HEVC (h.265) support finally coming to macOS and FCPX

[Antonis]

Finally it's coming to a mac near you:
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/06/macos-high-sierra-delivers-advanced-technologies-for-storage-video-and-graphics/

I had a play with a developer version of High Sierra on an entry level 2013 '13 Macbook pro and it...sort of works.
Quicktime accepts and plays the NX1 files but the computer struggles with 4k or 60fps HD files.
Still..good enough for a preview. But you will need a beefier setup for smooth playback.

Looking forward to see it implemented in FCPX this fall.

[Andrew Reid]

Does it support H.265 hardware acceleration via the GPU or is it a software based implementation?

[Kisaha]

I do not know if I have to laugh or cry about it. In any way, I want FC support NOW, because I have to give 400GB of footage to some iMac people and I would love to bypass transcoding to prores!

[Antonis]

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

Does it support H.265 hardware acceleration via the GPU or is it a software based implementation?

"With HEVC, Apple is enabling high-quality video streaming on networks where only HD streaming was previously possible, while hardware acceleration on the new iMac and MacBook Pro deliver incredibly fast and power-efficient HEVC encoding and editing." 

Remains to be seen if it will be available on select older spec machines.
I'm sure future hackintosh builds will be able to make full use of it.
On my old 13inch macbook it did not seam to be using the full potential of the hardware. (CPU around 40%, cooling fans spinning slow)

[tugela]

Good to see Apple leading the way with cutting edge innovation.

[Kisaha]

59 minutes ago, tugela said:

Good to see Apple leading the way with cutting edge innovation.

That's exactly the comment I wanted to make, but censored my self respecting the many Apple users here! But well done, saying what is true!

[Mattias Burling]

It is true, literally. The innovation is stuff that actually works. At work the editing PCs crash constantly. Every single day. The technicians are making a fortune.

The Macs are just going. Hardly been rebooted for years. It works. Better specs/$ as well, and the new iMacs are no exception.

Its just like pro cameras. Reliability comes before some bogus feature no one will use anyway.

 

[tugela]

My PCs don't crash. Maybe you need to get new technicians?

[Kisaha]

I hear that "crashing" or "virus" theory all the time.

I have a 5-6 years old PC ( I am not even sure how old it is, it has a Xeon 1234 or something, how old is this?) that is always ON, except when I am leaving for trips bigger than 3-4 days. I use it for everything, never any issues, just did a clean Windows 10 install when they were out a year(?) or so ago. I even had a terribly Acer laptop back when in film school, I edited most of my stuff there, and it is still working( actually this is a miracle!), except the DVD-RW. The issues I have are more software related (I am getting bored of Adobe, I am one good upgrade of Resolve away from abandoning them for good), not hardware or anything else.

 

[Trek of Joy]

7 hours ago, Kisaha said:

The issues I have are more software related (I am getting bored of Adobe, I am one good upgrade of Resolve away from abandoning them for good), not hardware or anything else.

Therein lies the problem, since there are basically an unlimited number of possible hardware and software combinations, so if Adobe - or anyone else for that matter as Resolve has enjoyed its share of compatibility issues - pushes out an update that suddenly kills the sound (a regular occurrence with Audition) or doesn't play nice with a video card running a second monitor (had it happen to me twice, among other problems) you're hosed until proper drivers are updated and so on. Like everyone I've worked in a PC environment, and my ass clenched every time a forced update was pushed on my machine because it always caused problems with various pieces of editing software I used and there's always a project in the works that gets impacted by wasting time trying to update drivers or talking to Adobe support to try and resolve issues. I'm happy to pay the Apple tax to have ZERO compatibility issues and use FCPx/Logic. I've also never had to worry about viruses and malware. And I can move everything across a phone, iPad, laptop and desktop pretty easy since they all communicate with each other so well.

Side note, I ran a digital media production program for high school students and our lab was Adobe/PC, 24 computers, we had a full time staffer that did nothing but maintenance on the systems and solve these issues as they were a constant drag on the program, along with viruses, files that would mysteriously disappear, projects that would continually crash for no apparent reason, driver updates, re-image HD's because performance over time would grind to a halt and so on. We went iMac after we were awarded a fat grant for computers and that person literally had nothing to do, I had to rewrite their job as an instructor. That was when I switched for good. 

Use what you like, but I really don't get why every Apple thread across the internet always gets derailed by PC users. This is not directed at you Kisaha, just an observation. Like millions of other users, I prefer the closed system, seamless integration across various devices and FCPx over other options.

Its not all rainbows and puppy dogs, I hate the fact that my little Macbook only has one USB-c port and no built in card reader. I wish my iMac screen could be a little less shiny/reflective, but its still the best system for me. 

Cheers

Chris

[tugela]

Well, the thread was derailed by a poster dissing PCs, not the other way around. So be correct.

If you maintain your system properly there is no problem. The advantage of a PC is that it you can get it set up how you want with the hardware you want. As you point out, that is an option which for the most part is not available for Macs. You are stuck with whatever they choose to give you. Personally I never have had a problem with drivers not playing nice with software. If you have those sorts of issues it is more likely that you have some odd hardware and it is your editor that is the problem, not the OS.

And for the record, hardware support for H.265 has been in Intel CPUs for years, Apple just has not bothered to implement it on the software side until now, hence my comment. I am not sure why any user would regard that situation as generally acceptable.

 

[Trek of Joy]

To each his own, I'd rather do anything other than mess with driver updates and compatibility with various components/software. While its not the fault of the OS, Windows updates do create issues until the other companies push out driver updates. And since you have to use something outside of the OS to edit, that introduces another player to the mix. My experience with a lab of 24 computers completely soured me on PC's forever. It was a never ending series of problems. If yours works without issue, that's great. My system hums along without issue as well.

Enjoy

Cheers

[Kisaha]

@Trek of Joy

Having a closed system has its advantages for sure, smaller things makes us feel safe/secure.

I was using Final Cut for many years, but then it didn't offered me everything I needed.

Since I moved to other applications, and PCs made a huge leap forward the last decade, I moved on.

In all seriousness, I much prefer open systems/platforms/networks for all the possibilities and freedom they offer to me, while billions of people using them.

Plus, that Premium you have to pay for dated software and hardware it is really a joke.

Also, I am a Samsung NX user  !!

P.S In PCs we don't update drivers anymore, I believe your last experience was Windows95 or something.

[JBraddock]

17 hours ago, Antonis said:

"With HEVC, Apple is enabling high-quality video streaming on networks where only HD streaming was previously possible, while hardware acceleration on the new iMac and MacBook Pro deliver incredibly fast and power-efficient HEVC encoding and editing." 

Remains to be seen if it will be available on select older spec machines.
I'm sure future hackintosh builds will be able to make full use of it.
On my old 13inch macbook it did not seam to be using the full potential of the hardware. (CPU around 40%, cooling fans spinning slow)

In the presentation it is stated hardware acceleration will only be available for 2016 and newer Mac. The rest will have software acceleration.

[Axel]

22 minutes ago, Kisaha said:

Having a closed system has its advantages for sure, smaller things makes us feel safe/secure.

If anybody has to justify his choice, then only to himself. You often hear that Mac users show the Stockholm syndrome. As you can see in discussions like this one, this also applies to Windows users. Now that I've made this decision, I need to defend it. Defending is okay, defiance or evangelizing is ridiculous. And yet we all do it.

[Kisaha]

11 minutes ago, Axel said:

If anybody has to justify his choice, then only to himself. You often hear that Mac users show the Stockholm syndrome. As you can see in discussions like this one, this also applies to Windows users. Now that I've made this decision, I need to defend it. Defending is okay, defiance or evangelizing is ridiculous. And yet we all do it.

When for years iPhones were stuck around 3-4" and 16GB of internal memory, I had a 5.5" with 32GB plus a micro SD slot with another 32GB, when iPads have no connections whatsoever, when I natively edit my H265 footage in my 2012(or 11!) PC for quite some time, then why to choose something lesser?

The practical limitations of the system exceeds even my humblest everyday amateurish use, I just wonder how a power user could cope with so many of those, in so many different devices.

If you want to go to more advanced biological/psychoanalytical stuff, please be my guest. 

It is a well know observation (since the first proto humans squeezed in small and dark caves) that we feel safer in our micro-cosmos, while the big adventures/discoveries/evolution happened when we went out there in the open, wild, vast, dangerous but full of possibilities and evolution big world. Huge discussion, and eventually we have to move to socio-political systems to compare Apple eco system with Windows, or even Android, and that is quite a big chapter.

"Evangelizing" is more appropriate for Mac users, as you know there have been many articles (and even books I think) explaining how Apple works more as a cult, than a tech company. Read some of those.

When they moved more to a hipsters thing, I moved on accordingly. Hipsters are a bad thing; all style, no politico-social consciousness, generations of clueless un-citizens.

I make my own decisions and I believe I am very analytical and forward thinking to 9 times out of 10 to make the best choice for my resources, thank you very much!

[BTM_Pix]

There is no killer app for my curent purposes on PC but it wouldn't bother me to change back if there was, as there has been in the past.

Ditto with ios, it does have killer apps for the majority of my current purposes but I have no hesitation in using android when I want to do stuff that Apple don't approve of.

I basically just go where the functionality is. Fortunately, where I need to supplement my usual system to get that extra stuff there is no price premium because Android stuff is dead cheap.

It would be a right twat if it was the other way round though!

[DBounce]

I use my PC mobile workstation for Adobe AE, my MacBook Pro for FCPX. Both work, I do however, prefer the MBP. Why? FCPX is much faster to work with than PP. So for most projects it is the MBP that I turn to.  Even though on paper the PC is superior, I find it can only show that superiority when the MBP is running unoptermized software. I can't say crashing is a problem with either. But birth have crashed before. Granted, FCPX has never crashed on me. 

[jonpais]

Final Cut has crashed on me a couple of times, but I've never lost a thing because of the auto save feature. And yes, DBounce, so many claim that Apple's individual components aren't the latest, that they can put something together with much better specs, but they don't always run faster than Macs, depending on the application of course.

[horshack]

5 hours ago, tugela said:

Well, the thread was derailed by a poster dissing PCs, not the other way around. So be correct.

If you maintain your system properly there is no problem. The advantage of a PC is that it you can get it set up how you want with the hardware you want. As you point out, that is an option which for the most part is not available for Macs. You are stuck with whatever they choose to give you. Personally I never have had a problem with drivers not playing nice with software. If you have those sorts of issues it is more likely that you have some odd hardware and it is your editor that is the problem, not the OS.

And for the record, hardware support for H.265 has been in Intel CPUs for years, Apple just has not bothered to implement it on the software side until now, hence my comment. I am not sure why any user would regard that situation as generally acceptable.

 

Intel has had H.264 acceleration for quite a while (since Haswell). H.265 acceleration was only introduced in the current generation Kaby lake processors.