HEVC support in browsers on Intel Core Ultra 155H

[CacheSVK]

I have HP ProBook 460 with Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 155H, using Windows 11 Enterprise, fully updated system, bios, drivers (via Windows Update, HP Support Assistant and Intel Driver & Support Assistant) and all applications and browsers. I also purchased HEVC support from the Microsoft store.

Using latest drivers for Arc iGPU - 32.0.101.6881 - installed via Intel Driver & Support Assistant.

Standard Windows players, VLC, Kodi and other can play HEVC without any issue.

But, none of the Web Browsers is capable to play HEVC video.

According to this page - https://www.gumlet.com/tool/browser-capabilities-checker

Chrome shows NO support for HEVC. Edge and Firefox shows "probably" but can't play HEVC video.

For example, this:

https://bitmovin.com/demos/stream-test?format=hls&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdemo.unified-streaming.com%...

On HP EliteDesk 805 G6 Desktop Mini PC with Ryzen 5 PRO 4650GE - playback works on any browser.

On PC based on ASUS PRIME N100-D D4 (Intel N100) motherboard - playback works.

On multiple Intel based laptops of different manufacturers - it worked everywhere.

I have tried everything - inkognito modes, disabling all extensions, trying multiple flags, older drivers, .., except make changes in Bios, because it is not allowed (it is my work laptop with bitlocker and if somethings go bad, it will be my responsibility - It is highly recommended by our technicians not to change anything in the BIOS). 

NOTE - mentioned video is only as publicly available example. I want to watch local stream/tv service, which have H264 encoded SD and 720p streams and HEVC encoded 1080p streams.

But only on this modern CPU, i can't watch in full HD.

I asked the same question on Intel's product support forums, they referred me to HP support, as the GPU in this processor should fully support HEVC.

What can I do next?

[TzortzisG · Accepted solution]

Hi!

Although this is not mentioned in your laptop's MANUAL, this product series (460 G11) has HEVC permanently disabled as seen on the Quickspecs pdf:

It is also mentioned in footnotes on the 460 G11 Datasheet , as well as the HP Store page.

Even if you were to access the BIOS setup for this G11 Business model, you would see that there are no relevant settings you can change (HP PC Commercial BIOS (UEFI) Setup 2024).

[CacheSVK]

But.. why? What is the meaningful reason to block HEVC when there is HW support for it?

Is the reason to anger customers and convince them not to buy HP products?

This is insane.

Seriously, is there an explanation somewhere why HEVC is disabled on these laptops? 

[TzortzisG]

Being a big fan of the HP Business line myself, and having bought Probooks G1, G2, G3, G8 and G9, and actually considering buying a 460 G11 myself, I also wonder why HP came to this decision. The only thing I can tell you is that Meteor Lake CPUs had various issues when the iGPU was used for hardware acceleration.....

Unfortunately newer doesn't necessarily mean better!