Home » Play and Stream H.265/HEVC to PS4 from USB or DLNA/Plex Media Server

Play and Stream H.265/HEVC to PS4 from USB or DLNA/Plex Media Server

H.265/HEVC is a cutting-edge, high-efficiency video codec that's particularly useful for streaming 4K video. Have some H.265/HEVC video recorded by your Samsung NX1/NX500 camera on your local computer and wish to stream and watch them on your home game consoles PS4. Thanks to the "Media Player" app released by PS4, you can play local video on PS4 from a USB drive or via a DLNA or Plex Media Server.

Can PS4 media player app supports H.265?

Whether you plan to play H.265/HEVC on PS4 from USB or via DLNA or Plex Media Server, the H.265/HEVC must be included in PS4 media player supported formats listed as below:

MKV
- Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
- Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
AVI
-Video: MPEG4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
-Audio: MP3, AAC LC, AC-3(Dolby Digital)
MP4
- Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2
- Audio: AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
MPEG-2 PS
-Video: MPEG2 Visual
-Audio: MP2(MPEG2 Audio Layer 2), MP3, AAC LC, AC-3(Dolby Digital), LPCM
MPEG-2 TS
- Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level4.2, MPEG2 Visual
- Audio: MP2 (MPEG2 Audio Layer 2), AAC LC, AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
AVCHD

Play H.265/HEVC on PS4 from USB

Above lists have clear claimed that PS4 lacks the ability to play H.265/HEVC files, therefore, if you plan to directly view H.265/HEVC on PS4 from USB, you will need to perform a format transcoding process. Here, a simple to use and workable H.265/HEVC Decoder program - Pavtube Video Converter is recommended to you, with the program, you can easily transcode H.265/HEVC MP4 or MOV files to PS4 playable formats listed above.

Tips:

1. When playing videos on PS4 from USB drive, make sure that your USB storage devices are in FAT or exFAT formats. I

2. PS4 can't play videos that larger than 4GB, if your video is larger than that file size, you can reduce its file size with no quality loss with the program's video trimming function to cut off unwanted parts or segments or split the large video into several small clips by file size, count or length.

3. Don't forget to create a folder and play all your videos into it when using the USB storage device so that the PS4 system can recognize and read them. There is no specific folder name required for videos, but audio needs to be in a folder named "music".

Besides converting H.265/HEVC to PS4, you can also use the program to convert other unsupported file formats including AVI, WMV, MP4, MKV, FLV, XAVC, XAVC S, AVCHD, etc for PS4 playback.

Stream H.265 to PS4 via Plex Media Server

Although PS4 doesn't support to directly play H.265/HEVC files, however, if you try to stream the H.265 files via Plex Media Server to PS4, the media server will transcode the H.265/HEVC to PS4 plex apps direct played file formats below:
Container: MP4
Resolution: 1920X1080 or smaller
Video Encoding: H.264 (level 4.0 or lower)
Audio Encoding: AAC
Bitrate: 20Mbps or lower

As the H.265/HEVC file transcoding process is very CPU intensive, if you do not have a better CPU, you will suffer video playback choppy issues. Then, it is much ideal for you to use our H.265 decoder software which is available on both Windows and Mac (get Mac version) to onvert H.265 to PS4 Plex app playable file formats listed above before streaming H.265 to PS4 via Plex Media Server.

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How to Convert H.265/HEVC for PS4 Playback from USB Drive or Plex Media Server?

Step 1: Load H.265/HEVC files into the program.

Install and launch the program on your computer, click "File" > "Add Video/Audio" or "Add from Folder" to load H.265/HEVC files into the program.

Step 2: Specify output file format.

Click "Format", from its drop-down option, choose PS4 supported MP4 video codec from "Common Video" > "H.264 High Profile Video(*.mp4)" to output.

Step 3: Adjust output audio codec.

Click "Settings" on the main interface to open the "Profile Settings" window, click "audio codec" drop-down list and select "AAC" or "AC3" as the compatible audio codec for PS4 playback.

Step 4: Trim or split video to shorten video length.

Trim to shorten video length

Open "Video Editor" window and switch to the "Trim" tab, you can drag the slider bars to include the segment you want to remain, click the left square bracket to set start point, and click the right square bracket to set end point when previewing the video or directly input specific values to "Start" and "End" box.

Split video into several small pieces

By clicking the Split button on file list, or from Edit menu, you can launch the Video Split window. Ticking Enable to enable it, and then you can split the file by file count, time length, or file size.

Step 5: Begin the conversion process.

Go back to the main interface, click right-bottom "Convert" button to begin the conversion from MKV to PS4 supported file formats conversion process.

When the conversion is completed, click "Open Output Folder" to pop out the folder with converted files, then you can easily play converted files on PS4 from external USB drive or via DLNA or Plex Media Server.

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