Paid utility for viewing HEVC files
HEVC Video Extensions is a paid utility software developed by Microsoft Corporation. It installs video extensions on your device that allow it to recognize and read High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) video formats. These extensions are designed to take advantage of your system’s hardware capabilities to offer a better compression ratio and play videos with better quality.
Similar to other driver utilities like Securable, HEVC Video Extensions uses your existing hardware to give you additional capabilities. In this case, you can play HEVC videos and you can even select the video player that will play these files by default.
An industry standard for videos
HEVC Video Extensions lets you run HEVC files, also known in the industry as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, was originally developed to be the successor to the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) tech, also known as H.264. AVC was one of the compression schemes used in Blu-Ray video technology. HEVC aims to deliver the same video quality as AVC but with better compression, so it should result in smaller file sizes. This is important in playing 4K and Ultra HD broadcasts without overloading your device with large files.
While your device’s hardware is the main factor in playing high-definition video files, having HEVC Video Extensions can help you enjoy better quality through its software support. This means that for devices with no built-in support for HEVC videos, the utility will create the necessary configuration to allow viewing of these files. However, take note that the playback experience still varies.
For video editors, these extensions do more than just let you watch high-resolution videos with better compression. You can also encode HEVC content for devices that do not have a built-in hardware-based video encoder. This means that you can process your high-definition raw files or externally taken videos, and process them to become HEVC encoded files. This way, you can also create files that have the compression quality and file size savings from this coding technology.
Risks and limitations
One of the most common problems for using HEVC Video Extensions on your device is playback issues. Depending on the hardware available on their system, users experience different problems from reduced video quality to downright inability to play the video files. These issues could also be caused by an outdated system, which causes your video players to lag and stutter. Of course, these problems could be solved with a hardware upgrade or by updating your video codecs.
Also, while the HEVC extensions allow you to encode HEVC content, it is important to know that the encoding process is notoriously resource-intensive. Depending on the processing capabilities of your device, it could take longer. This gets worse if you’re running other apps in the background. Attempting to encode HEVC content with other apps running could ultimately cause your device to heat up and slow down.
Great for a specialized task
For preparing your device for HEVC files, HEVC Video Extensions is a great addition to any setup. Although this is a paid software, it makes up for it by giving you all you need regarding this coding technology. You can view HEVC video files and even encode files in the same coding protocol. However, this largely depends on the hardware available on your device, and running it with systems of lower specification could create playback and encoding problems.
