HEVC encoding 2017 12" MacBook

[jeff_leech]

Hi, anyone tried HEVC encoding with a 2017 12" MacBook using Final Cut, Compressor or Adobe Premiere Pro. I am interested to know the performance. I know a more powerful machine will perform better but like the small form factor and lightweight of the 12" MacBook so I just want to get a gauge on how "bad" the performance will be. If anyone has tried it on both the 12" MacBook and a MacBook Pro, can you share some comparison of the performance.

 

[EugW]

I'm no expert and I don't have any of these programs, but...

Software encoding performance will be absolutely terrible. However, the 2017 12" MacBook has a hardware HEVC encoder. (The 2015 and 2016 MacBooks do not.) The hardware actually supports both 4K 8-bit and 4K HDR 10-bit encoding, but Apple only supports the former. So, if you're happy with HEVC 8-bit then speed should be OK in Compressor.

I will point you to this review with a Mac mini Core i7 2018 and a iMac Core i5 2017 for reference.

https://larryjordan.com/articles/vi...ssor-vs-adobe-media-encoder-vs-ffworksffmpeg/

BTW, hardware 4K HEVC 8-bit encoding is also baked into the iPad Pros starting from 2017 (and iPads starting from 2018). I was quite pleased to see my iPad Pro 10.5" doing 4K HEVC encodes in real-time in LumaFusion, from a test project that was using 3 simultaneous 4Kp30 8-bit HEVC video tracks (from my iPhone) with effects thrown on top.

 

[jeff_leech]

Thank you for your reply. Really appreciate the info you shared. I want to get the 12 inch MacBook because it is small and light. But I am wary that the CPU is also "lighter" and it is fan-less. I know that the 2017 version can do HEVC hardware encoding. I also know that a MBP and iMac will encode faster than the MB. What I really like to know is how long does it take the MB to encode an hour of video in HEVC - assuming 8bit for the moment? If it takes less than 12 hours(average), I'll go for the MB else I'll go for the MBP.

 

[EugW]

I don’t have Compressor or Adobe Media Encoder, so I just used QuickTime.

Sony Nature Camp 2’07” video - 76 Mbps 4K 10-bit 59.94 fps
MacBook (QuickTime 10.5 Mojave HEVC export): Forever. Not feasible. Probably was 10-bit encode (software)
iPad Pro (LumaFusion 1.7.7 HEVC 30 fps export): About 2 minutes, converted to 8-bit I believe.

Sony Nature Camp 2’07” video - 79 Mbps 4K 8-bit 59.94 fps
2017 MacBook Core m3-7Y32 (QuickTime 10.5 Mojave HEVC export): 8’37”
2017 iMac Core i5-7600 (QuickTime 10.5 Mojave HEVC export): 4’52”
2017 iPad Pro A10X (LumaFusion 1.7.7 HEVC 59.94 fps export): 3’51”
2017 iPad Pro A10X (LumaFusion 1.7.7 HEVC 30 fps export): 2’03”

So, for a similar video, the MacBook would encode a one hour 4K 8-bit HEVC clip in about 4-5 hours, assuming the MacBook didn’t overheat. Note though that this was a simple transcode. I don’t know what a complex video edit would take to render.

Note also that the MacBook encode was the second time I did it. The first time I didn’t time it exactly, but it was faster. So, it slowed down the 2nd time, possibly due to throttling. Do such hardware encoders commonly throttle?

 

[jeff_leech]

I believe you need the 8th gen CPU (Coffee Lake) and Mojave for HEVC 10-bit hardware encoding. Really thank you for you help. At least now i have some idea what to expect. If I am getting the 12 inch MB, I'll wait for it to be refresh with latest CPU. Using the the 2017 iPad Pro 10X as a basis, I expect it will be less than 2 hrs, maybe closer to 1. You have been very helpful to me. Thanks you so much.

 

[EugW]

I believe you need the 8th gen CPU (Coffee Lake) and Mojave for HEVC 10-bit hardware encoding.

I made a mistake. Both the iMac and MacBook are already running Mojave actually. I will correct my post.

The 2017 7th gen Intel chips already support 10-bit HEVC hardware encode but Apple simply does not support this.