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H265/HEVC on MacBook Pro 2016

p-dog

p-dog

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 15, 2016
10
3
London
Did anyone catch this during the keynote?

1. "We're building in software encoder support into High Sierra for all Macs"
2. "Hardware acceleration of HEVC in the newest Macs"...

Hardware accelerated lists MacBook Pro 2016. I thought this is not possible in Skylake?

hevc.jpg
 
Yes I heard this, I am not an expert on these codecs. Can anyone shed some light on this, and what it means for 4k video playback/editing?
 
I think the key component that doesn't exist in Skylake and does properly on Kaby Lake is the DRM/licensing element, right? Anyone?
 
p-dog said:
Did anyone catch this during the keynote?

1. "We're building in software encoder support into High Sierra for all Macs"
2. "Hardware acceleration of HEVC in the newest Macs"...

Hardware accelerated lists MacBook Pro 2016. I thought this is not possible in Skylake?

hevc.jpg
Click to expand...

8-Bit is on skylake. 10-bit is only possbile using hybrid gpu/cpu code. The dGPU has 8/10-bit hardware support.
 
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H.265 is only available in hardware in the Kaby Lake CPUs. It's not present in the Skylake CPUs. Building a software encoder is ok but it'll be demanding in terms of CPU and therefore battery life in comparison to the same job in done with a native Kaby Lake CPU. I suppose a 15" 2016 Macbook Pro could have GPU assisted encoding.
 
sublunar said:
H.265 is only available in hardware in the Kaby Lake CPUs. It's not present in the Skylake CPUs. Building a software encoder is ok but it'll be demanding in terms of CPU and therefore battery life in comparison to the same job in done with a native Kaby Lake CPU. I suppose a 15" 2016 Macbook Pro could have GPU assisted encoding.
Click to expand...

He said "HARDWARE" not software. Time will tell.
 
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Full hardware acceleration is probably only possible on 15 inch models with discrete AMD graphics. On the other hand 13 inch model probably only supports hybrid (software&hardware) decoding just like in Windows.
 
p-dog said:
Did anyone catch this during the keynote?

1. "We're building in software encoder support into High Sierra for all Macs"
2. "Hardware acceleration of HEVC in the newest Macs"...

Hardware accelerated lists MacBook Pro 2016. I thought this is not possible in Skylake?

hevc.jpg
Click to expand...
GPU decide/encode
 
"sixth‑generation Intel Core processor or newer."

So these are skylake CPUSs right? Meaning entry level Macbook 12" with the m3 2016, and newer. hm
 
I saw that too... interesting. I'm guessing it goes like this:

Kaby Lake = native hardware decoder in CPU (best performance)
2016-Mac Book/Pro;2015-iMac = software encoder but using GPU optimization (middle performance)
Earlier Macs = pure software encoder (slowest performance)

?
 
What I got from the Keynote, I believe you can export faster to a more efficient file.
 
I believe the 2016 models are going to exploit the discrete GPU for decoding, as on paper those cards should be capable of doing so, but Sierra didn't support it.

Super Xander said:
I don't get it, what will this do for my normal using with my Mac and its experience?
Click to expand...
If you aren't going to play 4K content with h265/HEVC encoding, nothing I guess :)

Granted, it will be an irrelevant addition for most people, but this and official eGPU support show that Apple is serious about keeping the 2016 machines relevant for a long time. And as the owner of a 2016 MBP, this is obviously something I'm very happy to see.
 
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Sterkenburg said:
I believe the 2016 models are going to exploit the discrete GPU for decoding, as on paper those cards should be capable of doing so, but Sierra didn't support it.
Click to expand...

It must be more than that. They have specifically listed models without discrete GPUs as getting this feature.
 
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mikeo007 said:
It must be more than that. They have specifically listed models without discrete GPUs as getting this feature.
Click to expand...
Yes, I think they will also include some kind of software-based solution for laptops without a discrete card. Let's wait for more detailed info to appear, but I'm optimistic, I feel that lately Apple has been doing a good job on the OS side to improve the performance of the newest Macs.
 
The most likely answer seems to me to be:

1) Software encoder/decoder for all Macs.
2) Full hardware support for 8-bit HEVC on Skylake.
3) Hybrid hardware acceleration + software support for 10-bit HEVC on Skylake (which provides enough performance to play back 10-bit 4K HEVC).
4) Full hardware support on 15" Skylake Pros (via dGPU) and Kaby Lake.
 
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FINALLY.

I'm excited about this. Right now, I run 10bit 4K HEVC videos in Windows via Bootcamp (MPC-HC) and it's buttery smooth, compared to the stuttering in Sierra.

I have a MBP 2016 15" AMD 460, so the dGPU does have support for it. I hope High Sierra takes full advantage of the dGPU for HW support.
 
p-dog said:
Did anyone catch this during the keynote?

1. "We're building in software encoder support into High Sierra for all Macs"
2. "Hardware acceleration of HEVC in the newest Macs"...

Hardware accelerated lists MacBook Pro 2016. I thought this is not possible in Skylake?

hevc.jpg
Click to expand...

Quite possibly the best announcement from yesterday IMHO.

I looked into it before buying my tMBP. To the best of my knowledge, with H265 Skylake seems to support 8-bit video encoding/decoding. Kaby supports 10-bit.

I ended up going with the 2016 tMBP, because neither the screen on the MacBookPros nor ThunderBolt3(via DP1.2 or HDMI2.0) support 10-bit video. (Not sure)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Video_Coding#Implementations_and_products

CORRECTION: It has been brought to my attention that ThunderBolt3 via DisplayPort 1.2 supports 4k 30-bit color @ 60 Hz
 
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