With the M1, is there any encode by quality option in video toolbox?

[Obioban]

Or are we still stuck at a fixed bit rate?

[Ritsuka]

Yes, constant quality is supported.

[Obioban]

Yes, constant quality is supported.

Awesome!

So is there any downside now to using the hardware encoding (vs software encoding)?

[Ritsuka]

Hardware encoder quality/bitrate ratio is still worse than a good software encoder.

[Obioban]

If I've been happy with H.264 quality in the default software encoded 1080p30 format, what video toolbox H.265 quality setting do you think would give me similar video quality?

Thanks for all your help with this! I've been using handbrake for ~a decade on my old iMac, but this hardware encoder stuff is all new to me with the M1.

[mduell]

I'd start with the same QP target and see how you like the result. Try a variety of content, high motion, detailed slow motion, etc.

[Ritsuka]

I think ~ 55 might be a good starting value.
At the present time we expose only the 8-bit hardware encoder. The M1 can do 10-bit hevc too, but there is no ETA on when it will be available in HandBrake.

[Obioban]

That's exciting!

I think I'm going to redo my entire media library at some point-- and that point will probably when you add support for that to the software.

Thanks for all your help, and the amazing software!

[s55]

You'll probably want to use software encoding if you care about quality and size. Feedback on M1 that I've seen hasn't been good with regards to quality and filesize.

x265 (inc 10bit) isn't too bad on M1 for speed.