Editing with H265 - Premiere Elements 2018 Doesn't support it!

[Owen Manderfield]

I've been editing my videos on windows PCs using Adobe Premiere and Premiere Elements for many years including the 4k from my MP.

However, I've just tried to start editing with the M2P using 4k @25 H265 and.... horror of horrors - Premiere Elements doesn't support it!! (I'm guessing it will eventually)

I figure my option are:

1. Turn back to using H264 on the M2P (feels like a backward step)
2. Shoot in H265, re-encode back to H264 to edit (which still gives me the original H265 footage to edit later when a better option arises)
3. Find a alternative video editing software (will my PC handle it? its an i7-4790 @4Ghz but only just plays H265)
4. Wait pr Adobe to release an update (not any time soon I would guess)

So what are you guys doing with your M2P pro footage? What recommendations do you have?

Does H265 offer any quality advantages over H264 or just better compression? All my test video is in H265 at the moment as I've only just found the problem. Obviously I'll be doing some comparisons when time & weather permit.

Thanks

 

[wsteele]

Owen,

I ran into the same problem. Very surprised Adobe Premiere Elements 2018 doesn't support H265 since the CODEC has been in use for a couple of years now. My fall back program (actually my primary program) is Vegas Movie Studio running on Windows 10 via Parallels. Movie Studio did read (convert?) my HEVC file albeit slowly. I then rendered the file back to HEVC,AAC.

The original file size for a 1:22 video was 1.06GB and the Rendered Video was 412 MB. Both were 3840 x 2160 MPEG-4 files. I looked at both files with VLC and I couldn't 't see any difference (although the eye is a bad quality evaluator). I had created a test MOV video using H264 and converting it for the same time length the file would be 1.06GB so no difference between the H265 MPEG-4 file and the H264 MOV file regarding compression.

Guess my next test will be to shoot a 1:22 video using H265 and MOV format. Perhaps it requires the MOV file type to get the H265 compression?

 

[Owen Manderfield]

Having read some very useful posts elsewhere I realise that H265 is more useful as a final output format for content delivery (with it's small file size) rather than a format to edit with (due to the extra load on the CPU/GPU)

I converted all my H265 to H264 to edit and now shoot only in H264.

Now, I may output in 265 for my 4k TV (which handles it no problem as its a 2018 model) - but may stick to H264 for compatibility with older machines.

 

[teslar]

Snap that what I’m having to do now. As my MacBook Pro isn’t up to handling H265 in FXCP though funnily enough my 4K HDR tv has no problem in running the H265 unedited raw file straight from the card. Seems strange when a TV is more powerful than a 2015 compute with an i5 processor and 16gb Ram

 

[Lon Denard]

I'm using Premiere Pro and Power Director 16. Both work with my older computer but it's slow. In fact, I'm boxing it up tonight to send in and maybe get a credit to purchase a newer machine. Otherwise, in considering increasing the Ram from 8 to 16 and a new graphics card.