Codecs are a perennial point of contention, but a tidbit of information suggests that HEVC might have just leapfrogged AV1. The irony here is that Google, the single largest proponent of AV1, might have signed the alt-codec’s death warrant, by finally enabling HEVC inside Chrome. The clue here is a website called CanIUse, brought to our attention by who else but the venerable Jan Ozer, long-term streaming professional and recent Marketing Director at NETINT. On CanIUse, HEVC has historically sat in the high-teens realm, showing how it has been largely confined to the Apple ecosystem. Since the Chrome change, that figure has leapt to some 84.6%. Now, the caveat here is that only 17.6% counts as full support, with the…