Handbrake, Monterey and M1Pro/Max Videotoolbox

[BayouTiger]

I have had no success using Handbrake 1.4.2 with the VTB encoder on the new machine. 1.4.1 works fine on my older M1 MBP and Mini, but every encode fails on the new machine. Seems that this has been the case on the Monterey Betas even on the older machines, but at least my 2020 works. I haven't tried 1.4.2 on the older Macs.

Anyone else seeing this?

 

[guywood]

I was experiencing this issue initially (16" M1 Max) using FFmpeg directly - it seemed as if it was having issues with the DTS/PTS timestamps, and videos were encoding with a fps of 0.5 rather than the correct 24.

After updating to 12.0.1 it resolved, and I'm able to do AVC/HEVC encodes normally.

 

[Stevenyo]

Just wanted to chime in with my own handbrake m1 Max issues. Using a 32GB 16" running 12.0.1 and Handbrake 1.4.2. I always test new hardware speed using 1080p30 fast preset (CQ changed to 22 for VideoToolBox) and an .mkv from a blu ray. Using on a 7 GPU core m1 Air running 11.5.2 and using these settings, VideoToolBox runs at about 140fps. But on my new M1 Max, it runs about 60fps. Very weird. (edit to add: HB 1.4.1 acts the same way)

I love this laptop hardware wise, but Monterey is pretty half baked, Finder crashes constantly, I've had all sorts of runaway memory leaks with OS features, oh and if I unplug the machine from my TB dock with the lid closed, it kernel panics and restarts. Going to keep it and trust the software gets better quickly!

 

[Dembo]

And I thought it was just me: Struggling with the Handbrake M1 Max settings on a 14'' M1 Max. Encoding a 2h BluRay Rip with VideoToolBox took about 50min. So not bad, but clearly not 140fps. Are there any updated recommended settings for the handbrake settings? I haven't been in the encoding game for a couple of years so I am a bit rusty.

 

[guywood]

Yep, also seeing it peak at about 60fps on a 16" M1 Max/64GB (with Don Melton's scripts, using ffmpeg via Homebrew). I wonder if there's some kind of cap that these applications are encountering? And if so, is it related to why exports from FCP exports were so much faster than from Premiere, in various reviews.

 

[sephstyler]

Here's a discussion I've been involved with on Github (Handbrake)

Macbook Pro M1 Pro/Max Talks · HandBrake HandBrake · Discussion #3932

Hi guys, I'm starting this discussion for anything to do with the new MacBook Pros M1 Pro/Max. I'm curious to hear about what everyone else is seeing for performance gains and what settings everyon...

github.com

Its most probably something in videotoolbox itself that isnt taking advantage of the encoding engine properly. I think Apple needs to be the one to update VTB for M1 Pro / Max, and not Handbrake.

I have found a "hack" where, if you own an iPad, use it as sidecar, during the encode, and it will delivery 150fps for a 1080p HEVC encode, however, you can clearly see a ramp up in CPU power use, so I think its still using CPU grunt for the encode, and not VTB's supposed media encode engines.