HEVC / H265 video conversion on Android

[Steve75]

Hello community,

I've spent hours and hours looking for a standalone app (apk) for Android that allows video encoding to H265/HEVC. The only solution I found out there is a ffmpeg sourcecode, that needs to be compiled, which is something I have zero experience with. I might have overlooked some apk that could do the job, because search engines gave me practically hundreds of results for video-players that can DEcode h265 videos ( ) . Is there any product out there, preferably one with a GUI, that can do HEVC ENcoding on Android?

[Tom Saurus]

I know that h.265 encoding pushes the limits of my i5 desktop and I would imagine it would be much more so for an Android box. I suggest getting yourself a desktop for such tasks. However there are people with much more knowledge here who will probably point you to a way of doing this on your Android box.

[Steve75]

I know that h.265 encoding pushes the limits of my i5 desktop and I would imagine it would be much more so for an Android box. I suggest getting yourself a desktop for such tasks. However there are people with much more knowledge here who will probably point you to a way of doing this on your Android box.

Thanks. The situation is like this: I will be on a stay in a rather primitive area of our world, that can easily take several years, and most of the time I'll be without Internet and have to recharge my electronic devices with solar panels. I will have to get the most out of my cellphone's internal storage and the 200g SD-card in it. HEVC could save me 60-70% of the space, H264 would take. And since I have to live out of a backpack, a desktop computer is out of the question. It doesn't matter for me, if an encoding job takes longer.

[Tom Saurus]

Steve75: It sounds like quite the adventure and hopefully it all goes well. The technology advances are quite astounding. I am certain that you will get some good advice here at Videohelp; I know I have over the years that I have been checking in here. I will do some research of my own to try to help you, though my first search on Ecosia didn't reveal anything that was of most use.

[usually_quiet]

I don't think there are any Android devices with enough processing power to do HEVC encoding, even very slowly.

The new June Lake NUCs with 10W Pentium processors, rumored to be released this quarter, are the only tiny, ultra-low power computers I found which might be able to encode HEVC (using Intel Quick Sync on their iGPU) but would run Windows 10 or maybe Linux. The cases typically measure 4.5 x 1.4 x 4.4 inches or 4.5 x 2 x 4.4. The shipping weight for current NUCs is listed on Amazon at about 3 lbs. They aren't super cheap, and buyers usually need to add memory, storage, and an OS. They aren't battery powered. I think that even with a small keyboard with a touchpad this is too much to carry around in a backpack.

[Tom Saurus]

I just found these:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=roman10.media.converter&hl=en_GB

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.AndroidA.MediaConverter&hl=en_GB

I will step away and let other posters give you the advice you need as I have never tried those apps and they may have something better for you to check out.

[Tom Saurus]

I wonder if there is some type of cloud service for the times when you do have internet access that you could upload your files to and that could do the encoding you want. Maybe you could just upload your stuff and store it on the cloud. Maybe send your files to a friend with a desktop and they could encode and send it back to you. I am sure there are more technology advances coming down the pike. Maybe you could start a YouTube Channel and post your videos there. I think I better stop now and let "usually_quiet" and some other posters give you their advice as they have the depth of knowledge that you need.

[Steve75]

I just found these:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=roman10.media.converter&hl=en_GB

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.AndroidA.MediaConverter&hl=en_GB

I will step away and let other posters give you the advice you need as I have never tried those apps and they may have something better for you to check out.

Thank you. They both offer H264 encoding, unfortunately not H265 / HEVC :/

[Steve75]

I don't think there are any Android devices with enough processing power to do HEVC encoding, even very slowly.

The new June Lake NUCs with 10W Pentium processors, rumored to be released this quarter, are the only tiny, ultra-low power computers I found which might be able to encode HEVC (using Intel Quick Sync on their iGPU) but would run Windows 10 or maybe Linux. The cases typically measure 4.5 x 1.4 x 4.4 inches or 4.5 x 2 x 4.4. The shipping weight for current NUCs is listed on Amazon at about 3 lbs. They aren't super cheap, and buyers usually need to add memory, storage, and an OS. They aren't battery powered. I think that even with a small keyboard with a touchpad this is too much to carry around in a backpack.

Thank you.

Currently I use a Core2 Duo based Desktop PC system from 2006 to do my encoding - incl. H265. And yes, it is very slow. You can multiply the normal playtime of a video by the factor 20 for HEVC encoding.

The really funny thing is: My smartphone is more (!) powerful, since it has an 8-core CPU with a max. speed of over 2Ghz per core. So, if there was a HEVC-encoder out there, running under Android, I assume encoding times would even be smaller than they are with my PC

[Steve75]

I wonder if there is some type of cloud service for the times when you do have internet access that you could upload your files to and that could do the encoding you want. Maybe you could just upload your stuff and store it on the cloud. Maybe send your files to a friend with a desktop and they could encode and send it back to you. I am sure there are more technology advances coming down the pike. Maybe you could start a YouTube Channel and post your videos there. I think I better stop now and let "usually_quiet" and some other posters give you their advice as they have the depth of knowledge that you need.

In my target area there's mobile networks only. And they're slow. I might have access to those like once every 2 or 3 months. I believe they're okay for email-checking and some text-chat. I heard stories about max. bandwidths around 300kbit/s - so uploading 1080p videos might take a little longer.

[usually_quiet]

The only other low-power device that I think might work is a Kaby Lake tablet or small Kaby Lake ultra-thin notebook. These would provide Quick Sync HEVC encoding and have a rechargeable battery. However, they'd be running Windows 10 and would not be cheap.

[usually_quiet]

Currently I use a Core2 Duo based Desktop PC system from 2006 to do my encoding - incl. H265. And yes, it is very slow. You can multiply the normal playtime of a video by the factor 20 for HEVC encoding.

The really funny thing is: My smartphone is more (!) powerful, since it has an 8-core CPU with a max. speed of over 2Ghz per core. So, if there was a HEVC-encoder out there, running under Android, I assume encoding times would even be smaller than they are with my PC

Android devices are mostly used for media consumption, with HEVC video decoding preferably being handled by their GPU for lower power consumption and less heat. Assuming you could find an HEVC software encoder to run on your smartphone (all I find are AVC software encoders), running the encoder would generate a lot of heat and drain the battery quickly.

[KarMa]

I would honestly invest in something like these if your phone is going to be the only gadget you bring. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01M0QR22B/ref=twister_B01LZGD852?_encoding=UTF8&th=1 Or any other kind of external storage that works with your device.

You have little hope of doing any kind of quality encoding, including H.264, with a phone. So you might as well just save the output and encode it later when you get home.

Are you only using some kind of USB Solar charger, or do you have a more power to work with like Solar+DC/AC Inverter?

I wonder if there is some type of cloud service for the times when you do have internet access that you could upload your files to and that could do the encoding you want.

Unless OP is sticking to developed cities with decent network infrastructure, I would not count on very fast upload speeds to the cloud. Even my upload speed at home in the US is garbage. So if internet access is going to be rare then those rare moments need to have fast upload speeds. For reference, 1Mbit of upload speed you can upload about 0.4 GB per hour.

[just passing through]

Sorry to reply to this old thread but hopefully it'll help people searching Google. Here is an app that runs FFmpeg: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.silentlexx.ffmpeggui

[teodz1984]

phone processors aren't equivalent to pc processors.. the former are reduced instruction set aka risc, the latter are complex instructions set..

hevc encoding works better with the latter.. and even with that requires pcs with better specs..