# Optimize media to H.265 **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-linux\ **Created:** [April 15, 2026, 11:03am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010 "2026-04-15T11:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FabulousFadz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/fabulousfadz/32/298066_2.png) [@FabulousFadz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FabulousFadz)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 11:03am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/1 "2026-04-15T11:03:21Z")
Server Version#: 1.43.1.10611 Given that live transcoding to HEVC is an option that has been around for a while, today I thought to check if it was possible to optimize media to space saving HEVC. The blog post that announced the feature mentions that it is possible but does not show the necessary steps. When I tried, with a test file, I saw that the optimize dialog still has the same options that have always been there: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/1/f/c/1fc0f64eb4c08af88333ca9502f6ed8f3c3f5a9f.png) `Optimize dialog showing options that have existed since before HEVC encoding was available` Now it might be an obvious thing that I am missing but I thought I could find something that would specify HEVC as a target so that I can keep the same quality but just have a smaller file. Lazily, I did not try any of the options and thought it best if I ask if anyone has managed to achieve this before. ---
**Author:** ![FordGuy61](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@FordGuy61](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FordGuy61)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 11:25am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/2 "2026-04-15T11:25:04Z")
Settings → Transcoder → Enable HEVC Optimization ---
**Author:** ![FabulousFadz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/fabulousfadz/32/298066_2.png) [@FabulousFadz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FabulousFadz)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 11:39am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/3 "2026-04-15T11:39:52Z")
Hi, and thanks for the response. I forgot to mention that I enabled that setting before attempting. ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/c/d/2/cd284d52a3ecba859545ba1924363114b4bb6093.png) I am now thinking I perhaps needed to restart PMS for this to take. I went straight from this to trying to optimize the video. ---
**Author:** ![FordGuy61](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/22d042/32.png) [@FordGuy61](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FordGuy61)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 11:43am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/4 "2026-04-15T11:43:31Z")
Now optimize a file. It should be HEVC. ---
**Author:** ![FabulousFadz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/fabulousfadz/32/298066_2.png) [@FabulousFadz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FabulousFadz)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 11:45am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/5 "2026-04-15T11:45:44Z")
Ok, thanks. I will try that right away. I thought it would be available as a UI option when picking the target format. ---
**Author:** ![FabulousFadz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/fabulousfadz/32/298066_2.png) [@FabulousFadz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FabulousFadz)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 1:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/6 "2026-04-15T13:57:12Z")
Wafuru hoo hoo! (_Backstory: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cok46rry74o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cok46rry74o) - Hiro Nakamura celebrating when he found Waffles on the menu - I have been clebrating things like that ever since watching it ~20 years ago and often have to explain it.)_ One caveat though… When I selected same quality it did not convert to HEVC, but immediately reported success. When I selected Custom → Universal TV → then picked a different bit rate it went about with the transcoding process. I happened to check just now and it successfully converted to HEVC. Perhaps an option to force it to HEVC when original quality has been selected would make this better. Thanks for the help ---
**Author:** ![Lazarus\_Long](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/lazarus_long/32/333009_2.png) [@Lazarus\_Long](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Lazarus_Long)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 3:12pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/7 "2026-04-15T15:12:59Z")
One important note about the Optimize feature - when selecting a bitrate to convert to, it converts video to that bitrate but audio adds on top of that. For example, if you select 2 Mbps, the Mbps of the converted file might be 2.3 Mbps (due to audio). I was trying to use that feature to pre-convert videos to the size the clients have for options, but unfortunately it doesn’t work properly as the end result is larger than the client expects. I did report this a couple of months ago, haven’t seen if it has been resolved yet though. ---
**Author:** ![FabulousFadz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/fabulousfadz/32/298066_2.png) [@FabulousFadz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/FabulousFadz)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 3:18am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/8 "2026-04-20T03:18:13Z")
This reminds me of an old topic I once had about it. That might be due to 5.1 audio. When choosing Universal Mobile as a target it generates stereo output and therefore slightly smaller files. > [@Is 720p 2Mbps a pipe dream?](https://forums.plex.tv/t/is-720p-2mbps-a-pipe-dream/827818): > > My most active users don’t happen to have very fast connections so I try to have everything they watch in a low enough bitrate with HD video. After a while, instead of bringing in files that are pre-encoded I decided to let Plex optimize my HD (1080p or 4K) media to 720p at 2Mbps. I never actually inspected the files ever since but recently when looking at the dashboard I noticed that even those files were being transcoded to SD. When I looked at the file info, the newer ones were optimized to … ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2026, 3:18am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/optimize-media-to-h-265/938010/9 "2026-07-19T03:18:20Z")
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