Sony Bravia TV won’t play HEVC x265 video via USB
“Hello guys, I have a Sony Bravia with a USB drive slot. I can play H.264 MKV on it via USB flash just fine, but when I’m trying to play a .mkv movie encoded with HEVC x265 codec, my Bravia TV can’t handle this. I know that my Sony Bravia supports mkv and x264 mp4, but I have no idea about the HEVC codec? Is that a codec issue? If that’s the case, is there anything I can do to solve it? Please suggest a solution. Thanks in advance.”
H.265/x265 files not play on your Sony TV? If for any reason you are having issues viewing HEVC files on Sony TV through USB drive, you may wish to read this article. It explains a way of converting HEVC media to H.264 MP4 for smooth playing on Sony TV through USB drive.
At the moment, if you recorded a 4K video with your mobile phone or watched a 4K video on the web, it was most likely encoded with the latest video compression standard – High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, or H.265). Support for 4K HEVC has been added to most new models of Sony Bravia TVs. Owners can smoothly play 4K HEVC via USB Flash via Bravia Media Player. However, if your TV doesn’t quite that new, you will fail to play a movie encoded with HEVC (H.265), even in its supported MP4 or MKV container. Currently, there are two options to go through this:
1)Switch to a new TV that supports HEVC codec natively;
2)Or convert HEVC video to a format that is compatible with your Bravia TV first. You can follow the guide below to encode HEVC media for your Bravia TV.
Part 1: How to encode HEVC x265 video for direct playing on Sony TVs on Windows?
To transcode HEVC/H.265 video files to H.264 MP4 for playing on a Sony TV on a Windows PC, follow these steps:
Step 1: Import HEVC video files
Launch U2USoft Total Video Converter for Windows and click “Add File” to load HEVC H.265 files that you want to convert into this program.
Download HEVC/H.265 Video Converter for Windows:
Step 2: Click “Profile” to select H.264 MP4 as output format
To convert HEVC media to 1080p H.264 MP4 for playing on your Sony TV via USB drive, simply select “HD Video” > “HD H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video (*.mp4)” as target format.
If your source HEVC files come with 4K quality and your Sony TV supports 4K video in H.264 encoded MP4 format, then you can choose “4K Video” > “4K H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video (*.mp4)” as target format. To choose 4K H.264 MP4 as output format, please make sure your Sony TV supports 4K H.264 MP4 first. If not, 1080p H.264 MP4 would be a recommended option.
Tips:
If necessary, you can click “Settings” button to modify video and audio parameters like encoder, resolution, frame rate, bitrate, aspect ratio, sample rate, and audio channels. You can also “Enable 3D Settings” to add 3D effect to your source media.
Step 3: Click “Convert” to start HEVC to Sony TV conversion on Windows.
As soon as the conversion is complete, click “Open Folder” to get the generated H.264 MP4 files for viewing on your Sony TV fluently.
Part 2: How to convert HEVC H.265 video for direct playing on Sony TVs on Mac?
To re-encode HEVC/H.265 to H.264 MP4 for playing on Sony TV on macOS, follow these steps:
Download HEVC/H.265 Converter for Mac:
Step 1: Import HEVC video files
Start up U2USoft Video Converter for Mac and click “Add File” to load HEVC H.265 files that you want to convert into this program.
Step 2: Click “Profile” to select H.264 MP4 as output format
To convert HEVC H.265 files to 1080p H.264 MP4 for playing on your Sony TV through USB drive, simply choose “HD Video” > “HD H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video (*.mp4)” as target format.
If you want to convert 4K H.265 to 4K H.264 .mp4 for your Sony TV, you can choose “4K Video” > “4K H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video (*.mp4)” as target format. To select 4K H.264 MP4 as output format, first of all, please make sure your Sony TV supports 4K H.264 MP4 playback. If not, we would recommend choosing 1080p H.264 MP4 as target format.
Tips:
If necessary, you can click “Settings” button to modify video and audio parameters like encoder, resolution, frame rate, bitrate, aspect ratio, sample rate, and audio channels. You can also “Enable 3D Settings” to add 3D effect to your source media.
Step 3: Click “Convert” to start HEVC to Sony TV conversion on macOS.
As soon as the conversion is complete, click “Open Folder” to get the exported H.264 MP4 files and add them to your Sony TV for playback through your USB drive with very good performance.
Quite a simple workflow. No extra transcoding is required while playing them on your Sony TV. Hope this will shed you some lights on your incompatibility issues while playing HEVC movies on your Sony TV.