Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 & 2024 + HEVC – my experience

Report · Oct 26, 2023

I want to describe my own experience with APE (2021 and 2024) and HEVC files. I hope that it will allow saving time for people who must or want to work with that format.

Quickly: HEVC format is supported by APE (2021 and 2024) but that support needs improvement. There are still bugs and various issues which lead to user’s frustration and waste of time.

First, something positive. APE is capable of handling even very demanding HEVC files. I tested it successfully with 4K 60fps without any issues. I’m writing it as I’ve found many posts in this community forum that Adobe Premiere can work with 4K 30fps HEVC only. No! It can work with 4K 60fps HEVC as well.

To prove it I also did a test with 4K 120fps HEVC video and everything was working very well WITHOUT rendering!!!! Please see this video:

https://youtu.be/YSzpKyuD4B0

Conclusion is simple: APE has a potential to handle even very demanding HEVC files however…. there are some issues as well:

APE has problem with openGOP HEVC files. I’m not video expert but I read that openGOP is a default option of many HEVC encoders. I’ve also notices that APE has a problem when GOP is closed but too big such as 200 or 250. The problem is that APE doesn’t give any warning that given file can cause issues. This is simply not acceptable. I don’t mind when some formats are not supported but I should be clearly informed about it. Otherwise I waste my time trying to find out what is going on when program freezes or crashes.

Closed GOP and Open GOP - Simplified Explanation - OTTVerse

Sometimes APE doesn’t want to import HEVC files giving error messages about problem with codec. I don’t know what it depends on. I’ve noticed that it happens more often with APE2024. Sometimes, the same HEVC file is imported without any issues one day, and the day after is causing problems. I need to close the app and then import the file again.
I have constant issues with Cross Dissolve and Film Dissolve transition when working with HEVC files. Quite frequently those transitions disappear from the output file. Sometimes they are visible in the output and sometime not....... Very frustrating and I can't find any pattern in that behaviour. I've never had any issues with those transition and H.264 format so it must be some bug in APE which hasn't been addressed since ver 2021 at least.
non-standards resolutions such as 2.7k give strange effects such as scrambled preview files. This is annoying as 2.7k is very useful format if we want to export to 1080 and do some cropping.

Ideally, we should all ‘bombard’ Adobe support with our complaints about poorly supported HEVC until they fix it. They had enough time since the first implementation of HEVC in APE. This is now very popular format and many devices (phones, GoPro, drones etc.) are recording in HEVC and it should be supported in much better way. We pay for it in the end of the day.

Report · Dec 12, 2023

Hello,

What are your computer specifications? Did you configure anything special?

On my system Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 can import and work with 4K @ 30FPS., but not 60FPS. When I convert the files to CFR in HandBrake, I no longer receive the import error message, but the file will not play once I drag it down to the timeline. I look at Task Manager and APE is "Non Responsive". SO, I have to end the task and restart APE. I have 64GB of RAM, two graphics cards and a top CPU. Adobe said nothing is deficient with my system, but they can't get this to work. S it's something in the software or configuration. This is very frustrating for me.

Kind Regards,

DDM

Report · Dec 13, 2023

Do you work with HEVC files or H.264?

Report · May 08, 2024

I can confirm this issue with both 2021 and 2024. I know from the past that I had this issue with 2021 and changed my phone iPhone settings to use compatible file format (H.264) instead of high efficiency file format (HEVC). This was a workaround for me.

I am not working on a video with source files from other people. Unfortunately they recorded in HEVC and the problems are back. Especially the Cross Disolve transition which is rendered correctly in the preview, but isn't rendered at all in the 1080p export. Interesting fact, when I export yo 720p, the cross disolve is sometimes included.

My workaround for now is to use ffpmpeg to convert the original HEVC mov-files to H.264 mov-files using the following command:

ffmpeg -y -v 16 -i INPUT_FILE -movflags use_metadata_tags -map_metadata 0 -map 0 -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -vf format=yuv420p -c:a copy -f mov OUTPUT_FILE

Report · May 08, 2024

I simply decided to ask for refund for APE2024 and I switched to another sowtware. It was just too much for me.