Hot discussion about H.265 and H.264 is still underway. Technically, H.264 is the most widely accepted and adopted format in online and broadcast domain for content compression and distribution. H.265/HEVC, the new video coding standard brings promise of huge bandwidth savings of approx. 40-45% over H.264 encoded content with similar quality. While H.265/HEVC can bring respite to content producers, aggregators, distributors and consumers with more quality content at same bitrate, the adoption is still far. Since H.265 supports only limited devices and is restricted to 4K/8K players, and new hardware devices (like HD TV, iPad, etc) will need time to support the new codec, it can't be wiser to convert H.265 to H.264 to stream videos or playback on any of your iDevice or android phones.
The one-click zero-conf video/audio converter/transcoder/player inside a Windows File Explorer mouse context menu.H265/HEVC codec supported.Hardware acceleration supported. Ultra-fast transcoding supported. Produces standard anywhere-playing mp4/h264/yuv420p/aac video or mp3/cbr/320k audio files by default. FFMPEG 4.2.2 command line added and can be edited for your own custom conversion. Convert video files online from one format into another. A free web app that converts video files, allowing you to change the video format, resolution or size right in your browser. H265/HVEC support. We constantly update our supported codecs so that our apps work with the newest codecs out there.
Encode H.265/HEVC to H.264
After figuring out the truth that many devices, media players and mobiles don't support HEVC playback so far and H.264 still dominates now, let's come to the guide on how to convert H.265/HEVC to H.264 which is compatible with wider range of products and devices at present.
There are many H.265/HEVC Decoder and Encoder in the market. But it is harder to get a perfect HEVC Converter. Here we sift best two H.265 to H.264 converters, Pavtube Video Converter and Handbrake, from market and gives detailed step-by-step guide on how to use this two programs to easily change H.265/HEVC to H.264 on Windows (10) or Mac (macOS High Sierra) with the best output effects.
Section 1: Convert H.265 to H.264 for Free with Handbrake
Handbrake is a famous free and open-source video encoder program mainly focusing on ripping regular DVDs or converting videos to MP4 or MKV container in H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, and MPEG-2 codec, and to some iPhone iPad preset profiles.
[Guide] Encode H.265 to H.264 for free with Handbrake
Step 1: Download Handbrake from its official website. Install and open it.
Step 2: Click Source button to load H.265/HEVC video file.
Step 3: Next click Browse button to set a target folder to store the converted H.264 video.
Step 4: Choose MP4 or MKV as the output video container.
![Videos Videos](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/utXJU0l4FmY/maxresdefault.jpg)
Step 5: Then hit Video tab to select H.264 (x264) video codec as the output and adjust other video settings like frame rate, bit rate, etc.
Step 6: Hit Start button on the top left to start converting H.265/HEVC to H.264 with Handbrake on Windows or Mac.
Although Handbrake can encode H.265 to H.264 in its the latest update, it is very time-consuming cause that video encoding is CPU-taking but HandBrake doesn’t support NVIDIA NVENC, and it can’t support QSV very well. Besides, the interface and settings of Handbrake are complex and it is not suitable for new beginners. If you meet problems using Handbrake, turn to its best alternative - Pavtube Video Converter.
Section 2: Convert H.265/HEVC to H.264 using Pavtube Video Converter
Pavtube Video Converter is a powerful all-in-one video converter for Mac and Windows. It is a complete combination of video converter, video editor and video player. Many professionals recommend it due to its excellent features such as fast video conversion speed, various video conversion to SD/HD/3D/4K, extract MP3, FLAC, MKA, WMA, M4A, AAC, OGG audio files from H.265/HEVC video, trim vdeos, crop videos, apply effects and watermarks, etc.
Free Apps On Mac To Convert H265 Videos Download
[Guide] Steps to Convert H.265/HEVC to H.264 with Pavtube
Step 1: Load H.265 video files
Drag your files into this H.265 HEVC Video Converter, with 'File'> ‘Add video’ you can load them with individual clips, or with ‘Add from folder’ you can import them with a complete folder. Batch conversion is also available.
Step 2: Convert your H.265 videos into H.264
Go to the format bar to choose 'HD Video'>'H.264 HD Video'(*.mp4)'.
If you want to transcode H.264 to H.265, you can choose HD H.265 MP4 video or any other video formats.
Tips:
1. If you want to convert your H.265/HEVC videos into common formats like MP4, AVI, MKV, FLV, M4V, etc, click here for detailed workflow.
2. Since this codec will compress into smaller file size while maintain the HD quality, the converting progress will take much longer than H.264 or other common codecs.
3. 'H.264 HD Video(*.mp4)' option will output your files as H.264 high profile, which will reduce the quality H.265/HEVC degradation to the least.
4. Or if you want to keep the most quality of your videos, keep the original parameters in the 'Settings' UI is also available.
Edit H.265 HEVC video files – Optional
There are still some popular functional items we can take around on the main interface, for example, in the ‘Edit’ button, we have offered you the ‘Trim’ to decide the video length, ‘Crop’ to remove the unwanted edges, ‘Subtitles’ to add some extra explanations? More you can have a try here.
Step 3. Start H.265 to H.264 Conversion
Click Browse to specify a destination folder to save the converted video file. Hit 'Convert' button to start to convert HEVC/H.265 to H.264/AVC on Windows or Mac with this high-class H.265 converter at lightning speed.
Even though H.265 is superior to H.264 based on demand, quality, size or compression rate, H.264 is much suitable for normal usage. By using Pavtube Video Converter to convert H.265 to H.264, you will have lots of options to watch videos and its time saving too.
Free Trial Video Converter for Mac
Useful Tips
The next-gen video compression standard H.265/HEVC might be superior to H.264/AVC in terms of video compression rate, size and quality, but the truth remains that very few devices and video editors support it. While it does use lesser bandwidth and reduces storage space; it does not work well with medium CPU memory, low battery or on computers with average speed and can be used for watching HDTV only. So H.264 remains the preferred choice because it is suitable for playback and has high performance on every device. If you own an Apple iPhone 7, 8 or X; Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S; GoPro action camera; or are simply looking to download or share a video that is 1080p or higher quality from YouTube, you need to convert it to H.264 first. There might be free online H.265 to H.264 converters that will do this for you, but they are not recommended because they usually support only really small size files and are also really slow. Additionally, you might end up with a virus or malware in your computer as well. To solve this problem of safe and fast conversion, there is a powerful, open-source program called HandBrake for Mac, Linux and Windows 10 that converts H265 to H264 for free. If you’re new to this, the software might seem complex but it is actually quite simple.
Here is a guide on how to convert H.265/HEVC to H.264 using HandBrake Software:
Contents
- Here is a guide on how to convert H.265/HEVC to H.264 using HandBrake Software:
1. Download and install the latest HandBrake version on your Mac OS (OS X 10.7 or later), Windows (7 or 10 64-bit) or Ubuntu deb device from the official HandBrake website ( link : https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php ).
2. Install the application & open it. The application will look like the below image:
3. On the left sidebar, click on “Source Selection” and navigate through the pop-up to find the location of your saved H.265 files. You can open a single file or use the “Add to Queue” to add multiple video files at once. Confirm the file name by checking the field between “Title” and “Open Source”.
4. Click on “Browse” or “Destination” to set the export folder to where the converted H.264 will be saved. To avoid confusion, make a new folder instead of choosing the original source location.
5. Under “Output Settings” > “Container”, you can select the desired file format. Choose MP4 or MKV for best results, especially if you wish to add external subtitles. Hovering over “iPod 5G Support” and “Web Optimized” will help give you a better idea about your result.
6. For more customized output settings, there are two options:
- On the right side panel, click on ‘Preset’. A number of options are available, each tailor-made for the device or software you will be playing the converted video on. Other settings, like audio, may also be changed.
- If you really know what you are doing, you can set your own options.
- First, choose ‘Preset’ from the right side panel and select “Legacy” under “Normal”.
- Under the “Video” tab, select Video Codec as H.264(x264).
- Under the “Video” tab, for a constant or variable frame rate, choose “Same as Source” under “Frame rate” and then make your pick.
- Under the “Video” tab > “Quality”, you can choose between 22-28 RF (2.7k/ 4k) and 20 to 24 RF (1080p). The lower the RF number, the higher quality your output video will be.
- Under the “Video” tab, “Encoder Preset”, you can choose Medium, Fast or Faster keeping in mind your system’s hardware. For older hardware computers, Faster is the best encoder preset, and for higher-end systems, Medium preset is best.
- Under the “Picture” tab, you can change video resolution. Unless you would like to decrease it, let it stay to be same as source video file.
- Under the “Picture” tab, set “Cropping” to “Automatic”.
- Don’t make any changes under the “Audio” tab.
- Under “Subtitles” track, you can add SRT files.
7. Click on the “Video” tab if you wish to adjust additional settings like bit rate, frame rate etc. Don’t forget to choose H.264 (x264) as output video codec. If your input video size is larger than 4 GB, check the “Large File Size” box.
8. When you’re done, click on “Start Encode” to start converting HECV to AVC. You can track progress at the bottom of the window, which will show you time remaining as well.
9. If you are converting a very large file and it seems slow, you can speed up the conversion. Just click on “Preferences” and then “Video” to enable Intel QuickSync encoder.
That’s all!
Free Apps On Mac To Convert H265 Videos Youtube
You can now stream your converted video on any Android or Apple device!
One question that many have asked us, can the file be played in LG, Samsung, Sony old smart TV ?
- Yes, in most cases the converted videos can be played without any issue. In Sony TV you will have to adjust the something more like frame rate, audio, video bit rate etc to make the file play.