H 265 codec installation

There is also a PPA for libde265 GStreamer integration. With that installed one can playback H.265 with all GStreamer applications (Browsers, Totem, etc.).

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:strukturag/libde265 sudo apt-get update 

Now try playing back a .mkv containing HEVC/H.265 content using any GStreamer-aware player (e.g. "totem"). This should detect the missing codec and prompt to install the libde265 GS plugin (make sure to select the 64bit or 32bit version depending on your architecture).

You can also install the corresponding GStreamer plugin directly:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-libde265 

Or for GStreamer 1.0 applications:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-libde265 

There is also a VLC plugin available:

sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-libde265 

Details here: http://www.libde265.org/blog/2014/02/22/gstreamer-4k-h265-hevc-plugin/