MacBook M1 Max Exported H265 File (AME/PP) can not playback / seek

[Chris Spiegl]

I have been using the M1 Max + Premiere Pro for years at this point but with the recent release I got problems for about a month or two now which I never had before.

When I export a file with H.265 at 4k or 1080p, the file ends up not being playable in preview, QuickTime, VLC, or Premiere Pro for that matter (importing it again into a new sequence).

The exported file is NOT playable when exporting h.265 longer than 10 minutes with:

- Premiere Pro 2023.2

- Media Encoder 2023.2.1

- Premiere Pro 2023.2 on M1 with Intel Version (Rosetta)

- Premiere Pro Beta 2023.4

This problem is happening no matter if I export with Premiere Pro or with Media Encoder.

Export works normally when:

- exporting to h.264

- exporting with an Intel MacBook to h.265

- exporting to h.265 with DaVinci Resolve

I've not had this issue in December but it's been annoying recently that I can't use H.265 any more for the exports.

I hope this can be fixed / figured out soon.

Technical Details:

- MacBook Pro M1 Max

- Premiere Pro 23.2

[Chris Spiegl]

Added information: what happens is that I can open the file and it starts to play but as soon as I jump into the middle of the file it just gets stuck while seeking and takes forever to load.

When I open the file in Premire Pro and put it into a sequence and try to jump around with the playhead and play the video from various places, it's not working and Premiere Pro just hangs and does uses 100% of all my CPU and RAM over time.

Same when I try to transcode the "broken h.265" file with Media Encoder.

So reading the file seem pretty broken and it's only when I export the file with Premiere Pro or Media Encoder.

I really hope this can be figured out 👍.

[nyanthecreator]

Same problem with same specs!

[Chris Spiegl]

We now also confirmed the same export issues on the M1 MacBook Air. H.265 exported files stutter when playing back.

[nyanthecreator]

Any Update?

[simplethoughtproductions]

Using an M1 Max mac book pro and the latest Media Encoder as well as the beta and I see the same behavior when exporting with h265. The resulting file I can start playback of the file in quicktime or vlc but seaking is indeed broken. 

[Chris Spiegl]

@simplethoughtproductions @nyanthecreator Please upvote the issue. It seems we are in a minority but every upvote counts and is important to get for this to be fixed. I also would love for @adobe to respond on this matter! It's been weeks having this problem without a resolution.

[Chris Spiegl]

@Kevin-Monahan or @Francis-Crossman Maybe one of you two can take a look at this H.265 export issue?

[Chris Spiegl]

I tested an export with H.265 and Software Encoding and it does not show the same issue. Playback just works and seeking as well. So it's an issue with the H.265 Hardware Encoding on M1 Mac Machines.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hey Chris,

Great to hear from you again, though I wish it were under different circumstances. Can you upload a sample file I can check out? Feel free to PM me the link.

Thanks,

Kevin

[simplethoughtproductions]

Here you go: https://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/data/adobe_test.mp4 I created this using the HEVC (H.265) Format using the 4kUHD Preset.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Chris and others on the thread,

I showed this to the team this morning and they can see the issue thanks to the source file that simplethoughtproductions provided. Thanks to one and all for providing the details of the issue.

We found that while one can play back the file from the start, as soon as you try scrubbing or parking on a different frame to play from there, it takes an inordinate amount of time for the frames to start playing back again. Software Encoding is much better in that regard. 

With these observations and verification of the issue, your bug has been placed in the queue for a fix. I hope the dev team can get this working again ASAP. Look to upcoming versions in the Beta to see if the fix might come sooner there. I appreciate you reporting on this problem, I can see how frustrating that one might be. Take care.

Thanks,
Kevin

[simplethoughtproductions]

Glad to have helped. Looking forward to the patch!

[Francis-Crossman]

Our engineers have found out why the files play back so poorly.  They have one single I-Frame at the very beginning of the file.  GOP structure codecs are supposed to have I-Frames periodically throughout the file - like every 15 frames, sometimes much further apart than that, but never just one for the whole file.  So the further you get away from the beginning of the file, the worse it gets in this case.  The next step is to find why they are being encoded this way and then fix it.  We believe this only affects HEVC on Apple M1.  We're on the case. In the meantime, can you use H264 for your workflow?  You can also use software encoding as @Kevin-Monahan suggests.  

[Chris Spiegl]

Thank you @Kevin-Monahan and @Francis-Crossman for the updates on this issue and that it's now recognized and in progress. That's great news and I am looking forward to a fix - hoping the team can figure it out fast and deploy to the beta of PP and AME.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Chris,

Your fine reporting and the help of others helped a lot. Thanks for all the info.

Cheers,

Kevin

[diffusephoto]

I can confirm the same is happening on M2 Pro (Macbook Pro - M2 Pro 12 core, 16GB ram).
I export mainly 40+ min videos for youtube and since this started I've been unable to scrub through exports in H.265.
VLC player can do it (very slowly) but I think it just brute forces it. 

[ItsJustRich]

I have this issue too, m1 max 

[Chris Spiegl]

Hello @Kevin-Monahan, is there any progress on this issue (maybe in the Beta branch)?

I have been using the Software Encoder but the extra time it takes in the export is crazy and a real inconvenience.

Thank you :cherry_blossom:

[Warren Heaton]

@Chris Spiegl 

While waiting for the H265 export on Apple Silicon bug fix, I've been exporting to ProRes 422 LT and then right-clicking in the Finder and choosing Encode Selected Video Files.  Then choosing H265 when the options appear.  Since macOS does not present a status bar, I use Shutter Encoder (donationware) to convert the ProRes 422 LT exports to H265 for longer videos and batches.

[Chris Spiegl]

That's an interesting workaround. I'll look into it. Thank you.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Chris,

Sorry, the issue is pretty new so I don't think we're seeing it in Beta yet. I'll have to ask for your patience on this one. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks,
Kevin

[mayjain]

Hi All,

Sorry for this problem. We have fixed it in the latest beta builds (Build 9 onwards).  This fix is available in both Premiere and Media Encoder beta builds. 

Please check out the latest beta build version from the creative cloud and let us know how it goes there.

You can download the latest Beta builds from Creative Cloud --> Beta apps --> Premiere Pro (Beta)/Media Encoder(Beta) 
https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/creative-cloud-public-beta.html

If you still face this issue, please share your project files(&media) here https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/share.html and we will check on our end.

Thanks,
Mayjain

[Chris Spiegl]

Hi @mayjain and @Kevin-Monahan , thanks for taking this on.

I can verify that in the latest Beta I have the export to HEVC working on my M1 machines.

I hope that this will be released to the standard version as soon as possible as well.

I do hope that issues like this may be fixed faster in the future though. I understand Adobe is a huge company, but still, having export issues for a format that worked fine a few months ago and then having to wait 2+ monhts for a fix should not happen.

Thanks again for getting the fix working.

Cheers, Chris

[mayjain]

Thanks, @Chris Spiegl for the update. Glad the fix worked in beta builds. This will also be released to the standard versions in near future. 
Customers' feedback is very important for us and we would not like our customers to wait long for bug fixes whenever possible. I apologize for the unexpected delay in this case. Rest assured we keep monitoring the user issues and try to prioritze as much as possible. 
Thanks again for raising this issue.

Glad to help,
Mayjain

[Chris Spiegl]

Dear Adobe & all, @mayjain @Kevin-Monahan 
I have recently tried switching back to the regular version with the August release 23.6 which states that HEVC is now supported again. However, the export with the 23.6 release does show I B and P frames, but the scrubbing does not work on my M1Max machine (this is tested with AME exports mainly).

The 24 beta release continues to work without the "not able to scrub" situation.

I hope this feedback continues to help resolve this issue and make it available as soon as possible to the regular version again.

Cheers, Chris