enable-chromium-hevc-hardware-decoding

A guide that teach you build a custom version of Chrome / Electron on macOS / Windows / Linux that supports hardware / software HEVC decoding.

English | 简体中文

Get release build?

Click to download

What's the hardware supported HEVC profile?

HEVC Main (Up to 8192x8192 pixels)

HEVC Main 10 (Up to 8192x8192 pixels)

HEVC Main Still Picture (macOS only, Up to 8192x8192 pixels)

HEVC Rext (macOS only, Up to 8192x8192 pixels)

What's the OS requirement?

macOS Big Sur (11.0) and above

Windows 8 and above

Linux + Vaapi (Not tested)

What's the GPU requirement?

Independent GPU

NVIDIA GTX950 and above

AMD RX460 and above

Integrated GPU

Intel HD4400, HD515 and above

AMD Radeon R7, Vega M and above

Apple M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra and above

Detail Table

Intel

AMD

NVIDIA

HDR Supports? (Compared with Edge / Safari)

What's the tech diff? (Compared with Edge / Safari)

Windows

Edge uses VDAVideoDecoder to call MediaFoundation (need to install HEVC Video Extension) to finish the HEVC HW decoding which is the same tech behind Movies and TV builtin system app.

Chromium uses D3D11VideoDecoder to call D3D11VA (no need to install anything) to finish the HEVC HW decoding which is the same tech behind video players like VLC.

macOS

Safari and Chromium use the same VideoToolbox to finish the HEVC HW decoding.

How to verify HEVC hardware support is enabled?

1. Open chrome://gpu, and search Video Acceleration Information, you should see Decode hevc main field and Decode hevc main 10 field (macOS will show Decode hevc main still-picture and Decode hevc range extensions as well) present if hardware decoding is supported (macOS is an exception here, you see this field doesn't means the decode will use hardware, it actually depends on your GPU).
2. Open chrome://media-internals and play some HEVC video (Test Page) if the decoder is VDAVideoDecoder or D3D11VideoDecoder or VaapiVideoDecoder that means the video is using hardware decoding (macOS is an exception here, if the OS >= Big Sur, and the GPU doesn't support HEVC, VideoToolbox will fallback to software decode which has a better performance compared with FFMPEG, the decoder is VDAVideoDecoder in this case indeed), and if the decoder is FFMpegVideoDecoder that means the video is using software decoding.
3. Open Activity Monitor on Mac and search VTDecoderXPCService, if the cpu usage larger than 0 when playing video, that means hardware (or software) decoding is being used.
4. Open Windows Task Manager on Windows and switch to Performance - GPU, if Video Decoding usage larger than 0 when playing video, that means hardware decoding is being used.

Why my GPU support HEVC, but still not able to hardware decode?

OS version is too low

Windows

Please make sure you are using Windows 8 and above, this is because the D3D11VideoDecoder doesn't support Windows 7, and will use VDAVideoDecoder to hardware decoding. while VDAVideoDecoder based on Media Foundation , and Media Foundation start to support HEVC since Windows 10 1709 (which need you to install the HEVC Video Extension).

macOS

Please make sure you are using macOS Big Sur and above, this is because CMVideoFormatDescriptionCreateFromHEVCParameterSets API has compatibility issue on lower macOS.

GPU driver has bug

Some GPU driver may has bug which will cause D3D11VideoDecoder forbidden to use. in this case, you need to upgrade your GPU driver and try again. See reference

GPU hardware has bug

Some GPU hardware may has bug which will cause D3D11VideoDecoder forbidden to use. in this case, we can't do anything else but to use the FFMPEG software decode. See reference

Will HEVC decoding be enabled in Chrome by default in the future?

Chrome 104 will integrate HEVC hw support for ChromeOS, Mac and Windows, disabled by default, and you can enable it by passing --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport when opening. it should be enabled by default in the future version when stable. (only platform decoder that provided by the OS will be supported in chrome, thus this will be optional depends on the GPU and OS support)

How to Build?

1. Follow the official build doc to prepare the build environment then fetch the source code from main branch (HEVC HW codes has been merged).
2. (Optional) To enable HEVC software decoding: switch to src/third_party/ffmpeg dir, then execute git am /path/to/add-hevc-ffmpeg-decoder-parser.patch.
3. (Optional) To enable other HEVC profiles (non main / main 10 profiles): switch to src dir, then execute git am /path/to/remove-main-main10-profile-limit.patch.
4. (Optional) To default enable hardware decode: switch to src dir, then execute git am /path/to/enable-hevc-hardware-decoding-by-default.patch.
5. (Optional) To integrate Widevine CDM to support EME API (like Netflix): switch to src dir, then execute cp -R /path/to/widevine/* third_party/widevine/cdm (Windows: xcopy /path/to/widevine third_party\widevine\cdm /E/H).
6. If you are using Mac + want to build x64 arch (target_cpu to x86 , arm64 , arm also available) + want to add CDM support, then run gn gen out/Release64 --args="is_component_build = false is_official_build = true is_debug = false ffmpeg_branding = \"Chrome\" target_cpu = \"x64\" proprietary_codecs = true media_use_ffmpeg = true enable_widevine = true bundle_widevine_cdm = true enable_platform_hevc = true enable_hevc_parser_and_hw_decoder = true", if you are using Windows, you need to add enable_media_foundation_widevine_cdm = true as well, if you are using Windows and want to build arm64 arch, then need to change bundle_widevine_cdm to false, an if you are using Linux and don't want to build x64, then need to change enable_widevine to false, bundle_widevine_cdm to false.
7. Run autoninja -C out/Release64 chrome to start the build.
8. Run ./out/Release64/Chromium.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromium --args --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport to open chromium if you are using macOS.
9. Create a desktop shortcut and passing the args like C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\Chromium\chrome.exe --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport then double click the desktop shortcut to open chromium if you are using Windows.

How to integrate this into Chromium based project like Electron?

If Electron = 20 (Chromium 104), then the HEVC hw decoding feature for Mac and Windows should have already been integrated, and you can use app.commandLine.appendSwitch('enable-features', 'PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport') to enable HEVC hw decoding. to add HEVC ffmpeg sw decoding, the method should be the same with Chromium guide above.

If Electron < 20, please follow the CL in Trace Crbug to manually integrate HEVC features, pull request of the patch code wecome.

Change Log

2022-05-25 Update Chrome 104 support status, and Electron 20 enable method

2022-05-24 Update Patch to 104.0.5080.1

2022-05-23 Add CDM compile guide, and update Patch to 104.0.5077.1

2022-05-17 Update detail of tech implement and guide to integrate into electron

2022-05-14 Update Patch to 104.0.5061.1

2022-05-13 Add HEVC Test page

2022-05-10 Update README, add more special detail of the hardware support and GPU models

2022-05-05 Add support for MSP & Rext on macOS, and fix the issue that some HDR & Rec.709 Main10 video can't be hw decoded on Windows

2022-04-27 Replace to git am patch

2022-04-24 Support chinese README

2022-04-21 Add Crbug trace

2022-04-20 Modify README

2022-04-19 Initial commit

Trace Crbug

Windows

macOS

License

MIT