How to Play 4K H.265 Files on Xbox Series X?

The Xbox One has integrated TV features and support for streaming media apps like Netflix and Hulu, but that isn’t where it ends. You can play video and music files you’ve ripped or downloaded by plugging in a USB drive or streaming them over your local network. This is huge for Xbox Series X fans! It says it supports video and photo. 4K H.265/HEVC isn’t among the “family”. Hence, if you have H.265 movies and want to play your downloaded 4K H.265 videos on Xbox Series X, read this guide carefully and you will not regret your time here.

Contents

1. Part 1: Can Xbox Series X Play H.265 Files
2. Part 2: Xbox Series X Specs and Its Supported Formats
3. Part 3: How to Play H.265 Files on Xbox Series X
4. Part 4: Convert H.265 Files to Play on Xbox Series X

Part 1: Can Xbox Series X play H.265 Files

Can Xbox Series X play H.265 files? If you are a huge fan of Xbox Series X, you may stay tuned to its latest release that it actually adds quite some support to its console, including H.265/HEVC playback but this does not mean all 4K H.265 files are playable. It depends on actual conditions. In details, video and music files can be streamed from USB storage devices and media servers using the Media Player app on Xbox Series X, but only certain H.264 and MPEG files that can be played on Xbox Series X.

Xbox Series X Supported Video Formats

Video formats: 3GP video, 3GP2, AVI DivX, DV AVI, AVI uncompressed, asf, AVI Xvid, H.264 AVCHD, M-JPEG, .mkv, .mov, MPEG-PS, MPEG-2, MPEG-2 HD, MPEG-2 TS, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-4 SP, WMV, WMV HD

Audio formats: 3GP audio, AAC, ADTS, MP3, WAV, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA Pro, WMA Voice

So now we are clear that if your video files meet the above standard, Xbox Series X can naturally play them without any troubles. If your H.265/HEVC files come in MP4, MKV and MOV forms, Xbox Series X may fail to open and read these files and what’s worse, it might turn out no audio while the video image is fine. This is not acceptable I know. All too often, you are not able to categorize the H.265 easily so it may waste some time to learn that trick. Moreover, it might be easier to play 4K H.265 files on Xbox Series X through the following solutions.

Part 2: Xbox Series X Specs and Its Supported Formats

Xbox Series X is actually the second video game console developed by Microsoft and it is the successor to Xbox One. When it comes to its supported formats, Xbox Series X generally supports videos in Windows Media Video (WMV) format, H.264 and MPEG-4 media are also included. Therefore, if you attempt to play your video on Xbox Series X smoothly with high quality but failed, you could convert it to Xbox Series X compatible formats, such as WMV, H.264 and MP4, etc.

Xbox Series X Specs

1. CPU: 8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.6 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU
2. GPU: 12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU
3. Die Size: 360.45 mm2
4. Process: 7nm Enhanced
5. Memory: 16 GB GDDR6 w/ 320b bus
6. Memory Bandwidth: 10GB @ 560 GB/s, 6GB @ 336 GB/s
7. Internal Storage: 1TB Custom NVME SSD
8. I/O Throughput: 2.4 GB/s (Raw), 4.8 GB/s
9. Expandable Storage: 1TB Expansion Card (matches internal storage exactly)
10. External Storage: USB 3.2 External HDD Support
11. Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive
12. Performance Target: 4K @ 60 FPS, Up to 120 FPS

Xbox Series X Supported formats

Part 3: How to play H.265/HEVC movies on Xbox Series X

With VLC, you can play H.265 files on Xbox Series X. Version 3.0 has added DVD/Blu-ray playback functionality and this would make it an ideal media player for Xbox Series X. You may follow the tutorial guide here to play H.265 files on Xbox Series X without hassle.

Step 1: Install VLC onto Xbox Series X.

Step 2: Copy your H.265/HEVC movies to an USB flash drive, insert your USB flash drive into the USB interface.

Step 3: Open this Xbox Series X media player on. Navigate to "Video". Then select the video(s) you want to play. Your video will then start playing on your TV!

Part 4: Convert H.265 to Xbox Series X supported format

It is nothing to be shameful if you still fail to achieve Xbox Series X H.265 playback using the above solution. I understand not everybody can master the tech-geek thing easily so if you are a beginner or you don’t have much time to learn the VLC, it is okay to convert H.265 files to any Xbox Series X compatible format for direct playback. Speaking of this, you will need a professional video converter to help. Acrok Video Converter Ultimate is a professional video converting program that supports users to convert files from one format to another. It supports almost all popular formats in the world, and it offers a 10x higher speed during processing. Best of all, it preserves 100% of the original file quality. When it comes to customization features, this program is perfect for users to make stylish video clips or movies thanks to the powerful yet interesting editing features. For Mac users, Acrok Video Converter Ultimate for Mac will be helpful. Let’s start in no time to convert H.265 files to Xbox Series X-compatible format with this best program.

Note: The drive must be formatted in FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS. If you have a Windows PC, your USB drive will work on your Xbox Series X as long as your Windows PC can read it. If you have a Mac, be sure to format the drive as exFAT and not with a Mac-only file system like HFS+.

Step 1: Download and install the program on your PC.
Hit the button below to quickly download and install the Xbox Series X Video Converter to your computer.

Step 2: Add the source H.265 files to the software.
Click Add file from the toolbar once you have launched the H.265/HEVC to Xbox Series X Converter. For converting Blu-ray and DVD movies to a common format, please click Load Disc icon.

Step 3: Set the output format.
Click on the Format bar from the format drop-down menu and you can choose a suitable output format for conversion. As MP4 is universal and Xbox Series X definitely supports MP4 playback, we choose it as the output format in this case. 4K MP4 is the best choice for your 4K TV, for HD/1080P TV, please HD MP4 under HD category.

Step 4: Edit the H.265 video before conversion.
If you feel like customizing your H.265 files, click on the Edit icon to adjust the file details, such as video effects, size, length, and audio details.

Step 5: Set a folder directory to save the output file and convert H.265 files to Xbox Series X.

Click on the big green button Convert and a sidebar will appear to let you set a directory to save the output file. When you decide which drive to save the output file, consider the space first. Then, hit on the round button Convert at the bottom of the sidebar to start processing H.265/HEVC files.

When conversion completes, you may play it on the Xbox Series X from USB port. It works though it takes some effort beforehand.

Free download H.265 to Xbox Series X Converter