[TD-Linux]

For H.264 it's the opposite (for web content), only the players need to pay royalties.

For H.265, both need to pay royalties, which depend on the business model. The licensing terms are pretty much totally unsuited for usage as a still image format. And yes, there are multiple pools and you have to pay all of them.

[acdha]

The license terms for H.264 appear to require both encoder and decoder vendors to pay royalties once they ship over 100K units:

http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Documents/avcweb.pdf

H.264 is similar for the MPEG pool:

http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/HEVC/Documents/HEVCweb.p...