Context: I’m currently using an older Samsung phone to convert h264 dashcam videos to HEVC/h265 to save space. These are many, 10 minute long videos, and the process is incredibly labour intensive, since I have to do each one manually.
The conversion itself is really fast (maybe 2-3 minutes), and the results are excellent (usually half the size with the same quality).
Question: Is there software for Linux that can convert at similar speeds, preferably batched? Handbreak has been incredibly slow.
Caveat: I’m using a Framework 13 (11th gen Intel) laptop with an Intel integrated graphics card, so I can’t really leverage that in the same way a dedicated GPU can be. But still, I can only imagine that my laptop should be able to outperform my super old phone! LOL
I’m not really looking to compress the videos (I’ve experimented, and the quality loss from an already “poor” source just doesn’t cut it). HEVC/h265 conversion would be ideal.
Is there anything else I can try?
VP9 is actually very good when it comes to reducing file size without a big hit to quality. It usually gives you smaller files than H.265 for the same visual result. AV1 takes that a step further. It’s currently the best option if your goal is to get the smallest file size while keeping as much of the original quality as possible. It’s more efficient than both H.265 and VP9 in that regard. The only tradeoff is that AV1 takes longer to encode, especially on CPUs without dedicated hardware support but for archiving purposes where speed isn’t critical, it’s often worth it.