Suddenly hardware encoding no longer possible when exporting media

[jensjakobsen]

I have a MacBook Pro M2 Max, 12 CPU cores, 38 GPU cores, and 64GB RAM, running MacOS Ventura 13.5.2.

This summer I have edited a lot of videos taken with my Mavic 3, 5.1K, Apple ProRes, 422HQ, and exported to 5.1K format using hardware encoding. I have proof, I have the files that I exported.

Suddenly I can no longer HW encode video files to match the same settings as my Mavic 3 footage. 

Please do not ask me "if I have the latest... blah blah". Instead, if you are really interested, try to download an example I've uploaded to OneDrive (does not require login), and see if you can encode using HW encoding to match the same settings as the file.

The test file can be found here https://1drv.ms/f/s!ApwvJiPkGv7shPRryrFYuLoUpB-R9A?e=aayPXY (click on the file, and choose DOWNLOAD).

What has happened?

Thanks

[R Neil Haugen]

What are your export settings, the format and all that?

If H.264/5, single or two pass encodes?

[jensjakobsen]

Thanks for your reply Neil, though I'm sure the culprit is somwhere else totally - remember, this is something I suddenly can't do anymore - so what has changed?

As requested, I have attached my encoding settings.

[R Neil Haugen]

Ok, that's a long-GOP H.264 encode.

In the Preferences, there are a couple options for doing H.264 encodes, what are those set to?

[jensjakobsen]

Thanks again - did you mean these settings?

[R Neil Haugen]

Yep. That gives the data that your project and export are set correctly. At this point, getting someone like @RjL190365 involved would be useful. The resident expert for such things.

[jensjakobsen]

Thanks again - I hope for the best. 

Have you tried your self to HW encode my sample, please?

[RjL190365]

I have just checked your project's export settings. It looks like your export nitrate is set way too high for either H.264 or HEVC. H.264 hardware encoding is currently limited to about 75 Mbps regardless of the hardware used. But your bitrate is set to well over 200 Mbps! No wonder why it defaulted to software encoding.

[jensjakobsen]

I tested a very low bitrate - I can provide screen recording. At lower nitrate the error was the same.

[RjL190365]

I forgot one more detail:

Your export resolution is too high for hardware encoding in H.264. Maximum supported resolution for hardware H.264 encoding is only 4096x4096. The 5120 frame width forced software encoding. With a 5k frame width, you must use HEVC in order to hardware encode. You cannot hardware encode 5k video to H.264 no matter what equipment you have (at least with Premiere Pro). 8k H.264 hardware encoding is not currently supported in Premiere Pro.

[MyerPj]

Yes, I thought that was the case.

[MyerPj]

The picture below is with Match Source Selected, then I changed to Hardware Encodeing. As soon as I clicked 4K instead, it switched on it's own to  Hardware encoding.

[jensjakobsen]

Thank you!! The part where you said that yu cannot HW encode 5.1K video with H264 did the trick! That part was actually the correct answer. Thank you!

[hqrdly.]

Maybe my english or logic is slow, but I tried to change settings for test and the results were always that I watched as my CPU goes up to 4,60GHz while my GPU idling. Tried to set it "Match source" but the result was the same.

Would appreciate any tip.

[R Neil Haugen]

144fps? Seriously?

I think that might be the issue here ... I've seen things where the hardware encoding needed to be anticipated and usual framerates. 144fps is simply nothing that is ever used in regular video production.

[MyerPj]

🙂 Good one @R Neil Haugen 

After you change the framerate, try an encode at 1920x1080, changing frame size is done on the GPU.

[hqrdly.]

Well, thanks for the advices. I tried the video with 1920x1080 60fps but it was just unbearable. I know that 144fps is not regular, but there's a huge difference between that and 60fps.
To further my question, is it possible to make a smooth-looking video that uses GPU over CPU? Or is there a setting that's uses more GPU than CPU? (I use hardware encoding tho, but it goes to software always)

[R Neil Haugen]

You aren't just dealing with Premiere, but also the specs and standards that the built-in hardware encoding is designed to work with.

I know there are specific settings for framerate and bit depth allowed. And that's in the computer hardware.

A major issue is you're doing gaming vids, and gamers frequently go for very high framerate playback. It's what you're used to.

But general and professional video simply use 24fps through 59.97fps. And NLE applications are more commonly built for those figures. So I understand the frustration, just not sure how to do something about it. 

@RjL190365is our resident expert on most things like this.

[hqrdly.]

Yes I knew there are difference between professional and gaming videos.
I should've asked more about how to balance it when I want to export fragmovies.
But really appreciate every response so far and try to learn from it.
Here my yt: https://www.youtube.com/@hqrdly
There're 2 videos, both 1440p and 144fps. Although I exported each for like 30min and the outcome was "eh", I couldn't find a way to make it smoother.

[R Neil Haugen]

That has to be very frustrating. Gaming is so HFR ... high framerate, these days. But video production is not, so how do you show HFR gaming on standard framerate applications? 

Can YouTube actually show 144fps stuff at 144fps? They so throttle all other factors to cut down the system load of the content that would amaze me.

[MyerPj]

Those are both showing at 60fps per YouTube. They look the same to me - a total non-gamer.

[MyerPj]

[MyerPj]

And I just downloaded it and:

[hqrdly.]

Maybe I'm just understudied for videomaking, but for me, it's the look, the smoothness that is needed. Maybe my mind just don't get that it won't be 144fps on yt, but to me, it looks like that. I don't know the basics for video editing, so till it looks flawless, that's what I need. When I see it in the editing software, it looks terrible, even when I export it to 60fps, for example, here my friends video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwtKi9_7f1E
I really can't see how, and why my video can't be like that, that's why I did it to 144fps, to see if the outcome will be the same. This video was my aim.

[R Neil Haugen]

You must find all movies and television horrific to watch, then.

Movies are 24fps, period ... except for some PAL areas of Europe or elsewhere, where they've gone to 25fps for movies.

There have only been a very, very few movies in 'HFR' ... which was clear up to 48fps. And they did not go well with audiences, as they seemed over-sharp and hard to watch.

And in PAL countries, TV is 25fps. Half of the 50Hz electrical frequency of their power grid. In the US and some other countries, TV is 29.97, close to half of the 60hz cycles of our electrical grid.

I expected that YouTube maxed out at around 60fps ... they don't have the bandwidth for more. Without even more compression than they do already.

So ... what is the difference between yours and the ones off YouTube you find better? They aren't any faster framerate ... I think part of it is you didn't see what their's were like in their original computer production process. You've only seen the YouTube of them.

It's very much like people that get wigged out over the color and tonal differences between inside Premiere and outside with other video players. If they can see even a tiny difference, what's WRONG?

Well ... the problem is, they haven't seen the other people's rigs at work, and so didn't realize that they have never seen exactly what the colorist saw in their grading suite, no matter what the media. Movies, TV, streaming, DVD/BluRay ... no one ever sees exactly what the original grade looked like.

Because every screen is different, period. No one ever gets an identical image.