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T
TheDaemonBarber
Participant
June 1, 2022
Question

M1 Max, Banding introduced even on 16bit exports

  • June 1, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 805 views

I've noticed a pretty severe problem with Premiere 22.4 using the Apple M1 ProRes hardward accelerators - they introduce banding into the export like it's defaulting to 8-bit.

 

I've got a sequence, ProRes4444 on a timeline, no banding in the source material.

 

If I export it via Premiere, selecting ProResHQ or ProRes4444, selecting

• "export at maximum bit depth" or "16bit", or both,

• and "Maximum render quality"

 

It exports incredibly quickly, but the output is has obvious banding, like it's been dropped to 8-bit.

 

But, if I push it to media encoder, use the same settings as above, but choose Software Only encode (thus skipping the M1 accelerators), it renders a proper, high-bitrate option.

 

Important to note that this seems to be a Premiere bug, not an Apple bug. The ProRes accelerators work fine exporting the same source footage to ProResHQ from FCPX with no banding in the correct 10-bit.

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

C
Clint Porter9977593
Inspiring
August 19, 2022

Thanks for posting this. I just found the assets & export workflow I've been using for years now produces ugly banding on my new M1 Mac. In my case, I found I had to uncheck Preferences > Media > Enable hardware accelerated decoding (requires restart) to get it to export as it always has in the past, in 16-bit.

More detail: I have branded elements which include linear-color ProRes 4444+ lower thirds and overlays with semitransparent areas, over top of my Sony FS6 MXF footage. There is terrible banding in the semitransparent areas of the overlays unless the export is rendered using 16 bit. I found the export bit depth settings now have no effect on this until I unchecked the above box in Preferences.

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
August 19, 2022

There are some bit depth issues like this that need fixing. They don't work as "published" from Jarle's testing on the 2021 version.

 

The 2022 version, with a completely rebuilt underlying color system, added a few more bit depth issues. Like, apparently, yours. Sadly.

 

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
June 4, 2022

And if you change Premiere's prefs to Software Only, does it encode properly directly from Premiere?

 

In general, Jarle Leirpoll did some in-depth sleuthing on the Max Depth/Render Quality options and found that both the sequence settings for those and the export settings need to be set. Using the 16bpc option on the Export too.

 

Jarle’s Page on Max Depth/RQ

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
    T
    TheDaemonBarberAuthor
    Participant
    June 4, 2022

    Thanks for the suggestion Neil, I did check, unfortunately it doesn't seem to help. I included it in the batch of export tests in my link above, in the reply to Sumeet - In case you/anyone else is interested in having a look too.

    S
    Community Manager
    Sumeet_Kumar_ChoubeyCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    June 4, 2022

    Hi there,

     

    We're sorry about the poor experience. Does it export properly from Premiere Pro if ProRes hardware accelerated encoding is disabled under Preferences > Media? Also, if possible, share a download link for the sample media with which you are experiencing this issue. It will help to diagnose the issue properly at our end.

     

    Thanks,

    Sumeet

    T
    TheDaemonBarberAuthor
    Participant
    June 4, 2022

    Hi Sumeet

     

    Thanks for checking in on this.

    I've checked a bunch of stuff, which I'll detail below... sadly with no success. I also tried Neil Haugen's helpful suggestion which was posted just after yours, and that didn't fix the problem either.

     

    I tried exporting with the following different settings:

    From Premiere (both video settings set to 16bpc+Maximum Quality):

    • 1 clip with the PremierePreferences/Media set to Hardware+Prores Accelerated – Banding issues present.
    • 1 clip with PremierePreferences/Media set to Software Only (two checkboxes deselected) – NO banding issues present.
    • 1 clip (as Neil suggested), with PremierePreferences/Media set to Hardware+ProRes Accelerated, and Sequence Settings set to Maximum Bit Depth + Max Render Quality – Banding issues present.

    From Media Encoder (both video settings set to 16bpc+Maximum Quality):

    • 1 clip with Software encoding – NO banding issues.
    • 1 clip with Hardware encoding – Banding issues present, but same file size.

     

    Based on the above tests, it really does seem to be a problem with how Premiere and Media Encoder are dropping the bit-rate at some point in the pipeline with the M1 Prores Accelerators. FCPX is not doing this, and renders fast, and without the banding (so it's not a hardware issue). Premiere/Media encoder, it's a choice of fast&banding, or CPU and correct.


    The file sizes of the CPU and hardware accelerated versions are different too, with the files exhibiting banding actually (counterintuitively) being bigger... which leads me to believe the drop in bitrate is happening before the file hits the M1 ProRes Accelerators.

     

    The job I was on was a commercial, so I don't have permission to post those clips, but I've got the issue to be repeatable with another smooth gradient on an old clip from another project – I had to heavily denoise the sky to make the gradient as silky smooth as the commercial clips. Just like the commercial clip, it's a ProRes4444 file from Resolve.

     

    I've included a link below to a zip file with the original clip (ProRes4444, heavily denoised for a very smooth sky gradient), and 5 of the export tests I detailed above, and an AE project that stacks all five clips under a heavy handed adjustment layer to make the banding more obvious in the Accelerator exports. It's super obvious when you click the different layers on/off.

     

    https://we.tl/t-8mdMW72v2M

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