Playing HEVC in a Browser Without Plugin — An H.265 Decoder in WebAssembly

The Problem — HEVC Everywhere Except the Browser HEVC/H.265 is the standard codec for Netflix, Apple, broadcasters, 4K/HDR. It saves 30-50% bandwidth versus H.264 at equivalent quality — millions in annual CDN savings for streaming services. But browser support is a mess. macOS — Safari, Chrome, Edge, Firefox all decode HEVC natively via VideoToolbox. No extension needed. Chrome 107+ on Windows — uses D3D11VA directly. No Microsoft extension required, but needs a GPU with hardware HEVC decoder (