HEVC (H.265) playback

[meadrocks]

Does MythTV support playback of H.265 content in a mkv container? If not, are there any plans to support it in the future? Looks like there's an open source project, http://www.libde265.org/ that you may be able to get codecs from.

[rwagner]

We get codec support from ffmpeg, so if ffmpeg has support in their mainline branch (seems they added it about a year ago), we will probably pick up some level of support automatically when we sync. As it stands, no commercial content will come in H265, nor will any consumer device produce it. The only place I'm finding active use is in HD IP cameras in security systems. There's not a significant need for it yet.

[meadrocks]

The next release of BD-RB will support H.265 in a MKV container. I rip BD disks to MKV files & play back w/ MythTV, H.265 supports great video quality w/ 1/2 the file size, always a benefit.

[rwagner]

H.265 supports great video quality w/ 1/2 the file size

Combined with CPU-days worth of compression that cost more in electricity than the hard drive space it replaces. The same could previously be said for H.264 versus MPEG2 DVDs and recordings, before floods caused hard disk prices to stagnate for a couple years and CPU power caught up. For H.265, it's not worthwhile unless you're compressing it for streaming across a limited network connection, or use on a portable device with hard storage limits.

[meadrocks]

Thanks for the info. I think h.265 will be relevant when 4K becomes more popular. Again I was just asking if it would work. MythTV rocks, my wife & I love it.

[rwagner]

As mentioned, we get it from FFmpeg, which apparently added support roughly a year ago. It may "just work" in master, but other than for testing, there's really not a lot of value at current. JYA has done the last several syncs, so he would probably be best suited to answer.

[meadrocks]

Well I'll try it as a proof of concept this weekend. I'll watch the load of the client as its playing back a 264 vs 265 content. Curious if it takes more cpu to decode.

[meadrocks]

I downloaded videos from http://www.libde265.org/downloads-videos/, audio would play but no video. Guess its not quite ready for prime time.

[muh3]

Hi,

is HEVC already working?

I'm planing to buy an dvb-t2 card to watch hdtv. Here in Berlin they use the HEVC.

thx!

[cythraul]

I recently upgraded to 0.28 so I could take advantage of HEVC. Unfortunately, my NVDIA 430 does not decode it. So it falls back on the CPU which is not powerful enough (Athlon X2 250.)

I was playing some HEVC content earlier and I noticed that only one of the CPU was pegged. Usage for mythtvfrontend was at ~110%.

I'm hoping I don't need to beef up this machine too much. It's been so reliable. Could a Athlon X2 280 do the trick? Could a CPU with more cores (but with less mhz per cores) would help or not?

Cheers,
cyth

[daraden]

tested a few h.265 samples on my phenom II 960t@3.6ghz. 1080p all cores at ~50%. 4k(scaled to 1080) maxes all cores and is unplayable. You may be barely able to manage 1080p on 2 cores. Also tested with phenom II 960t@4.0ghz, 1080p all cores ~35%, 4k(scaled to 1080) all cores maxed still unplayable.
Your best bet is a gpu upgrade to a gtx 950/960 if you need HEVC now.

[cythraul]

Thank you very much for your answer. and all this information.

I was afraid of that since the AM3 socket did not exist for a long time so the CPUs performance does not differ that much.

My frontend is a silent box and it contains no fan.. my current 430 is the silent model (ENGT430 DC SL/DI/1GD)

So I'll park this HEVC content until the 950/960 are available in such a package. :)

thanks again! :)