VLC 2.2.1 doesn't play HEVC/H.265 encoded videos

Question

When I try to play H.265 encoded videos on VLC Player 2.2.1 (WeatherMax) on Ubuntu 14.04, I get the following error:

Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "hevc" (MPEG-H Part2/HEVC (H.265))

I can play the same videos using other tools like the standard Videos player on Ubuntu and MP4Client from GPAC. Is there any additional libraries or plugin to install for VLC to play H.265 videos?

Solution 1

Try this

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:strukturag/libde265 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-libde265

source: How to install H.265 / HEVC codec on Ubuntu Linux?

Solution 2

VLC is often way behind on format support, because they don't update their copy of ffmpeg very often. mpv is the mplayer / mplayer2 fork that I prefer for playing video. (Or see @Hassan's answer).

Also note that it's Weatherwax, not max. On the plus side, that means there's some really excellent comic fantasy fiction you can probably have the pleasure of reading for the first time :)

Solution 3

vlc says clearly it has no way to support hevc, and i you already has some alternatives. But what i recommend as the best alternative is Kodi media centre (http://kodi.tv/). Its opensource, of course its free, and its not just a player, its a media center. It runs amazing on linux systems.