---
title: Using FFmpeg to Create HEVC Videos That Work on Apple Devices
description: The HEVC (H.265) video codec will produce smaller file sizes at the same level of video quality. FFmpeg can create those files, however, a certain tag is needed for the files to be recognized by Apple software.
date: 2019-03-17
url: https://aaron.cc/ffmpeg-hevc-apple-devices/
---


[**HEVC** (High Efficiency Video Coding)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Video_Coding), also known as **H.265**, is a video compression standard that, compared to it predecessor [H.264](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC), offers from 25 % to 50 % better data compression at the same level of video quality. Apple’s operating systems [natively support HEVC since iOS 11 and macOS High Serria](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207022). FFmpeg can create those files, however, a certain tag is needed for the files to be recognized by Apple software.

## TL;DR

Use the `-tag:v hvc1` parameter in your FFmpeg command make your HEVC file work on Apple devices.

**Full example:**

```
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx265 -crf 28 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -tag:v hvc1 output.mp4
```

## My Usecase: Old DV Material in iCloud Photos

I have hours of home video material lying around on my file server, recorded with an ancient Hi8 camcorder back in the 90s. I had digitalized those tapes in 2008 using a more modern Hi8 camcorder with digital output, resulting in [DV-encoded](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV) AVI files. In this format, 60 minutes need around 13 GB, which is fine for high-quality long-term archival, but not for quick access from everywhere. Since my goal is to import those videos into iCloud Photos, I needed to find a suitable format to transcode to.

## Using FFmpeg to Convert to HEVC

FFmpeg is *the* utility when it comes to converting video or audio files. However, when simply using the HEVC encoding command suggested in the [FFmpeg H.265 Encoding Guide](https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.265), you will notice that the resulting video file won’t have a thumbnail icon in Finder and won’t play in QuickTime Player or on any iDevice (it will play in [VLC](https://www.videolan.org/vlc/) though).

To make it Apple-friendly, we’ll need to add an “hvc1” tag. We can do this with the following command (assuming your original file is called `input.avi`):

```
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx265 -crf 28 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -tag:v hvc1 output.mp4
```

**Note:** I’m using FFmpeg Version 4.1.1 here. If you’re on an older version, this might not work. You can check your FFmpeg version by running `ffmpeg` without any parameters.

### The CRF Value

The number after `-crf` defines the video quality of the resulting file. In the example above, I have used the default CRF value of **28** (for H.264, the default was 23 which, [according to FFmpeg’s encoding guide](https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.265), should be visually equivalent).

I suggest you play with this value until you find the best compromise between file size and video quality. The scale goes from **0** (lossless) to **51** (worst quality). I ended up using **22** which, at the cost of a larger file, provides better quality than the default. To determine this value, I encoded a short video clip with different CRF values (e.g. 0 for reference, 20, 22, 25, 31), took screenshots, and compared the stills to the reference until I found the difference to be small enough. I found my sweet spot at **22** where the difference to 20 was so minor that I didn’t find it worth wasting space for only subtle quality improvement. You’re mileage my vary.

### Tagging Existing HEVC Files

If you have already converted a bunch of files to HEVC, but forgot to add the tag, don’t worry—you can add the tag after the fact without re-encoding the files:

```
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -tag:v hvc1 output.mp4
```

The *`-vcodec copy` and `-acodec copy` arguments will instruct FFmpeg to copy the source streams and not to re-encode them.*

## Batch-Convert a Folder

To make this even more useful, you can use the following command that recursively walks over a folder structure to convert all **\*.avi** to HEVC. It will start in the current directory, leaving the original files untouched.

```
find . -name *.avi -exec sh -c \
    'ffmpeg -i "$1" -c:v libx265 -crf 28 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -tag:v hvc1 "${1%.avi}.mp4"' _ {} \;
```

## Further Reading

- [HEVC output is not playable by QuickTime on macOS 10.13 High Sierra Beta 6](https://github.com/donmelton/video_transcoding/issues/160)
- [CRF Guide (Constant Rate Factor in x264 and x265)](https://slhck.info/video/2017/02/24/crf-guide.html)
- [FFmpeg and H.265 Encoding Guide](https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.265)