Clarifying HEVC licensing fees, royalties, and why vendors kill HEVC support

HEVC's complex patent licensing and high royalties are driving vendors to abandon support, creating compatibility issues for consumers. AV1, a royalty-free codec created by the Alliance for Open Media (including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Meta), offers 30% better efficiency but struggles with adoption due to hardware decoding requirements. The article illustrates how licensing complexity, not technical merit alone, determines codec adoption in consumer devices.