Moving from x.264 to x.265

[Ninja Joe]

I compress a lot of 1080p home videos using VidCoder x264 at CRF 26 at very slow speeds, which does a pretty good job of saving me space. The video quality is good and the file size is a fraction of the original. However, I've been thinking of using x265 instead since it provides even better compression and still good or even better quality, but I don't know which x265 settings to use.

There's:

H.265
H.265 10-bit
H.265 12-bit
H.265 (Intel QSV)
H.265 (NVEnc)

With x264, I use CRF 26 on 1080p videos, but CRF values are different with x265 so I don't what setting to use to keep a comparable quality.

Which of those should I use to keep at least the same video quality as what I'm currently using but with better compression to produce smaller file sizes?

I leave my videos encoding over night, so more compression while maintaining good quality is more important than speed.

My computer specs are as follows: i7 processor, 2.60 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 2 cores.

[ProWo]

Use h265 (8 Bit, for compatibility with many devices) and CRF 30

[Ninja Joe]

Is x265 12-bit slower or faster? Does it compress better? I'm more concerned with smaller file sizes than compatibility.

[ProWo]

Is x265 12-bit slower or faster? Does it compress better? I'm more concerned with smaller file sizes than compatibility.

Do you want to watch your movies on TV?
If so, forget 10 and 12 Bit.
h265 is slower then h264, but the files are smaller.

[Ninja Joe]

Do you want to watch your movies on TV?

No, just on the computer.

[jagabo]

In my experience most devices that play 8 bit 4K HEVC also play 10 bit 4K HEVC.

[Selur]

H.265s main (10) profile contains 10bit, which is the reason my normally all devices support 10bit,....