HEVC (H.265) is the codec that succeeded H.264 in 2013, delivering roughly 50 % smaller files at the same visual quality. That's the difference between a 4K HDR stream needing 30 Mbps in H.264 and ~15 Mbps in HEVC — direct CDN cost cut in half. It's the codec behind 4K Blu-ray, most Apple HDR content, broadcast UHD in many countries, and a huge chunk of premium streaming.
What kept HEVC from completely replacing H.264 was its licensing situation: three competing patent pools, plus dozens of patent holders demanding royalties separately, plus uncertainty around per-stream fees for online video. This patent thicket scared off Google and Mozilla — which is why HEVC playback in Chrome and Firefox was missing for years and is still spotty — and gave the open Alliance for Open Media the political momentum to create AV1.
In 2026 the practical picture is: HEVC is the dominant 4K/HDR codec on Apple devices, smart TVs and broadcast pipelines. Hardware support is universal on anything made since ~2017. Encoding is mature and fast — Apple's VideoToolbox encodes 4K HEVC in real time on M-series Macs. The case for HEVC over AV1 is mostly about encoding speed and Apple-centric audiences; the case for AV1 over HEVC is bandwidth savings and licensing clarity. Many services in 2026 ship both, plus an H.264 fallback.
