How to Convert HEVC to MP4 without Quality Loss

Ever tried to play a HEVC video only to find it can't be recognized? You're not alone. I used windows media player to play HEV1 (one of the HEVC codecs) file last month but failed. For better compatibility, I re-encoded my HEVC video. Want to solve it too? This article introduces several HEVC converters to convert HEVC to MP4 for playback on various devices and software.

 Cisdem Video Converter

Simple Yet Full-featured HEVC to MP4 Converter

• Convert HEVC videos to MP4 in seconds
• Support almost all commom input/output media formats and codecs
• Offer preset for mobile, iPad, Tablet, Apple TV, etc.
• Besides encoder, also control video frame rate, resolution, and quality
• Efficiently process hundreds of files in bulk
• Edit and enhance HEVC videos (e.g. add subtitles and apply effects)
• Trim clips, combine, or compress H.265 files
• Built-in media player to view HEVC
• Extra: download online videos and rip self-made or protected DVD/Blu-ray

Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7    Free Download macOS 10.13 or later    

What's HEVC?

HEVC (H.265, x265, MPEG-H Part 2), short for High Efficiency Video Coding, is a new video compression standard. It promises 50% more efficiency possible than AVC, meaning that you can keep the HEVC video half the size of AVC at the same quality level. For example, the average bit rate of 1080p video for HEVC is 62% lower than that of AVC (H.264, x264, or MPEG-4 Part 10).

Today, HEVC is primarily used to shrink 4K resolution videos and allow broadcasters, video streaming services and others to deliver higher quality video at manageable bit rates.

Why Convert HEVC to MP4?

Most people want to convert HEVC video to AVC MP4 due to the compatibility. Old Android & iPhone, Apple TV, PlayStation consoles, Roku, Adobe Premiere Pro, etc. can’t play videos encoded with HEVC, while almost all devices or players support AVC MP4. Of course, there are also a small number of people who wish to convert HEVC MKV or HEVC MOV to HEVC MP4. A professional video converter is able to meet both needs.

Convert HEVC to MP4 with Third-party Tool

Been testing a lot of HEVC to MP4 converter software, and about 90% have these three issues: audio and video go out of sync, lower the quality, or convert slowly. Among the three apps below, Cisdem is almost perfect. VLC and Handbrake, even though they have some flaws, are free.

#1 Cisdem Video Converter

Cisdem Video Converter is not only easy to use, but also has powerful HEVC/H.265 encoding and decoding capabilities. It can convert videos encoded with x265 to x265/x264/AV1/mpeg4 MP4 with fast speed. Plus, it allows you to batch convert files to MKV, MOV, FLV, MP3, iPhone or any other format and still keeping the quality intact.

As an all-in-one HEVC to MP4 converter, Cisdem ensures that you compress and edit x265 video by trimming, rotating, changing brightness & contrast, adding watermarks, etc. before conversion.

Free Download   Free Download

Steps to Convert HEVC to MP4 on Windows or Mac:

Step 1. Launch Cisdem Video Converter

Download the free trial of Cisdem HEVC video converter, then install and initiate it.

Step 2. Import HEVC-encoded videos

There are two ways:

• Drag H.265 videos from your local folder to the first interface of the software directly.
• Click the + button at the lower left corner to browse to your HEVC files and click "Open".

Cisdem Video Converter supports process video files in batch, so you can load many HEVC video files to convert in one time.

Step 3. Select MP4 as target format

Click the MP4 icon or "Convert all tasks to" button to open the Format drop-down list. Moving the mouse to the top pane, and select “Video” > "MP4" > "Same as source" or other options, which lies on your needs.

Step 4. Batch convert HEVC to MP4 on Windows or Mac

Choose the output directory and click the "Start" button on the lower right side of the interface to let the HEVC codec to MP4 conversion begins. Once done, click the button to locate your converted MP4 files.

More tips:

• The MP4 format option uses h264 encoding by default. If you want to change to a different encoder or fine-tune the output parameters, click the “Settings” button or the gear icon to open the advanced settings window.
• If you want to resize and convert HEVC video, you can add it to the compression interface (click the icon at the top center), select the compression ratio and output format. This module also allows you to change MP4 encoder and tweak parameters.

#2 VLC

VLC has established itself as a go-to media player, but it can also be regarded as a video transcoder. You can use it to convert HEVC to MP4 on Windows or Mac. But only the Windows version supports batch processing.

In addition, it provides totally 15 output formats or containers, such as VP80 + Vorbis (Webm), H.264 + MP3 (TS), WMV + WMA (ASF), CD, and more. To choose other formats, you have to manually select the combination of audio and video codecs.

Take the VLC HEVC to MP4 converter for Windows as an example:

1. Head over to https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html and download VLC.
2. Run the software. Navigate to "Media" > "Convert/Save" to call up the "Open Media" window.
3. Under the File tab, press "Add" on the right side to locate the HEVC-encoded video file.
4. Once it's selected, click the "Convert/Save" button to continue.
5. choose output file format as “Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4)” or “Video - H.265 + MP3 (MP4)”.
   *Note: By default, the audio for these two formats uses MPEG Audio Layer 2 encoding, which isn’t compatible with some mobile devices. You can click the wrench icon (next to the profile drop-down menu), go to the Audio codec tab, change codec to “MPEG 4 Audio (AAC) or others, and click “Save”.
6. Hit "Browse". Select a location and name your output file.
7. Click "Start" to convert HEVC codec to MP4 using VLC.

It’s not recommended to convert HEVC videos to MP4 using Mac version. Here are the reasons:

• Provided encoders are outdated, no advanced codecs like H.265 or Opus.
• Can only convert the HEVC to M4V, not MP4. You’ll need to manually change the file extension.
• Audio missing after changing audio encoder to AAC. Also, you can't change the codec directly on the "Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4)" option, but need to "Save as new profile", otherwise it won’t work.

#3 Handbrake

Handbrake is a popularly used open-source HEVC to MP4 converter for Mac and Windows. It lets you convert HEVC videos and multimedia formats (DVD and Blu-Ray source formats included) to MP4 and MKV.

But Handbrake merely supports 2 output formats. It's unable to convert HEVC to MOV, AVI, VOB, etc. And although there is an "Add To Queue" option, it can't deal with multiple titles simultaneously, only finish one then another one.

Below are the instructions for the Mac version.

1. Get the software from https://handbrake.fr/ and install it.
2. Open Handbrake. Drag the HEVC file to the main dashboard or click “Open Source” to select the file.
3. Under the Summary tab, Choose “MP4 File” as output format.
4. (Optional) Switch to the Video tab and reset video encoder. To keep the original audio track, choose “xxx Passthru” in the Audio tab.
5. Finally, click on the “Start” button from the top menu.

The Best HEVC to MP4 Converter Online

#1 Convertio.co

Convertio.co is a Web-based platform that supports a variety of conversion types, including x265 to MP4. You converted files can be saved to Google Drive and Dropbox. However, the free account allows only 2 concurrent conversions and a maximum file size of 100MB. To get more permission, you have to pay a monthly fee for the Light, Basic, or Unlimited version.

1. Go to https://convertio.co/.
2. Upload the HEVC file from the local computer folder, cloud storage, or URL.
3. Choose the output video format as MP4.
4. Click the “gear” icon to bring up the “Settings” dialog box, and then configure codec, profile, level, constant quality, etc. Click “Ok”.
5. Press “Convert”.

#2 AnyConv.com

AnyConv.com is an online HEVC video converter that supports various file types including image, document, video, audio, CAD, etc. (more than 40 formats). It allows you to convert HEVC to MP4 online in batches, but the maximum inputs can't exceed 50MB. Moreover, It can convert video files with the suffix .hevc to MP4 as well as convert HEVC MKV to MP4. However, when you import the HEVC MP4 video, there will be no output option of MP4 (AVC).

1. Go to https://anyconv.com/.
2. Click the “CHOOSE FILE” button to import the HEVC video from your computer.
3. Select to convert “to MP4”.
4. Hit the “CONVERT” button.
5. Download your converted video.

Turn HEVC into MP4 Video with FFmpeg

As an open-source library, FFmpeg serves as a critical component in video codec implementation.

The tool has added support for HEVC encoding since 2014. It empowers you to remux HEVC files into MP4, MKV, and MOV through MulticoreWare x265 or DivX HEVC Encoder.

1. Install FFmpeg to your computer.
2. Open command prompt or terminal.
3. Run the command.
   To convert H265 to H264 MP4, excute ffmpeg -i input-hevc output.mp4.
   To convert HEVC MKV to HEVC MP4, type ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v libx265 output.mp4, the default audio codec will be AAC. You can also copy the original audio codec by entering ffmpeg -i .mkv -c:v libx265 -c:a copy output.mp4.
4. Press "Enter" to change your HEVC file.

The above offers the most basic commands. If you are good at codes, you can insert more arguments such as -crf, -preset, format=yuv420p, -b:a, etc. into command-lines.

Which Tool to Choose