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If the codec lacks hardware decode support and lacks a supremely efficient software/gpu accelerated decoder on end user devices, it's not actually a useful code
by kevingadd 3y ago
If the codec lacks hardware decode support and lacks a supremely efficient software/gpu accelerated decoder on end user devices, it's not actually a useful codec even if it's superior. And you won't get widespread availability if the codec is expensive.
- charcircuit 3y agoHardware accelerated H.264 is widespread and not openly licensed
- kevingadd 3y agoIt's still the case that web browsers have to ship software H264 decoders because it's 2023 and you still can't rely on being able to HW decode it on every device Also, h264 predated the wide availability of HW video codecs in general, so software decoding was the thing for quite a while and that provided a motivation for HW decoding. It's an ancient codec, it shouldn't be surprising that eventually everyone got decode support for it. In 2023 if you're proposing people adopt a new codec with sw decode only, why should they eat significantly reduced battery life + higher patent fees when they already have hardware decoders for h264 and vp9? It's a losing argument. I also can't speak to this with confidence but I suspect Apple choosing to use H264 single-handedly advanced support for it. If they were to do the same thing with H265 or AV1 in a strong way we'd probably see the same effect.