent pools if you use it in a company (and are big enough).
- tredre3 3mo agoIt's not about the code. The open source implementations are also subject to patent laws, they just ignore them and put the responsibility on the user. And users don't know/care about it so in the end they get playback for free. That is why some distributions (RHEL derivatives, for example) do not ship support for many codecs out of the box and they make you jump to (admittedly simple) hoops to get it working.
- winstonwinston 3mo agoWindows 11 is not free software. Apple macOS, iOS, ipadOS all support HEVC and Dolby because Apple pays licensing costs, likewise Microsoft should do the same for Windows users, it is not free OS.
- VladVladikoff 3mo agoI don’t recall ever having a good time using a native Mac OS video player.
- sgarland 3mo agoQuickTime is fine. It does the basics, is intuitive, and fast.
- VladVladikoff 3mo agoIt’s been a few years since I tried but I think the codec support was pretty bad last time I checked. Sure it can play MOV files, but every time I tried to throw some pirated video at it it would choke.
- pixelpoet 3mo ago> The advantages are more on the development side of those apps, i.e. you can hire JS UI devs way more easily Ah yes, we don't want Microsoft to run out of JavaScript developers to keep improving their desktop operating system in this manner. More webdevs, that's what's going to fix what ails Windows!
- concinds 3mo ago'It's worse for our users, but easier for our developers' is an unacceptable tradeoff, they deserve the backlash.
- vjvjvjvjghv 3mo ago'It's worse for our users, but easier for our developers' That's how a lot of software gets done these days. More bloat, less features, lots of inconsistencies.
- tentacleuno 3mo agoPerhaps the AI boom will encourage / subsidize(?) native development in a way? If it can be made more approachable, then maybe it would become more prevalent...
- vitally3643 3mo agoOh my dear sweet summer child
- RetroTechie 3mo agoNo, bad vendors will just use AI to reduce time-to-market, skimp on QC, or do the same with fewer developers. This is a leadership problem, not a technical one.
- cfiggers 3mo agoI mean... Yes, but there's nuance here. Using 400 MB of RAM vs 100 MB of RAM is close to unnoticeable in a world of a GB+ for a single Chrome tab... And if "easier for our developers" means the end user is getting more regular updates with fewer critical issues, then it's not an uncomplicated tradeoff at all, parts of it are actually synergistic.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- 3mo ago
- ncallaway 3mo ago> The advantages are more on the development side of those apps I mean, I agree, but Microsoft of all companies really should be invested in building Windows native applications. If they can't be fucked to build Windows-native applications, why would anyone else? Microsoft should be setting the example, and the high bar of what Windows-native quality software should be. It's frankly embarrassing for them that they can't or won't do it.
- GeekyBear 3mo agoIf Google and Apple also decided to remove support for common video formats instead of just paying the slightly higher licensing fee, I might have some sympathy. Microsoft thinks they have all the money in the world when it comes to wasting huge sums on mergers and acquisitions that go nowhere. Spend some on maintaining the user experience. Also, with Dell and others releasing new Windows laptops with 8 Gigs of RAM, needless memory bloat is unacceptable.
- kasabali 3mo agoI believe, at this point they could direct AI to vibe rewrite every UI code written after 2010 in Win32 and MFC and the result would still be vastly better than crap they push us nowadays.
- LtWorf 3mo agoProbably there's not enough open source code to ~~steal~~ train the AI on for this to work. If they were to use Qt or GTK it'd work.
- secondcoming 3mo agoIt must be possible these days to allow designers to prototype UIs in WebTech and then convert it to native code.
- VladVladikoff 3mo ago>As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS native frontend APIs Can someone explain to me why these multi operating system app building tools don’t compile down to native code and leverage native APIs? Is there nothing like that available?
- AlotOfReading 3mo agoMicrosoft has written more application development frameworks than you can shake a stick at. They've also failed to gain traction with virtually all of them, even internally.
- contextfree 3mo agoWinUI2/UWP was heavily adopted internally though?* Most Windows shell UI and built-in apps use it at this point. * (at least within the Windows organization; maybe not so much in other parts of Microsoft)
- happymellon 3mo agoLeadership is weak. As an operating system vendor, it should be a dismissable offence to refuse to use the OS standard APIs. Your products need to be the standard that other try to imitate.
- mfro 3mo agoThe web browser is a compiled program. The problem is that it’s a huge program.
- dist-epoch 3mo agoThe HEVC support is free is you know the "secret" link: ms-windows-store://pdp?productId=9N4WGH0Z6VHQ It's a wide know workaround, been there for years, obviously Microsoft pretends they don't know about it. https://www.howtogeek.com/680690/how-to-install-free-hevc-codecs-on-windows-10-for-h265-video/ https://www.howtogeek.com/680690/how-to-install-free-hevc-co...
- Wowfunhappy 3mo agoYour link says this doesn't work anymore?
- saidinesh5 3mo agoWouldn't HEVC licences already be paid by the hardware/gpu vendors on most devices? And Microsoft just exposes api for that hardware? Is this just for a purely software implementation of it?
- kasabali 3mo agoNah. Search for "Nokia h264" and see for yourself how they've sued like every single vendor in recent years, because they want to double dip.
- contextfree 3mo agoIt doesn't use JS/TS, it's a reskinned Groove Music and is all either C++ or C# (I think C#) + UWP/WinUI2 XAML Xbox Music in Windows 8.x was actually web tech based, but was rewritten into C# and XAML when it was turned into Groove Music in Windows 10
- dblohm7 3mo agoThe modern native frontend APIs aren’t exactly lightweight themselves…
- redsocksfan45 3mo ago[dead]
- Wowfunhappy 3mo ago> As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS native frontend APIs. How do we live in a world where simultaneously "human coding is dead" and also "we need to trade performance for developer efficiency"? I thought code is free now? Also--this is Microsoft! It's their OS! Microsoft should just come out and say that the whole of Win32 is deprecated and kept around for legacy compatibility only, and all new software should be written in Electron. They're already acting that way, why not make it official?
- reaperducer 3mo agoprobably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices /clutches pearls Won't somebody think of the trillion-dollar companies!