How to obtain free HEVC and HEIC extensions from the Microsoft Store

I downloaded the x64 and x32 AppX installers for the HEVC video extensions from free-codecs. com almost 18 months ago. They've worked flawlessly with photos stored on my iPhone and iPad whilst attached to my Windows 10 laptop.

They still work but are out-of-date now so I've just downloaded the latest 2.0.51121 versions.

Actually, I downloaded them twice... once to install them automatically using the built-in AppX installer (which took less than 2 seconds):



... and the second time to save them as .Appx installer files just in case:


(AppX packages can be installed via PowerShell's Add-AppxPackage cmdlet.)

VirusTotal report for the 64-bit version.
VirusTotal report for the 32-bit version.

Hope this helps...

mfessler said:

HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer (Free)
Store: ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9n4wgh0z6vhq

HEVC Video Extensions ($0.99)
Store: ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9nmzlz57r3t7

Does anyone know, if the two HEVC/H.265 extensions differ in terms of features?
...

They are identical in features. No difference.
The only difference is licensing. The "free" version will no longer install UNLESS it shipped with your machine or you're updating it. You cannot "buy it for free" anymore.

mfessler said:

I couldn't install the free version in the store - message: "This app will not work on your device.".

That is a generic error message. The real reason why you can't install that is because they do not want to give it to you for free anymore. You can buy the paid version which, despite being identical in features, WILL work on your machine if your machine is compatible. I have just tested this...

mfessler said:

Is this just the case for me or is the app by now only still in the store for update purposes?

It seems to be that the latter is the case. No more free-leeching I guess. You can, of course, still install it for free IF you happen to have an archived version before they introduced this restriction, or you can buy the paid version.

@ish4d0w
Thanks for your answer!

ish4d0w said:

They are identical in features. No difference.
The only difference is licensing. The "free" version will no longer install UNLESS it shipped with your machine or you're updating it. You cannot "buy it for free" anymore.

I understand, I was just wondering why the two DLLs (mfH265Enc.dll, HEVCDECODER_STORE.dll) in the two APPX were not identical.

ish4d0w said:

No more free-leeching I guess. You can, of course, still install it for free IF you happen to have an archived version before they introduced this restriction, or you can buy the paid version.

Sideloading using store.rg-adguard.net works fine and there is also an MSI (Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtensions.Installer.x64.msi) that is actually intended for VLSC installations, which also works fine and updates itself to the current "paid version".

Of course, both workarounds are not really legal and the one dollar doesn't hurt anyone.
As I said, I was more interested in possible differences than in avoiding costs.

Greetings,
Martin

Callender said:

I've sideloaded some apps in the past but do you know how to get or find the product ID of an app that is not currently installed?

Find your app on the Windows Store website, look at the URL and copy the ProductID identifier starting with "9".

e.g. https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/he...hl=en-US&gl=US
ProductID = 9NMZLZ57R3T7

Now plug that into Microsoft Store - Generation Project (v1.2.3), after selecting ProductID from the first drop menu.

If you have an app installed, rg-adguard accepts the ProductFamilyName like:

Code:

Clipchamp.Clipchamp_yxz26nhyzhsrt
Microsoft.HEIFImageExtension_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension_8wekyb3d8bbwe

The trailing hash is assigned to the publisher, so all MS apps have the same extension. You remove the version and architecture strings out of the Get-AppxPackage result to get ProductFamilyName.

TairikuOkami said:

Paid one allows 4K and hardware acceleration

I'm sorry but I believe this is false information. If this is what you are experiencing, you're doing something wrong. Most specifically, either your hardware is outdated OR you aren't using the right video player apps.

The free version does in fact allow 4K and hardware acceleration. H.265 was designed with these in mind, you can't really disable those.

In theory you could render HEVC (H.265) in software (there are some sub-par media players and video editors which do) but it is painfully slow, LAGS a lot and you can easily tell if that's the case because of high CPU usage. On the contrary, you can be sure it is hardware accelerated if you have very low CPU usage while playing HEVC (H.265) video.

But HEVC (H.265) requires a new rendering engine to be supported by your CPU / GPU. For example, on Intel processors this is supported starting from the 6th generation. Older Intel CPUs/GPUs may have supported H.264 (Quick Sync Video engine) but not H.265.

This package has install restrictions that prevents it being installed on old, outdated hardware. However, as some guys in this topic are sideloading the app, depending on how you do that, in some cases the hardware check is skipped, resulting in you being able to install the codec without having proper hardware support for it. In this case, surely it isn't hardware accelerated for you. But it is for everyone with up to date hardware.

I have been using this codec for many years now and I can confirm that the free version supports both 4K and hardware acceleration. It even supports 8K at that, although most integrated graphics chips (mine at least) have their limitations at that point, not really usable. (still hardware accelerated though)

To back up my statements, I have tested this codec (the free version) on the following CPU models:
Intel Core i5-8250u @ Intel UHD 620 Integrated
Intel Core i5-10210u @ Intel UHD 620 Integrated
Intel Core i3-1125G4 @ Intel Xe Integrated
running at Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro Education

This codec is a lifesaver, it makes playing H.265 content as power-efficient as if I was watching a 240p video! Low CPU usage and no lag at all.

You need to use the stock Movies & TV (Windows 10/11 new media player) app (which uses this codec), or if you are looking for an independent codec, then something like Splash Player, which uses its own H.264 and H.265 codecs.

Some other popular media players like VLC Media Player are not good for this test as that particular media player does not make full usage of the Microsoft HEVC codecs. It uses open-source codecs (which this is not), and more often than not, it falls back to software rendering. It is relatively good with H.264 hardware acceleration but sub-par with H.265 hardware acceleration. It also lacks proper HDR (like Dolby Vision or HDR10+) support, in some cases it doesn't display it properly. I have reported the bugs but they have not fixed it so as much as I like VLC, it is not my go-to for 4K media playback.
So if you tried to use VLC to conduct your testing, you have been misled Sir.