PNG to HEVC Converter

Convert PNG to HEVC

This page wraps a still PNG in an H.265/HEVC video stream: your picture is held on screen for a duration you choose, encoded at one frame per second, and written out under a .hevc filename. People reach for it when a destination refuses anything that is not a video file — a signage player, an ad-ingest form, a CMS field — and the asset they have is a graphic. HEVC is a codec rather than a container, so it is worth knowing exactly what lands in your downloads folder before you convert.

What a .hevc File From This Page Really Is

HEVC ("High Efficiency Video Coding") is a codec, published by the ITU-T as Recommendation H.265 and first approved in April 2013; the edition currently in force is dated January 2026. A codec always has to sit inside a container, and a bare .hevc extension does not name one. Our encoder resolves that by writing a Matroska container under the .hevc filename — the most permissive wrapper for H.265, and the one that keeps frame timing intact.

The practical consequence is a one-step fix rather than a problem: if a player refuses the download, rename clip.hevc to clip.mkv and open it again. Not a byte of the file changes; the extension is the only thing most players inspect. If you would rather not rename anything, PNG to MKV produces the same Matroska file already labelled correctly.

PNG at a Glance

PNG is the opposite kind of object: a still-image format with an alpha channel and no notion of time. Everything time-related in the output — length, frame rate, letterbox padding — is invented by the converter, because the source carries none of it.

How to Convert PNG to HEVC

1. Upload Your PNG File: Drag the image onto the page or click "+ Add Files". Several PNGs can go in at once, and Merge strategy decides whether they become one clip ("Merge images", the default) or one clip each ("Video per image").
2. Set the Image Duration: The Image Duration dropdown sets how long the still is held, from a single frame at 60 fps up to 10 seconds per frame; 5 seconds per frame is preselected. This is the only thing that gives the clip a length.
3. Choose Background Color and Resolution: Background Color is preselected to White for image sources, and it does double duty — it fills your PNG's transparent pixels and any letterbox bars. Under Video resolution, "Keep original" is the default; "Preset Resolutions" sets a height and lets width follow your aspect ratio, while "Fixed Resolutions" pins an exact width × height.
4. Convert and Download: Leave Quality Preset on "Very High (Recommended)" unless you are chasing a smaller file, then click Convert. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HEVC the same thing as H.265?

Yes. HEVC and H.265 are two names for one codec: the ITU-T publishes it as Recommendation H.265, and the ISO/IEC side of the same joint project calls it High Efficiency Video Coding. The Video Codec control on this page lists both "H.265" and "HEVC" for exactly that reason — picking either one runs the same encoder.

Why won't my .hevc file open in VLC or QuickTime?

Because the extension does not tell a player what container to expect. We verified this in our own encoder configuration: an output extension of .hevc is mapped to the Matroska muxer, so the bytes you download are a Matroska file with an unusual name. Rename it to .mkv and it opens normally in VLC, MPV, and anything else that reads Matroska.

Does converting a PNG to HEVC make the image move?

No, and nothing can make it move. One image contains one picture; the encoder simply repeats that picture for the duration you set. If you upload several PNGs and leave Merge strategy on "Merge images", you get a sequence of stills — each held for the duration — which is a slideshow, not motion within a frame.

What happens to my PNG's transparent pixels?

They are flattened onto the Background Color before encoding. No mainstream video codec, HEVC included, carries an alpha channel, so there is no "keep transparency" setting to look for. White is preselected for image sources; switch it to Black or any of the other colours in the dropdown if white edges would look wrong wherever the clip is going to play.

Will the clip have an audio track?

No. This page renders no audio controls at all — the whole audio group is hidden for still-image sources, because there is nothing to encode. If your destination insists on a soundtrack, add one in a video editor after downloading, or start from footage that already has audio.

How big is a still-image HEVC clip, and does a longer duration cost much?

An unchanging frame is close to the best case for any inter-frame codec: the first frame is encoded in detail, and everything after it is a prediction that costs very little. So going from 3 seconds to 10 seconds adds far less than 3× the bytes. Resolution and Quality Preset move the size much more than duration does — HEVC honours the preset properly, unlike the older codecs on our MPEG and RealVideo pages.

What resolution do I actually get if I leave "Keep original"?

Your PNG's own pixel dimensions, with one caveat: images are normalised before encoding with the long edge capped at 4096 pixels, so anything larger is scaled down to fit. If your destination needs an exact frame size, set it explicitly under Video resolution — "Fixed Resolutions" gives you a precise width × height, and your Background Color pads whatever does not fill the frame.

Should I use HEVC or MP4 for a still-image clip?

Choose HEVC when you know the destination decodes H.265 and you want the smaller file. Choose MP4 when you do not know, or when the file has to work everywhere — PNG to MP4 produces H.264 in a properly named MP4 container, which is still the safest thing to hand to an unknown player, upload form, or older TV. If you already have an HEVC clip and need to widen its reach, HEVC to MP4 goes the other way.