HEVC Support

Many thanks for the info.

I have a question: does it mean that in case I have an ATV 4K HDR and a MBP early 2011 I will be able to playblack an H.265 file added to iTunes via Home Sharing?

Again, many thanks,

M

Uchuujin58, that's amazing news! Thanks so much for sharing! Save your hat, it was by no means a guarantee, just that I expected it - though I've been let down before, haha.

Just to confirm, can you outline what hardware / connection setup you have going?

I'm on a 2012 Mac Mini running iTunes on Sierra, media library served in a NAS, with ATV4 connected via Ethernet. I'm wondering if I will need the new ATV4K to play my content if I begin converting everything to H265.

I made the first test with the new Apple TV 4K, and it worked OK: iTunes (macOS Sierra) allowed me to add an H.265 (4K + HDR) video and the ATV streamed it through Home Sharing correctly.

P.S.: iTunes on the mac couldn't playback the file (black screen, but sound OK). We will see on macOS High Sierra...

Hi uchuujin58, glad to see somebody has this working in iTunes. Could you share your settings in handbrake? I can get h265 into an m4v container but the size remains the same as an h264 file. Thank you-

Hi Coluch. Sorry to be slow...

It sounds like I'm on pretty much the same hardware as you. I'm on the same Mac Mini 2012, but my disks are local internal ones (although I don't see what difference that would make). The Apple TV is the same as your v4, also connected via ethernet. As we can now see, you won't need the 4K Apple TV.

As for my hat, part of my issue is a native distrust of large corporations... largely due to the fact that I work for one. 😉

According to their official tech. specs., both ATV are able to playback HEVC. However, v4 is limited to 1080p 30fps (v4K to 2160p 60fps + HDR).

uchuujin58, if you stream a 4k through a v4, is it scaled down or not played at all?

Thanks and BR,

M

P.S.: I have already updated to High Sierra --> no black screen anymore on iTunes when playing a H.265 file (4K+HDR) on a MBP early 2011.

To be honest, I don't really care about 4K. For what I want with movies, HD is plenty. I don't have any 4K source, so I haven't tried it, but what you quoted about the official specs makes sense if Apple is to be able to guarantee 4K performance.

That being said, unless it's blocked in software, you might get away with streaming some low-bandwidth 4K to the Apple TV 4. The iPad Mini 4 runs on the same A8 chip, and the specs for it say: "Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 4K, 30 frames per second". Decoding HEVC is more CPU-intensive than H.264, however.

Long ago, I even had a little success at streaming 720p video to an old Apple TV 2. In high motion bits, however, it will stutter. You'd just have to try it.

I tried streaming a 4K 2160p H.264 low complexity file via HomeSharing, and was informed by my AppleTV that it was not compatible. These are the exact same file specs my iPhone 4K videos use, and they play just fine via HomeSharing -- but they don't look like they're 4K to me, despite confirming the ATV settings.

So something is still not quite right here.

So thank you for pointing me in the right direction regarding fourcc. For those of you experiencing where Quicktime will not play it or iTunes will show black screen but audio works fine it's due to the fourcc code being "wrong" for apple. I could not find program that will change it for you on a mac for mp4. Luckly there is zero change besides that one code, nothing else is different. There are two fourcc codes for HEVC hev1 and hvc1. Apple for some reason only works with hcv1 not hev1. Easiest way to fix this I found (without having to re transcode everything with the nightly build by handbrake (which will take for ever and lower your quality re-transcoding it all) is to get a hex editor (I used iHex) search for hev1 and replace it with hvc1 save and you are done! Worked flawlessly for me. You would think something so easy and simple as a tag that changes nothing else would not be a problem... Hopefully Apple addresses this by accepting both...

TLDR - if you cant open your HEVC with Quicktime and iTunes only shows a black screen with audio, hex edit hev1 to hvc1 and it will work.

For me the solution was: Subler.

The last version remux your h.265 video with the right apple specs.

So, without reencode, you'll be able to play and stream your video.

Instead if you need to encode : Handbreak nighly version is for now ( in attempt to final cut or compressor update, which should have hardware acceleration ) the best solution.

Yea I realized that after all that... I started digging in to it a bit more. Then went to Subler's GitHub page to post that as a change suggestion and found it already there. I was initially confused as I had used Subler to remux it from mkv to mp4 and then it hit me, I did it before updating to the latest build. Remuxed it again with the latest update and voila it worked perfectly without having to go all hex editor with it lol. So if anyone is having this problem just remux/recontainer it with Subler and it should be fixed. Off the top of my head it requires version 1.3.7 or later. So don't be an idiot like me and actually update your program BEFORE using it.

I use Subler and Handbrake religiously.

I have the following problem:

Mac Mini mid-2011

AppleTV 4 (4th Gen, not 4K)

MacOS High Sierra

I can get HEVC files to play perfectly in QuickTime Player and iTunes...but not in AppleTV. I get the ill-fated "This content could not be played on AppleTV because it is not supported" or some such nonsense.

Handbrake didn't touch the files but Subler did. Does Handbrake need to be involved in the initial conversion? Or did I miss something?

Unfortunately I still have the same problem as in Point 4. above.

Running latest versions of High Sierra, iTunes, on 2012 MacMini, and latest TV OS on Apple TV 4K.

Basically I have a bunch of videos in iTunes, shot with my iPhone 7, in HEVC format. They show up in iTunes, play fine on the MacMini, but are invisible on Apple TV via home sharing. Videos shot on iPhone 6s show up fine.

Tried this via iTunes on Macbook 2016, same problem. Tried on Apple TV 3, same problem.

Seems ludicrous for Apple to bring in a new video storage format, and then make it unusable via home sharing. That it works via iCloud photo streaming is of no use when you only have a 2MB broadband speed.

If the HEVC format is not usable via Homesharing then Apple needs to make this clear upfront.

In the absence of any obvious announcement there is no point speculating.

tt2

What encoder have you used?

I've tried with handbrake and on my MacBook Pro 2011 works nothing.

Also other movies, downloaded online don't work...