HEVC Videos from my phone don't load properly in Videopad

Enjay

If I import a video recorded on my phone, it doesn't import properly. My Samsung Android phone is set to record "High Efficiency Videos". If I load one of these into the clip library, the following happens:
Videopad knows how long the video is and it can play the sound.
However, the visuals are not present. The thumbnail in the clip library is just the generic film-strip image. The video is just blank if I drag it onto the timeline.

I can play the video in Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic Black Edition, and even Openshot Video Editor can open and use the video. Videopad, however, behaves as described above.

Given the above, it seems that my system has the required codecs and it's something about Videopad that is preventing the file working. I'll paste what MediaInfo reports about the file below.

If I set my phone to record H.264 videos, Videopad can read them.

So, I currently have two solutions: change my phone's settings, or use another prrogram to convert the video before importing into Videopad.

However, I would much rather be able to import video recorded in HEVC format directly into Videopad.
If it's possible, any help on how to make it happen would be welcome.

General
Complete name : 20260813_212439.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42 (isom/mp42)
File size : 17.3 MiB
Duration : 11 s 478 ms
Overall bit rate : 12.6 Mb/s
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Encoded date : 2026-08-13 20:24:52 UTC
Tagged date : 2026-08-13 20:24:52 UTC
Recorded location : Redacted
Writing operating system : Google Android 16
Writing hardware : Samsung Galaxy S25 (SM-S931B)
com.android.video.temporal_layers_count : Unknown kind of value!
com.samsung.android.utc_offset : +0100

Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L4@High
Codec ID : hvc1
Codec ID/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration : 11 s 478 ms
Source duration : 11 s 467 ms
Bit rate : 12.4 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Minimum frame rate : 29.990 FPS
Maximum frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Real frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.199
Stream size : 16.9 MiB (98%)
Source stream size : 16.9 MiB (98%)
Title : VideoHandle
Language : English
Encoded date : 2026-08-13 20:24:52 UTC
Tagged date : 2026-08-13 20:24:52 UTC
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : HLG
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
mdhd_Duration : 11478
Codec configuration box : hvcC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 11 s 477 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 359 KiB (2%)
Title : SoundHandle
Language : English
Encoded date : 2026-08-13 20:24:52 UTC
Tagged date : 2026-08-13 20:24:52 UTC

Enjay

Oh, I've just seen the "H265 Encoder Technology Fee" on the purchases page. Do I need to buy that? Will that get videos of this type working?

borate

VP handles H265 with no issues in most cases here. What version is being used. Look at the bottom-left corner of the window.,

A test file, with the extension HEVC took its time, but eventually did load.

It loaded almost instantaneously if first reencoded as HEVC or AVC. Try that with this utility.

Share a file that won't load for you...

Upload the file/s to a free server, such as Google Drive or MS OneDrive, right-click the link and Share or Copy. Copy the result and paste it here or to me in a Private Message via the mail envelope in the top-right corner of this forum. When using Google Drive, right-click the file, then click SHARE | SHARE and change "restricted" to "anyone with link can view.**

Enjay

Hi thanks for the reply.

Version is VidePad Professional v 18.42
Edit: Perhaps worth mentioning that I have only recently installed 18.42. I did have an older version (not sure which) and it loaded videos from my phone. However, the last time I tried that was a while ago and it is possible that my phone didn't have HEVC file capability at that point. The OS has updated a few times since I last tried.

I can load and convert the video with Handbrake.

I will upload a video to my web space and PM you the link. [Edit: done]

Enjay

For the sake of the public-facing forum, the issue has been discussed further with borate via PM.

So, on the off-chance that someone stumbles across this and has the same problem, here's what has been found.

On my system:

In VideoPad HEVC videos from my phone (Samsung S25) load the sound but not the video element of an MP4 if HDR is enabled in the camera settings on the phone.
In VideoPad HEVC videos from my phone load properly (i.e. everything including video) if HDR is disabled in the camera settings.
In VideoPad H.264 videos from my phone load properly (as expected).

However, there is a setting in VideoPad that plays a part too:

In VideoPad's advanced options, there is a setting for "GPU Video Processor". This is normally at "default" but (on my system) it also has options for "None (CPU only)" and "NVidia GeForce RTX 2060" (i.e. my graphics card).
If I change this to "None (CPU only)" then videos from my phone can load properly.
If I change it to "NVidia GeForce RTX 2060" (which I assume is effectively the same as "default") then the videos do not load.

I currently have NVidia driver version 616.56 (updated on Aug 26th 2026).

However, borate confirmed that they have NVidia enabled on their system and VideoPad can load a sample video that I shared.

So, it seems that there may be a problem between my specific graphics card (RTX 2060 using the current NVidia driver) and VideoPad when loading HEVC videos with HDR enabled.

The two work-arounds are either switch off HDR on my phone, or switch VideoPad to use "None (CPU only)" for the GPU Video Processor.

That's where we are at this point. borate will pass the information along for further investigation.