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No 4K, Dolby Vision, HDR support on iMac Pro
- Thread starter BeatCrazy
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I thought this was very confusing too. As far as I was aware, the iMac Pro display is the same as that of the 2019 iMac, which is the same as that of the 2017 iMac... isn't it?
It would be a serious blow to find that lesser machines gain HDR support while the iMac Pro is left behind.
It would be a serious blow to find that lesser machines gain HDR support while the iMac Pro is left behind.
This sucks, esp. since theoretically any Mac from 2017 on (except the 2017 MacBook Air) should be able to support this.
In fact, this is why I bought in 2017 (and not 2016).
Furthermore, the 2017 iMacs were available for sale until 2.5 months ago, and the 2017 iMac Pro is still for sale.
In fact, this is why I bought in 2017 (and not 2016).
Furthermore, the 2017 iMacs were available for sale until 2.5 months ago, and the 2017 iMac Pro is still for sale.
if they are doing this only via the 2018+ Intel QuickSync subsystem then the restriction would 'kind of' make sense. If the new Mac Pro 2019 shows up and gets excluded, then that would definitely be indicative of that.
What I think Apple is possibly missing is support for this via discrete GPUs ( and in particular AMD's video DRM decode ). In that case, it could be more in the case of "not done yet". ( similar to how AppleTV got some high end audio updates after it shipped. )
In Mac systems, Apple ships way more Intel GPUs than anyone else. So that gets done first on newest hardware. The rest they get to in their "copious spare time". Post shipping the Mac Pro 2019 that has a good chance of changing. (kind of embarrassing if $10K Mac Pro + XDR system can't do it. )
Yeah, I’m starting to think that when they figure out support via discrete AMD GPUs for the Mac Pro, they can add the iMac Pro at the same time.
I don't believe any Xeon processors have QuickSync since they don't have the IGP. However, I thought Apple would use the T2 for this.
I would imagine so. IINA is already doing this (HDR10 playback) now on any mac.
You'll notice the difference as soon as you compare how the same video plays either in QuickTime player or VLC, where no tonemapping is carried out.
The Xeon-class CPUs in iMac Pro (also used in new/current/old Mac Pros) have never supported Intel’s QuickSync.
Just a nitpick: A few of the newer Xeons do. If it does not have a GPU then it won’t have QuickSync, but some of the recent Xeons have GPUs.
But isn't QuickSync about encoding video?
If you just want to watch a HDR video (process called decoding), you should not need QS. Your GPU would need to be able to decode H.265 and PQ EOTF.
Intel QuickSync is about both decoding and encoding video.
For decoding h.265 HEVC, a machine without hardware decoding support is seriously crippled, unless it's a very simple video. Otherwise you need it for playback. For 10-bit HDR h.265 HEVC, only very recent machines can decode high quality 4K in software, but that's with very high CPU usage and the fans running at full tilt. The way the iMac Pro gets around it without Intel QuickSync is to leverage a similar hardware decoder on the AMD GPU.
In my own test, a specific 4K 10-bit HDR Sony demo h.265 HEVC video is decoded perfectly cleanly on my 2017 1.2 GHz Core m3 fanless MacBook with less than 25% CPU usage, if I use QuickSync. In contrast, even with 100% CPU usage I couldn't decode it cleanly on a 2017 4.2 GHz Core i7 iMac without QuickSync, and this was with the fans at maximum. 8-bit non-HDR 4K h.265 HEVC is easier, but is still very CPU intensive, so a hardware decoder is still highly important to have.
That is what I had in mind. Most GPUs support video decode in hardware. True, to get 10-bit H.265 decoding, you'd need a fairly recent GPU.
Finding 10-bit H.265 hardware encoding is much trickier, that is where Intel QS comes into play. At least for me.
Actually, early reports are that it can.
It says all released in 2018. It doesn't say that none from 2017 can't.
It says all released in 2018. It doesn't say that none from 2017 can't.
I’d also like to see a link on the above- preferably of someone with an iMac Pro running the Catalina beta who can confirm support is in there.
It does work well, the only thing though is that by default the videos seem slightly dark to me so I raise the gamma slightly in the EQ settings for HDR vids.
It does work well, the only thing though is that by default the videos seem slightly dark to me so I raise the gamma slightly in the EQ settings for HDR vids.
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So the 2019 27 inch 5k iMac will be able to play and display HdR content with Catalina? I’m trying to make sure I understand this right. The iMac pro will NOT be able to play HDR content with Catalina due to a missing hardware component that the 2019 27inch 5k iMac has?
It's not clear that it's missing in all the 2017 iMacs, but for whatever reason, Apple is not supporting this on the 2017 models.