[devbug]

Windows bundles software decoders (for H.264 and H.265) that are available through MFT and DXVA.[1][2] Chromium leverages both already.[3] It's also a low effort way to support hardware-accelerated decoding as vendors (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA) register MFTs that wrap their propriety SDKs (Quick Sync, AMF, NVDEC).

These provided MFTs have to meet certain minimum requirements for certification by Microsoft, which amounts to "good enough." Results vary in practice and can be incredibly frustrating (especially encode). It's often better to use the underlying SDKs but that comes with a lot of hassle.

(I've been working on a video capture and sharing app inspired by Shadowplay.)

Windows 10 is also rolling out support for AV1, though not bundled.[4]

[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/medfound/h-26...

[2]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/medfound/abou...

[3]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/medi...

[4]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/av1-video-extension/9mvzqv...

[MaxBarraclough]

> Chromium leverages both already

Why do they need to pay for their own licence then?

[ksec]

They dont, and neither do Mozilla if they decide to use the OS media playing framework.

But most Browsers tends to implement their own for all sort of reasons.