Do people still use the K-Lite Codec Pack so their players have all the codecs installed? Or just use vlc?
Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
21–30 of 193 posts
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#22Removing HEVC support wasn't their choice but probably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices [1]. Windows media player probably sees very little usage nowadays and probably even less for HEVC, when most content playback happens via streaming and browsers today. As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS…
HEVC is provided by the official, licensed h265 standard. The open source ~HEVC-compliant codec library is x265 created by VideoLAN but was apparently not an option for Microsoft.
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#23Is vlc still popular and widely used or is there a new 'kid' in town?
PotPlayer is the new kid, I guess? Personally I don't like VLC because of the UI, so I've always used MPC.
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#24Removing HEVC support wasn't their choice but probably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices [1]. Windows media player probably sees very little usage nowadays and probably even less for HEVC, when most content playback happens via streaming and browsers today. As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS…
HEVC is provided by the official, licensed h265 standard. The open source ~HEVC-compliant codec library is x265 created by VideoLAN but was apparently not an option for Microsoft.
[deleted]
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#25What? I can find at least one article from 2018 about HEVC being pay-walled? [0] EDIT: Also, what do they mean by "new" Media Player? It shipped in 2022 [1]. This article is garbage. The source article [2] is fine. [0]: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-now-charging-hevc-v... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Player_(2022) [2]: https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/06/16/microsoft-reveals-w...
So it started sucking almost a decade ago, checks out in my experience
The article mentions W11 24H2 but that might have been the only update the article had if it was first published much earlier. Might have even been an advance warning about AC-3 even before 24H2 was released.
Otherwise looks a bit deceptively like new findings just because the date at the top of the page says June 18, 2026 :\
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#26Removing HEVC support wasn't their choice but probably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices [1]. Windows media player probably sees very little usage nowadays and probably even less for HEVC, when most content playback happens via streaming and browsers today. As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS…
HEVC is provided by the official, licensed h265 standard. The open source ~HEVC-compliant codec library is x265 created by VideoLAN but was apparently not an option for Microsoft.
x265 is an encoder, not a decoder. Also, being open source doesn't matter here: an open source library, even with a patent grant, doesn't give you a license to someone else's patents.
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#27Removing HEVC support wasn't their choice but probably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices [1]. Windows media player probably sees very little usage nowadays and probably even less for HEVC, when most content playback happens via streaming and browsers today. As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS…
Windows 11 is not free software. Apple macOS, iOS, ipadOS all support HEVC and Dolby because Apple pays licensing costs, likewise Microsoft should do the same for Windows users, it is not free OS.
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#28Removing HEVC support wasn't their choice but probably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices [1]. Windows media player probably sees very little usage nowadays and probably even less for HEVC, when most content playback happens via streaming and browsers today. As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS…
> The advantages are more on the development side of those apps, i.e. you can hire JS UI devs way more easily
Ah yes, we don't want Microsoft to run out of JavaScript developers to keep improving their desktop operating system in this manner. More webdevs, that's what's going to fix what ails Windows!
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#29Removing HEVC support wasn't their choice but probably stems from the licensing pools increasing their prices [1]. Windows media player probably sees very little usage nowadays and probably even less for HEVC, when most content playback happens via streaming and browsers today. As for the RAM increase, well that's probably a consequence of the general trend of doing frontend engineering via JS/TS instead of using OS…
'It's worse for our users, but easier for our developers' is an unacceptable tradeoff, they deserve the backlash.
Re: Windows 11 New Media Player Uses 3.5x More RAM, Charges for Popular Video Codecs
#30What? I can find at least one article from 2018 about HEVC being pay-walled? [0] EDIT: Also, what do they mean by "new" Media Player? It shipped in 2022 [1]. This article is garbage. The source article [2] is fine. [0]: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-now-charging-hevc-v... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Player_(2022) [2]: https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/06/16/microsoft-reveals-w...
So it started sucking almost a decade ago, checks out in my experience
Windows media player always sort of sucked. I remember when I discovered mplayer. What a breath of fresh air by comparison. ostensibly worse, with it's barely there user interface. But... all it did was play video, it would play anything, no more faffing about with installing codecs or different programs for different formats. No annoying ui that tried too hard to look like a piece of hi-fi gear.
I am not sure exactly what happened to it, it's maintainer moved on to other projects I imagine, it's current equivalent is probably mpv