Buyers of current laptops might be surprised by an unexpected limitation when editing video: As reported by sources including 
Computerbase, major PC manufacturers Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are now shipping selected notebook models without the ability to use hardware codecs for HEVC encoding and decoding.
The reason for this move is apparently the licensing fees for the codec, also known as H.265. This standard is relevant, among other things, for playing back high-resolution videos in 4K or even 8K quality and is used not only for streaming from video platforms but also for self-recorded videos with modern cameras. To save on the ever-increasing licensing costs for HEVC/H.265 (accessadvance.com/2025/07/21/access-advance-announces-hevc-advance-and-vvc-advance-pricing-through-2030/), manufacturers can apparently disable the codec functions that are actually present in the hardware.
For end customers, this means they may no longer be able to play certain videos smoothly on their devices because the CPU then has to take over playback via software—which can lead to stuttering playback, higher processor utilization, and faster battery drain. Hardware codecs also usually ensure that the timeline is played back smoothly and without stuttering during video editing.
Users will probably only notice in practice whether hardware codec support has been disabled, as manufacturers do not explicitly draw attention to the absence of the feature before purchase. It is also unclear whether the hardware codecs can perhaps be unlocked later by paying an update fee.
The partially very opaque licensing fees for H.264 and H.265 have repeatedly been a topic of various disputes between manufacturers and patent holders in recent years. This was also one of the reasons why many companies are now trying to avoid H.265 altogether and instead rely on royalty-free formats such as VP9 or AV1/AV2. However, these alternative codecs have not established themselves in the field of (semi-)professional videography to this day. As a high-quality replacement for H.265 10 Bit 4:2:2, comparable RAW formats or ProRes can often also be used.
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