Update: I was wrong about the 720p conversion. There still is a problem with that but not as much as it was with PowerDirector 13 though.

I think H.265 is native to Win 10 and should be faster - but I haven't tried.
Al Power Director 13&14 Ultimate, Photo Director 6, Audio Dir, Pwr2Go 10
Win 10 64, Intel MB DH87MC, Intel i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 16Gb DDR3 1600, 128Gb SSD, 2x1Tb WDBlue 7200rpmSATA6, Intel 4600 GPU, Gigabyte G1 GTX960 4GB, LG BluRay Writer

No, it's just a better compression. If any, it's native to 4K resolution.

http://pureinfotech.com/2014/11/04/windows-10-native-mkv-hevc-h265-file-formats-support/ Power Director 13&14 Ultimate, Photo Director 6, Audio Dir, Pwr2Go 10
Win 10 64, Intel MB DH87MC, Intel i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 16Gb DDR3 1600, 128Gb SSD, 2x1Tb WDBlue 7200rpmSATA6, Intel 4600 GPU, Gigabyte G1 GTX960 4GB, LG BluRay Writer

I stand corrected, but I know I am going to wait for awhile until all of the stories come out about Windows 10 doing data-collecting; in addition, Windows 10 doesn't support Window Media Center so I am definitely not going to go over to Windows 10 anytime soon but thanks for the message though.

AIS: I was originally right, yes, Windows 10 does support H.265 natively, but if you don't have a H.265 decoder on your GPU, Windows Media Player will only do software decoding which is terrible.



At the end of the day, you will need a dedicated decoder like what is on the GTX 960, 950. My 980Ti uses a "hybrid" methodology to decode H.265 which is good but not a substitution for a dedicated decoder.

1. Hardware encoding in h.265 is a different issue from decoding. Windows 10 WMP supports natively decoding only.
2. GTX960 has a better (newer generation Maxwell 2) decoder /encoder hardware than the GTX980. If you mainly do video editing, consider swapping the video card.

I am just going to wait until Nvidia's PASCAL lineup comes out because it will have dedicated decoder for H.265 on all of their cards. Hardware-acceleration with the 980Ti for decoding is better than software decoding but still isn't great. After I encoded a video and play it back on PowerDVD 15 using my 980Ti's hardware-accelerated decoding, it clear but juddery/stuttery.

There is no substitution for a dedicated decoder.

Was hoping PD14 might include an HEVC 4k disc creator that would enable people to burn h.265 files to existing Blu-ray media, not unlike the way HD can be burned to DVD as AVHCD-DVD and play on a PC or HD Blu-ray player. Actual 4k BD players might use new disc formats, but perhaps a PC with the right graphics card, and an HEVC-friendly PowerDVD, might play HEVC content? Not this year? Hmm. PowerDirector 12 (pondering 16)
Toshiba Qosmio X875, i7 3630QM 2.4 ghz, 16GB RAM, GeForce GTX 670M with 3GB video RAM.
HDC-SDT750, HX9V, GoPro Hero HD, LX7, LX100. Looking for, but cannot find, gear and software to author UHD 4k discs.

Oh, I didn't know you can't encode H.265 compression on a Blu-Ray Disc.

Quote: Was hoping PD14 might include an HEVC 4k disc creator that would enable people to burn h.265 files to existing Blu-ray media, not unlike the way HD can be burned to DVD as AVHCD-DVD and play on a PC or HD Blu-ray player. Actual 4k BD players might use new disc formats, but perhaps a PC with the right graphics card, and an HEVC-friendly PowerDVD, might play HEVC content? Not this year? Hmm.

That was my wish too, it probably did not happen because the UHD BR group have not released their specs soon enough.

Since Sony, Pana etc have 4K camcoders, they will come up with a format using BR HD type 25/50 GB type blanks to play in a UHD BR player.

Identical with your comment about the AVCHD_DVD format.

I recorded 4K UHD as a file in either 264 and now on PD14 as 265 on BR, USB and HD.

The 4K HEVC video produced with the GTX 960 looks outstanding and takes no more time than 264 to encode.



Eugene



Eugene 73s, WA6JZN ex DL9GC
CYBERLINK PLEASE ADD UHD BLU RAY BURNING SOFTWARE
PD14,
Win10,64bit.CPU i7 6700,16GB ,C= 480 GB SSD ,GPU GTX1060 6GB 1 fan. Plus 3 int, 4 ext HDD's for video etc.LG WH16NS40 reads UHD.
4K 24" ViewSonic monitor.Camera Sony FDR-A

Quote:
That was my wish too, it probably did not happen because the UHD BR group have not released their specs soon enough.

Yes, it's too bad. Seems they are really dragging their feet on that.

Since Sony, Pana etc have 4K camcoders, they will come up with a format using BR HD type 25/50 GB type blanks to play in a UHD BR player.

I just have to wonder if 25/50GB disks will be enough for 4K, even with H.265 .

Do you happen to know how much the bit rate is reduced with H.265 vs H.264 for equivalent perceived quality ?

If encoding 4K in H.264, one would need 4x the size of the HD discs, or 100 - 200GB discs.

I believe BD-XL supports 100/128GB discs on triple and quad layer. I haven't seen any 128GB media for sale, though.

And 100GB media is expensive, and looks to have poor compatibility.

IMO, the more interesting things are pressed discs for movie releases. 100/200 GB 4K movies cannot stream through my 12 Mbps internet connection

H.265 could be interesting for HD streaming though - maybe it will make HD streaming videos finally watchable. 3-6 Mbps HD streams from Netflix certainly are not, on my home theater. Most also sound like crap, too. MSI X99A Raider
Intel i7-5820k @ 4.4 GHz
32GB DDR4 RAM
Gigabyte nVidia GTX 960 4GB
480 GB Patriot Ignite SSD (boot)
2 x 480 GB Sandisk Ultra II SSD (striped)
6 x 1 TB Samsung 860 SSD (striped)

2 x LG 32UD59-B 32" 4K
Asus PB238 23" HD (portrait)

My camcorder is a AX100, the 4K MP4 files generated have a variable bit rate. Mediainfo says bitrate =54 ave, 60 Mb max.

I have a 90 min vacation video that in 264 MP4 48Mb is 29 GB, the same in 265 34 Mb is 21GB

The settings are those of PD14 preset 264 or 265 format.


There is no readily noticeable difference in picture quality or artifacts between the 264 and 265. Both are encoded with the 960 encoder, amazingly both formats took the same time to encode , app 2hrs 45 min.

The PD14 265 HEVC encoded by CPU is unacceptable to me unless HIPQ encoding is chosen. That mode takes app 55min for 1 min of video!!!!

So my 264 PD files are app 10Mb less than the original camcorder output w/o any apparent reduction in PQ. The camera allows up to 100Mb, it is the cosensus of a number of owners that there is no readily noticeable difference betweel 60 and 100.

In order to fit the 90 min video onto a 25GB disc I reduced the 264 bit rate to 36Mb resulting in a 22GB file. My wife felt that there was no difference, to my eye that was the limit, acceptable only if technology could do no better.

By comparisson Youtube looked considerably worse than even the low 36Mb video in 4K mode.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD1lwj_iGvM

Notice on the trip to the wall how the trees disintegrate, that is just barely visible in the 264 36 Mb version produced by PD14, trees totally clean in normal PD14 264 and 265 preset format.



So for me at last 25 GB storage is more than adequate for 99.999% of my projects.



Last night we watched "Lawrence of Arabia" via Netflix in 4K, it looked good but the AX100 does much better thanks to the 1" sensor.



Eugene

I edited this about 20 times to avoid confusion, sorry 73s, WA6JZN ex DL9GC
CYBERLINK PLEASE ADD UHD BLU RAY BURNING SOFTWARE
PD14,
Win10,64bit.CPU i7 6700,16GB ,C= 480 GB SSD ,GPU GTX1060 6GB 1 fan. Plus 3 int, 4 ext HDD's for video etc.LG WH16NS40 reads UHD.
4K 24" ViewSonic monitor.Camera Sony FDR-A

Quote:
Do you happen to know how much the bit rate is reduced with H.265 vs H.264 for equivalent perceived quality ?

Several thoughts and eyes took a look here http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/40564.page In the end it appeard about 40% reduction, 50% too aggressive. Highly dependant on viewer and viewer footage. Trees, leaves, grass slight breeze and camera panning, generally tougher to maintain PQ.

Quote: You might want to view this from a bitrate study. Drop the bitrate and see what the old eyes catch. Most tests comparing H.264 vs H.265 indicate the same picture quality (PSNR values, peak signal to noise ratio) is achieved at about 60% of the bitrate, 40% savings. That's the size savings benefit.

Since PQ for most PD user studies is based on eyes and display equipment vs a technical assessment, everyone’s perceived benefit may vary. For a couple of sports (action) scenes I tried, I thought a real noticeable difference occurred at about 50% of the bitrate.

Jeff

Jeff,



Amazing the difference a year can make.



Eugene 73s, WA6JZN ex DL9GC
CYBERLINK PLEASE ADD UHD BLU RAY BURNING SOFTWARE
PD14,
Win10,64bit.CPU i7 6700,16GB ,C= 480 GB SSD ,GPU GTX1060 6GB 1 fan. Plus 3 int, 4 ext HDD's for video etc.LG WH16NS40 reads UHD.
4K 24" ViewSonic monitor.Camera Sony FDR-A

Quote:
The 4K HEVC video produced with the GTX 960 looks outstanding and takes no more time than 264 to encode.
Eugene

That's good to hear, I was waiting for someone with a GTX 960 to confirm this before I took the plunge to PD14.

Does PowerDirector use the GTX960 hardware DEcoding? HVEC Video playback in timeline without stuttering? Thanks
Achim

Quote: Does PowerDirector use the GTX960 hardware DEcoding? HVEC Video playback in timeline without stuttering? Thanks
Achim

PowerDirector isn't for playback, it's for editing and rendering. Now PowerDVD 15 is for playback of H.265 with hardware decoder.

under Specs I found:
PLEASE NOTE: For users of NVIDIA cards who have updated to graphics driver 340.43 or later, the video hardware acceleration feature in PowerDirector is no longer available. To re-enable hardware acceleration, please download and install an earlier driver.

In the PD14 comparison Chart I found this:

nVidia & Intel H.265 (HEVC) Hardware EncodingNEW
-

nVidia, Intel & AMD H.265 (HEVC) Hardware Decoding NEW

Does this mean you have to choose between en/decoding support (new drivers) and cuda acceleration? (old drivers)

a bit confusing
Achim