Windows 10 HEVC playback - Yes or No?

Anonymous
2015-07-23T15:09:05+00:00

Hi all,

Okay! Still a big question:

According to Gabriel Aul, as quoted Here (amongst many places), Microsoft will support the relatively new HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) video compression standard in Windows 10 out of the box.

Back to the question:

Where is this support?

Windows Media Player and the Film & TV (Movies & TV) app do not support HEVC playback in the current build 10240 (RTM or not RTM?!?!) fully updated as of 23rd July! In earlier builds, such as 10074, WMP did support this format, so what happened?

Are we going to get HEVC (x265) support, or are we still going to have to install codec packs on Windows 10?

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-07-23T17:57:48+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

    I would like to inform you that, as Windows 10 is still in its developmental stage. we have to wait for its final release and check how the HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) shall be supported.

    Hope this information is helpful.  For any further query, feel free to contact us.

    Thank you.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-06T20:38:17+00:00

    Initially we included HEVC (H.265) software decode in Windows 10 pre-release for Windows for PC and phone.  We made a late decision to limit HEVC support to devices that had hardware support.  As HEVC is very computationally complex, this will provide a more consistent experience. 

    Although there are limited devices in the market today with HEVC hardware support (e.g., NVidia GTX960), this is likely to change soon.

    The list of supported codecs for Windows 10 can be found here:  https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/mt282148.aspx.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-04T15:30:49+00:00

    Well, dear Microsoft, if 4K HEVC is supported and played back smoothly on software decoding by avcodec (ffmpeg) why are you always after H/W decoding ?? why don't give an option to playback on S/W decoding?? and what about 10bit H264 ? it is also not supported on win 10. why do we always have to install 3rd party media players ??

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-01-02T12:16:59+00:00

    January 2nd 2017 and still no support for x265 in Films and Tv.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-07-24T14:51:02+00:00

    Thanks for letting us know that you are aware of the problem and are working on it.

    However, after KB3074679 andKB3074686 on the 24th July, Film & TV will now not play MP4 and x264, which it did before!

    Windows Media Player still won't play HEVC (x265).

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