How can I play an HEVC/H.265 file on Roku 3?


If you are trying to transfer HEVC/H.265 video files onto Roku 3 for playback, you may wish to read this post. It displays a workaround to convert H.265/HEVC files to H.264 MP4 files for viewing on Roku 3 fluently.
transfer HEVC/H.265 files onto Roku 3
Roku 3 can’t play H.265 video files?
“Hi there, I have a Roku 3 and use Plex all the time to play my stuff. I recently got some H.265 files from a friend. When I try and play them back through Plex onto the Roku 3, Plex says it can’t find the video. I have tried forcing Plex to transcode, but it still doesn’t work. Any thoughts? Please help.”

The most recent Roku 4 has added 4K support for HEVC/H.265 files. For those who are still using Roku 3, we are afraid Plex cannot accept H.265/HEVC as input and play via Plex. H.264 MP4 would be a better choice for Plex playback, so our suggestion is to encode your H.265/HEVC films to H.264 MP4 for Roku 3 first. Here’s a quick guide displaying how to convert H.265/HEVC files for Roku 3 playback.

How to make HEVC/H.265 files playable on Roku 3?

HD Video Converter is a great application to convert video files, available for Windows and Mac computers.
convert H.265/HEVC files to H.264 MP4 files for Roku 3Roku 3 can’t play H.265 video files
Note that the Mac version of this converter is not able to handle HEVC/H.265 videos, to convert HEVC/H.265 files for Roku 3 on a Mac machine, please try this HEVC/H.265 Converter for Mac.

The steps:
Step 1: Start up HD Video Converter as the best H.265/HEVC Converter for Roku. When its main interface pops up, click ‘Add File’ to load your video files. You can load multiple files at a time. To join the imported video files into one, simply tick off the checkbox before ‘Merge into one file’.
encode H.265/HEVC films to H.264 MP4 for Roku 3

Step 2: Select H.264 MP4 as output format
Form ‘Profile’ list, choose ‘HD Video’ > ‘HD H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video (*.mp4)’ as output format.
convert H.265/HEVC files for Roku 3 playback
Important: If you’ve loaded a number of video clips to do batch conversion, please do remember ticking off ‘Apply to All’ option before you start.

Step 3: Custom video and audio settings
If necessary, you can click ‘Settings’ button and go to ‘Profiles Settings’ panel to modify video and audio settings like video encoder, resolution, video bit rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio encoder, sample rate, audio bit rate, and audio channels. 3D settings are also available.

Step 4: Start converting HEVC/H.265 video for Roku 3
When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start format conversion. As soon as the conversion is complete, you can click ‘Open Folder’ button to get the exported H.264 MP4 files for playback on the Roku 3 fluently.

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