Top 5 Free H.265 Players Software - Alternative Solutions to Play HEVC Videos

H.265, also known as HEVC, stands for High Efficiency Video Coding which is designed to substantially improve coding efficiency compared to H.264/AVC. HEVC encoders offers about double the data compression ratio at the same level of video quality, or substantially improved video quality at the same bit rate. It supports resolutions up to 8192×4320, including 8K UHD, needless to say the 4K contents. However, playing H.265 files can be tricky, that's why this article coming out to explain you how to play HEVC videos in different ways to show off your widescreen TV even the new 77-inch OLED.

➤ Part 1: Reviews of the top 5 free H.265/HEVC Video Players

➤ Part 2: Alternative Solutions to Play H.265/HEVC Videos

Reviews of the top 5 free H.265/HEVC Video Players

H.265/HEVC is a cutting-edge, high-efficiency video codec that particularly useful for streaming 4K/8K video. Higher efficiency usually comes with complexity that is why H.265 codec is far more difficult to play. However, it is worth noting that H.265 format is not supported by all the mainstream devices, which makes playing H.265 files on incompatible devices impossible unless you have a professional H.265 player. So don't be chaotic, Here we already picked out the top 5 free H.265/HEVC players for you before making decent choice.

Top 1. 8K Player

Instead of jumping to another OS or installing heavy codec packs, 8K Player is the best free H.265 player software with its high compatibility to decode and enhance video files with H.265 codec, so you can view H.265 videos on your Windows (10) without degrading the video quality, no matter what the videos are packed in the formats of MKV, MP4 or AVI etc. Embedded with hundreds of video audio decoder, you can also watch all media files even 4K/8K/DVD/Blu-ray in multiple video codecs such as H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, etc. without any stuttering.No adware, malware and spam! For mac users, please turn to 8K Player for Mac.

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Top 2. VLC Media Player

VLC is a free and open-source media player developed by VideoLAN. It has been famous especially among Americans for many years. It can play many codecs without the need of codec packs. But for playing an HEVC format video, it requires to download a specific x265 as a free software library and application for encoding video streams into the H.265/MPEG-H HEVC compression format. But if you click the "Download x265" button on that page, a landing page of "400 Couldn't parse URL" would appear and you will fail in downloading the H.265 encoder for VLC. And because of the non-profit volunteering organization of VideoLAN, VLC lacks of timely support help and bug fixing.In this case, this HEVC player is more suitable for the users with a solid expertise base.

Top 3. Potplayer

Potplayer also serves as a free HEVC player for HEVC/H.265 encoded videos playing as well as any other multimedia formats or codecs like H.264, MP4, FLV, MKV, AVI, MOV etc. Besides, other than the powerful ability of playing HEVC codec videos, you can also download 3D and blu-ray movies/videos for playing on this marvelous video player, which makes it unique among the best HEVC players. But sadly it's only available on Windows.

Top 4. KMPlayer

KMPlayer is a versatile media player which can cover various types of container format such as VCD, DVD, AVI, MKV, Ogg Theora, OGM, 3GP, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, exclusive AIFF file and QuickTime among others. It handles a wide range of subtitles and allows you to capture audio, video, and screenshots in many ways. The player provides both internal and external filters with a fully controlled environment in terms of connections to other splitters, decoders, audio/video transform filters and renderers without grappling with the DirectShow merit system, make it as one of the excellent HEVC/H.265 players, even though it uses to installing bloatware together with insane ads at the startup.

Top 5. GOM Player

GOM Player(short for Gretech Online Movie Player) is a free media player for Windows, developed by the Gretech Corporation of South Korea. The fantastic ability to play some broken media files and find missing codecs using a codec finder service are just some of the most important features that helped GOM Player become one of the most mass-appealed media utilities out there to play HEVC/H.265 video smoothly. However, as most of you probably know, GOM Player's installer used to offer and install lots of third-party software like adware, malware and spam, as well as change the search engine of your web browsers, which probably make users unbearable.

Alternative Solutions to Play H.265/HEVC Videos

Apart from H.265/HEVC media player software, actually, there are still other alternative solutions if your devices failed to play HEVC video files. That is, making good use of H.265 codec pack to make your media player recognize your HEVC videos, and the H.265 video converter to help you convert and decode HEVC video in other video codecs that are friendly with your media player.

Solution 1. Decode H.265 to H.264 and others

Using 4K/H.265 video converter to decode H.265 to H.264 and other compatible video codec files is an alternative solution if your devices can't play H.265 videos. To make the HEVC videos playback smoother, Dimo Video Converter Ultimate (the same functions in its Mac version) is highly recommended to convert both UHD/HD and SD videos, for example, from H.265 to H.264, H.264 to H.265, MKV to MP4, AVI to WMV, VOB to MPEG, FLV, MOV and so on.

With all the mainstream mobile devices supported, it also can change aspect ratio of videos for widescreen display to adjust any entertainment devices, such as iPhone X/8/8 Plus, iPad Pro, Apple TV 4K, Xbox One S, PS4, Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, etc.. Try the video conversion and many other features hidden in it!

Solution 2. Install plugin of H.265 video codec pack

Download and install an H.265 video codec pack on your computer to turn your media player into an HEVC media player. You could get multiple choices online, like x265 Upgrade, DivX HEVC, K-Lite Mega Codec Pack, etc.

Simple in management and diversity in enjoyment, get your best way to play your H.265/HEVC video files here and now! Still got trouble to view H.265/HEVC video? Please feel free to Email Us with detailed information of your device such as device model, build number, kernel version and else. Attach some snapshots would be better.