diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/whip.ts b/frontend/src/lib/whip.ts
index a32905f..a10e663 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/whip.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/whip.ts
@@ -10,24 +10,40 @@ export async function publishWhip(
   bearer: string,
   stream: MediaStream,
 ): Promise<WhipSession> {
+  // MediaMTX's HLS output only muxes AV1, VP9, H265, H264, Opus, MPEG-4
+  // Audio, or KLV (confirmed live in its logs: "the stream doesn't contain
+  // any supported codec" — the muxer gets created then immediately
+  // destroyed, so the WHIP publish itself still succeeds and the stream
+  // shows as live, but hls/live/<id>/index.m3u8 permanently 404s with
+  // "muxer is waiting to be created"). Browsers default to VP8 for
+  // getUserMedia/getDisplayMedia video, which isn't in that list at all.
+  // Reordering codec preference to H264 first didn't actually change what
+  // got negotiated on a real test (RTCRtpSender.getCapabilities('video')
+  // apparently didn't list H264 on that browser/machine — Chrome's H264
+  // encoder is a separate downloadable component and isn't guaranteed
+  // present) — so try every MediaMTX-supported codec in priority order
+  // instead of only H264, and fail loudly if literally none of them are
+  // available rather than silently falling back to the broken default.
+  const MEDIAMTX_HLS_VIDEO_CODECS = ['video/H264', 'video/VP9', 'video/AV1'];
+
   const pc = new RTCPeerConnection();
   for (const track of stream.getTracks()) {
     const transceiver = pc.addTransceiver(track, { direction: 'sendonly' });
-    // Browsers default to VP8 for getUserMedia/getDisplayMedia video, which
-    // MediaMTX's HLS output can't mux at all (confirmed live: "the stream
-    // doesn't contain any supported codec, which are currently AV1, VP9,
-    // H265, H264, Opus, MPEG-4 Audio, KLV" — the muxer gets created then
-    // immediately destroyed, so the WHIP publish itself succeeds and the
-    // stream shows as live, but hls/live/<id>/index.m3u8 permanently 404s
-    // with "muxer is waiting to be created"). Reorder codec preference so
-    // H264 is offered first — matches what OBS already sends over RTMP, so
-    // this keeps a single well-tested codec through the whole pipeline
-    // (HLS, recording) instead of introducing a second one.
     if (track.kind === 'video' && typeof transceiver.setCodecPreferences === 'function') {
       const capabilities = RTCRtpSender.getCapabilities('video');
-      const h264 = capabilities?.codecs.filter((c) => c.mimeType.toLowerCase() === 'video/h264') ?? [];
-      const rest = capabilities?.codecs.filter((c) => c.mimeType.toLowerCase() !== 'video/h264') ?? [];
-      if (h264.length > 0) transceiver.setCodecPreferences([...h264, ...rest]);
+      const available = capabilities?.codecs ?? [];
+      const preferred = MEDIAMTX_HLS_VIDEO_CODECS.flatMap((mime) =>
+        available.filter((c) => c.mimeType.toLowerCase() === mime.toLowerCase()),
+      );
+      if (preferred.length === 0) {
+        pc.close();
+        throw new Error(
+          "This browser doesn't support any video codec MediaMTX can turn into HLS " +
+            `(needs one of: ${MEDIAMTX_HLS_VIDEO_CODECS.join(', ')}). Try a different browser, or use OBS instead.`,
+        );
+      }
+      const rest = available.filter((c) => !preferred.includes(c));
+      transceiver.setCodecPreferences([...preferred, ...rest]);
     }
   }