HEVC 10-bit (x265) stutters or won’t play?

Drop the file to see its codec, bit depth and level, and whether your device can decode it in hardware.

Your files stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded.

1 Your TV, box or projector

Not on the list? Paste the “supported formats” table from the manual

2 Your videos

Drop videos or a whole folder here Series, films, home videos — any number, any size. .srt files with the same name are picked up as subtitles.

3 USB stick, sound and subtitles

Fit everything on a stick of Stick format Split files over 4 GB into parts instead of shrinking them Picture quality Tidy up: “Show/Season 01/Show S01E02”, safe file names

Audio language (first available wins) Sound Night mode: quiet dialogue louder, explosions softer Same loudness for every episode (EBU R128) Subtitles

4 Save to the stick or a folder

Long batch? Leave the tab open and visible — the screen is kept awake. If the tab is closed, open the page again and press “Continue”: finished files are skipped.

What breaks

H.264 10-bit (“Hi10P”) — practically no TV or box decodes it in hardware (LibreELEC: no Hi10P on Amlogic S805/S905/S912).
HEVC Main 10 — fine on most 4K TVs since 2016, but unreliable on Fire TV Sticks, S905W boxes, PS4/PS5 (no HEVC from USB at all) and FHD-only TVs.
H.264 level above 4.1/4.2 — “stick to High@L4.1, above that support drops dramatically” is the long-standing advice.
4K or 60 fps on a 1080p box or a 720p projector.

The fix

Re-encode to 8-bit H.264 High@L4.1 at the device’s resolution and frame rate. CompressLab decodes HEVC 10-bit with your graphics card and encodes H.264 in hardware — usually 5–10× faster than real time.

Questions

Is HEVC smaller than H.264?

Yes, about 30% at the same quality. If your device plays HEVC and your computer has a hardware HEVC encoder, CompressLab offers “Smaller files with HEVC”.

Last updated: 2026-10-30