H.265 will surely become the mainstream video codec soon. Nowadays H.265/HEVC is widely used to shoot 4K recordings by many professional cameras such as Samsung NX1, Sony PMW-F55, Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4, BlackMagic Ursa, etc. Have some H.265 videos and want to edit them in Adobe Premiere but only found can’t work with H.265 file in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4/CS5/CS3/CS6/CC:
“I know that Premiere is h.265 compatible, but apparently not with DJIs version. It won’t import. Any work arounds?”
“I decided to give a trial a shot of adobe premiere pro, I have never used it before (coming from sony vegas). But it won’t import any of my h265 files that were recorded from my drone footage (DJI). These are the raw files from the drone, have not been transcoded or touched. When I try to import them it says “unsuported format or damaged file”. I can import h264 recorded footage from the same drone without issue. Any ideas?”
It is officially stated that H.265/HEVC is supported by Adobe Premiere. Why so many people are encounter problems when working with H.265 files in Premiere Pro? Read on to find the reasons and the solutions.
Reasons and Solutions for H.265/HEVC Doesn’t work with Premiere Pro
| 1. Premier supports h.265 files but the P4P h.265 files are not recognized by any of the Adobe apps such as Premiere Pro CS5/CS4. Get the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro CC. |
| 2. Adobe is ALWAYS slow on this stuff. Lightroom won’t have the lens corrections in there for 2-3 months, also. You can try DaVinci Resolve. |
| 3. What’s the format of your HEVC video, MOV format or MP4? The reports are only accepting MP4 not MOV formats. If you shot h.265 in MOV, you can go into the folder where your files are from and edit the name of the file by changing the extension from a .MOV file to a .MP4 extension and accept the change of extension and then drag and drop into Premiere. |
| 4. When you first try to import HEVC video to Premiere Pro, you need to install the HEVC codec, and by clicking “Ok”, it will do it automatically and then import the video just fine. |
| 5. You can solve the issue by converting h265 from P4P to Prorres HQ with DJI TRANSCODING TOOLS.https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/inspire_1/DJI_Transcoding_Tool_v0.9.2.dmg |
| 6. As stated above, use .mp4 and have an updated version of Premiere. If you have the CC license, it should be up to date already. Older CS versions don’t support H.265. Keep in mind that 4K H.265 footage requires a ridiculous amount of processing power if you want to edit it in its original format, so you might want to create proxies of the clips before you start editing. Unless you have a very high-end PC. |
| 7. Adobe first started support HEVC in CC2015 so any earlier versions don’t have the codec. When you first try and import a H265 file a message should appear telling you that you need to license the codec . The license is part of Premiere Pro CC but not automatically turned on for every user unless they use it. WHY? there is actually a license fee that Adobe manage for you and it gets activated with your first Import or Export. You need to be connected to the internet for the first time you use it and once you do that you don’t need to be connected to license again unless you re-install or there is a major update. Adobe is always “tweaking” playback with CPU/GPU support. H265 playback is decent in Premiere Pro CC 2017. Lots of people use it as a .265 player – BUT, Encoding takes a longtime. |
Ultimate Solution – Convert H.265/HEVC to MPEG-2 for Premiere Pro
HEVC/H.265 is stuttery and slow to edit, even on a really solid studio-pc. Fortunately, there is an easy and quick solution to fix all the H.265 and Premiere Pro issues. All you have to do is transcode H.265 to a more editing-friendly format like MPEG-2 or ProRes for Adobe Premiere. Along with some help from a third-party program like U2USoft Video Converter for Mac, you can achieve your goal smoothly. This program features high efficiency and seamless conversion. With it, you can convert HEVC/H.265 MP4, HEVC MOV, 4K HEVC/H.265 to Adobe Premiere friendly movie format like MPEG-2, MOV (Note: it applies to all kinds of Adobe Premiere including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3/ CS4/ CS5/CS6/CC) keeping the original quality.
Besides Adobe Premiere, this software can also export various other professional encoders – Apple Intermediate Codec, ProRes and DNxHD, DVCPRO, HDV, MPEG-2 – ensuring maximum editing quality and efficiency when working with iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Elements, After Effects and more. If you’re a Windows users, simply turn its alternative choice – U2USoft Total Video Converter for Windows.
Now download the program according to your computer OS and follow the step-by-step guide below to start encoding H.265 for Adobe Premiere Pro.
Download HEVC/H.265 to Adobe Premiere Pro Converter:
Step 1. Import H.265/HEVC videos
Install the H.265 to Premiere Pro Converter and run it. Drag the H.265/HEVC files to the software. Or you can also click “Add” button on the top of the main interface to import video to the program. (Note: batch conversion is supported, so you can load more than one file to save time.)
Step 2. Selec output format
The program has three already optimized the video settings for Adobe Premiere. You can select MOV, WMV or MPEG-2 from “Editing Software” as the output format. Here we recommend you choose MPEG-2. The output videos will keep the original quality of the H.265 video and seamlessly fit Adobe Premiere CC, CS6, CS5.5, CS5, CS4, etc.
Step 3. Set Advance Settings (Optional)
The default setting works well. Of course, if you want to customize video and audio encoding settings, just click the “Settings” button to customize these settings. You can adjust the output video/audio resolution, frame rate, bit rate, etc. to customize the output files to get the best quality you want. For smooth editing, you’re recommended to compress 4K to 1080p by choose the output file resolution as 1920*1080 from “Size(pix)” drop-down option.
Step 4. Start converting H.265/HEVC files
Click the big “Convert” button in the main UI to begin the H.265 to MPEG-2 conversion. You can see your converted videos by clicking “Open” button.
Then you are able to import and edit H.265/HEVC footage in Premiere Pro CC without any problem. Enjoy!