HEVC Converter

How to Convert HEVC to Any Format

1. Upload Your HEVC File: Drag and drop your .hevc clip or click "Add Files". Batch is supported — drop in several files and each converts in parallel. Raw HEVC elementary streams and HEVC-in-MP4/MOV recordings from iPhones and Android phones are both accepted.
2. Pick an Output Format and Quality Preset: Choose the target container from the Video File Extension dropdown — MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, and 25+ more — or extract the audio to MP3. The default Quality Preset is "Very High (Recommended)". Switch to Specific file size to cap output at an exact MB target, Constant Bitrate for predictable streaming sizes, Variable Bitrate for smaller files at equal quality, or Constant Quality (CRF) to tune by perceptual quality (18 = visually lossless, 23 = default, 28 = noticeably smaller).
3. Resize, Trim, or Change Codec (Optional): Under Video resolution, keep original, pick a Preset Resolution (2160p / 1440p / 1080p / 720p / 480p / 360p / 240p), scale by Resolution Percentage, or enter a custom Width × Height with aspect locked. Under Trim, choose Time Range and enter start + duration. Advanced users can override the Video Codec (to H.264 for universal playback, VP9, AV1, or keep H.265) and Audio Codec (AAC, MP3, Opus, FLAC, AC3, PCM).
4. Convert and Download: 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, never shared.

Popular HEVC Conversions

• HEVC to MP4 — re-encode to H.264 for playback on any device, browser, or TV
• HEVC to MOV — QuickTime-friendly wrapper for Final Cut Pro and Apple workflows
• HEVC to MKV — multi-track container for media servers and subtitle/audio bundles
• HEVC to WebM — royalty-free VP9/AV1 for HTML5 web embeds
• HEVC to AVI — legacy Windows editors and players that reject H.265
• HEVC to MP3 — pull just the audio track out of the clip

Why Convert an HEVC File?

HEVC — High Efficiency Video Coding, also called H.265 — is a video codec standardized in 2013 as ISO/IEC 23008-2 / ITU-T H.265 (MPEG-H Part 2) by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding. Its headline achievement is roughly 50% bitrate reduction versus H.264 at the same subjective quality, which is why Apple made it the default capture codec for iPhone video in iOS 11 (2017, on A10 Fusion chips and newer) and why most 4K and HDR footage ships as HEVC.

The catch is compatibility. HEVC is patent-encumbered, so support is far narrower than H.264's near-universal reach. A .hevc file or an HEVC-encoded clip is exactly the wrong file when the destination can't decode H.265 — and that situation is common:

• Windows playback gaps — Windows 10 and 11 do not ship native HEVC decoding. Playing an HEVC clip in Windows Media Player or Photos requires Microsoft's paid "HEVC Video Extensions" (about $0.99 in the Microsoft Store, because HEVC carries licensing fees). Re-encoding to an H.264 MP4 sidesteps the codec entirely so the file just plays.
• Older devices and TVs — Phones, tablets, smart TVs, and players without an HEVC hardware decoder either refuse the file or stutter on software decode. Converting HEVC to MP4 (H.264) restores smooth playback on hardware made before HEVC decoding was standard.
• Editing software — Some Windows NLEs and older versions of Premiere Elements throw "unsupported format" errors on HEVC imports. Transcoding to H.264 MP4 or a ProRes-friendly MOV gets the footage onto the timeline.
• Web delivery — Browser HEVC support is limited and uneven, so a <video> embed usually needs an H.264 MP4 (universal) or a royalty-free WebM (VP9/AV1) rather than raw HEVC.
• Sharing and uploads — Many upload targets and messaging apps re-encode or reject HEVC; handing them an H.264 MP4 avoids surprise quality loss or outright failures.

The most common real conversion is HEVC to H.264 MP4 — trading HEVC's tighter compression for playback that works everywhere.

HEVC vs. Its Common Targets

Browser HEVC support, per caniuse, is essentially Safari 13+ on Apple platforms plus hardware-gated partial support in recent Chrome (107+), Edge, and Firefox (137+) — so H.264 MP4 remains the only format you can embed and expect to play everywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why won't my HEVC file play on Windows?

Windows 10 and 11 ship without a built-in HEVC decoder because H.265 is a licensed codec and the license carries per-device fees. Microsoft sells the "HEVC Video Extensions" in the Store for about $0.99, which adds system-wide playback in Photos, Media Player, and other apps; some OEM PCs include a free device-manufacturer variant. The simplest fix that needs no purchase is to convert HEVC to MP4 with the H.264 codec — H.264 plays natively on every version of Windows, so the file just works.

Is HEVC the same thing as H.265?

Yes. HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) and H.265 are two names for the same standard, ISO/IEC 23008-2 and ITU-T Recommendation H.265, also catalogued as MPEG-H Part 2. ISO/IEC uses "HEVC", the ITU-T uses "H.265", and both refer to the codec finalized in 2013 that compresses roughly twice as efficiently as H.264 at the same visual quality.

Will converting HEVC to MP4 lose quality?

Some, because going from H.265 to H.264 is a real re-encode, not a copy — the two codecs are incompatible, so the video is decoded and re-compressed. With Constant Quality (CRF) at 18–20 the loss is invisible in side-by-side viewing; the tradeoff is that the H.264 MP4 lands larger than the HEVC source (often 1.7–2× the size) because H.264 is the less efficient codec. If you keep the HEVC codec and only change the container (for example HEVC to MKV), that's a lossless remux instead.

What's the best format to convert HEVC to for universal playback?

MP4 with the H.264 codec. H.264 has hardware decoders in essentially every phone, tablet, computer, smart TV, browser, and game console made since around 2010, and MP4 is the container all of them open by default. In our testing, a 30-second 1080p iPhone HEVC clip re-encoded to H.264 MP4 at the Very High preset grew from about 38 MB to roughly 70 MB while playing without a codec prompt on Windows, Android, and older smart TVs. Choose HEVC to MP4 for the direct path.

Can I convert HEVC to MP4 without re-encoding to H.264?

You can keep the H.265 stream and just re-wrap it into an MP4 container, which is lossless and near-instant — but the result is still an HEVC video, so it inherits all the same playback limitations on Windows and older devices. Re-wrapping only helps when the target app dislikes the raw .hevc extension but can decode H.265 itself. If the goal is to make the file play anywhere, you have to re-encode the video to H.264; there's no shortcut around the codec change.

Does my iPhone footage need converting at all?

Only if something downstream can't read HEVC. iPhones have recorded HEVC by default since iOS 11, and that footage plays perfectly on Apple devices and recent hardware. It becomes a problem when you move it to a Windows PC without the HEVC extension, an older editor, a smart TV, or a web page. You can also avoid HEVC at capture time by setting Settings > Camera > Formats to "Most Compatible", which records H.264 instead — but existing HEVC clips still need conversion to play on incompatible hardware.

Are my uploaded files kept private?

Yes. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. There is no sign-up, no watermark on the output, and files are never shared or made public. The only practical limit on a very large 4K or 8K HEVC file is upload size and your connection speed, not a fixed per-file cap.