HEVC Licensing, Here’s Exhaustive Video Codec Legal Details

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, Episode ∞

You may recall hardware support for HEVC and H.265 recently disappearing from HP and Dell laptops which used iGPUs.  They didn’t provide a reason why some models lost this ability while other models retained it, but it was pretty obviously about the licensing of hardware accelerated HEVC decoding.  Ars Technica has been trying to get details on why companies have dropped support and it seems no one is willing to offer a definitive answer.  Synology claims no one uses HEVC on their NAS lineup and neither Dell nor HP have provided any more details on their decision to drop HEVC from their Pro line of laptops and others.

We do know for sure that Acer and Asus are no longer allowed to sell laptops in Germany as a court ruled that they were infringing on Nokia’s HEVC patent, so regardless of whether the other companies are willing to admit it is definitely to avoid any legal actions against them.  With patent trolls abounding and launching cases regardless of their validity, there is reasonable concern that even if they are technically licensed for HEVC, these companies could find themselves having to pay legal fees to get the cases dismissed, and it is far easier and cheaper to just avoid this altogether.

If you want to know more about the nightmare surrounding HEVC take a gander at Ars’ article.