PotPlayer Won't Play HEVC/H.265 File? Solved

Since more and more 4K or 4K Blu-ray movies have been released and are poping up around your life, then playing the HEVC files ore H.265 files would be a necessary step for many users. How to play HEVC files on your PC? According to some advanced media player feedbacks, PotPlayer could be able to support HEVC at the early stage. How about now? Can PotPlayer be able to play H.265 files directly? Are there any further steps needed so as to obtain the HEVC playback on the computer? In order to solve all the problems, this article is proper for you.

Part 1: Can PotPlayer Support HEVC/H.265?

HEVC/H.265 is currently the latest video compression coding, the coding efficiency is greatly improved than H264. It can be said that H265 has the best video quality for the same file size; H265 has the smallest volume for the same video quality. However, because the encoding is relatively new, some playback software, HD players, HD boxes, smart TVs, and smartphones do not support this encoding. In comparison, HEVC playback solution can be easily provided if your current media player can support resolutions up to 8192×4320. That means H.265 doubles the data compression ratio compared to H.264. So, how about PotPlayer? Can this player support HEVC format?

However, in the previous years, PotPlayer, as one of the more advanced comprehensive media players, has announced that HEVC can be supported by it. But recently, another statement has showed that PotPlayer has removed HEVC codec from the internal program which would result in the failure of HEVC playback on the player. Due to the higher coding efficiency and more superior video quality, PotPlayer is hard to support this media format. Furthermore, other more mainstream devices may not support HEVC videos either. But as well, the HEVC files could also be supported and played on PotPlayer if the HEVC codec could be applied and installed to the player.

Part 2: Install Codec to Play HEVC on PotPlayer

Since PotPlayer has removed the HEVC codec, now in order to play the HEVC files on PotPlayer successfully, what you need to make up for is to download the install the appropriate HEVC codec accordingly. What you may be confused is what the proper HEVC codec is for PotPlayer.

Here I will strongly recommend you to download and install the codec pack instead of a single HEVC codec for PotPlayer. With the codec pack, which usually contains all kinds of video and audio codec for most mainstream multimedia files, the relevant video format, including H.265 could be easily decoded on PotPlayer. Then, the H.265 playback could be obtained then. If you are not sure about the detailed steps on how to install codec to play HEVC on PotPlayer, you can refer to the following steps.

Step 1. Check whether PotPlayer has the HEVC codec or not. Just as mentioned above, PotPlayer has removed the HEVC codec, so, once you have loaded the H.265 file to the player, a pop up message would show on the screen saying that “If you want to play the new file, you need the HEVC codec”.

Step 2. Download and install HEVC codec, here K-Lite Codec Pack as the alternative. Simply, you can search for K-Lite Codec Pack over the Internet and choose one download link. Usually, the codec pack you can obtain is formatted in the WAR or ZIP format. Once the codec pack has been downloaded, then you follow the steps showing on the screen to complete the installation process.

Step 3. Finish the installation and restart PotPlayer and computer. Click “OK” button to finish the codec pack installation process. In order to activate the codec pack, you had better restart the PotPlayer and computer to make it work effectively.

Part 3: 3 Free HEVC Alternative Players

In general speaking, many mainstream media players don’t support HEVC. However, in this article, I have already sorted out the top 3 free HEVC alternative players for your further references.

No. 1 Leawo Blu-ray Player

Here I will strongly recommend Leawo Blu-ray Player to you. As a 100% free and 6-in-1 media player software, Leawo Blu-ray Player contains all media playback solutions you need for your leisure entertainment, including DVD, Blu-ray, CD, HD (4K), ISO file with HEVC, H.264, AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, FLV, MKV/MKA and other popular formats supported. With advanced image and audio processing technology, Leawo Free Blu-ray Player software could provide you quality-lossless image for even 4K video, stereo audio enjoyment, all regions free DVD decryption and user-oriented playback control. Besides, Leawo Blu-ray Player’s practical bonus features including useful power manager, custom skin / language / background, snap screenshots, especially virtual remote controller make it a better choice for all playback choice. Furthermore, within Leawo Blu-ray Player, you could obtain the personalized settings according to your preference and all the settings could be done automatically.

No. 2 5KPlayer

5KPlayer is a piece of completely free multi-functional audio and video software that integrates a universal video player, online video download, and AirPlay wireless streaming / wireless projection. It supports Windows and macOS platforms. 5KPlayer is also a very competent universal format video player, it has a rich codec built-in, can play almost all online mainstream video and audio formats, including MP4, MKV, FLV, MOV, WMV, MPEG, DVD, RMVB, M2TS / MP3, APE, FLAC, AAC and other formats of videos and lossless music, can also play 4K or 5K resolution ultra-high-definition video smoothly, basically can meet various audio and video playback needs. What’s worth mentioning, due to the might video codec library, its HEVC x265 player would allow users to play the HEVC files easily, including the HEVC 8bit/10bit/12bit video from other devices, like camera, mobile phones, Canon, JVC cameras and so on. Also, its intuitive interface would take users to a wonder viewing world.

No. 3 MPV Player

MPV is an open source media player based on MPlayer and MPlayer2. It supports various video formats, audio decoding, and special effect subtitles (the ass special effect subtitles for movie animations are no problem). It does not only supports local playback, but also supports network playback. The key point is that MPV has the characteristics of multi-system platform support, command line, customization, GPU decoding, and script support. Playing 4K videos with high definition resolution can also be very smooth. Therefore, if you are looking for a HEVC free media player, MPV can be your excellent choice. Based on the FFmpeg hwaccel APIs, it supports various video accelerations. Also, it is able to decode various formats while playing 4K videos. But this media player is not user-friendly for the beginner users because its shortcut usages are not smooth and hard to remember.

Part 4: Convert HEVC to another Common Format

Well, converting HEVC to another common format would save you more time on playing the HEVC files easily because, most common media players can support MP4, or AVI etc instead of HEVC. Therefore, obtaining an excellent HEVC converting tool would be helpful here. Which video converter can be your best choice? In order to convert HEVC to other media formats with ease and accuracy, Leawo Video Converter is the one you should not miss. Leawo Video Converter is able to rip MTS to various video formats with 100% original quality and 6X faster speed. It could support 180+ video and audio formats conversion with accuracy and no quality loss.

The guide shows you how to convert HEVC to MP4 video files by using Leawo Video Converter. Download and install Leawo Video Converter on your computer beforehand. Note that Leawo Video Converter has Windows version and Mac version, choose the proper version that is compatible with your computer OS. For the details on how to convert HEVC to other formats would be presented below.

Step 1. Download Leawo Video Converter and install it on your computer.

   

Step 2. Load the HEVC video. You can click on the “Add Video” icon to import the file or just drag the HEVC video directly to the main menu.

Step 3. Select the output format. You can open drop-down box beside the green icon “Convert” to choose “Change” to enter the “Profile” panel where you can set the output video format. Here, you can choose “MP4 Video” (based on your own requirements).

Step 4. Set the output video parameters. You can just open the drop-down box to click “Edit” instead of “Change” in the main menu. It includes “Video Codec”, “Bite Rates”, “Resolution”, “Frame Rate” and “Aspect Ratio”.

Step 5. Start converting. Click the big green icon “Convert” on the main interface to start converting the HEVC file to MP4. Before it starts, you need to confirm the “Save to” route. Then just click “Convert” to start. Finally, you just need to wait and the conversion process will be completed in several minutes.

Part 5: Conclusion

PotPlayer can be quite popular among users after the release of HEVC/H.265 4K or 8K videos since it could support this format. However, unfortunately, the HEVC codec has been removed from PotPlayer recently which would directly result in the failure of HEVC playback on your computer. There is another way around the corner. Instead of playing HEVC files directly on PotPlayer, you would add the required HEVC codec to the player for further playback with ease. What’s more, if you would adopt other free media players simply to play the HEVC files, Leawo Blu-ray Player can be the one you can have your faith in. If you prefer to apply the HEVC to other more devices, then converting HEVC to other formats with Leawo Video Converter would be more practical to you.