Premiere Pro v22.2.0 - Hardware Encoding Not Possible when Bitrate Encoding VBR 2 Pass

[Stuart K Taylor]

Hi, not sure if this is a bug or not. 

I've lost the ability to use hardware encoding when exporting if I set the bitrate encoding to VBR 2 Pass.  Previously I had no problems with this but now it can't do it and switches to software encoding.

When trying to switch back to hardware, I get a message that my system's hardware does not support hardware acceleration for the current setting.  As mentioned, previously it had no problems.

Thanks

[Ann Bens · Accepted solution]

That is correct. VBR2 is not supported.

[Stuart K Taylor]

Okay, thanks.  Interesting decision - how did this change benefit the users?

[Richard M Knight]

I think single pass hardware encoding is a requirement of the cpu/gpu and not a limitation imposed by Premiere.

[Ann Bens]

AFAIK this has nothing to do with Adobe. Neither Intel, AMD or NVIDIA support vbr2 hardware encoding.

But you will have to ask @RjL190365 

[Stuart K Taylor]

Thank you. It's strange that it worked until recently. 

I appreciate the assistance, thanks all. 

[Ann Bens]

Are you sure as I dont seen any hardware encoding for vbr2 in 2021 too.

[FlyingFourFun]

VBR 2 pass has never worked on GPU encoding with NVidia at least.  Saying it's not supported is an understatement of sorts because it must be possible first for Adobe to exclude it.  In this case, it is not possible so there is no way for Adobe to support it.

From the moment GPU encoding supported appeared it has not been possible to do 2 pass.

However, I don't think you're completely wrong in perceiving support for 2 pass with hardware.  I have this vague memory of early versions after HW encoding appeared, still allowing you to check off the 2 pass and it would change back to SW encoding without a notification.  The later dialogs removed the 2 pass option when HW encoding is selected.  It could be my false memory, but it stands out in my mind because I was running many tests to compared HW vs SW, in combinations like software decode and HW encode and HW decode, SW encode when It caught my eye in the log file it said SW when I had 2 pass selected and I knew full well I had selected HW.

At the end of the day, as you have seen everyone posts 2 pass has never been (truly) supported and thats not on adobe, but unless I'm crazy,  I think early versions when HW encode first appeared did have the behavior I noted.

[Phillip Harvey]

I've also never seen it work for VBR 2-pass.

It also conceptually to me seems like two things you wouldn't want to mix anyway. At least for me, VBR 2-pass is something to use when dealing with really low bitrates where the slight boost in accuracy/efficiency between the target and max bitrate can make a big difference. If maintaining a very low bitrate is not a huge concern then 2-pass means you're waiting around longer. Just increase the target bitrate a bit. Hardware Encoding can also require a higher bitrate than Software Encoding to match the results. I also personally just trust Software Encoding way more for my final encodings. Less error prone, fewer render issues, artifacts, glitches, etc. So where quality is concerned I personally wouldn't be trying to chase after Hardware Encoding. But that's me. 

[FlyingFourFun]

I find that VBR2 really didn't look good with fast scene chances, and sudden changes, it seemed to favor the use of lower bit rates to confirm to size over quality.  I don't recall the last time I ever tried to use it (well, an hour ago when I was checking the dialogs to respond to the post, but does that really count?).