File types decoded by GPU

[thxapproved2]

Is there a list of HEVC and AVC video filetypes that can be decoded by the dedicated chipsets on GPU's?

I have a Panasonic HCX2 that shoots 10-bit H.264 in an MOV wrapper. Also same with the Panasonic CX350 I have. I also have older Sony cameras that shoot H.264 as AVCHD. In Premiere, the AVCHD files would decode nicely with the GPU, however, the MOV files are sent to the CPU for decoding on only 2-cores (out of 16 - on a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900K with 64GB RAM). I have 2 GPU's. One is the nVidia RTX 4090, and the other is the onboard Intel chipset. On some projects, Premiere does nicely, handing off various encoding and decoding of video clips to the various dedicated GPU codec chips. However, with the Panasonic footage, it does not, and it makes exporting video quickly a slow process. The only bottleneck seems to be the system waiting on the video decoding.

What I am wondering, is if there is a comprehensive list that exists of what file types can be hardware decoded?  For reference, I have included the specs of the Panasonic file below.

Thanks!

VIDEO INFO:

General
CompleteName : 5C002_240319_J2F4.MOV
Format/String : MPEG-4
Format_Profile : QuickTime
CodecID/String : qt 2011.07 (qt /pana)
FileSize/String : 879 MiB
Duration/String : 2 min 19 s
OverallBitRate_Mode/String : Variable
OverallBitRate/String : 52.8 Mb/s
FrameRate/String : 29.970 FPS

Video
ID/String : 1
Format/String : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format_Profile : High 4:2:2@L4.1
Format_Settings : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format_Settings_CABAC/String : Yes
Format_Settings_RefFrames/String : 2 frames
Format_Settings_GOP : M=3, N=15
CodecID : avc1
CodecID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration/String : 2 min 19 s
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate/String : 49.9 Mb/s
BitRate_Maximum/String : 60.0 Mb/s
Width/String : 1 920 pixels
Height/String : 1 080 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String : 16:9
FrameRate_Mode/String : Constant
FrameRate/String : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : Component
ColorSpace : YUV
ChromaSubsampling/String : 4:2:2
BitDepth/String : 10 bits
ScanType/String : Progressive
Bits-(Pixel*Frame) : 0.803
StreamSize/String : 831 MiB (94%)
Language/String : English
Encoded_Date : 2024-03-19 16:06:46 UTC
Tagged_Date : 2024-03-19 16:06:46 UTC
colour_range : Limited
colour_primaries : BT.709
transfer_characteristics : BT.709
matrix_coefficients : BT.709
Codec configuration box : avcC

[mattchristensen · Accepted solution]

@thxapproved2 Unfortunately this gets really complex, and so it's difficult to have a definitive list of what is supported on any one system. From Premiere Pro's perspective once we have added support in our code for hardware decoding of a certain format, what that looks like on your system is when you try to import or play back one of these clips, Premiere Pro will ask the system APIs to decode the frames using hardware decoding if available. Then its up to your hardware, driver, OS to report back that it can do hardware decoding for this format and it goes on its way.

On any given system, this is a list of just some of the factors that affect if hardware decoding will happen:

Container format: MP4/MOV/MXF, etc

Codec: H.264/H.264/AV1, etc

Bit depth: 8-bit, 10-bit

Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0, 4:2:2

Frame size

So if you import media where the above characteristics all fall into what Premiere Pro knows how to hardware decode and your hardware has the support for it, then it will work.

You usually can find published matrices of what is supported for your specific chip/hardware by looking on the vendor's specsheets.

[thxapproved2]

@mattchristensen 

Thanks for the reply.