Extract Audio from HEVC to CAF — Free Online Tool
Extract audio from HEVC (H.265) video files and save it as a CAF file using Apple's Core Audio Format container with PCM audio. This is ideal for pulling lossless-quality audio from high-efficiency H.265 video into a format natively supported across macOS and iOS.
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FFmpeg Command
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Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
HEVC files typically contain a video stream encoded with the H.265 codec and one or more audio streams in formats like AAC or AC-3. This tool discards the video stream entirely and extracts the raw audio, re-encoding it as 16-bit signed little-endian PCM (pcm_s16le) inside Apple's CAF container. Because HEVC's audio streams are not always PCM-native, a decode-and-re-encode step occurs for the audio — the video is never touched, which keeps the process fast. The resulting CAF file is a standard, uncompressed linear PCM audio file that any Apple app or Core Audio-compatible tool can open directly.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg binary. In the browser-based version of this tool, this runs via FFmpeg.wasm compiled to WebAssembly, so no installation is required and no files leave your device. |
-i input.hevc
|
Specifies the input HEVC file. FFmpeg will demux this file, identifying both the H.265 video stream and any audio streams present in the container for downstream processing. |
-vn
|
Disables video output entirely, telling FFmpeg to ignore the H.265 video stream. This is the key flag that makes this an audio extraction rather than a full conversion — the video is discarded rather than re-encoded, keeping processing fast regardless of resolution (4K, 8K, HDR, etc.). |
-c:a pcm_s16le
|
Sets the audio codec to 16-bit signed little-endian PCM. This produces uncompressed linear audio inside the CAF container, which is immediately compatible with Core Audio on macOS and iOS without any additional decoding step. |
-b:a 128k
|
Specifies a target audio bitrate of 128 kbps. For pcm_s16le this flag is effectively inactive since PCM bitrate is fixed by sample rate and channel count, but it becomes meaningful if you swap the codec to a compressed option like AAC or libopus. |
output.caf
|
Defines the output filename and tells FFmpeg to write the result in Apple's Core Audio Format container. The .caf extension triggers FFmpeg's CAF muxer, which wraps the PCM audio in the correct chunk-based structure expected by macOS and iOS audio APIs. |
Common Use Cases
- Pull the soundtrack or dialogue from an H.265 encoded film or TV episode into a lossless PCM CAF file for editing in Logic Pro or GarageBand on macOS.
- Extract audio from HEVC drone footage or action camera clips to use as a clean audio bed in Final Cut Pro, which natively handles CAF files.
- Convert HEVC lecture recordings or screen captures into CAF audio files for transcription workflows on macOS using tools like Whisper or Apple's built-in speech recognition.
- Strip the audio track from an H.265 video conference recording and archive it as an uncompressed CAF file for long-term storage on Apple ecosystem infrastructure.
- Extract audio from 4K or 8K HEVC video files for mastering or post-production in an Apple-native audio pipeline without re-encoding the video or suffering generation loss.
- Pull audio from HDR HEVC content distributed as raw .hevc files and prepare it for analysis or editing independently of the video stream.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the original audio codec inside the HEVC file. If the audio was stored as AAC or another compressed format, it will be decoded and re-encoded as 16-bit PCM — this decode step introduces a single generation of lossy-to-lossless conversion, which is generally transparent to human hearing. The resulting PCM audio in CAF is uncompressed, so no further quality is lost beyond that initial decode. If the source audio was already PCM, the conversion is essentially lossless.
CAF (Core Audio Format) is Apple's modern replacement for WAV and AIFF, designed to overcome their 4GB file size limit and offer broader codec support within a single container. For Apple ecosystem workflows — Logic Pro, GarageBand, Final Cut Pro, Core Audio APIs — CAF is a first-class format. If your HEVC source has very long audio (such as an extended 4K recording), CAF handles arbitrarily large files without the constraints that would truncate a WAV file.
CAF is primarily an Apple ecosystem format and is not natively supported on Windows or Android. While the audio data inside is standard pcm_s16le (the same raw PCM used in WAV files), most non-Apple software cannot open the CAF wrapper without additional plugins or conversion. If you need cross-platform compatibility, consider converting to WAV or FLAC instead after extracting from HEVC.
The default command uses pcm_s16le, which is uncompressed and ignores the -b:a bitrate flag. To use a compressed codec like AAC instead, change '-c:a pcm_s16le' to '-c:a aac' and the '-b:a 128k' flag will take effect, producing a smaller output file. For higher-resolution uncompressed audio, you can substitute 'pcm_s24le' or 'pcm_s32le' to match 24-bit or 32-bit source material from high-end HEVC recordings.
Yes — if the HEVC file contains no audio stream, FFmpeg will produce an empty or errored output. Raw .hevc bitstream files, for example, are pure video and contain no audio container structure at all. Most HEVC files you encounter in practice (MP4 or MKV wrapped H.265, for instance) will have audio, but bare .hevc files often do not. If you're unsure, you can check with 'ffprobe input.hevc' before running the extraction command.
Yes. On macOS or Linux, you can wrap the command in a shell loop: 'for f in *.hevc; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a pcm_s16le -b:a 128k "${f%.hevc}.caf"; done'. This iterates over every .hevc file in the current directory and extracts its audio to a matching .caf file. On Windows, an equivalent for-loop can be written in PowerShell or Command Prompt batch syntax.
Technical Notes
The pcm_s16le codec writes 16-bit signed integer samples in little-endian byte order — the same raw PCM format used internally by CD audio and standard WAV files. Inside a CAF container, this data is accompanied by a 'desc' chunk that records the sample rate, channel count, and bit depth, making it self-describing for Core Audio. Notably, the -b:a 128k flag has no practical effect when using a PCM codec, since PCM bitrate is determined entirely by sample rate and bit depth (e.g., 44100 Hz stereo 16-bit = ~1411 kbps); it is included in the command for structural consistency in case the codec is swapped to a compressed option like AAC or libopus. HEVC files that use Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD, or other multi-channel formats will be downmixed or re-encoded by FFmpeg's default channel mapping unless additional flags are provided. Metadata such as title or artist tags embedded in the HEVC container may not transfer to CAF, as CAF has limited metadata support compared to formats like MP4 or Matroska. For 4K or 8K HEVC sources recorded at 48 kHz or 96 kHz, the audio sample rate will be preserved automatically in the output CAF file.