Came upon no image issues working with HEVC H.265 files in Hitfilm? You are not alone. Lots of users have reported the same issue. Currently, transcoding HEVC files to DNxHD or ProRes codec would be a workable solution.
Hitfilm 2017 won’t recognize HEVC files properly
“I’ve had a Samsung NX500 for years, and a new iPhone X for one week. Both of them use HEVC （H.265 ） for video recordings. When I try to open the HEVC videos in Hitfilm 2017, only the audio is showing. Am I doing anything wrong or is HEVC/H.265 not a supported file type? If it isn’t what should I do? I’m using a Windows PC. Thanks for any help.”
The fact that some modern cameras/phones support HEVC/H.265 doesn’t make it a good idea to record with it. It’s a great delivery codec, given its astonishing image quality relative to compression ratio and all, but it’s VERY compute heavy and will make editing a royal pain in the booty. You’d end up transcoding to an edit-friendly mezzanine codec anyway just for performance reasons. Here’s a guide displaying how to convert HEVC files to DNxHD or ProRes for Hitfilm editing.
How to encode HEVC H.265 video for Hitfilm?
Here’s what you need
HD Video Converter
Step 1: Start up HD Video Converter as an HEVC H.265 video to Hitfilm Converter.
Step 2: Click ‘Add File’ to import your source media to the program.
Step 3: Select output format
* If you are on a Windows PC, from the “Profile” bar, choose ‘Avid DNxHD 1080p (*.mov)’ as output under ‘Avid Media Composer’ column. (See the screenshot above)
** If you are on a Mac computer, choose ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as target under ‘Final Cut Pro’ catalogue.
*** Note that this converter program can only output Apple ProRes and DNxHD video up to 1080p, if you want to preserve 4K quality of your source files, you need to select “4K Video” > “4K H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video (*.mp4)” as target format. To export 4K files, please make sure your computer has enough power to process 4K. If not, simply select Apple ProRes or DNxHD as output format depending on your OS.
Step 4: Custom video and audio settings (for advanced users)
Click ‘Settings’ button, the ‘Profile Settings’ panel pops up, on which you are able to modify video and audio settings like resolution, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channel.
Step 5: When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start transcoding HEVC H.265 files to Hitfilm 2017 supported format. As soon as the conversion is complete, click ‘Open Folder’ button to locate the generated files and now you are able to open them in Hitfilm 2017 for further editing smoothly.
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