H.265 to Premiere Pro CC - Convert H.265 for Premiere Pro CC

How can we import and edit H.265 footage in Premiere Pro CC smoothly? Why can't we edit H.265 videos in Premiere Pro CC? Premiere Pro is the leading video editing software for film, TV, and the web. Creative tools, integration with other Adobe apps and services, and the power of Adobe Sensei help you craft footage into polished films and videos in one seamless workflow. And Premiere Rush, our new app, is included with your subscription so you can capture footage and start editing on all your devices, anywhere.

Edit H.265 video in Premiere Pro CC

Don't Premiere Pro CC support H.265 codec? H.265 codec is getting more popular in 2017 cause more 4K video recording devices are becoming affable to normal people such as the famous DJI Phantom 4K drone. H.265 codec can make you record 4K video saving in a smaller size than using H.264 codec. This is good but it also causes some troubles. For example, when you record a footage and want to import the H.265 footage to Premiere Pro CC for editing, it won't be easy for you.

"I know that Premiere is h.265 compatible, but apparently not with DJIs version. It won't import. Any work arounds?"

Why can't we edit H.265 videos in Premiere Pro CC? Don't Premiere Pro CC support H.265 codec? To figure out the reasons that Premiere Pro CC can't edit x265 video, the NO.1 reason that if Premiere Pro CC supports H.265 will be the first thing we should get.

Adobe Premiere Pro Supported native video and audio formats for import

Adobe Premiere Pro supports several audio and video formats, making your post-production workflows compatible with the latest broadcast formats.

Format Details
3GP, 3G2 (.3gp) Multimedia container format
AAC Advanced Audio Coding
AC3 Including 5.1 surround
AIFF, AIF Audio Interchange File Format
Apple ProRes Apple video compression format
ASF NetShow (Windows only)
ASND Adobe Sound Document
AVI (.avi) DV-AVI, Microsoft AVI Type 1 and Type 2
BWF Broadcast WAVE format
DNxHD Supported in native MXF and QuickTime wrappers
DNxHR DNxHR LB, DNxHR SQ, DNxHR TR, DNxHR HQ, and DNxHR HQX
DV Raw DV stream, a QuickTime format
AVC-Infra Panasonic codec
GIF Animated GIF
H.264 AVC Various media that use H.264 encoding
H.265 H.265 media with resolutions up to 8192x4320
M1V MPEG-1 Video File
M2T Sony HDV
M2TS Blu-ray BDAV MPEG-2 Transport Stream, AVCHD
M2V DVD-compliant MPEG-2
MOV QuickTime format
M4V MPEG-4 video file
M4A MPEG-4 audio
MP3 MP3 audio
MP4 QuickTime Movie, XDCAM EX
MPEG, MPE, MPG MPEG-1, MPEG-2
MTS AVCHD
Native MJPEGs 1DC
OMF Audio Project Format
OpenEXR Files in .EXR, .MXR, and .SXR formats
VOB Container format in DVD media
WAV Windows Waveform
WMV Windows Media, Windows only
MXF Media eXchange Format. MXF is a container format that supports
  • P2 Movie: Panasonic Op-Atom variant of MXF video in DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, AVC-Intra
  • Sony XDCAM HD 18/25/35 (4:2:0)
  • Sony XDCAM HD 50 (4:2:2)
  • AVC-LongGOP
  • XAVC Intra
  • XAVC LongGOP
  • JPEG2000
  • IMX 30/40/50
  • XDCAM EX

Note: Not all QuickTime codecs are supported by default. Some codecs may require third party components.

If you want to know the Supported native camera formats and the Supported still‑image and still-image sequence file formats, please read the page.

Fix "Premiere Pro CC Can't Edit H.265" Issues

From the chart in helpx.adobe.com page, it seems that Adobe Premiere Pro supports H.265 codec. But why some people can't edit H.265 in Premiere Pro?

Reasons and Solutions
1. Premier supports h.265 files but the P4P h.265 files are not recognized by any of the Adobe apps such as Premiere Pro CS6/CS5/CS4. Get the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

2. You can solve the issue by converting h265 from P4P to Prorres HQ with DJI TRANSCODING TOOLS. https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/inspire_1/DJI_Transcoding_Tool_v0.9.2.dmg

3. Adobe is ALWAYS slow on this stuff. Lightroom won't have the lens corrections in there for 2-3 months, also. You can try DaVinci Resolve

4. When you first try to import H.265 video to Premiere Pro, you need to install the H.265 codec, and by clicking "Ok", it will do it automatically and then import the video just fine.

5. Adobe first started support H.265 in CC 2015 so any earlier versions don't have the codec. When you first try and import a H.265 file a message should appear telling you that you need to license the codec. The license is part of Premiere Pro CC but not automatically turned on for every user unless they use it. WHY? there is actually a license fee that Adobe manage for you and it gets activated with your first Import or Export. You need to be connected to the internet for the first time you use it and once you do that you don't need to be connected to license again unless you re-install or there is a major update. Adobe is always "tweaking" playback with CPU/GPU support. H.265 playback is decent in Premiere Pro CC 2017. Lots of people use it as a H.265 player - BUT, Encoding takes a longtime.

6. What's the format of your H.265 video, MOV format or MP4? The reports are only accepting MP4 not MOV formats. If you shot h.265 in MOV, you can go into the folder where your files are from and edit the name of the file by changing the extension from a .MOV file to a .MP4 extension and accept the change of extension and then drag and drop into Premiere.

7. As stated above, use .mp4 and have an updated version of Premiere. If you have the CC license, it should be up to date already. Older CS versions don't support H.265. Keep in mind that 4K H.265 footage requires a ridiculous amount of processing power if you want to edit it in its original format, so you might want to create proxies of the clips before you start editing. Unless you have a very high-end PC.

Ultimate Solution - Convert H.265 to ProRes or H.264 for Premiere Pro

H.265 is stuttery and slow to edit, even on a really solid studio-pc. Transcoding H.265 to prores solved all issues. Use a H.265 converter, it will be easy. Acrok Video Converter Ultimate for Mac is just what you need to achieve your goal. With it, you can effortlessly transcode H.265 MP4, H.265 MOV, 4K H.265 to Adobe Premiere friendly movie format like ProRes, MPEG-2, MOV (Note: it applies to all kinds of Adobe Premiere including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3/ CS4/ CS5/CS6/CC) keeping the original quality. And Acrok Video Converter Ultimate for Mac outputs different types of Apple Prores Codecs for different Adobe Premiere Pro versions and also exports Adobe Premiere optimized presets.

Free download best H.265 Converter here. You will find more surprises.
Free Download Acrok Video Converter UltimateFree Download Acrok Video Converter Ultimate for Mac

Besides Adobe Premiere, this software can also export Apple ProRes, AIC, DNxHD for Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Avid Media Composer and more NLE systems. If you are Windows users, Acrok Video Converter Ultimate is the alternative choice.

Step 1. Load H.265 files
Here you can directly drag & drop the H.265 files to the converter, or click "Add Video" or "Add from folder" button on the top menu to browse and choose H.265 files

Acrok Video Converter Ultimate - convert H.265/HEVC codec for Adobe Premiere Pro

Step 2. Choose the preset output format
If you have an old computer, you can directly use the program to output Premiere Pro CC specially optimized editing format "MPEG-2(*.mpg)" under "Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas..." main category.

Convert H.265/HEVC to Premiere Pro supported format

Then, click "Settings" to open "Profile Settings" window to to compress 4K to 1080p for smooth editing workflow by choose the output file resolution as 1920*1080 from "Size(pix)" drop-down option.

If your computer can perfectly handle 4K video, but the 4K video is not supported by PPC, you can select one of PPC compatible 4K format such as 4K Prores from "Final Cut Pro" > "Apple Prores 422(*.mov)" or "Apple Prores 422(HQ)(*.mov)".

Convert H.265/HEVC to ProRes for Premiere Pro

Step 3. Start converting H.265 files
Click the big "Convert" button in the main UI to begin the H.265 to MPEG-2 or ProRes conversion. You can see your converted videos by clicking "Open" button.

Then you are able to import and edit converted H.265 footage in Premiere Pro all versions without any problem (The Hot Key to load files to Premiere is "Command" + "O"). Enjoy!

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