Is my PC able to play H.265 / HEVC media files?

When it comes to playing HEVC videos on your PC, any computer released in the past 5 years should be able to do it, using a player such as VLC, mpv, MPC-BE, PotPlayer or Kodi.

Recent GPUs also support hardware assisted video decoding via on-chip ASICs (silicon chips designed for a very specific purpose).

CPU usage will be high on older machines, especially at 1080p.

So... if your PC is older than your grandpa's first car, now it's time to replace it! If it's newer, check if its GPU supports H.265/HEVC using this handy tool: DXVA Checker.

You may have to enable hardware acceleration in your player of choice for it to work properly, though.

In order to do that, usualy, you need to head to Preferences and check a box or two. However, it's different from player to player.
 

That's why, we're gonna show you to VLC, and let you discover yourself how to do it for other players. Let us know if you encounter issues, maybe we create new guides for the others.
 

Now, open your VLC's Tools tab and select Preferences. Then click on Input / Codecs tab and select, you guessed it, DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) 2.0.

Save it and you are good to go!

 

You transformed that "lousy" player into a beast, able to play any H.265/HEVC media file you throw at it, smooth and... silky ;)