TIFF to HEVC Converter

How to Convert TIFF to HEVC Online

1. Upload Your TIFF Files: Drag and drop your .tif or .tiff files (single image or a numbered sequence) or click "+ Add Files". Batch upload is supported — order matters because frames play in the order you add them.
2. Pick Merge Strategy and Image Duration: Default merges all TIFFs into one HEVC clip. Set Image Duration in frames (2-10) or seconds (1/60 up to 10s per frame) to control playback speed — 1/24 second per frame produces standard 24fps motion, 1 second gives a slideshow pace.
3. Set Quality Preset, Background Color, and Resolution (Optional): Pick Quality Preset Lowest → Highest (Very High recommended for archival timelapses). Choose Background Color for letterbox bars when aspect ratios differ. Set Video resolution to Keep original, a fixed preset (720p, 1080p, 1440p, 2160p, 4320p), or custom width/height with aspect-ratio lock.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert". Files process on the xconvert servers — no install, no watermark, no sign-up. The output is an HEVC bitstream (.hevc / .h265) suitable for remuxing into MP4 or MKV.

Why Convert TIFF to HEVC?

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format, Adobe spec since 1986) is the workhorse of professional photography, scanning, and scientific imaging — lossless, layered, and often huge. A single 24MP TIFF can exceed 70 MB uncompressed; a 1,000-frame timelapse sequence can easily blow past 70 GB. HEVC (H.265, ITU-T standard since 2013) cuts that down by 50% or more versus H.264 and far more for timelapses because most frames share static background pixels that the codec encodes only once.

• Astrophotography stacks — .tif frames from PixInsight, DeepSkyStacker, or Siril become 50-100× smaller as HEVC playback proofs you can scrub on a laptop instead of streaming from NAS.
• Time-lapse photographers — Sony A7-series and Canon R5 intervalometer bursts land as 14-bit TIFFs. Cam-Do reports timelapse compression down to ~2% of source size after HEVC encode, because static scenes maximize HEVC's inter-frame prediction.
• Microscopy and scientific imaging — Confocal and electron-microscope TIFF stacks (Z-stacks, focal sweeps) become reviewable HEVC clips for grant presentations, lab Slack, and conference talks where multi-GB stacks won't upload.
• Document and scan archives — Multi-page TIFF scans (CCITT Group 4 fax-compressed) become flip-through HEVC clips for OCR review or evidence packages, with one TIFF page = one frame.
• CGI and 3D render output — Blender, Maya, and Houdini frequently export per-frame TIFFs. Bundling them into a single HEVC review file beats sending a 10-GB folder to a producer.
• Drone mapping and orthomosaic previews — DJI and Pix4D output georeferenced TIFFs; an HEVC flythrough lets clients preview a 500-frame survey without downloading the raw GeoTIFFs.

TIFF vs HEVC — Format Comparison

HEVC Quality Preset Quick Guide

x265 maps quality presets onto CRF (Constant Rate Factor) values. Lower CRF = higher quality + bigger file; higher CRF = smaller file. Target ranges below match x265's published guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert TIFF sequences to HEVC instead of H.264 MP4?

HEVC roughly halves the bitrate of H.264 at matching visual quality, and the savings climb on near-static footage. For timelapse and microscopy stacks where most pixels don't change frame-to-frame, HEVC's larger 64x64 coding tree units (CTUs) and improved intra-prediction often deliver 70-95% smaller files than H.264 at the same CRF. The trade-off is encode time and slightly narrower playback support — see the browser question below. If your audience is mostly on Chrome on Linux, convert TIFF to MP4 (H.264) instead.

What's the difference between a .hevc file and an HEVC track inside an MP4?

.hevc (also .h265 or .265) is a raw HEVC Annex B bitstream — just NAL units, no container. It's small and easy to remux but lacks timestamps, audio, and metadata. Most players (VLC, MPV, FFplay) handle it; QuickTime and many web players require it packaged in MP4 or MKV. If you need direct playback in QuickTime or in a browser, remux with ffmpeg -i out.hevc -c copy -tag:v hvc1 out.mp4 (the hvc1 tag is required for Apple devices). If you need an MP4 directly, use TIFF to MP4.

How fast will my TIFFs play in the output video?

Playback speed is set by Image Duration. Choose 1/24 second per frame for cinema motion (24fps), 1/30 second for NTSC standard (30fps), 1/60 second for slow-motion-feel (60fps), or pick longer values (1, 2, 5, 10 seconds per frame) for slideshow pacing. Image Duration also accepts frame counts (2-10 frames) when you want the same TIFF held over several output frames — useful for stop-motion or animatics.

Can I keep the full 16-bit color depth from my TIFFs?

HEVC's Main10 profile encodes 10-bit YUV, so you'll lose the bottom 6 bits versus a 16-bit TIFF. For most viewing workflows this is invisible — 10-bit HEVC is what HDR streaming and Blu-ray UHD use. For archival color grading where 16-bit banding matters, keep the TIFF masters and use HEVC only as a review proxy. ProRes 422 HQ or DNxHR HQX (12-bit) in an MOV container is a better intermediate if you need higher bit depth than HEVC supports.

Will my HEVC file play in Chrome and Firefox?

Per caniuse.com, HEVC playback is partial across browsers and depends on hardware decode and OS licensing. Safari 11+ on macOS and iOS has full support. Edge 12+ supports HEVC via the Windows HEVC Video Extensions (paid Microsoft Store add-on). Chrome added partial HEVC support in version 107 (Oct 2022) when the OS and GPU expose hardware decoding. Firefox enabled HEVC by default in version 137 (early 2025), but Linux builds still require ffmpeg compiled with HEVC support, which many distributions omit due to patent licensing. For maximum browser compatibility, consider H.264 MP4 instead.

What resolution should I pick when my TIFFs are different sizes?

The converter scales each TIFF to a single output canvas using your Video resolution choice. Pick the smallest TIFF's native dimensions (or the most common size) to avoid upscaling soft frames. If TIFFs have mixed aspect ratios — common with mixed phone + DSLR captures — choose a 16:9 preset (1920x1080, 3840x2160) and a Background Color to letterbox/pillarbox cleanly. Pure black is conventional; white reads better against light TIFFs.

How do I encode a vertical (9:16) HEVC for TikTok or Reels from portrait TIFFs?

Pick Video resolution → 1080x1920 (or 720x1280 for smaller files). The converter centers each TIFF on the chosen canvas and uses the Background Color for any uncovered area. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts all ingest HEVC MP4 — but they prefer the hvc1 tag (Apple style) over hev1. After conversion, remux with ffmpeg -i in.hevc -c copy -tag:v hvc1 out.mp4 for upload-friendly tagging.

Does the converter handle multi-page TIFFs (multi-image TIFF files)?

Yes. A single multi-page TIFF (often used for fax scans, document archives, and microscopy Z-stacks) is treated as a sequence: each page becomes one frame in the output HEVC, in page order. Image Duration applies per page. If you only want certain pages, split the TIFF first with a tool like ImageMagick (magick input.tif scene_%d.tif) and upload only the frames you need.

Can I add audio to the HEVC output?

The raw .hevc bitstream is video-only — HEVC is a codec, not a container. To add music or narration, take the converted .hevc and mux it with an audio track in MP4 or MKV: ffmpeg -i video.hevc -i audio.aac -c copy out.mp4. For a one-step image-to-video-with-audio workflow, use the TIFF to MP4 or TIFF to WebM converters instead.