HEVC - finally

[LiveM]

So, at WWDC Apple finally announced HEVC (and a variant for stills, High Efficiency Image Format).

New Macs also have hardware-level HEVC handling. Question is, how much of an improvement are we going to see with our existing Macs? And does the just-released MacBook Pro with on-board compatibility already work or does it also need the OS upgrade? Can't wait for HEVC on Final Cut Pro X. Lightroom can go to hell if it doesn't catch up.

 

[kiwipeso1]

It needs the immediate upgrade to 10.12.5 yes, but HEVC and HEIF as yet do not need High Sierra. (As that is a hardware function, it would merely require updated software on none HEVC and HEIF GPUs.)

 

[Jcknows0]

It needs the immediate upgrade to 10.12.5 yes, but HEVC and HEIF as yet do not need High Sierra. (As that is a hardware function, it would merely require updated software on none HEVC and HEIF GPUs.)

My jaw dropped when I read this as I just bought an education discount Adobe CC last week as its been almost a year with my nx500 and no F***ING apple support. I'm sure it will be lackluster at first and will take Super Extreme High Sierra in Fall 2018. When is Apple going to catch up?

 

[LiveM]

I am also using the NX500. I use the Adobe photography subscription and Final Cut Pro x for video (which I find to be head and shoulders above Premiere Pro) and will continue the former if Adobe adds HEVC to Lightroom but otherwise look forward to saying goodbye to Adobe altogether.

 

[Brian Clifford]

With HEVC H.265 video compression coming on the new MacBook Pro OS High Sierra (Late 2017), is it still worth purchasing Compressor Version 4.3.2 which compresses in H.264 to avail of the app's other features? The alternatives I'm considering are to work solely with FCPX on the new MBP OS High Sierra or wait for an update to HEVC H.265 in Compressor.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[LiveM]

Compressor gets better results (quality per MB) than anything else I know when it comes to outputting the result for sharing, and I don't think that need will be avoided with HEVC.

 

[joema2]

With HEVC H.265 video compression coming on the new MacBook Pro OS High Sierra (Late 2017), is it still worth purchasing Compressor Version 4.3.2 which compresses in H.264 to avail of the app's other features?...

Using HEVC involves two items: (1) Improved Quick Sync hardware, which is a Kaby Lake i3, i5 or i7 CPU, and (2) Software

The software (e.g, FCPX, Compressor, Handbrake, etc) must be written to use the improved Quick Sync encoder in Kaby Lake. Whether this also requires system software support such as updated libraries or application frameworks, I don't know. IOW I don't know if you could write a utility to use HEVC on Sierra or if High Sierra is required. It's mostly a moot point since the High Sierra release date is fairly close plus the beta is available now.

Also expected on High Sierra is that Apple's apps and utilities would be updated to use HEVC. This probably includes Quicktime Player, FCPX and Compressor.

Re purchasing Compressor 4.3.2, all versions of FCPX, Compressor and Motion have had free updates since the FCPX release in 2011. While there is no absolute guarantee, nobody expects this policy to change.

 

[Brian Clifford]

Also expected on High Sierra is that Apple's apps and utilities would be updated to use HEVC. This probably includes Quicktime Player, FCPX and Compressor.

Re purchasing Compressor 4.3.2, all versions of FCPX, Compressor and Motion have had free updates since the FCPX release in 2011. While there is no absolute guarantee, nobody expects this policy to change.

Thanks for your reply. Having re-watched the mac presentation by Craig Federighi at the WWDC, he mentioned that FCPX, Motion, and Compressor pro apps will be getting support for H.265 HEVC codec in the form of hardware acceleration on the new Macs and software encoding on current versions.

 

[Jcknows0]

Using HEVC involves two items: (1) Improved Quick Sync hardware, which is a Kaby Lake i3, i5 or i7 CPU, and (2) Software

The software (e.g, FCPX, Compressor, Handbrake, etc) must be written to use the improved Quick Sync encoder in Kaby Lake. Whether this also requires system software support such as updated libraries or application frameworks, I don't know. IOW I don't know if you could write a utility to use HEVC on Sierra or if High Sierra is required. It's mostly a moot point since the High Sierra release date is fairly close plus the beta is available now.

Also expected on High Sierra is that Apple's apps and utilities would be updated to use HEVC. This probably includes Quicktime Player, FCPX and Compressor.

Re purchasing Compressor 4.3.2, all versions of FCPX, Compressor and Motion have had free updates since the FCPX release in 2011. While there is no absolute guarantee, nobody expects this policy to change.

hardware acceleration will also be available in the 2015 5k iMacs with Radeon GPUs. I'm sure it will be lackluster compared to the newer ones due to the old architecture but m3x does support HEVC. Either way I sold my 2015 m295 iMac and am deciding on the newer iMac purchase or an eGPU with my 2016 rMBP from work. Definitely leaning to the eGPU for cost and upgradeability but the AIO I used to despise is now my go to as the iMac goes toe-to-toe with all other previous Mac Pro desktops. Still $2400 + $500 for RAM upgrade is a lot to swallow but I feel I would be future proof for sometime.

 

[joema2]

hardware acceleration will also be available in the 2015 5k iMacs with Radeon GPUs. I'm sure it will be lackluster compared to the newer ones due to the old architecture but m3x does support HEVC....

Limited hardware acceleration for H265 will be available on 2015 5k iMacs under High Sierra. Those systems will have even more limited support for VP9, what Google is using to stream 4k and 8k content.

Only Kaby Lake CPUs (generally meaning 2017 Macs and later) will have full support for HEVC/H265. They will also have greatly improved VP9 support.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10610...six-notebook-skus-desktop-coming-in-january/3

This support has nothing to do with the M395X or RP 580 discrete GPU. It is related to (but architecturally different from) the on-chip integrated GPU. It is separate fixed-function logic on the CPU chip -- essentially pure specialized hardware -- that uses the integrated GPU's busses and frame buffer to obtain the data.