Glitcy video on Macbook Pro 2016 i7 3.3 Ghz with HEVC x265 10bit

[dwain]

Hello everyone,

I flew my M2P for the first time and recorded a few videos. Whenever I try to watch the videos I took in x265 format 4K 30FPS on mac, the video plays very glitchy. The computer has enough power and memory resources to play the video but there is something wrong. I first tried to play the video on High Sierra but it didn't work. I updated to Mojave but it is still the same. Tried to install homebrew and then x265 again but it's still the same.

What do you think is wrong here? The other 264 formats that I recorded work fine.

Thanks.

 

[CanadaDrone]

10bit H265 is way too much for that computer, I suspect. That architecture is already more than 3 generations old.

If that MBP has the i7-6567U that I think it has, that is unfortunately a very weak CPU. Can you confirm the exact CPU model?

 

[dwain]

Yes the CPU is i7-6567U. What a shame It's actually only 2 years old. I've just bought M2P and I purchased the FCPX just to be able to apply some custom luts on 10bti videos. But if I can't do it with this computer I don't know what I'll do

 

[CanadaDrone]

Yes the CPU is i7-6567U. What a shame It's actually only 2 years old. I've just bought M2P and I purchased the FCPX just to be able to apply some custom luts on 10bti videos. But if I can't do it with this computer I don't know what I'll do

The MBP might be 2 years old, but the CPU is older. Apple is notoriously slow with updating their Macbooks while maintaining their significant price premiums. This is why they never advertise the CPU detail beyond "i5" or "i7" - you always have to put in effort to find out.

10bit / H265 4K video editing needs a lot of power, most laptops are not up to the task. This level of video editing is best handled by a proper desktop PC.

 

[mcsenerd]

I'm not here to totally defend Apple, but the Core i7-6567U was released in Q3 of 2015, so to buy a computer with that proc in it in the first part of the next year is not exactly earth shattering and it is something that any PC manufacturer would be doing. All that being said, both having a mobile CPU and a mobile GPU are going to seriously hamstring one's ability to deal with H265 at 4K.

 

[sar104]

Yes the CPU is i7-6567U. What a shame It's actually only 2 years old. I've just bought M2P and I purchased the FCPX just to be able to apply some custom luts on 10bti videos. But if I can't do it with this computer I don't know what I'll do

That's the Skylake processor, which did not have hardware support for H.265. The 2017 Kaby Lake MacBook Pros were the first ones to support H.265.

 

[Terranitup]

Spring for a desktop to handle video editing, relatively cheap and easy to upgrade... I know it's a pain but in the long run cheaper and more efficient. Nothing worse than being hampered by getting things done on a laptop when a desktop would make it so much easier. Lol I tried, desktop is the way to go if you want to be serious with your video editing

 

[sar104]

Spring for a desktop to handle video editing, relatively cheap and easy to upgrade... I know it's a pain but in the long run cheaper and more efficient. Nothing worse than being hampered by getting things done on a laptop when a desktop would make it so much easier. Lol I tried, desktop is the way to go if you want to be serious with your video editing

It's not a question of raw processor power - it's just a matter of hardware support for H.265. The latest MBPs are perfectly competent at video editing.

 

[dwain]

What about my current PC? i7 3930K but I also have 1080 GTX.

 

[Fmoots]

Yes the CPU is i7-6567U. What a shame It's actually only 2 years old. I've just bought M2P and I purchased the FCPX just to be able to apply some custom luts on 10bti videos. But if I can't do it with this computer I don't know what I'll do

When you import clips, tick the boxes ‘create optimised media’ and ‘create proxy media’.
This will allow you to edit smoothly. Optimised media will transcode your clips into Prores, which plays back a lot smoother in final cut x, proxy files does the same, but at a lower resolution. If you are not still not getting smooth playback when using optimised media, switch to proxy (there is a toggle on the menu in the top right hand corner).

Both h264 and h265 are container conducts and are not really meant to be edited natively, as it takes a lot of resource to ‘unpack’ these compressed files. I’d always recommended you do the above when importing clips into FCX, it will take longer initially, but make it a much more pleasant experience afterwards

Optimised media takes up a fair amount of hard drive space, so if you’re running short you can just use proxies.

 

[dwain]

What do I lose if I transcode the optimized version?

Thank you for the tip by the way

 

[Fmoots]

You do not loose anything - however size will be a lot larger

It transcodes the footage to Apple Prores, which is handled significant better by FCX. You will notice some high end drones - such as the Inspire can record directly to Prores - since this codec is of very high quality & saves fine with post production - at the cost of file size.
think of h264/h265 as a container - holding as much footage as possible on an sd card - it should then be ‘unpacked’ before editing, otherwise your system is having to do extra work it at the same time as doing all your edits - hence the lag

 

[dwain]

Thank you so much! With optimized file, I don't have any problem to watch the video Well, at least for a while I can live with this. But I'm considering to update my Macbook Pro with a new one when I can sell current one I have.

 

[Fmoots]

Thank you so much! With optimized file, I don't have any problem to watch the video Well, at least for a while I can live with this. But I'm considering to update my Macbook Pro with a new one when I can sell current one I have.

Glad it makes the editing experience better. I have a 2016 13 inch MacBook Pro & I always edit using Proxy rather than optimised, since it transcodes quicker & the resolution difference is not that notice on a 13 inch screen that isn’t native 4k, so for a further performance boost i’d recommend proxies (remember you can switch back & fourth between them if you need to

When you export the video it will link back to the original files and export in full quality

 

[CanadaDrone]

I'm not here to totally defend Apple, but the Core i7-6567U was released in Q3 of 2015, so to buy a computer with that proc in it in the first part of the next year is not exactly earth shattering and it is something that any PC manufacturer would be doing. All that being said, both having a mobile CPU and a mobile GPU are going to seriously hamstring one's ability to deal with H265 at 4K.

The bigger issue is how long Apple goes between updates (the rest of the industry is much faster), and charges full MSRP on old hardware, which is literal thousands more than more powerful machines from the competition in some cases. Here in Canada their MBP costs literally double that of better spec'd machines with identical build quality. Double!

The Mac Mini is 2014 hardware and costs the same as it did in 2014 - when you look at the "tech specs" on their website, they purposely hide the processor generation as always. Buyer beware, but just imagine how many people get sucked in by things like "oh it has an i7 processor, it can handle anything".

The Mac Pro is even worse, but now we're getting into some seriously niche products.

Anyway, I don't want to derail the thread too much but that is my main complaint with them.

With laptops in general one of the biggest problems you run into is thermal throttling, especially with video editing - you can often under-volt them which helps out a lot, but it's not uncommon for powerful current gen i7/i9 processors to get throttled down to less than half of their maximum frequency after only a few minutes of CPU intensive work. All these thin, sleek chassis that look pretty are woefully inadequate for the power they can put in them these days.

 

[BlueBay]

Everyone uses proxies, it's very easy once you get used to the workflow.

I don't playback on a computer, I use an LG OLED OLED55B7V which is excellent value and it can support 10-bit UHD HDR HLG etc.

After a while, you'll know which LUTs to apply according to the style you wish to achieve and don't forget noise reduction with slight contrast adjustments. The output is extremely professional.