Elments Organizer '24: How to play and generate thumbnails for H.265 MP4

[cnjdkk]

Hi

Just upgraded to Photoshop Elements '24 and had hoped that the Organizer would support the MP4 files from my GoPro 10 camera (MPEG-H Part2/HEVC (H.265) (hvc1)) but it does not. Says a Codec cannot be found, and it is unable to generate thumbnails. The support page referred to by the error message says that MP4 is supported, so I assume it is the particular Codec here that is missing.  I am running it on a 100% updated Windows 11 x64 computer. The computer can easily play the files in various video players but I need Organizer to keep track of my videos. The organizer can import them, but it does not create a thumbnail and it does not play. Earlier on, you would have to install the Quick Time player but QT is not being maintained any longer. Is there a plugin or coded pack that will add the missing functionality? Other ways?

[Greg_S. · Accepted solution]

Do you know whether your video is recorded in the HDR color space?  If so, Elements will not support the file.  To find out if this is the case, you can use the free utility MediaInfo to examine the file and see if there is an entry of BT.2020.

My recommendation is that you transcode the file to h.264 using the free utility Handbrake which can batch convert your files.

[cnjdkk]

Thanks, Greg_S.  No, I don't recall having activated HDR, and MediaInfo does not suggest anything about BT.2020 (see attached). I think I deliberately chose to configure the camera to use H.265 over H.264 because it should be a more efficient encoder, but if necessary, I will switch and convert the existing recordings using Handbrake as per your recommendation. Still looking for a way to make Organizer recognize newer formats. Otherwise, I will assume that Adobe is on its way to ditch this product and that updating is a waste of money. I hope I am wrong, but ....

[Greg_S.]

While h.265 may be a more efficient encoder, in my experience it requires a lot more computer resources to edit and can be a drag even on a high end machine.  I haven't looked into this issue recently, but in the past GoPro has used some unusual codecs.  If you would like to share a sample file that is not playing in the Organizer, I will take a look and see if there is some other issue.  You may also want to post on the Premiere Elements Forum where you may find more expertise than on this Photoshop Elements Forum.  (You should be able to attach a small video file to a post on the forum if you zip it.  Otherwise, you will need to post it on a sharing site.)

And while the mainstream video editing software world is shrinking, I doubt whether Adobe is going to abandon Elements any time soon.

[cnjdkk]

Thanks Greg for qualified information on H.265. I never saw it as anything but the natural successor to H.264. But I realize from your references that there is a lot of trouble with it. Meanwhile, I found out that no matter what codec I choose in my GoPro, it always uses H.265 + HEIV. Even if you choose "H.264 + HEIV". Confrmed by VLC Player and MediaInfo.  I also found out that my new '24 Organizer refuses to import Go Pro files. Says they are damaged and refers to a HEIV "app" on Microsoft Marketplace. That App, however, gets extremely low scores and some say it is "scam". I tested transcoding to H.264 with HandBrake and then, it can be imported without problems. Most of the time the file size gets reduced by a factor 10. So that is what I am going to do, both with my older files and new ones coming up. Thanks for great and qualified help.