codec issues
H264 is/was a patent-encumbered codec and cannot be freely used so the issue is a legal one, not a technical one.
In some cases applications can rely on the operating system support which the OS vendor has licensed. In other cases small companies often ignore the patents (knowingly or unknowingly) as they are not worth pursuing for licensing revenue or they fall under some minimum usage threshold. It appears that the patents on H264 have largely expired or are expiring but (in my personal opinion) I'm not sure that matters as there are good, open-source, alternatives available.
As stated elsewhere in this thread, Maya 2026 added support for VP8 (WebM) for playblasts which is an open-source codec that was designed by Google to compete directly with H264.
Principle Software Developer
As a college instructor for 12+ years, I understand your frustration. Schools won't always have the same tools as small companies, and neither will have the tools of large companies. Some of your students may end up freelancers, so they'll have to do it all themselves.
From your original post: "After installing K-Lite codec pack I still have several workstations that do not recognise the codecs." This would suggest that most of your computers in the lab ARE working, and that those machines are the issue, yes? After 2 years, I'm going to assume those machines have been updated to new versions of Maya, but maybe there are some security locks in place? If the system security blanks the machines after every reboot, for example, the IT dept. would need to ensure any of those installed apps are locked in the OS image.
On a broader perspective:
The best solution is the one that lets the students do the best work in the most efficient timeframe so they can focus on the quality of their work.
A specific codec may not be available, may not be a standard tool used in a studio or OS, or just not be allowed on a system network for various reasons.
For some of my courses, I had the students produce sequences as often as possible so they could start getting used to the idea of handling image sequences and exporting them from After Effects or Premiere. It made them think about the whole process. This made them better prepared for the more advanced classes that would expect compositing, color, sound and layer compiling.
For beginner courses, we still talked about those steps, rendering even if it was just using Hardware 2.0 since it's fast enough.
But others, I preferred the qt files because we could go frame-by-frame and we could project it on a white board for overdrawing, notes, during live reviews.
Is there any reason you can't make a qt with MPEG-4 Video? that's H.264 compression and is available in Maya. Quicktime, VLC, and others will play it. But not if you're using Microsoft's Media player. But that's on them.
Photo - JPEG is also great. it's a series of jpegs in a qt wrapper. And Media Player does play that one.
A workaround.
Get the quicktime installer. Do a custom install and only enable Quicktime Essentials. Uncheck both Quicktime Player and Optional QuickTime Features.
Start Maya and you will have the playblast options to export in qt / h.264.
