How to play HEVC on Google Photos

[kaz219]

I'd like to hear if anybody found a setting that allows x265 encoded videos to be playable on Google Photos. The best I got so far was audio only (and I didn't find any new parameters, it's more likely to be google that changed something...).

I use a mac but I am in friendly terms with the command line as well, so a command is fine for me as well. I fear that google simply do not support HEVC, but who knows, maybe there's a trick.

I am just frustrated to consume up to 5 times more storage on my google drive just because I have to use x264 to be compatible with google photos. (Yes, you read that correctly, 5 times more. I have a very static video I just recompressed here, which is 140MB out of the DSLR (!), 10MB recompressed with x264 and 2MB with x265)

[rollin_eng]

I'm not sure google photos supports x265 yet.

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2423694?hl=en

If you post your logs for your encodes maybe someone can help reduce your x264 encode size.

[kaz219]

Thanks for the reply! I believe this information is out-of-date though: google photos supports MKV for example, which is not listed under this link. I also suppose VP9 is supported, which is also not listed.

[rollin_eng]

I'm sure you are right but if they don't tell you what is supported its hard to know what to suggest, perhaps contact google to see what they say.

If you post your logs for your encodes maybe someone can help reduce your x264 encode size.

[Deleted User 11865]

Are you encoding to HEVC in MKV or in MP4? This can also make a difference, try switching containers.

[kaz219]

Yes, mp4 works better than mkv it seems, but I only got audio only anyway.

@rolling_eng: I am sure you are right, but I though maybe someone on these forums found out some settings that work by chance.

[rollin_eng]

Without your logs it is very hard to know anything.

[kaz219]

I think you misunderstood my question. And I did read the “How to get questions answered”. I am not asking to find what's wrong with my settings or my file, which is the reason why I didn't include any logs. All possible settings I tested so far do not work. I am asking if someone had luck with google photos and x265, and could maybe share *her/his* logs or settings...

[Deleted User 11865]

The forum rules are very clear though, logs are non-optional

They may not be strictly necessary in some cases, but the rules are defined so that it's up to us to decide whether the logs are useful, not you