Some time back Apple switched the image and video compression formats that it used to two new formats: HEVC for video and HEIF for images. Both these formats provide significantly lower file sizes than the previous formats that were used – H.264 and JPEG.
If you want to fully take advantage of the HEVC and HEIF support on Apple devices, there are a few things that you should know, however.
What You Need
To view, edit, or duplicate HEVC videos or HEIF images you need to be running iOS version 11 or later, or macOS High Sierra or later. If you’re using an older version of the operating systems, you’ll see a warning icon when you try to open a photo or video using the new formats.
If you want to record videos or images in HEVC or HEIF, you’ll need a device that supports hardware encoding. For mobile devices that require an Apple A10 processor or newer, whereas on desktops it will require Intel’s 7th generation processors” .
In practice that essentially means that devices from the iPhone 7 onwards can both view and record media in HEVC and HEIF. If your device can, it will be set to do so by default, and you can check it under the Formats area in the Camera settings .
Converting From HEVC and HEIF
If you are going to take advantage of HEVC and HEIF, you will probably find there is a need to convert from the format.
Because they are new formats, support for HEVC and HEIF is still in a nascent stage – and you may have difficulty opening them in some apps or on other platforms (such as Windows PCs or Android devices). As such you need to be able to convert them to different formats.
On its part, Apple provides the option to export HEVC videos or HEIF videos to other formats from within their default apps. For example, you can use Photos to export HEIF images as JPEG or PNG images instead or can use QuickTime to export HEVC videos to H.264.
Apple’s AirDrop, Messages, and Email apps will determine whether the new formats are supported to make it easier to share media via the new formats with other users easier. In case, it is not supported, it will share a more compatible version.
Alternatively, you could use Movavi Video Converter for Mac to convert HEVC videos or HEIF images to the formats you require. It supports many different formats, and you could even convert AVI to MP4 on Mac if you choose. On top of that, it will provide you with the option to compress videos, edit them in basic ways, or even resize them.
Conclusion
Overall the HEVC and HEIF formats should help you to save a significant amount of storage space both on your devices as well as on your cloud storage. That makes it worth using – now that you know how to take advantage of it and work your way around any compatibility issues that may arise.