Editing H.265 on an older PC or MacBook Pro (2015)

[BlueBay]

It seems I'm not alone when it comes to performance issues when editing H.265 on an older Macbook Pro (2015).

Has anyone been able to resolve these performance problems on older hardware or is it just a case of pre-2016 hardware just won't cut it anymore (literally)?

 

[Fleek]

Bought Brorsoft video converter & converted the footage to a setting that works on my Mac but retains acceptable quality.

 

[Kilrah]

You'd better record H264 than going through that...

 

[supergimp]

I convert to ProRes using ffmpeg, but you have to be careful to maintain wide gamut, etc so as to not lose what you gained with h265 in the first place.

 

[BlueBay]

Ok, thank you. I really want to use h.265 on a MacBook Pro (2015). But it looks like my only option is h.264 until I upgrade. But I will try ProsRes to see if it's worth it and not too time-consuming.

I really appreciate your help.

 

[TowerGuy100]

I am using Final Cut Pro and using proxies. Works perfectly on my 2011 iMac.

 

[FASTFJR]

It seems I'm not alone when it comes to performance issues when editing H.265 on an older Macbook Pro (2015).

Has anyone been able to resolve these performance problems on older hardware or is it just a case of pre-2016 hardware just won't cut it anymore (literally)?

I have no issues on my mid 2015 MBP running iMovie and FCP with H265 files in 4K and 2.k 60fps, I;m running 10.13 and have 16gb of ram

 

[kilomikebravo]

Fast: Your post amazed me and I have NO idea how that four year old MBP can smoothly edit H.265 files. Then again, I'm one of those dreaded Windoze people.

BlueBay: Look into using "proxy" files for editing your H.265 footage. These are lower resolution files created by your video editor which allow you to edit smoothly. When finished, the video editor will make all the changes you've made to the low-rez files and apply them to the high rez, H.265 files. Then you can render to whatever resolution, frame rate, and bitrate you choose. The downside is basically just time for the editor to create the lower resolution video files and of course, the extra storage space for the proxy files.

 

[blackbeemer]

I have no issues on my mid 2015 MBP running iMovie and FCP with H265 files in 4K and 2.k 60fps, I;m running 10.13 and have 16gb of ram

Idk how, I have the same computer with 16gb ram as well and video stutters all day while editing; but playback after rendering is smooth.

 

[kilomikebravo]

Beemer: Playback is smooth because I presume you rendered in H.264 format. But how the OP can smoothly edit H.265 on that older Mac is a complete mystery to me. I think something else is going on because we pretty much know the specs of that computer cannot edit H.265 without struggling.

 

[Dakrisht]

I have no issues on my mid 2015 MBP running iMovie and FCP with H265 files in 4K and 2.k 60fps, I;m running 10.13 and have 16gb of ram

Same here. Using a 2015 MBP with a Core i7 @ 2.5Ghz and 16GB of RAM. Editing H265 D-Log video in Davinci with no issues.

Although I do recommend you transcode to ProRes for better efficiency.

 

[ssteve]

Another reason why the new iPad pros and lumafusion are so impressive. H265 with multiple color graded video tracks and sound track render just fine. iOS is sometimes kind of a pain but impressive performance none the less.

 

[Dakrisht]

Another reason why the new iPad pros and lumafusion are so impressive. H265 with multiple color graded video tracks and sound track render just fine. iOS is sometimes kind of a pain but impressive performance none the less.

Couldn’t agree more. Just picked up an iPad Pro for all of my Lightroom CC editing. 100x better and easier than a laptop. And faster.

Benchmarks have the iPad Pro running faster than *most* MacBook Pro’s and I’m sure the A13X chip will totally anihilate most laptops under $4-5k in the next few months. I think the iPad Pro was getting a 22,000 Geekbench score which is out of this world.

Haven’t used Lumafusion yet (there’s nothing better than Davinci Resolve for color IMO) but will give it a go. Would be amazing if Resolve made it to iOS but I don’t see that happening.

Adobe is also close to releasing Photoshop CC for the iPad Pro so this will be another game changer in the realm of professional photo manipulation on mobile / iOS.

iPad Pro is the way to go moving forward.

 

[squashedant1970]

I find it amazing that my 2017 iPad Pro edits 2.7k 60fps H.265 like a dream!

 

[kilomikebravo]

For those who haven't seen this thread, have a look.

Importing h265 to IPad Pro

CanadaDrone solved the mystery for me which was HOW an iPad can edit 10-bit H.265 and the reason is, Lumafusion strips off two bits during the import so those who are editing on an iPad are only editing 8-bit footage. Yes, H.265 is another bottle neck but it's the 1 Billion color table capability that requires a lot more horsepower than even the newest iPad has.

 

[squashedant1970]

For those who haven't seen this thread, have a look.

Importing h265 to IPad Pro

CanadaDrone solved the mystery for me which was HOW an iPad can edit 10-bit H.265 and the reason is, Lumafusion strips off two bits during the import so those who are editing on an iPad are only editing 8-bit footage. Yes, H.265 is another bottle neck but it's the 1 Billion color table capability that requires a lot more horsepower than even the newest iPad has.

Dammit!

 

[kilomikebravo]

Sorry, Squashed but I knew there had to be a reason why an iPad with only mobile hardware could edit something that my previous i7 machine couldn't. Now I know.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

You might find that you can edit on older hardware with more RAM and faster / SSD hard drives, but a more recent generation CPU also helps. Also, it's not clear to me how much the video adapter memory would help here, but that could be application specific (some editing apps use it, some don't) and would be a good question in a forum for that app.

Chris

 

[kilomikebravo]

That could be possible depending upon the age of the hardware but only for 8-bit video. Stills are rarely an issue even on semi-older hardware, it's the 4k, 10-bit, HEVC files that cause video decoding and encoding to require a more capable CPU, graphics adapter, and fast memory with 16gb probably being the minimum "acceptable" amount performance-wise. (On a Windoze confuser anyway.)

I don't know to what extent video editing software uses GPU memory but next time I'm doing some Premiere work, I'll pull up the nVidia control chingasso and see what it shows. (Don't recall if it shows memory use on the card or not.) I DO know that Premiere + AE + ME can cause the GPU itself to jump up above fifty percent and the fans kick right in.

Bottom line is, older hardware while it may work, it may also be frustratingly slow, even for 8-bit video. I don't know if this is a worthwhile analogy or not but it is sort of like asking an automobile computer from 2005 to handle the tasks required by a 2020 vehicle. And worse, there would be no <Ctrl><Alt><Del> keys! <grin>

 

[Killfox]

Same here. Using a 2015 MBP with a Core i7 @ 2.5Ghz and 16GB of RAM. Editing H265 D-Log video in Davinci with no issues.

Although I do recommend you transcode to ProRes for better efficiency.

I have the same config and frustration. This sounds like a good idea.

Do you transcode the files to ProRes in Davinci before you edit, or do you use some some other app?