Can I edit HEVC in Premiere Pro 2023?

[KazuT]

Can I edit HEVC in Premiere Pro 2023?

[Averdahl]

Can I edit HEVC in Premiere Pro 2023?

By @KazuT

Yes!

[KazuT]

Allow me to rephrase: Some web sites have web H264 that plays back smooth in VLC, but plays back jittery in QT player, Premiere, etc. When I edit, it's still jittery. 

I thought it was HEVC, but it may be something else. The frame rate shows up as 30 fps, so it may not be a variable frame rate thing. 

As a workaround, I've been transcoding those files; but it can be time consuming.

[Averdahl]

I thought it was HEVC, but it may be something else.

By @KazuT

It can be your computer that not is powerful enough to handle HEVC. But even if it is, HEVC is not a nice to edit due to bad playback and the best thing to get a smooth editing experience in to use som kind of proxy workflow, iow transcoding the footage to an intra-frame codec such as Apple ProRes LT.

[KazuT]

It can be your computer that not is powerful enough to handle HEVC. But even if it is, HEVC is not a nice to edit due to bad playback and the best thing to get a smooth editing experience in to use som kind of proxy workflow, iow transcoding the footage to an intra-frame codec such as Apple ProRes LT.

By @Averdahl

@Averdahl I'm using a brand new MacBook Pro 2023 M2 Max with 96 GB unified memory. What's a computer that's powerful enough to cut with HEVC in Premiere?

[Averdahl]

@Averdahl I'm using a brand new MacBook Pro 2023 M2 Max with 96 GB unified memory. What's a computer that's powerful enough to cut with HEVC in Premiere?

By @KazuT

That should be powerful enough, but still, HEVC is a terrible editing codec to edit and a proxy workflow is the solution. Aim to transcode it to an I-frame codec such as Apple ProRes LT.

[KazuT · Accepted solution]

Yeah, I'm reading that you need a monster computer, and even those can only playback a single stream. Playing at 2x or 4x speed is probably out of the question.