Written by MacOS High Sierra not play H.265 video encoded with Handbrake
H.265 video, also knows as High Efficiency Video Encoding, can compress video up to 40 percent more than the current standard technology, H.264. The release of High Sierra let the Mac systems with a sixth-generation Intel Core processor or newer to play 4K HEVC content including videos shot on the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and upcoming iPhone X. However, a lot of people complain that they fail to play H.265/HEVC video with QuickTime player – Apple’s default and flagship media player app:
“I”m using HandBrake to encode some videos using the MP4 H.265 format, but the videos won”t play using QuickTime player on macOS High Sierra, which is supposed to have H.265/HEVC support. They work in VLC just fine. Anyone else have this problem or know why these videos won”t play in the system-provided players?”
Why and how to fix QuickTime not play Handbrake H.265 on High Sierra?
High Sierra”s H.265-capable apps want hvc1 instead of hev1. Handbrake”s stable release as of now (September 26, 2017) does the latter. Nightly builds should do the former and provide you with OS X compatible video, though I haven”t tested this personally yet.
You can override h.265 ‘hev1’ with ‘hvc1″ by following the steps introduced in the following link:
https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/commit/67dfaca7ac3ec56cc4ab3c7f9f60ab3b7c43a0db
Simple solution to fix QuickTime not play Handbrake H.265 video
Confused and overwhelmed by the complicated guides listed above. For those beginners who are looking for a simple solution to get Handbrake encoded H.265 video or other unsupported H.265 video played on QuickTime player, you can easily achieve that by transcoding H.265 to QuickTime player native playable QuickTime MOV formats.
To complete the job, what you need is simply Mac H.265 Decoder software. Here, a powerful yet simple to use application called Pavtube Video Converter for Mac is highly recommended to you. The program has perfect compatibility with the new macOS High Sierra. It supports batch conversion mode, so that you can import multiple H.265 video into the application at one time for conversion to save your precious time.
The program has perfect loading support for both 4K/HD H.265 video wrapped with either MP4 or MKV container file format. You can easily export H.265 to QuickTime player most favorable QuickTime MOV file format with perfect quality and super-fast conversion speed.
Related article: Play QuickTime MOV on TV | Convert 4K Video to QuickTime Player | Play FLV on QuickTime
Adjust output profile parameters
To get better output file quality, you can flexibly adjust output profile parameter such as video codec, bit rate, frame rate, channels or audio codec, bit rate, sample rate or channels, etc as you like in the “Profile Settings” offered by the program.
Step by Step to Transcode Handbrake H.265 Files to QuickTime MOV on High Sierra
Step 1: Add H.265 files.
Download the free trial version of the program. Launch it on your computer. Click “File” menu and select “Add Video/Audio” or click the “Add Video” button on the top tool bar to import Handbrake encoded H.265 video files or other unsupported H.265 files into the program.
Step 2: Choose output file format.
Clicking the Format bar, from its drop-down list, select QuickTime Player playable “MOV – QuickTime(*.mov)” under “Common Video” main category.
Tips: Click “Settings” on the main interface to open “Profile Settings” window, here, you can flexibly choose or specify exactly the profile parameters including video codec, resolution, bit rate, frame rate, audio codec, bit rate, sample rate, channels, etc as you like to get better output video and audio quality.
Step 3: Start H.265 to QuickTime player conversion process.
After all setting is completed, hit the “Convert” button at the right bottom of the main interface to begin the conversion process from Handbrake encoded H.265 to QuickTime Player compatible file format conversion process.
When the conversion is finished, click “Open Output Folder” icon on the main interface to open the folder with generated files. Then feel free to play converted files on QuickTime player.
