Dell and HP disable hardware H.265 decoding on select PCs due to rising royalty costs — companies could save big on HEVC royalties, but at the expense of users

Dell and HP are shipping some PCs with disabled HEVC/H.265 hardware decoding to potentially avoid paying royalties to patent holders, saving millions annually. Business-oriented entry-level PCs have disabled decoding, while premium models retain the feature. Users can re-enable decoding with third-party apps, but the move may impact user experience. The decision is likely driven by rising royalty costs, pushing users towards open-source codecs or relying on CPU power for decoding.