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Has anybody else experienced a similar problem? Or can you help me trouble shoot this issue please?

I'm busy playing audio in a tab of the browser. The sound quality is good (rich, full, deep). Next, I open a new window by any means (Ctrl+N / Open link in new window / Menu > New window) As the new window appears, the current audio playback becomes tinny / lower quality. After a 3 seconds, the normal good sound quality starts again.

I'm currently using Bluetooth connected headphones and this happens on different headphones. I have to find some wired headphones first before I can try that. This happens with every new window that I open, regardless of the number of open tabs in current windows or how many previous open windows I already have. This happens regadless if audio enhancements of the output device are enabled or not. Spatial sound is set to off. Windows is set to 'do nothing' & will not adjust the volumes of different sounds when I'm using my PC to place or receive telephone calls.

OS: Windows 11 with latest patches Firefox: latest & older builds Hardware drivers: All manufacturer drivers applied

PS I can replicate this issue by changing between the 'Playback' & 'Recording' tab in the Sound Control Panel applet. That is to say, the same decrease in audio quality happens when I change from the Playback tab to the Recording tab. Audio quality improves again when I change from the Recording tab to the Playback tab https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/images/2026-09-12-15-38-23-1accad.png

PPS My new windows are set to open on 'about:support'

PPPS Can't reply to previously archived question : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1525613

(AI written summary of troubleshooting steps taken before making this support thread)

Firefox version: - 152.0.1 Release - 153.0 Nightly

OS: - Windows 11 build 26200

GPU: - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

Codec package: - Microsoft HEVC Video Extensions installed from Microsoft Store

Problem

Firefox does not expose HEVC playback support, causing Twitch to disable 1440p streams encoded with HEVC.

The same machine can play the same HEVC Twitch streams in Chrome immediately after installing HEVC Video Extensions.

Expected result

Firefox should report HEVC playback support and allow playback of HEVC streams, as Chrome does on the same system.

Actual result

Firefox reports HEVC as unsupported.

about:support:

codecSupportInfo: H264 SWDEC HWDEC VP9 SWDEC HWDEC VP8 SWDEC HWDEC AV1 SWDEC HWDEC HEVC NONE

Troubleshooting already performed

- Installed Microsoft HEVC Video Extensions - Rebooted Windows - Updated NVIDIA drivers - Verified hardware acceleration is enabled - Tested with a brand new Firefox profile - Tested with Firefox Nightly - Confirmed Chrome can play the same HEVC streams

Additional observations

Chrome: - Twitch 1440p becomes available immediately after installing HEVC Video Extensions - Twitch Stats for Nerds reports:

 hev1.1.6.L150.90.0.0.0.0.0

Firefox: - Twitch reports that the browser does not support the required resolution - 1440p remains greyed out - about:support continues to report HEVC NONE

Reproducible tests

Firefox console:

MediaSource.isTypeSupported('video/mp4; codecs="hev1.1.6.L150.90"')

Result: false

MediaSource.isTypeSupported('video/mp4; codecs="hvc1.1.6.L150.90"')

Result: false

navigator.mediaCapabilities.decodingInfo({

 type: "media-source",
 video: {
   contentType: 'video/mp4; codecs="hev1.1.6.L150.90"',
   width: 2560,
   height: 1440,
   bitrate: 8000000,
   framerate: 60
 }

})

Result: {

 supported: false,
 smooth: false,
 powerEfficient: false

}

For comparison:

MediaSource.isTypeSupported('video/mp4; codecs="av01.0.08M.08"')

Result: true

navigator.mediaCapabilities.decodingInfo({

 type: "file",
 video: {
   contentType: 'video/mp4; codecs="av01.0.08M.08"',
   width: 2560,
   height: 1440,
   bitrate: 8000000,
   framerate: 60
 }

})

Result: {

 supported: true,
 smooth: true,
 powerEfficient: true

}

Additional note

Setting:

dom.media.webcodecs.h265.enabled = true

causes HTML5 codec test (https://html5test.co/) to report H.265 support, but does not change:

- about:support - MediaSource.isTypeSupported() - MediaCapabilities.decodingInfo() - Twitch HEVC playback availability

Question

Is this a known issue with HEVC Media Source Extensions support on Windows 11 build 26200, or is there another requirement for Firefox to expose HEVC playback capability through MediaSource and MediaCapabilities when the Windows HEVC codec is installed and functioning in Chromium-based browsers?

Media resource could not be decoded, error: Error Code: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_DECODE_ERR (0x806e0004) Details: virtual mozilla::MediaResult mozilla::FFmpegVideoDecoder<62>::DoDecode(mozilla::MediaRawData*, uint8_t*, int, bool*, mozilla::MediaDataDecoder::DecodedData&): avcodec_send_packet error: Unknown error occurred

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