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enable-chromium-hevc-hardware-decoding

A guide that teach you enable hardware HEVC decoding & encoding for Chrome / Edge, or build a custom version of Chromium / Electron that supports hardware & software HEVC decoding and hardware HEVC encoding.

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What's the hardware decoding supported HEVC profile?

HEVC Main (Up to 8192x8192 pixels)

HEVC Main 10 (Up to 8192x8192 pixels)

HEVC Main Still Picture (up to 8192x8192 pixels)

HEVC Rext (partially supported, see the table below for details, up to 8192x8192 pixels)

GPU8b 4208b 4228b 44410b 42010b 42210b 44412b 42012b 42212b 444
Apple Silicon (macOS)✅✅✅✅✅✅❌❌❌
Intel ICL ~ TGLx (Win)✅✅<sup>[5]</sup>✅<sup>[4]</sup>✅✅✅❌❌❌
Intel TGLx+ (Win)✅✅<sup>[5]</sup>✅<sup>[4]</sup>✅✅✅✅✅<sup>[4]</sup>✅<sup>[4]</sup>

✅: GPU + software support ❌: GPU not support

Note 1: Intel Macs support HEVC Rext software decoding of 8 ~ 12b 400, 420, 422, 444 contents. Apple Silicon Mac supports HEVC Rext hardware decoding of 8 ~ 10b 400, 420, 422, 444 contents, and software decoding of 12b 400, 420, 422, 444 contents on macOS 13+.

Note 2: Intel Gen10 GPUs support HEVC Rext hardware decoding of 8b 420, 8b 422, 8b 444, 10b 420, 10b 422, 10b 444 contents on Windows. Gen11+ GPUs additionally support HEVC Rext hardware decoding of 12b 420, 12b 422, 12b 444 contents.

Note 3: Although NVIDIA GPUs support HEVC Rext hardware decoding of 8 ~ 12b non-422 contents via CUVIA or NVDEC, but because they did not provide a D3D11 interface, thus Chromium will not support it in the future.

Note 4: HEVC 8b 444, 12b 422, 12b 444 support requires Chrome >= 117.0.5866.0.

Note 5: HEVC 8b 422 support requires Chrome >= 118.0.5956.0.

Note 6: To retain the original 4:2:2/4:4:4 chroma sampling, requires Chrome >= 125.0.6408.0.

What's the hardware encoding supported HEVC profile?

HEVC Main (macOS & Windows & Android, macOS up to the hardware<sup>[4]</sup>, Windows up to the hardware<sup>[3]</sup>, Android up to the hardware)

Note 1: Chrome >= 130.0.6703.0 no need any switch. Chrome < 130.0.6703.0 need to pass a chrome switch to enable it (--enable-features=PlatformHEVCEncoderSupport)Test Page.

Note 2: Windows / Mac need to make sure Chrome version >= 109.0.5397.0, Android need to make sure Chrome version >= 117.0.5899.0.

Note 3: Chrome >= 131.0.6759.0 on Windows no longer have the hardcode resolution and framerate limit, it will call MediaFoundation to calculate a resolution and framerate combination based on hardware, resolution up to 7680x4320 and framerate up to 300fps. Chrome < 130.0.6703.0 on Windows, the max resolution is a hardcode value of 1920x1088 & 30fps.

Note 4: If Chrome >= 131.0.6771.0 and Mac has Apple Silicon chips, the max HEVC resolution can support up to 8192x4352 & 120fps. Otherwise the max resolution up to 4096x2304 & 120fps.

What's the OS requirement?

macOS Big Sur (11.0) and above

Windows 8 and above

Android 5.0 and above

Chrome OS (Only supports GPUs that support VAAPI interface, eg: Intel GPU)

Linux (Chrome version >= 108.0.5354.0, and only supports GPUs that support VAAPI interface, eg: Intel GPU)

What's the API supported?

Video Decode: File, Media Source Extensions, WebCodec (8Bit requires >= 107.0.5272.0, 10Bit + HEVC with Alpha requires >= 108.0.5343.0), Clearkey and Widevine L1 (HW only) Encrypted Media Extensions, WebRTC (experimental, need to use Chrome Canary passing --enable-features=PlatformHEVCEncoderSupport,WebRtcAllowH265Send,WebRtcAllowH265Receive --force-fieldtrials=WebRTC-Video-H26xPacketBuffer/Enabled to enable the feature, or use the Chromium binary provided by this repo, some useful sites here: Media Capabilities, Demo) are supported.

Video Encode: WebCodec (Windows, macOS, and Android, Chrome >= 130.0.6703.0 no need any switch, Chrome < 130.0.6703.0 need to pass --enable-features=PlatformHEVCEncoderSupport to enable the support), WebRTC (same description as above), and MediaRecorder (requires Chrome >= 132.0.6784.0, need to pass --enable-features=MediaRecorderHEVCSupport to enable the support, Demo) are supported.

What's the GPU requirement?

Discrete GPU

Intel DG1 and above

NVIDIA GT635, GTX645 and above

AMD RX460 and above

Integrated GPU

Intel HD4400, HD515 and above

AMD Radeon R7, Vega M and above

Apple M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra and above

Detail Table

Intel

AMD

NVIDIA

HDR Supports? (Compared with Edge / Safari / Firefox)

PQHDR10HDR10+HLGDV P5DV P8.1DV P8.4
Chrome Mac✅✅✅✅❌✅✅
Chrome Win✅✅✅✅❌✅✅
Edge Mac✅✅✅✅❌✅✅
Edge Win✅✅✅✅❌✅✅
Safari Mac✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
Firefox Win<sup>[1]</sup>❌❌❌❌❌❌❌

On Windows platform, Chrome supports PQ, HDR10 (PQ with static metadata), and HLG. Automatic Tone-mapping will be enabled based on static metadata (if present). HDR10+ SEI dynamic metadata wil be ignored while decoding and playback will downgrade to HDR10.

On macOS platform, Chrome supports PQ, HDR10 (PQ with static metadata), HLG. In SDR / HDR / Hybrid mode, the macOS system will automatically perform EDR to ensure that HDR is displayed correctly. Chrome / Edge shared the same code thus has the same decoding ability, Safari also supports the above all HDR formats.

Note 1: Firefox >= 133 enables HEVC decoding support by default (Windows platform only). It also supports HEVC Main and Main10 profile (HDR contents usually encoded with Main10 profile), but doesn't seems able to render HLG/PQ correctly.

Dolby Vision Supports Status

There are two type of support type here:

  1. Type 1: Supports RPU dynamic metadata and Profile 5 (IPTPQc2).
  2. Type 2: Supports profiles like Profile 8/9 that has cross-compatible HDR10/HLG/SDR support.

For the first type, currently only Chromecast and Windows platforms have very limited support. On Windows platform, Chrome supports encrypted Dolby Vision content, for versions of Chrome >= 110, when manually passing --enable-features=PlatformEncryptedDolbyVision switch and launch Chrome and when the system has installed the Dolby Vision extension and HEVC video extension, Profile 4/5/8 will be supported, "Supported" will be returned when querying the API (Note: For external HDR displays, if HDR mode is turned on, Microsoft's MediaFoundation has a bug and will not return "Supported" results).

For the second type, Profile 8/9 with cross-compatibility such as HLG, HDR10, SDR, using API to query with dvh1, dvhe, dva1, dvav will return "not supported" (for example :MediaSource.isTypeSupported('video/mp4;codecs="dvh1.08.07"')), while when querying with hvc1, hev1, avc1, avc3, "supported" will be returned. The specific version of Chrome has different implementation details:

Chrome >= 122. as long as the platform supports HEVC, then it is supported. Assuming that the API used by developers is MSE, the logic will be something like below:

if (isTypeSupported('video/mp4;codecs="dvh1.08.07"')) {
   if (use_rpu) {
     // Playback should success. Chrome internally considers the codec to be Dolby Vision 
     // and uses RPU dynamic metadata.
     source.addSourceBuffer('video/mp4;codecs="dvh1.08.07"');
     ...
   } else if (dvcc.dv_bl_signal_compatibility_id === 1 ||
              dvcc.dv_bl_signal_compatibility_id === 2 ||
              dvcc.dv_bl_signal_compatibility_id === 4) {
     // Playback should success. Chrome internally considers the codec to be HEVC,
     // ignores RPU dynamic metadata, decode and render in HLG/HDR10/SDR mode.
     // Note: If it is profile 5, source buffer can only be created with `dvh1` or `dvhe`
     // mimetype.
     source.addSourceBuffer('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.2.4.L120.90"');
     ...
   } else {
     // Playback should fails, for incompatible dolby profiles, if you use HEVC construct
     // source buffer, it will always fails.
   }
} else if (isTypeSupported('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.2.4.L120.90"')) {
   if (dvcc.dv_bl_signal_compatibility_id === 1 ||
       dvcc.dv_bl_signal_compatibility_id === 2 ||
       dvcc.dv_bl_signal_compatibility_id === 4) {
     // Playback should success. Chrome internally considers the codec to be HEVC,
     // ignores RPU dynamic metadata, decode and render in HLG/HDR10/SDR mode.
     source.addSourceBuffer('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.2.4.L120.90"');
     ...
   } else {
     // Playback should fails, for example when Chrome does not support profile 5 but you use 
     // HEVC construct SourceBuffer.
   }
} else {
   // Playback should fails, HEVC is not supported.
}

Versions 110 ~ 121 of Chrome on Windows, Dolby Vision is not playable at all if its not encrypted, this is a bug of the browser. Chrome on other platforms, such as macOS, Android, etc, as long as constructing source buffer with hvc1, hev1, avc1, avc3 and the sample entry is not dvh1, dvhe, dva1, dvav, then the playback should be success.

Versions 107 ~ 109 of Chrome, if constructing source buffer with hvc1, hev1, avc1, avc3 and the sample entry is not dvh1, dvhe, dva1, dvav, then the playback should be success.

HDR support by version of Chrome/Edge

Chrome 107 does not support the ability to extract HEVC static metadata, and all HDR10 video playback are downgraded to PQ only mode. HLG videos uses the video processor API provided by the GPU vendor for processing tone-mapping has a poor performance on some laptops, and playing 4K video may cause frame droping.

Chrome 108 supports the ability to extract HEVC static metadata. For videos with static metadata written in the container, the playback is okey on 108, but some videos are not written static metadata to their containers, thus Chrome 108 can not extract the static metadata from these videos which causing the playback to be downgraded to PQ only mode, and the max content light level maybe cutted to a low value for these videos. In addition, the HLG Tone-mapping algorithm on Windows platform has been switched to Chrome's own algorithm, which solves the problem of bad performance on the laptop when using video processor for HLG Tone-mapping. However, Chrome has been using 8 bit for Tone-mapping, which resulting an insufficient contrast ratio of the Tone-mapping result.

Chrome 109 makes the HDR -> SDR process to a 16 bit + zero copy process, which improves the accuracy of PQ Tone-mapping on Windows platform, thus the problem of the insufficient contrast ratio for HLG has been also solved, and the video memory usage has been reduced by about 50%.

Chrome 110 solves the problem of incomplete static metadata extraction. It supports the extraction of static metadata from both the bitstream and the container, thus the max content light level issue has been solved, and at this point all HDR issues should have been resolved.

Chrome 119 fixed 10bit video playback issues for AMD GPU on Windows platform (black screen when playing HLG video in SDR mode, 4K freezes, high memory usage, color change when switching full-screen, crash when playing SDR video in HDR mode).

Chrome 122 improved Dolby Vision cross-compatible playback ability.

Chrome 123 ensures that on Windows platforms, PQ/HDR10 video can be rendered at absolute brightness when system HDR mode is enabled. It also solves the problem of abnormal Tone-mapping issue when the window is dragged between SDR monitor / HDR monitor when multiple monitors are connected.

Chrome 124 solves the issue that on Windows platform when the NVIDIA RTX Auto HDR feature is enabled, page scrolling will cause video brightness transition.

Chrome 125 solves all issues with Intel HDR10 MPO, the feature has been re-enabled.

Edge 125 solves the issue of no zero-copy output when using VDAVideoDecoder decodes HEVC Main10 10bit contents on the Windows platform, and the issue of PQ/HDR10/HLG bad tone-mapping result could also be solved. The HDR rendering results of later versions of Edge are expected to be exactly the same as Chrome, performed by Skia, and the rendering results of various GPU manufacturers will remain consistent no matter system HDR mode on or off (Intel HDR10 MPO may be enabled if system HDR mode is turned on and GPU generation >= 11, which may result in slight inconsistencies with Skia rendering results).

How to verify certain profile or resolution is supported？

Clear Content

MediaCapabilities

const mediaConfig = {
  /**
   * You can use `file` or `media-source` and the result are same here. And if type is `webrtc`,
   * `contentType` should be replaced with `video/h265` (NOTE: `webrtc` feature is only for
   * testing purpose, official Chrome may won't enable this by default, so you should find 
   * chromium v128 binary in this repo and test by yourself).
   */
  type: 'file',
  video: {
    /**
     * HEVC Profile
     * 
     * Main: `hev1.1.6.L93.B0`
     * Main 10: `hev1.2.4.L93.B0`
     * Main still-picture: `hvc1.3.E.L93.B0`
     * Range extensions: `hvc1.4.10.L93.B0`
     */
    contentType : 'video/mp4;codecs="hev1.1.6.L120.90"',
    /* Width */
    width: 1920,
    /* Height */
    height: 1080,
    /* Any number */
    bitrate: 10000, 
    /* Any number */
    framerate: 30
  }
}

navigator.mediaCapabilities.decodingInfo(mediaConfig)
  .then(result => {
     /* Indicate whether or not the video with given profile, width, and height can played well on the browser */
    if (result.supported) {
      console.log('Video can play!');
    } else {
      console.log('Video can\'t play!');
    }
  });

MediaSource

if (MediaSource.isTypeSupported('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.1.6.L120.90"')) {
  console.log('HEVC main profile is supported!');
}

if (MediaSource.isTypeSupported('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.2.4.L120.90"')) {
  console.log('HEVC main 10 profile is supported!');
}

if (MediaSource.isTypeSupported('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.3.E.L120.90"')) {
  console.log('HEVC main still-picture profile is supported!');
}

if (MediaSource.isTypeSupported('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.4.10.L120.90"')) {
  console.log('HEVC range extensions profile is supported!');
}

CanPlayType

const video = document.createElement('video');

if (video.canPlayType('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.1.6.L120.90"') === 'probably') {
  console.log('HEVC main profile is supported!');
}

if (video.canPlayType('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.2.4.L120.90"') === 'probably') {
  console.log('HEVC main 10 profile is supported!');
}

if (video.canPlayType('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.3.E.L120.90"') === 'probably') {
  console.log('HEVC main still-picture profile is supported!');
}

if (video.canPlayType('video/mp4;codecs="hev1.4.10.L120.90"') === 'probably') {
  console.log('HEVC range extensions profile is supported!');
}

VideoDecoder

const videoConfig = {
  /**
   * HEVC Profile
   * 
   * Main: `hev1.1.6.L93.B0`
   * Main 10: `hev1.2.4.L93.B0`
   * Main still-picture: `hvc1.3.E.L93.B0`
   * Range extensions: `hvc1.4.10.L93.B0`
   */
  codec: 'hev1.1.6.L120.90',
  /* HEVC is always hw accelerated */
  hardwareAcceleration: 'prefer-hardware',
  /* Width */
  codedWidth: 1280,
  /* Height */
  codedHeight: 720,
}

try {
  const result = await VideoDecoder.isConfigSupported(videoConfig);
  /* Indicate whether or not the video with given profile, width, and height can be decoded by WebCodecs API */
  if (result.supported) {
    console.log('Video can play!');
  } else {
    console.log('Video can\'t play!');
  }
} catch (e) {
  /* There is a bug that in previous version of Chromium, the api may throw Error if config is not supported */
  console.log('Video can\'t play!');
}

Note 1：The above four API have already took --disable-gpu, --disable-accelerated-video-decode, gpu-workaround, settings - system - Use hardware acceleration when available, OS version etc... into consideration, and if Chrome version >= 107.0.5304.0 (There is a bug in Chrome 108 and previous versions on Windows platform. If a specific GPU driver version causes D3D11VideoDecoder to be disabled for some reason, although the hardware decoding is no longer available, APIs such as isTypeSupported may still return "support", the bug has been fixed in Chrome 109) and OS is macOS or Windows, the result are guaranteed.

Note 2: There is a bug for the Android platform, Chrome < 112.0.5612.0 does not return the actual support status of different devices (although Android >= 5.0 supports HEVC main profile SW decoding by default, however whether main10 profile is supported or not completely depends on hardware), and always assume that all HEVC profiles and resolution are supported. Chrome >= 112.0.5612.0 now solves this bug, and will return the correct result depends on hardware and the given video's resolution. Just like Windows and macOS, the above three APIs are supported as well, and every influencing factors should have been taken into account.

Note 3：Compared with MediaSource.isTypeSupported() or CanPlayType(), we recommend using MediaCapabilities, since MediaCapabilities not only takes settings - system - Use hardware acceleration when available etc... into consideration, but also check if the given width and height is supported or not since different GPU may have different max resolution support, eg: some AMD GPU only support up to 4096 * 2048, and some old GPU only support up to 1080P.

Encrypted Content

requestMediaKeySystemAccess

/** Detect HEVC Widevine L1 support (only Windows is supported). */
try {
  await navigator.requestMediaKeySystemAccess('com.widevine.alpha.experiment', [
    {
      initDataTypes: ['cenc'],
      distinctiveIdentifier: 'required',
      persistentState: 'required',
      sessionTypes: ['temporary'],
      videoCapabilities: [
        {
          robustness: 'HW_SECURE_ALL',
          contentType: 'video/mp4; codecs="hev1.1.6.L120.90"',
        },
      ],
    },
  ]);
  console.log('Widevine L1 HEVC main profile is supported!');
} catch (e) {
  console.log('Widevine L1 HEVC main profile is not supported!');
}


/**
 * Detect Dolby Vision Widevine L1 support (only Windows is supported, and only if
 * `--enable-features=PlatformEncryptedDolbyVision` switch has been passed).
 */
try {
  await navigator.requestMediaKeySystemAccess('com.widevine.alpha.experiment', [
    {
      initDataTypes: ['cenc'],
      distinctiveIdentifier: 'required',
      persistentState: 'required',
      sessionTypes: ['temporary'],
      videoCapabilities: [
        {
          robustness: 'HW_SECURE_ALL',
          contentType: 'video/mp4; codecs="dvhe.05.07"',
        },
      ],
    },
  ]);
  console.log('Widevine L1 DV profile 5 is supported!');
} catch (e) {
  console.log('Widevine L1 DV profile 5 is not supported!');
}

What's the hardware decoding tech diff? (Compared with Edge / Safari / Firefox)

Windows

Edge uses VDAVideoDecocder to call MFT (need to install HEVC Video Extension, Edge 117 ~ 121 uses MediaFoundationRenderer, and switch back to the original VDAVideoDecocder after version 122) to finish the HEVC decoding which is the same tech behind Movies and TV builtin system app.

Firefox (>= 120, experimental, need to manually set media.wmf.hevc.enabled=1 to enable the feature) uses MFT (need to install HEVC Video Extension) to finish the HEVC decoding which is the same tech behind Movies and TV builtin system app.

When using MFT, If the device does not have hardware decoding support of a specific profile (i.e. NVIDIA GTX 745 does not support Main10 profile) or resolution (i.e. NVIDIA GTX 960 does not support resolutions above 4K), MFT will automatically switch to software decoding.

Chrome uses D3D11VideoDecoder to call D3D11VA (no need to install anything) to finish the HEVC HW decoding which is the same tech behind video players like VLC.

macOS

Edge and Chrome use the same decoding implementations on macOS.

Safari and Chrome use the same VideoToolbox to finish the HEVC decoding, if the device does not have hardware support, it will automatically fallback to use software decoding. Compared with Safari, Chrome requires higher OS version (10.13 vs 11.0).

How to verify HEVC hardware decoding support is enabled?

  1. Open chrome://gpu, and search Video Acceleration Information, you should see Decode hevc main field, Decode hevc main 10 field, and Decode hevc main still-picture field (macOS and indows Intel Gen10+ iGPU will show Decode hevc range extensions as well) present if hardware decoding is supported (macOS is an exception here, you see this field doesn't means the decode will use hardware, it actually depends on your GPU).
  2. Open chrome://media-internals and play some HEVC video (Test Page) if the decoder is VDAVideoDecoder or VideoToolboxVideoDecoder or D3D11VideoDecoder or VaapiVideoDecoder that means the video is using hardware decoding (macOS is an exception here, if the OS >= Big Sur, and the GPU doesn't support HEVC, VideoToolbox will fallback to software decode which has a better performance compared with FFMPEG, the decoder is VDAVideoDecoder or VideoToolboxVideoDecoder in this case indeed), and if the decoder is FFMpegVideoDecoder that means the video is using software decoding.
  3. Open Activity Monitor on Mac and search VTDecoderXPCService, if the cpu usage larger than 0 when playing video, that means hardware (or software) decoding is being used.
  4. Open Windows Task Manager on Windows and switch to Performance - GPU, if Video Decode(Intel, NVIDIA) or Video Codec(AMD) usage larger than 0 when playing video, that means hardware decoding is being used. For some first generation GPU (i.e: NVIDIA RTX 745) that support HEVC, since there is no dedicated hw decoding circuit inside the GPU, although the D3D11 decoding API is supported, it will only occupy the general 3D utilization when decoding.

How to verify HEVC hardware encoding support is enabled?

  1. Open chrome://gpu, and search Video Acceleration Information, you should see Encode hevc main field present if hardware encoding is supported (macOS is an exception here, you see this field doesn't means the decode will use hardware, it actually depends on your GPU).
  2. Open Activity Monitor and encode some HEVC video on Mac and search VTEncoderXPCService, if the cpu usage larger than 0 when encoding video, that means hardware encoding is being used.
  3. Open Windows Task Manager and encode some HEVC video on Windows and switch to Performance - GPU, if Video Encode(Intel, NVIDIA) or Video Codec(AMD) usage larger than 0 when encoding video, that means hardware encoding is being used.

Why my GPU support HEVC, but still not able to hardware decode?

OS version is too low

Windows

Please make sure you are using Windows 8 and above, this is because the D3D11VideoDecoder doesn't support Windows 7.

macOS

Please make sure you are using macOS Big Sur and above, this is because CMVideoFormatDescriptionCreateFromHEVCParameterSets API has compatibility issue on lower macOS.

GPU driver has bug

Some GPU driver may has bug which will cause D3D11VideoDecoder forbidden to use. in this case, you need to upgrade your GPU driver and try again. See reference

GPU hardware has bug

Some GPU hardware may has bug which will cause D3D11VideoDecoder forbidden to use. in this case, we can't do anything else but to use the FFMPEG software decode. See reference

How to Build?

  1. Follow the official build doc to prepare the build environment then fetch the source code from main branch (HEVC HW codes has been merged).
  2. (Optional) To enable HEVC software decoding: switch to src/third_party/ffmpeg dir, then execute git am /path/to/add-hevc-ffmpeg-decoder-parser.patch. If failed to apply the patch, could also try node /path/to/add-hevc-ffmpeg-decoder-parser.js to enable software decoding (Node.js is required to run the script), then execute git am /path/to/change-libavcodec-header.patch manually (this may still fail if the upstream got updated but this repo doesn't sync the code in time, you could submit an issue or patch to report or fix this), finally switch to src dir, and execute git am /path/to/enable-hevc-ffmpeg-decoding.patch.
  3. (Optional) To enable HEVC WebRTC support by default, switch to src dir, then execute git am /path/to/enable-hevc-webrtc-send-receive-by-default.patch, and then switch to src/third_party/webrtc dir, execute git am /path/to/enable-h26x-packet-buffer-by-default.patch.
  4. (Optional) To enable HEVC MediaRecorder support by default, switch to src dir, then execute git am /path/to/enable-hevc-media-recorder-support.patch.
  5. (Optional) To integrate Widevine CDM to support EME API (like Netflix): switch to src dir, then execute cp -R /path/to/widevine/* third_party/widevine/cdm (Windows: xcopy /path/to/widevine third_party\widevine\cdm /E/H).
  6. If you are using Mac + want to build x64 arch (target_cpu to x86 , arm64 , arm also available) + want to add CDM support, then run gn gen out/Release64 --args="is_component_build = false is_official_build = true is_debug = false ffmpeg_branding = \"Chrome\" target_cpu = \"x64\" proprietary_codecs = true media_use_ffmpeg = true enable_widevine = true bundle_widevine_cdm = true", if you are using Windows, you need to add enable_media_foundation_widevine_cdm = true as well.
  7. Run autoninja -C out/Release64 chrome to start the build.
  8. Open Chromium directly.

How to integrate this into Chromium based project like Electron?

If Electron >= v22.0.0, the HEVC HW decoding feature for macOS, Windows, and Linux (VAAPI only) should have already been integrated. To add HEVC SW decoding, the method should be the same with Chromium guide above.

If Electron >= v33.0.0, the HEVC HW encoding feature for macOS, Windows should have already been integrated.

Change Log

2024-11-18 Firefox >= 133 enable HEVC decoding by default (Windows platform only), update the document of HDR support comparison.

2024-10-18 Add MediaRecorder HEVC encoding support (Chrome >= 132.0.6784.0)

2024-10-11 Increase Apple Silicon HEVC HW encode resolution limit to 8192x4352 (Chrome >= 131.0.6771.0)

2024-10-10 Add Software HEVC encode support for macOS (Chrome >= 131.0.6769.0)

2024-10-05 High framerate encoding support for Windows (Chrome >= 131.0.6759.0)

2024-09-27 Fixed a issue where on Apple Silicon Mac using macOS 15.0, H264/HEVC can't HW encode (Chrome >= 131.0.6742.0)

2024-09-11 Fixed a HEVC playback failure caused by incorrect TemporalId calculation (Chrome >= 130.0.6711.0)

2024-09-07 Enable HEVC hardware encoding for Window, macOS, Android by default, Windows encoding unlock the max resolution limit from 1080P&30fps to 4k/8k&30fps (Chrome >= 130.0.6703.0)

2024-07-19 Added HEVC Main Still Picture Profile support for Windows (Chrome >= 128.0.6607.0)

2024-06-29 Added patches to enable HEVC WebRTC support (Chrome >= 128.0.6564.0)

2024-05-30 Fixed issue of abnormal color when HEVC video encoded with GBR color space matrix (Chrome >= 127.0.6510.0)

2024-04-18 Fixed issue of video frame stuttering on some AMD GPUs (Edge >= 124.0.2478.49), and issue of bad HEVC Main10 HDR tone-mapping performance for Edge on Windows platform (Edge >= 125.0.2530.0)

2024-04-09 Fixed issue where HEVC Rext 4:2:2/4:4:4 video chroma sampling was downgraded to 4:2:0 on Windows/macOS platforms (Chrome >= 125.0.6408.0)

2024-03-28 Update Chromium 123 / 124 HDR related bug fixes detail, and the tech diff with Chrome for Edge >= 122

2023-12-22 Update implementation details and comparison with Firefox

2023-12-08 Improved Dolby Vision playback capabilities (Chrome >= 122.0.6168.0)

2023-11-16 Support MV-HEVC Base Layer playback (Chrome >= 121.0.6131.0)

2023-10-20 Fixed Windows CRA/RASL image artifact issue when seeking (Chrome >= 120.0.6076.0)

2023-10-10 Block Intel driver version between 20.19.15.4284 and 20.19.15.5172 that could cause HEVC playback crash (Chrome >= 120.0.6059.0)

2023-10-02 Update HDR10/PQ support status for Edge 117

2023-09-23 Fix 10bit video playback issues for AMD GPU on Windows platform (black screen when playing HLG video in SDR mode, 4K freezes, high memory usage, color change when switching full-screen, crash when playing SDR video in HDR mode, Chrome >= 119.0.6022.0)

2023-08-21 Add HEVC Rext 8bit 422 support on Windows (Chrome >= 118.0.5956.0)

2023-07-28 Fixed latency issue with WebCodecs VideoDecoder implementation for H265 on Windows (detail: https://github.com/w3c/webcodecs/issues/698, Chrome >= 117.0.5913.0)

2023-07-20 Add HEVC HW WebCodecs encoding support for Android 10+ (Chrome >= 117.0.5899.0)

2023-07-16 Apple Silicon + macOS 14 = adds HEVC SVC (L1T2) WebCodecs encoding support (Chrome >= 117.0.5891.0)

2023-07-07 Fixed 8bit HDR HEVC playback failure issue under Windows (Chrome >= 117.0.5877.0)

2023-07-02 Add HEVC Rext 8bit 444, 12bit 422, 12bit 444 support on Windows (Chrome >= 117.0.5866.0)

2023-02-22 Android platform now able to use the support detection API to detect the correct support status of different devices (Chrome >= 112.0.5612.0)

2023-02-17 Update Widevine L1 HEVC / Dolby Vision support detect method

2023-02-14 Android platform now allows H264 / HEVC / VP9 / AV1 to be played at the maximum resolution supported by the device. Previously all Codecs only supported the hard-coded 4K. Now as long as the device supports it, it can support 8K or even higher resolutions (Chrome > = 112.0.5594.0)

2023-02-11 Allow invalid colorspace (primary, matrix, transfer) video to play instead of block the whole playback (Chrome >= 112.0.5589.0)

2022-12-03 Fixed the incomplete SEI parsing logic, and supported the extraction of HDR Metadata both from the bitstream and container. This will solved the problem that some HDR10 videos could not extract static hdr metadata and guarantee the best HDR performance (Chrome >= 110.0.5456.0)

2022-11-18 Fix a bug if D3D11VideoDecoder is disabled by gpu workaround, support detection API still report "supported" (M110, M109)

2022-11-03 Add macOS WebCodec HEVC encode support, decrease 50% GPU memory usage when playing HDR content on SDR screen on Windows, and improved HDR tone mapping color accuracy on Windows as well

2022-10-28 Edge (Mac) >= 107 enable by default

2022-10-25 Chrome >= 107 enable by default + Windows WebCodec Encode support

2022-10-11 Add Linux HEVC HW decoding support (Chrome >= 108.0.5354.0)

2022-10-09 HEVC with alpha (macOS only) support decoding with WebCodec API and preserve it's alpha layer

2022-10-08 Add HDR10 Metadata extract logic, support WebCodec >= 10bits

2022-09-26 Add a SW decoding auto-gen patch script

2022-09-15 Fix crash for Intel 11/12 Gen iGPU when play HDR video in system HDR mode, improve the accuracy of MediaCapabilities API, Update Patch to 107.0.5303.0

2022-09-14 Chrome Canary >= 107.0.5300.0 has enabled HEVC HW decoder by default, official version will be available after 2022-10-25

2022-09-08 Guarantee the detection API's result (Chrome >= 107.0.5288.0), and update the detection methods

2022-08-31 Add WebCodec API (8bit only) support, and HEVC with alpha layer support (macOS only)

2022-08-06 Update usage to Edge (Mac) 104 release version

2022-08-02 Update usage to Chrome 104 release version

2022-08-01 Add Chrome / Edge Usage

2022-07-31 Intel GPU support HEVC Rext Profile hw decoding on Windows, Update Patch to 106.0.5211.0

2022-07-15 Update Electron v20.0.0-beta.9 and above version support status

2022-06-21 Update Microsoft Edge (Mac) feature test guide

2022-06-18 Fix HLG/PQ tone mapping, and update Patch to 105.0.5127.0

2022-06-17 Remove Linux support, Update Other Platform and HDR support status

2022-05-26 Update Chrome Canary HEVC feature test guide

2022-05-25 Update Chrome 104 support status, and Electron 20 enable method

2022-05-24 Update Patch to 104.0.5080.1

2022-05-23 Add CDM compile guide, and update Patch to 104.0.5077.1

2022-05-17 Update detail of tech implement and guide to integrate into electron

2022-05-14 Update Patch to 104.0.5061.1

2022-05-13 Add HEVC Test page

2022-05-10 Update README, add more special detail of the hardware support and GPU models

2022-05-05 Add support for MSP & Rext on macOS, and fix the issue that some HDR & Rec.709 Main10 video can't be hw decoded on Windows

2022-04-27 Replace to git am patch

2022-04-24 Support chinese README

2022-04-21 Add Crbug trace

2022-04-20 Modify README

2022-04-19 Initial commit

Trace Crbug

Windows
macOS

License

MIT