convert HEVC video to H.264 mp4 without loosing quality

[jimclark]

I just got a Canon R7 and it records in HEVC H.265 video format which I can't work on in my windows machine. I would like to know what is the best way to convert it to an 4k H.294 MP4 format without looking quality?
Jim

[pcspeak]

If you haven't already done so, install this and you can, pretty much, read or write all video formats on a Windows pc.
Accept all the defaults.
https://files.1f0.de/lavf/nightly/LAVFilters-0.78.0-5.exe
I've been running the nightly updates for years.
I play all my videos in MPC-HC - and seriously avoid Microsoft's Windows Media Player.

Cheers

[usually_quiet]

I just got a Canon R7 and it records in HEVC H.265 video format which I can't work on in my windows machine. I would like to know what is the best way to convert it to an 4k H.294 MP4 format without looking quality?
Jim

The first thing to do is determine if your problem is hardware-related or software-related. Which version of Windows do you have? What software are you using to work with the video? Do you have Microsoft's HEVC Video Extensions installed? What CPU/processor and video card are installed on your PC?

[Bwaak]

Why would not you convert to an intermediate codec instead?

[jimclark]

Windows 11, Yes the Microsoft's HEVC Video Extensions are installed, Video card is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 with 6gig of ram. I have Premere Elements and tried Devinchi Resolve also

I just got a Canon R7 and it records in HEVC H.265 video format which I can't work on in my windows machine. I would like to know what is the best way to convert it to an 4k H.294 MP4 format without looking quality?
Jim

The first thing to do is determine if your problem is hardware-related or software-related. Which version of Windows do you have? What software are you using to work with the video? Do you have Microsoft's HEVC Video Extensions installed? What CPU/processor and video card are installed on your PC?

[usually_quiet]

Windows 11, Yes the Microsoft's HEVC Video Extensions are installed, Video card is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 with 6gig of ram. I have Premere Elements and tried Devinchi Resolve also

I have looked at the free version of Davinci Resolve out of curiosity but didn't get very far with it. Premiere Elements is supposed to be easy to use, although I haven't tried it.

Since I haven't tried Premier Elements, the most I can do is check that you have exceeded the minimum requirements for editing a 4K video. However, there are undoubtedly a few members here who do use Premiere Elements. If you could describe exactly what kinds of problems you are having including error messages maybe they can offer more insight.

Your video card and Windows version look fine. Which CPU does your PC have? ..and I forgot to ask how much RAM is installed in the motherboard and which version of Premiere Elements you have. Do you have a couple of fast drives, in addition to the boot drives?

[jimclark]

Intel Core i5 Skylake 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11400 @ 2.60GHz
32 GB of Ram
When I try to import the video I get the "the system needs to be configured to import HEVC or HEIF the of media. Click on learn more to know how to enable these formats to import". message . All it tells me is to install the Microsoft HEVC video extension which I have done.
Thanks for trying to help

Windows 11, Yes the Microsoft's HEVC Video Extensions are installed, Video card is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 with 6gig of ram. I have Premere Elements and tried Devinchi Resolve also

I have looked at the free version of Davinci Resolve out of curiosity but didn't get very far with it. Premiere Elements is supposed to be easy to use, although I haven't tried it.

Since I haven't tried Premier Elements, the most I can do is check that you have exceeded the minimum requirements for editing a 4K video. However, there are undoubtedly a few members here who do use Premiere Elements. If you could describe exactly what kinds of problems you are having including error messages maybe they can offer more insight.

Your video card and Windows version look fine. Which CPU does your PC have? ..and I forgot to ask how much RAM is installed in the motherboard and which version of Premiere Elements you have. Do you have a couple of fast drives, in addition to the boot drives?

[usually_quiet]

Intel Core i5 Skylake 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11400 @ 2.60GHz
32 GB of Ram
When I try to import the video I get the "the system needs to be configured to import HEVC or HEIF the of media. Click on learn more to know how to enable these formats to import". message . All it tells me is to install the Microsoft HEVC video extension which I have done.
Thanks for trying to help

Intel Core i5-11400 @ 2.60GHz is a Rocket Lake processor. It should be powerful enough although it will be slower than an i7.

Hardware accelerated decoding and encoding for HEVC/H.265 is very helpful. A NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 can provide NVDEC and NVENC for HEVC/H.265. If you need QSV (Quick Sync Video) for decoding or encoding HEVC/H.265, that is available too as long as your CPU isn't the i5-11400F variant. However, I don't think Premiere Elements can be configured to use QSV for decoding and encoding HEVC but it looks like your RTX 3060 is supported.

While I was looking for information about using hardware acceleration with Premiere Elements, I found this: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/using/gpu-acceleration.html It provides instructions for configuring your system to use hardware acceleration. It also says the feature is unavailable in the trial version. If you are using the trial version, that may be the problem.

[usually_quiet]

I took another look at https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/using/gpu-acceleration.html I had missed some information at the bottom of the page about supported Intel UHD graphics versions that are compatible with Premiere Elements for QSV hardware decoding and encoding. So, QSV is an available option for Premiere Elements after all.

If you still want to re-encode your camera video to H.264 in an mp4 file, I tried using clever FFmpeg-GUI to re-encode a 2-minute and 30-second 4K HDR-10 demo file with 10-bit HEVC video and Vorbis stereo audio. I don't re-encode video and audio very often and I had little previous experience with this program. However, with a little trial and error, I was able to re-encode the video (to 4K 8-bit H.264 with tone-mapping to simulate HDR) and the audio (to 2-channel AAC) and mux them into an MP4 file. It took a little over 20 minutes to re-encode my test file on my laptop.

[Edit] I just tried the latest version of HandBrake on the same demo file. It was even easier to use than clever FFmpegGUI. The file was still 4K and was encoded using H.264, but HandBrake kept the HDR and 10-bit color intact. HDR and 10-bit color are unusual for an H.264 video. I couldn't find settings to encode to 4K H.264 with 8-bit color and apply tone-mapping.