Show HN: CodecProbe – What your device says it can play vs. what it can
codecprobe.dev
codecprobe.dev
Browsers expose three separate APIs for codec support, and they return different answers for the same codec on the same device. One says yes, another says no, a third says yes but not efficiently. Media servers like Jellyfin, Plex, and Emby pick one of these APIs to decide whether to direct-play or transcode — and often pick wrong.
CodecProbe tests 77 codecs (HEVC, AV1, Dolby Vision, VP9) against all three APIs and shows the results side-by-side. When the badges disagree, you've found the gap between what your device reports and what it can actually do.
Each codec card includes education content explaining what a string like hvc1.2.4.L153.B0 actually means, field by field, with spec references.
Zero runtime dependencies, entirely client-side, works offline as a PWA.
The test matrix is validated by codec-resolve [1], a companion Python tool that resolves, decodes, and cross-validates codec strings for 6 video codec families (HEVC, AV1, VP9, AVC/H.264, VP8, Dolby Vision). 180 tests, zero dependencies.
Both projects are AGPL-3.0. Looking for contributors — especially for VVC/H.266, audio codecs (AAC, Opus, DTS, Dolby), and platform-specific quirks on webOS, Tizen, or Roku.