Netflix, HBO, Filmin, Prime Video,... streaming video services have established themselves and having a hard drive full of movies and series is no longer the norm. Even so, if you are one of those who have their own multimedia library, you may be interested in passing all your videos to H.265 and save up to 50% space on disk.
The great advantage of the H.265 format
The H.265 video compression standard was published in 2013, although it wasn't until a few years later that it was finally established. Today it is no longer anything new, but it is still a great unknown to most and it should not be because of the advantages it offers.
If you have a recent smartphone and you like to record video, you probably know it. On both iOS and Android, the most efficient new video format is just that, video recorded in H.265.
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Without going into technical issues, the summary that can be made of said standard is that helps to reduce the size of video files without loss of quality. In other words, if a video can occupy 500 MB in another format, with H.265 you can achieve up to 50% savings in storage space.
If you do a quick account you will see that it compensates. Imagine that you have 500 GB between movies and series stored on your hard drive. If you save, for example, 30%, you will be earning 150 GB that you could use to store more content.
Considerations before converting your content to H.265
What we have seen sounds great, but you should know that there are also disadvantages if you convert your content to H.265. The most important is the player compatibility that you use.
If you are going to view said content from your computer or smartphone, you should not have many problems. Unless it is a very old device, you will find applications capable of playing this video codec.
For example, if you use Windows you can install codecs to have native support in the system or use applications such as VLC. This same application is also available for Mac and Linux, it is a true classic and a recommendation that never fails. What's more, you should already have it installed on your computer.
If you use an Android device, the processor will determine whether you will have support or not. Luckily, most of today's devices already make use of a SoC capable of decoding said format, so, the strange thing would be that you couldn't do it. Taking this into account, what you need is therefore a compatible player, being Kodi o VLC for Android two good options. You can also try the native application to play video that comes with your device.
If you use iOS, the same VLC for Mobile o Infuse These are our recommendations, although there are many more in the App Store.
And finally, the most complex point: external players or Smart TVs. Here you will have to consult the manufacturer's documentation, see if they support it or if you can download a compatible player from their application store.
In case everything is OK, and you have a player compatible with H.265, let's see how to convert your video files to save disk space.
How to convert video from H.264 to H.265/HEVC
Converting video from H.264 or other codec to H.265 is a slow process. The resource demand at the CPU level is high, and if you don't have a powerful computer, converting a large library will take a long time. But do not despair, with patience and order it is possible.
The first thing you need is an application capable of convert from un formato to otro. The three most recommended are: FFmpeg, Handbrake and iFlicks.
- FFmpeg is available for Mac, Windows and Linux and you also have it for download from their website.
- Handbrake is also available for all three major operating systems and download from their website.
- iFlicks is Mac exclusive and it is also paid while the previous ones were free. The great advantage is that it adds the metadata automatically, interesting to have everything organized without any effort later. If you are interested, you have it available from the Mac App Store or through the Setapp service.
Whatever you choose, they will all fulfill the purpose, convert your videos from one format to another to save space. It is important that you take a look at the different options, especially when it comes to removing audio tracks, subtitles or other aspects such as the bitrate, etc. These parameters can make space savings greater or less, and also influence the final quality.
If you are going to use Handbrake, on these lines we leave you a possible configuration that could be efficient and without visible loss of quality.
Lastly, if you don't want to convert to any format for whatever reason, you can always keep an eye on our inputs and hunt some of the offers in storage units. For when you fill that or those disks that you still have at home with available space.