All about H264 files

The H.264 codec is currently the most widely used video codec. The standard is also known as AVC (Advanced Video Coding) or MPEG-4 Part 10. H.264 is about twice as efficient as MPEG-2 in terms of compression. This means that a video of the same quality only requires half the file size. Resolutions up to 8K UHD are supported, making H.264 the standard for Blu-rays and the backbone of virtually all streaming services.

Some surveillance or action cameras, some of which are very inexpensive, are known to create defective files or RAW video streams with the file extension .H264 or .264. In this case, converting to .MP4 is a good way to repair the container (or even pack the stream into a container in the first place) and make the file playable.

Last updated on 11. March 2026 by Sören with the experience of more than 127,897,783 converted files since 2013.