QuickTime Not Playing HEVC Videos? 4 Ways to Fix It
Chances are, you’ve encountered those cryptic HEVC or H.265 videos that cause QuickTime Player to throw up its virtual hands. This advanced video compression standard promises great quality at lower file sizes. But it requires decoding that QuickTime lacks out of the box.
You’re left with choppy, pixelated playback or no video at all. We feel your pain. But don’t uninstall QuickTime just yet. With simple codec conversion in the best video converter, you can play HEVC smoothly without additional apps or plugins.
This guide will walk you through the quickest fixes to get HEVC and QuickTime playing nice together. Stick with us, and you can kiss those playback errors goodbye for good.
Why QuickTime Player Doesn’t Support HEVC
QuickTime Player’s failure to play HEVC video files usually boils down to one thing — lack of built-in support for the advanced H.265 video compression standard.
In an old macOS, QuickTime Player stays ubiquitous as well. It supports common formats like H.264, MPEG-4, and ProRes flawlessly. But HEVC/H.265 is relatively new, emerging in 2013 as the next-gen successor to H.264. Apple has yet to update QuickTime’s outdated decoding components to recognize these newer files. So when you try playing HEVC videos, you get playback errors or substandard quality at best.
Part of the issue is that HEVC compression shrinks file sizes by nearly 50% compared to H.264, allowing 4K and 8K videos at manageable sizes. But this dense encoding requires more complex decoding than QuickTime lacks.
HEVC also uses newer 10-bit color depth versus 8-bit for greater dynamic range. Again, this surpasses QuickTime’s capabilities without an update.
Solutions to Fix HEVC Playback Error in QuickTime Player
When QuickTime throws up errors trying to play HEVC files, there are a few troubleshooting steps you can take to smooth out playback. In this section, we will explore these options in more depth. Follow the steps to determine the best way forward based on your specific playback needs and requirements.
1. Re-Encode Video Using VideoProc Converter AI (Recommended)
If you’re unable to update your Mac OS or don’t have plans to upgrade your hardware then you can simply re-encode an HEVC video back to H264 using VideoProc Converter AI, a powerful yet simple video processing program compatible with macOS Ventura and earlier and Windows 11/10/7.
As the best video converter, it supported 470+ formats and features incredibly fast GPU-accelerated encoding, allowing you to convert HEVC files up to 47x faster than in realtime. The intuitive interface makes it simple to add your HEVC files and convert them to fully compatible codecs like H.264, H.265, ProRes, or MP4. You can even do batch conversion to process multiple HEVC videos in one go. It also provides full customization over resolution, bitrate, frame rate, and other settings. This ensures excellent video quality is retained during conversion. With it, the technical video re-encoding work would be never much easier than before.
Check the steps below about how to convert HEVC to QuickTime format.
Step 1: After installing VideoProc, open it and click Video on the initial screen. This will take you to the main window. Here click +Video and load your HEVC movie or video files.
Step 2: Select MP4 H.264 at the bottom of the page. If there you cannot find it, you can move to the Target Format for more. Lastly, click the blue RUN button at the right bottom of the window to start HEVC video transcoding.
Alt: Convert HEVC to QuickTime Format
Step 3: Choose an output folder, enable Hardware Acceleration, and click RUN to export. After converting is completed, now the HEVC video should open and play on QuickTime.
2. Update Mac OS or QuickTime
If you’re running an older version of Mac OS then simply upgrade it to the latest version. You’ll also need to update QuickTime to its latest version. The latest versions of Mac support HEVC by default. QuickTime Player updates are packaged with overall macOS updates. So keeping your operating system up-to-date will also update QuickTime.
Step 1. Open the App Store application on your Mac
Step 2. Click on the Updates tab at the top of the App Store window
Step 3. Any available macOS updates will be listed here. Click ‘Update’ or ‘Install Now’ to download and install the latest version.
Alternatively, you can go to System Preferences > Software Update to check for updates.
3. Upgrade Hardware
If you’re a Windows user then you should upgrade your computer’s hardware. Windows OS is hardware demanding OS. You can’t do anything serious on this OS unless you have a good graphics card and an up-to-date processor. Windows computer rigs are quite easy to upgrade and you can easily replace video cards and CPUs anytime.
4. Switch to Other Media Players
QuickTime may have a hard time dealing with HEVC files but you don’t have to worry that much. If anytime QuickTime isn’t working for you then you can switch to a better option like VLC. VLC is an open-source media player which properly supports H265 videos. It sees continuous developments and gets more stable with its latest releases. QuickTime is now more exclusive to Mac users as Apple has dropped support for the Windows version.
Besides, more HEVC video players can be downloaded for free and provide great HEVC video playback.
5KPlayer — All-in-one player for Mac and Windows supporting H.265 videos up to 8K. Free with no ads, also downloads online videos.
Elmedia Player — Mac-optimized player with built-in HEVC decoding. Supports formats like MOV, MP4, MKV, and FLV. Paid Pro version is available.
MPV — Lightweight, minimalist open-source media player for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Supports next-gen codecs including HEVC through FFmpeg.
Infuse — Elegant player focused on 4K, HDR, and HEVC playback. Paid Pro version unlocks DTS audio, subtitle support, and more.
Daum PotPlayer — Popular Windows media player is now available for Mac, with HEVC support in the free version. Customizable layouts.
IINA — Sleek, modern player for Mac with full HEVC support. Open source and actively developed. Supports subtitles, playlists, and gestures.
Movist — Powerful QuickTime-based player with full H.265 decoding. Supports playlists, chapters, subtitles, and more.
Conclusion
After going through the main issues with playing HEVC files in QuickTime and exploring various solutions, let’s summarize the key takeaways:
The recommended fixes for getting smooth HEVC playback in QuickTime Player boil down to two options — either converting the videos to friendlier codecs or installing a third-party player to enable native support.
Converting HEVC with a quality app like VideoProc Converter AI provides the simplest and fastest method to get incompatible H.265 videos to play smoothly. This also gives you full control over the output format, resolution, bitrate, and other settings for optimized playback.
With this guide, you’re now equipped to handle any HEVC/H.265 media and get flawless playback in QuickTime Player as well as across your Apple devices. No more choppy video or codec errors interfering with your movie-watching experience.