M1 vs M2 Mac minis Plex transocdes

[FlyingTexan]

I’d ready on a post on reddit that the M2 mini has additional hardware transcoding capabilities (additional hardware, that was originally only found on the M1 Max and ultra CPUs.

What is this additional hardware and how what does it offer that the m1 doesn’t? Does the m2 have a hardware transcoding that rivals quicksync?

 

[mcnallym]

Reddit post slightly incorrect.

The M1 Pro/max/ultra had media engine support for ProRes which the base m1 found in the Mini did not.
So not correct that only in Max/Ultra as the Pro had this as well.

m1 had quick sync equiv for h.264 and h.265 In its media engine already.

m2 has added ProRes support to the media engine that previously missing, so don’t need a Pro upwards to get it.

will make 0% difference to Plex as ProRes is Apple editing format, and people don’t publish/distribute content in that format.

 

[FlyingTexan]

Reddit post slightly incorrect.

The M1 Pro/max/ultra had media engine support for ProRes which the base m1 found in the Mini did not.
So not correct that only in Max/Ultra as the Pro had this as well.

m1 had quick sync equiv for h.264 and h.265 In its media engine already.

m2 has added ProRes support to the media engine that previously missing, so don’t need a Pro upwards to get it.

will make 0% difference to Plex as ProRes is Apple editing format, and people don’t publish/distribute content in that format.

If doing hw transcoding then there wouldn't be any difference between the m1 and m2 then? Basically just looking for HEVC 4k capabilities.

 

[mcnallym]

I believe the media engine been tweaked however if already have an M1 system then general consensus is that M2 not going to add anything other then ProRes support

 

[Burnincoco]

M2 Media engine has,
8K H.264, HEVC, ProRes Video decode engine
Video encode engine
ProRes encode/decode engine

If you’re streaming any of those formats the M2 should really help