M1 Max MacBook Pro won't play H264/H265

[luckygbrandt]

Hi,

I have a dash cam that saves files in H264 or H265. When I take these files to my M1 Max MacBook Pro, they play very choppy in Quicklook, not at all in Quicktime Play and very very badly in iMovie.

The identical files on my 2015 MacBook Pro play perfectly.

Its a VanTop H210 front and rear dash cam. 2K video front 1080P back. Both front and rear don't play on the M1.

Thanks,
Gregor

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Have you tried VLC?

 

[luckygbrandt]

VLC does the same. The M1 Max is supposed to have hardware decoders for this, not sure what is up.

Minor correction, VLC will play the file ok for about 5 seconds then go choppy. If I move the play cursor, it will do another 5 seconds then go choppy.

 

[mi7chy]

Can you share the files so we can see the profiles?

 

[BanditoB]

Call Apple and work with them.

 

[luckygbrandt]

Can you share the files so we can see the profiles?

You bet, I'll get them up in a bit.

 

[lcubed]

are you playing the files from the internal drive or the dash cam flash card?

 

[luckygbrandt]

are you playing the files from the internal drive or the dash cam flash card?

I have copied it locally on the M1. On the 2015 MacBook Pro it plays from the flash card just fine

 

[luckygbrandt]

@mi7chy Here are the two video files, one is H265 and one is H264. In the browser the top one plays but the bottom one does not.

 

[lcubed]

both play back fine on my 2020 13" m1 MBP (Monterey 12.4/latest safari)

 

[exoticSpice]

plays back fine too on my mac(macOS 12.4)

 

[luckygbrandt]

ok, here is a direct link to one of the files. Perhaps the forum software changes the format. Both are now playing fine on my system as well. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ckfz7gefp6dk6k/2022_06_09_160415_00.MP4?dl=0

 

[tmoerel]

ok, here is a direct link to one of the files. Perhaps the forum software changes the format. Both are now playing fine on my system as well. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ckfz7gefp6dk6k/2022_06_09_160415_00.MP4?dl=0

I just checked on my M1 Max. Plays well on Infuse but most other apps give a very strange frame rate. If I look at the video specs it seems that the video is recorded with some very strange Variable frame rate settings. I wonder if the meta data is wrong and most video players are interpreting the video wrong because of this.
I think the problem is in the encoder in the camera. It seems to create borked meta data.

 

[LuisN]

ok, here is a direct link to one of the files. Perhaps the forum software changes the format. Both are now playing fine on my system as well. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ckfz7gefp6dk6k/2022_06_09_160415_00.MP4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ckfz7gefp6dk6k/2022_06_09_160415_00.MP4?dl=0

I used Videoproc Converter to "reencode" the file and it now plays well in every player. Something to do with the camera encoder perhaps?

 

[Cognizant.]

Could try this: https://iina.io/

 

[luckygbrandt]

Could try this: https://iina.io/

Both files play fine in iina

 

[luckygbrandt]

I just checked on my M1 Max. Plays well on Infuse but most other apps give a very strange frame rate. If I look at the video specs it seems that the video is recorded with some very strange Variable frame rate settings. I wonder if the meta data is wrong and most video players are interpreting the video wrong because of this.
I think the problem is in the encoder in the camera. It seems to create borked meta data.

I would agree, I assume the 2015 MacBook Pro works because its a software decoder, where as on the M1 MacBook Pro its hardware...

 

[joema2]

Hi,

I have a dash cam that saves files in H264 or H265. When I take these files to my M1 Max MacBook Pro, they play very choppy in Quicklook, not at all in Quicktime Play and very very badly in iMovie.

The identical files on my 2015 MacBook Pro play perfectly...

It won't play or transcode on my M1 Ultra using FCPX 10.6.3 or Resolve Studio 17.4.6. It also won't play on my 2017 iMac 27 using FCPX 10.5.2, so the issue is not unique to Apple Silicon. On the M1 Ultra it also will not transcode using EditReady 22.2.1, but it can be transcoded using Handbrake 1.5.1 using either x264 or the x265 software encoder.

The file is HEVC using the Main 5.1 profile, 8-bit 4:2:0, 6.775 mbps, nominal frame rate 29.97 fps but frame rate mode is variable.

It was apparently encoded using a Chinese chipset from Hisilicon. My guess is it does not adhere to the proper encoding spec so it's simply "luck of the draw" about what software will and won't work. There is no "codec police" to enforce this, so any software or chipset can encode whatever they want with virtually no testing. Broadcasters and streaming providers typically validate content with utilities like Zond 265: https://www.solveigmm.com/en/products/zond/

I don't have that utility (it's expensive) but seems plausible that clip would fail validation. This situation is typical with various security cams, dash cams, etc. The solution is not to put special workaround cases for each manufacturer into all software but the hardware manufacturer must test their encoding and validate it on common video software.

 

[luckygbrandt]

@joema2 The 2017 also has a hardware decoder..so I'm pretty sure you are correct. the file is malformed and software codecs can handle it but hardware codecs cannot.