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My laptop can't handle 10bit H.265 / HEVC videos, so I'm looking to convert them to 10bit H.264. How do I do this using, say, ffmpeg, with the least quality loss? And how can I convert 10-bit H.265 to 8-bit H.265?

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10-bit/12-bit HEVC to 8-bit H.264

ffmpeg -i input -map 0 -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -vf format=yuv420p -c:a copy output.mkv

  • -map 0 will include all streams (default stream selection only selects 1 stream per type). See FFmpeg Wiki: Map.

  • Adjust the -crf value to provide the desired level of quality. Add the -preset option if you want to adjust encoding speed. See FFmpeg Wiki: H.264 for more info on -crf and -preset.

  • Uses the format filter to choose the yuv420p pixel format to create 8-bit output.

10-bit/12-bit HEVC to 10-bit H.264

ffmpeg -i input -map 0 -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy output.mkv

  • -map 0 will include all streams (default stream selection only selects 1 stream per type). See FFmpeg Wiki: Map.

  • Adjust the -crf value to provide the desired level of quality. Add the -preset option if you want to adjust encoding speed. See FFmpeg Wiki: H.264 for more info on -crf and -preset.

  • No need for the format filter in this case.

10-bit/12-bit HEVC to 8-bit HEVC

ffmpeg -i input -map 0 -c:v libx265 -crf 20 -vf format=yuv420p -c:a copy output.mkv

  • -map 0 will include all streams (default stream selection only selects 1 stream per type). See FFmpeg Wiki: Map.

  • Adjust the -crf value to provide the desired level of quality. Add the -preset option if you want to adjust encoding speed. See FFmpeg Wiki: HEVC / H.265 for more info on -crf and -preset.

  • Uses the format filter to choose the yuv420p pixel format to create 8-bit output.

12-bit HEVC to 10-bit HEVC

ffmpeg -i input -map 0 -c:v libx265 -crf 20 -vf format=yuv420p10le -c:a copy output.mkv

  • -map 0 will include all streams (default stream selection only selects 1 stream per type). See FFmpeg Wiki: Map.

  • Adjust the -crf value to provide the desired level of quality. Add the -preset option if you want to adjust encoding speed. See FFmpeg Wiki: HEVC / H.265 for more info on -crf and -preset.

  • Uses the format filter to choose the yuv420p10le pixel format to create 10-bit output. Other 10-bit pixel formats supported by libx265 are yuv422p10le & yuv444p10le, but your player may not like these. See ffmpeg -h encoder=libx265 for additional supported pixel formats.

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  • What about 10bit x265 to 8bit x265?
    – HappyFace
    Dec 5, 2018 at 21:52
  • 1
    @HappyFace Looks like I misread the question. I added that section.
    – llogan
    Dec 5, 2018 at 21:57
  • 4
    Adding -map 0 to the commands above will preserve subtitles and other additional streams.
    – HappyFace
    Dec 7, 2018 at 9:06
  • PS4 only allow 8bit H264/AVC. But if use ffmpeg convert the 10bit H265/HEVC to H624, with preset, you will get the 10bit H264, which is not recognized on PS4 vedio player. This comment mark it useful for getting compability on PS4.
    – Alex Chiang
    Sep 14, 2019 at 3:04
  • Consider this answer superuser.com/questions/1296374/…
    – Sriram Murali
    May 8, 2020 at 17:46
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Handbrake can handle most anything.

The release notes mention 10-bit support.

The UI has all the options. I suggest you start there and get familiar with it.
See quick start guide.

There is also a CLI that can be downloaded here.
And the guide that has all the options laid out.

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  • Can you add the complete command?
    – HappyFace
    Dec 5, 2018 at 14:46
  • 1
    Added links to post, start with the UI - it has a queue so you can load up an entire folder at once if needed.
    – BlueGI
    Dec 5, 2018 at 14:58

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