How to Play HEVC/X265 video on Samsung Smart TV? 

Date September 21, 2016 Author Catherine Category TV, Video Tips

Does Samsung Smart TV play H.265/HEVC video? We can’t say Yes or No simply cause it depends on your TV models. Normally, for 98 percent of 4K models support to play x265 video. And some 2014/2015 HD TV models also can handle H.265/HEVC codec. So when playing HEVC/x265 video on your Smart TV no matter with Plex or via USB stick, you’d better check your manual in advance, otherwise, you probably meet x265 video playback issues on Samsung Smart TV as below.

HEVC/H.265 Playback Issues on Samsung Smart TV

"When I access plex and playback HEVC X265 videos. They work fine when receiving them on a roku 3. When I move to another TV (Samsung smart tv) I get an error that the file is not supported. and a message saying enable transcoding on playback may fix the problem. My Samsung smart hub version is 4.6261-5.0"

" I have a laptop (Windows 10) with an external hard drive attached containing all my movies and series. I have the latest version of Plex Media Server installed on my laptop (Windows 10, i5, 4GB RAM). Everything streams perfectly on my Samsung Smart TV in the Plex app except for HEVC (h265) content."

"Hi, This is my current setup:
Synology DS213+ (DSM 5.2)
PMS v0.9.15.6
Samsung UE40JU6440 (With built-in Plex client)

I seem to be having issues trying to stream an x265 encoded stream using Plex. I get the message that “This server is not powerful enough."

Solutions and Suggestions Given in the Forum

1. x265 should by default with 2014, 2015 models with the latest plex servers. my 2015 works without problems at any x265 I throw at it.

2. Make sure your model supports X265 and that you select the Direct Play mode so it will not transcode the movie. 
Samsung also has some limitations on which containers it supports for this type of codec.

3. HEVC is a bit different, because new high end models can play HEVC directly, however other models don’t. But since it’s a supported codec for some Samaung Smart TV, it will still try to play it in direct play mode. In order for you to view HEVC you need:

• A capable PMS server to transcode H265 (the output in H264 will actually be bigger than the original)
• To Switch the playback mode on the Pre-Play screen to Transcoding, before you start the movie.

4. If your Plex is not power enough to handle HEVC/H.265 video on Samsung Smart TV, you’re perhap able to try put video to USB stick then plug the USB drive to USB port on Samsung Smart TV for streaming.

Read Also: H.265 to Roku ｜H.265 to LG TV | H.265 to Full Ms 2008 Server | H.265 to VLC | H.265 to Android

Easiest Way to Solve HEVC/H.265 Playback on Samsung Smart TV Issues

When your Samsung TV is H.265 supported model or your plex can transcode the codec without hassles, you will be a happy man. But if your Samsung Smart TV is an older version or your Plex can’t play H.265 video, what should you do? The easiest way is to transcode H.265 to H.264 codec video with some video transcoders.

By converting H.265 to H.264 video, you don’t need to check your TV specs cause all Samsung TV models can play H.264 codec video only if the format is supported by Samsung TV.

‘F’ Range(2013) of Samsung Televisions support the following file types:

● Music: aac, flac, m4a, mpa, mp3, ogg, wma

● Video: 3gp, avi, asf, flv, m2ts, mkv, mov, mp4, mpg, mts, svi, ts, tp, trp, vob, vro, webm, wmv

● Subtitles: ass, psb, smi, srt, ssa, sub, ttxt, txt

With .avi, .mkv, and .mp4 files, the TV supports embedded subtitles.

So make sure not the codec is H.264, but the format is comaptible with Samsung TV while converting H.265 video to Samsung Smart TV.

Best TV Video Converter to Transcode H.265 to Samsung Smart TV

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate (Mac version) is an effective Video to Samsung TV Converter. It can transcode any Samsung unsupported A/V codec to supported one and convert any format to Samsung playable one. Batch conversion is a surprise feature which allows you batch convert H.265 video to Samsung Smart TV video. Learn its main features below:

– Transcode H.265 codec to H.264 for Samsung Smart TV 4K models and non-4k models.

– Convert H.265 codec video to XviD/DivX AVI, MPEG-4 MP4/MKV, wmv(VC1) for Samsung Smart TV.

– When exporting Samsung TV supported video codec, allowing you to choose the AAC, AC3 audio codec.

– Convert unsupported  MKV, AVI, MP4, Tivo, WMV, MOV, FLV, 3GP, VRO, TS, etc video to Samsung Smart TV playable video format/codec.

–  Hard burn *.srt, *.ass, and *.ssa subtitle files to videos when you can’t play video on Samsung Smart TV with subtitle.

Free Download Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate:

Steps to Transcode H.265 video to Samsung Smart TV

Step 1. Download this best Smart TV Video Converter and Install and run it, click the right icon “Add video”to load your H.265 video files. You can add multiple files into it at a time to do batch conversion.

Step 2. Select best format for Samsung Smart TV. Click the drop-down button on the right side of the “Format” to select suitable formats from “TVs” Category. 

Step 3. Check the pencil-like icon to activate the editing function. Here you can trim video for your needed length, crop video to get rid of annoying black edges, join multiple video clips into one, add text/image watermark and add subtitles. For example, if the original movie has no subtitle or the subtitles you need, you can download it from website and then add the subtitles into the output videos for full enjoyment with this software.

Step 4. Convert H.265/HEVC Videos for Smart TV.

Go back to the main UI and just one click the red button “Convert” to realize conversion from your videos to Smart TV. Once conversion is done, you can click “Open” button to get the final output files.

You can transfer the video to USB stick then stream media on Samsung Smart TV via USB Stick or put converted H.265 video on sharing folder of Plex for viewing on Samsung Smart TV.