The most popular HEVC/H.265 decoding freeware includes Handbrake and FFmpeg. And if it's not working on HEVC hardware decoding, you have to turn to the HEVC decoding software for help. However, some graphic cards (AMD) have issues with 4K HEVC codec decoding, like messed images, broken outputs, etc. Here are some world-famous hardware that supports efficient HEVC playback due to the support of HEVC decoding blocks:

The whole decoding process becomes much smoother and lower CPU usage is a big advantage from HEVC hardware decoder. But decoding HEVC using software consumes more CPU power.Ĭompared with average HEVC converting software, it's more efficient to built a HEVC hardware decoder into chips to decode H.265 video, especially the large 4K UHD file. Any computer can decode H.265 with the aid of H.265 codec decoding software. The former is flexible and supports a wide range of media formats. HEVC Hardware Decoder vs HEVC Software DecoderĬurrently, there are two ways to ensure smoothly HEVC playback - HEVC software decoder and hardware decoder.