HEVC setting that using Media Engine?

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HEVC setting that using Media Engine?

Hi. I am reconverting videos taken into HEVC format to be put into Photos for family sharing. I am using Compressor on an M1 MacBook Pro.

I would have expected Compressor to use the Media Engine in the M1 chip but this does not appear to be happening or if it is, then the performance is terrible.

My encoding rate is around 5-10 times longer than the length of the content being re-encoded. I am currently using the Apple Devices 4K (HEVC 8-bit) preset.

For example. I had a 4.27GB file of 7:58 minutes of HD video in AVC1 converted to a 453GB HEVC video but it took over 42 minutes. I have hundreds of videos I wan't to reduce in size for Apple Photos but this performance is not acceptable. All this video during conversion is on the internal MacBook Pro 1TB drive so there is no bottlenecking there.

Why is Compressor not using the Media Engine and is there a setting that might force this?

Posted on Oct 2, 2023 11:28 AM

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Answer 1

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Happy Dad Author

Level 1

98 points

Oct 3, 2023 7:00 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I may have found the cause but it is illogical to me.

I took a 33s 4K AVC clip and ran it through two standard settings.

Apple Devices 4K (HEVC 8-bit) - took 20s

Apple Devices HD (Best Quality) - took 5s

I then ran it through my custom setting that is based off the Apple Devices 4K (HEVC 8-bit) but with the ONLY difference being that "Pass through source file metadata" is checked. That is because I want the GPS, original recording date and that data in the new file. There are no changes to video or audio at all.

That encode took 10 minutes 26s!! It makes no sense why passing meta data would cause the encode to use CPU and not the MediaEngine.

However, I went back and looked at the file meta data and that setting appears to make no difference so I deleted that setting and recreated it without the "Pass through source file metadata" and it is now working quickly again.

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Answer 2

Oct 3, 2023 12:56 AM in response to Happy Dad

I have just tried compressing a 1080p Quicktime movie in H264 to HEVC for Apple Devices in Compressor. The video was about 1 minute long and it took a mere 6 seconds to compress.

This was in a Mac Studio with M1 Max processor.

I also had a 38 second, 2+GB 4K video in ProRes and that was converted to 4K HEVC in 11 seconds.

A longer, about 10 minute, 4K ProRes took 41 seconds to compress to HEVC in 4K.

I did not have many videos available on that Mac Studio, but these compress very very quickly.

I don't have any in AVC1, maybe that codec cannot be handled directly by the media engine.

Also: you said "M1", not M1 Pro or M1 Max, that too could make a difference. The only Apple Silicon Mac that I have (temporary) access to is this Mac Studio, so I cannot compare with a plain M1.

I do suspect it is the source codec that may not lend itself to a quick processing using the built-in media engine, though. If you can test with a big ProRes or H264 or HEVC video to compare, you may be able to check if my assumption is correct or not.

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Answer 3

Happy Dad Author

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98 points

Oct 3, 2023 5:48 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Typo on my part. My machine is the 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 16.

it’s possible that the source needs software decoding but that should still be quick. I’ll have to try different settings to see if it is something particular to that one.

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Answer 4

Oct 3, 2023 7:08 AM in response to Happy Dad

That is rather intriguing. Thanks for letting us know, this can certainly help in similar circumstances.

Can you confirm that the metadata is intact, eg by opening either version in MediaInfo?

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Answer 5

Happy Dad Author

Level 1

98 points

Oct 3, 2023 9:10 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Yes it’s intact.

So I’m not sure what that “pass through” actually does then apart foot slow the encoding process.

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Answer 6

BenB

Level 6

12,127 points

Jan 2, 2024 5:37 AM in response to Happy Dad

Yep, AVC1 for some reason is a snail in Compressor (and Motion, and FCPX). I avoid that codec at all costs.

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HEVC setting that using Media Engine?

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