aerender error for reading .mov HEVC files: Could not read from source

[spenciefy]

I'm using aerender and a render-only node through Nexrender to render videos server side on a Windows Server 2019 EC2 instance, and getting a "Could not read from source" error when trying to import a .mov file recorded from an iPhone, which is HEVC H.265 encoded. It works perfectly for H.264 .mov files. 

I'm able to import the HEVC .mov files when I open the After Effects GUI, so this seems to be an aerender specific issue. I'm using After Effects CC 2020 17.5.1, and tried using 17.0.4 and CC 2019 16.1.3. I installed VLC player to have the necessary codecs to play HEVC .mov files on Windows Server 2019. 

I found this post which seemed similar, but I don't have any external plugins as was the culprit in their case. 

Error log:

aerender version 17.5.1x47
Using DXGI: Device: "Microsoft Basic Render Driver" has dedicated video RAM (MB): 0
has video RAM(MB): 0
Skipping DX support: Microsoft Basic Render Driver
Running Script: C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\2\nexrender\DytqwQPD1HMxf8waBDv2_\nexrender-DytqwQPD1HMxf8waBDv2_-script.jsx
aerender ERROR: Error executing script: C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\2\nexrender\DytqwQPD1HMxf8waBDv2_\nexrender-DytqwQPD1HMxf8waBDv2_-script.jsx
Error: After Effects error: Could not read from source. Please check the settings and try again.
aerender ERROR: Runtime error in After Effects.

[dco168585673]

Hi,

Curious about whether you ever figured this out.  I have the exact same issue in the exact same environment under the exact same circumstances.  I get pretty much the exact same errors.  If you managed to sort this out, I would love to know how.

[spenciefy]

Unfortunately not, it's been awhile since I was working on this but I think I remember it was some limitation of running Windows and not having the right codecs. I ended up using AWS mac mini ec2 instances running OSX (not cheap though) to run a small render farm.