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CHANGE OF VIDEO FORMAT FROM H.264 TO H.265 [2025年5月5日]

Somewhen in mid April we have decided to change the video encoding. Originally we were using the most compatible video format in the world - H.264 (AVC) - that started more than 20 years ago. Now the time has come to move a bit forward and we switched to H.264 (HEVC), that's a format first introduced in 2013 that allows a 25% to 50% better data compression while keeping the same quality. That will allow us to keep the file sizes lower for the same quality - or to offer a higher bitrate for the same file size. The difference may not be noticeable but this was unavoidable - HEVC is now being supported by almost all devices on the market (cameras, phones etc.).

This codec is supported by basically every operating system or video player. You most likely have an OS that supports it natively (Windows 10 or 11 do) or you can use any video player that is independent of this codec and will play it fine (VLC or my favourite PotPlayer). Only in very rare cases you may come across issues, for example if you're still using the outdated version of Windows 7 and haven't installed any video codec for a decade we recommend you to either use one of the players mentioned above or you can install the missing codec or somebody advised to download and install the K-Lite codec mega pack that also includes a free player.

If you can play all the videos but the 4K playback is choppy it means your device is too weak/old for a playback of 4K videos with a standard bitrate (we use 20-30 Mbps in average). Sometimes it helps to check the "hardware acceleration" option in the video player menu (if there's such an option at all).