H.264 support free for MacOS but not for Windows/Linux

Hi,

I was looking into the codec support matrix and I was surprised to see that H.264 and H.265 codecs are supported into the free version for MacOS but for Windows and Linux is only available within the Studio version.

Is there any reason about that?

MacOS: https://pasteboard.co/JZat2Cu.png

Windows: https://pasteboard.co/JZatqVS.png

Linux: https://pasteboard.co/JZatPS4.png

Thanks!

Probably, with the higher price of a Mac, you already paid for it.

Probably, with the higher price of a Mac, you already paid for it.

Yeah it could be but a high end PC configuration could be very expensive too
I hope that it's not the criteria because it would be unfair.

It's hardware acceleration that is supported in the Studio version. No problem with h264 on Windows in the free version.

Probably, with the higher price of a Mac, you already paid for it.

Yeah it could be but a high end PC configuration could be very expensive too
I hope that it's not the criteria because it would be unfair.

The Mac OS acceleration is probably implemented at the OS level, which is not surprising since they control the OS and hardware.

Dupe. Disregard.

Probably, with the higher price of a Mac, you already paid for it.

Yeah it could be but a high end PC configuration could be very expensive too
I hope that it's not the criteria because it would be unfair.

The Mac OS acceleration is probably implemented at the OS level, which is not surprising since they control the OS and hardware.

No different on Windows. The Hardware Decode license comes with the CPU (that includes an iGPU) or GPU. Windows will automatically install the CODECs - but most OEMs will have this installed OOTB.

Microsoft has Encoders and Decoders for everything from MPEG-2 to AV1 for Windows 10. None of that costs the end-user anything.



^- This is usually installed out of the box on the machine, or the machine will automatically install it shortly after you start using it.

Nothing like that is needed for H.264, though, as that's been built into Windows for a while.

Licensing is not the reason for this disparity, so you aren't getting anything like that in the price of a Mac to justify the higher cost (that fact that people actually believe this is beyond hilarious, though).

Huh I'm pretty sure patent licensing is the issue ...

On OSX and Windows the system provide libraries so that application can decode h264 without having to pay licencing fees (basically apple/microsoft paid the license so that any app can use those "for free").

On linux that's just not the case ... there are libraries to decode h264 but it's technically up to the user to properly license any relevant patent applicable in their jurisdiction. The patent holders have no one to sue that's solvable / has enough cash to make money off them (suing someone / some project that can't pay anyway has no benefit ...). But now if a pro application and company (like BMD) made use of those libs, then that would be an attractive target for patent litigation because they can pay. Now BMD can pay royalties and they most likely do for this for the Studio version, but given those royalty are per-seat, they obviously not gonna pay for the free version than anyone can download.

Just a theory obviously, I don't think any of it was ever confirmed, but at least to me it makes sense.