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Can Plex Direct Play H.265 Files?

What is the state of HEVC (H.265) on Plex?

Hi everyone, I'm wondering how HEVC is working on plex currently, particularly is streamed through a roku 3. I'm considering making future movie backups in HEVC, but don't want to begin until plex support is 100%. Thanks!

Play H.265 on Plex Media Server

Does Plex Media Server support H.265/HEVC files

After searching for Plex Media Server supported file formats:
Movies, TV Shows, and Home Video: MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, DIVX, and more
Music: MP3, M4A, FLAC, WMA, and more
Photos: JPG, PNG, RAW, TBN, and more

The H.265/HEVC files is unfortunately excluded from Plex Media Server direct playback formats. If you wish to direct play H.265/HEVC files on Plex Media Server, you will need to perform a format transcoding process.

Here, a powerful H.265/HEVC converter - Pavtube Video Converter for Windows/Mac is highly recommended to you. The program can swiftly convert H.265/HEVC MP4/MKV files to Plex Media Server direct playable formats listed above. For those people who care much about output file quality, you can flexibly adjust the output video codec, bit rate, frame rate, resolution and audio codec, bit rate, frame rate and channels to achieve the best video playback settings for Plex.

Apart from H.265/HEVC, you can also use the program to convert other unsupported file formats such as MP4, MOV, MKV, M2TS, VOB, etc for Plex Media Server direct playback.

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How to Convert H.265/HEVC for Plex Media Server Direct Playback?

Step 1. Import H.265/HEVC video files.

Launch the program, click "Load file(s)" or "Add video" button to load the H.265/HEVC video file you want to convert in your PC into the program.

Step 2: Choose proper output format.

Click "Format" bar, from its drop-down option, select to output "HD Video" > "H.264 HD Video(*.mp4)" that are supported by most devices Plex.

Step 3: Adjust output profile parameters

Click "Settings" to open "Profile Parameters" settings window, here, you can flexibly tweak output video codec, video codec, bit rate, frame rate, resolution and audio codec, bit rate, frame rate and channels.

Step 4: Begin the conversion process.

Go back to the main interface, click right-bottom "Convert" button to start H.265 to Plex Media Server most compatible H.264 HD format conversion process.

When the conversion is done, click "Open Output Folder" button to pop out the folder with converted files, then add converted files to plex for playing with the Plex app on different devices.

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