Question

How to Watch HEVC Videos | How to Open HEIC Files

Answer 1

How to Watch HEVC Videos | How to Open HEIC Files

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Although the HEVC and HEIC format is becoming more widespread, we can find devices and systems that do not support it. One of the systems where this type of compression is being used the most is in iOS and macOS for your generated videos and images you will have this type of compression. That is why it is possible that when passing them to a Windows system we cannot read them correctly..

 

What is HEVC?

HEVC comes from the acronym High Efficiency Video Coding or High Efficiency Video Coding that can also be found under the name of H.265 or MPEG-H Part 2. It forms a standard in terms of video compression that allows a more efficient process with better quality when compressing. Let's say you can do compression with twice the data but needing about half the bit rate to get the same video quality with smaller file sizes compared to the H.264 standard.

 

With the arrival of 4K video files in advance, we find ourselves with very large storage sizes, so when it comes to sharing or working with them it becomes more complicated and by reducing their size you tend to lose a lot of quality. That is why with HEVC encoding we will have good qualities at affordable final sizes.

 

What is HEIC?

HEIC files are image formats that since 2017 Apple has implemented as a standard in its iOS and macOS systems. It corresponds to the acronym “High Efficiency Image Container” or high efficiency image container and would be the update of the format known as HEIF that it used previously.

 

Using the HEIC image format we will get higher quality images than other formats such as JPEG, taking up less space thanks to the compression technology used. The HEIC format will use the HEVC standard to compress images, consuming half the space that another format such as JPEG can occupy.

 

 

That is why we are going to see how we can get to watch HEVC videos and open HEIC image files in Windows easily.

 

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How to Watch HEVC Videos | How to Open HEIC Files

Let's see how to view HEVC files and HEIC files on Windows easily.

 

How to Open HEIC Files Windows

In order to view HEIC image files in Windows we can use some codecs provided by Microsoft in its own store. On some devices you will see that they are already installed by default, but if this is not the case you will have to do it manually as follows.

 

We open Microsoft Store from the Windows start menu by doing a search..

 

 

Now we will do a search by putting “HEIF image extensions” or by following the following link:

 

 HEIF Image Extensions

 

 

Here we will click on install in case we see that we do not already have it installed. If it is ready we can see the “Open” option.

 

 

 

When we open we will see the "Movies and TV" application with which we can open our photos and videos including HEIC format..

 

 

 

 

How to Watch HEVC Videos with Codec

We have already seen that Microsoft gives codecs to view HEIC files on its Windows system and it is something that will also allow us if we want to watch HEVC videos. In order to see this type of video, we are going to have some official codecs from Microsoft that you can find if you search for "HEVC video extensions" in the Microsoft store or go to the following link:

 

 HEVC Video Extensions

 

 

Later we will see that it sets a price to acquire it officially. Although it is true that before Microsoft allowed it to be purchased for free, today it is necessary to buy it. It is not a high cost and the codec is supported by Microsoft, so if you work a lot with these videos it would be advisable to purchase it. There are websites that claim to give these codecs for free, but be careful not to install software from third-party sites that may contain malicious content.

 

 

 

How to Watch HEVC Videos with VLC

Another option is that we use some kind of external player that allows us that compatibility with HEVC files. This is the case of VLC, a totally free and well-known video viewing tool that in recent updates has included the option to view HEVC files so it will be easier to view this type of file. We are going to install and use VLC to watch HEVC videos.

 

The first thing will be to install VLC from its official site if we don't have it yet. To do this we will go to the following link:

 

 Install VLC Windows

 

 

We open VLC once installed. We click on "Media - Open file" or the following combination:

 

Ctrl + O

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We choose the location of our file and open it. In order to find it you will have to activate the “All files” option in the lower right window.

 

 

Our file will start playing:

 

 

If we want these videos to open automatically with VLC, we right click on it and choose “Open with”.

 

 

We will press and activate the option "Always use this application to open .hevc files"
Then click on "More applications" for the complete list.

 

 

We go down the list and select VLC. Then click "OK" to apply the changes. In this way, when opening this type of file, it will open with VLC as a player automatically.

 

 

 

In this way we can see HEVC video files and HEIC photos within Windows PC systems when we want to see themes

 

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