We’re currently running some tests to evaluate browser support for H.265 (HEVC) video, and unfortunately we’re facing a few playback issues.
On macOS: the video does not play at all in Safari. In Google Chrome, playback works, but seeking/rewinding the video does not function properly.
On Linux laptops with different distributions, results are mixed:
Firefox 143 plays H.265 videos without extra configuration.
Google Chrome 138, however, requires both additional packages and manual configuration to get playback working.
On Debian/Ubuntu, these packages need to be installed:
apt install vainfo libva2 libigdgmm12 libigfxcmrt7 mesa-vulkan-drivers libvulkan1 vulkan-tools
For Intel GPUs on you also need:
apt install intel-media-va-driver
For NVIDIA GPUs, you also need:
apt install libva-nvidia-driver
On Windows with NVIDIA GPUs, H.265 playback in browsers requires driver version 512.15 or higher.
Additionally, Chrome requires enabling certain flags on the chrome://flags page:
Hardware accelerated HEVC video encoding for Cast Streaming
Vulkan
Default ANGLE Vulkan
Vulkan from ANGLE
You can check whether hardware decoding is detected by Chrome on the chrome://gpu page, but note that this information is not a guarantee that H.265 videos will actually play correctly.
Conclusion: At this stage, browser support for H.265 is still too inconsistent and requires too many workarounds. Until browsers implement stable and native H.265 playback, it’s probably too early to consider fully switching to this codec.
