ISSUE - Poor hardware encoding quality - Mac M1 PRO chip
The quality of exporting from Premiere Pro using hardware encoding on the new MacBook Pro with M1 PRO chip is extremely poor. I've tried exporting with multiple different projects and footage but the quality when exporting with hardware encoding is pixelated and blurred - the file size is also significantly smaller than the estimated file size.
There is no issue with software encoding and footage is as expected.
I've tried Premiere Pro 2022 and also gone back to 2021 and tried opening with Rosetta instead, still hardware encoding into H264 is extremely poor quality with file sizes less than half the expected file size. This only happens with hardware encoding.


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Beau Trembly commented
Sort of... if i turn of the "Pro Res Encoding" button it works... which is weird.
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Cameron Warn commented
I still have issues with this on both V22.6.3 and V23.1 with H.264 files running OSX 12.6.2
SW encoding is fine, but if using HW encoding I can get very files with very pixelated parts. It doesn't always happen, but enough that HW encoding isn't useable on my MacBook Pro M1 Max.
Examples of 9x16 files are attached.
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Étienne Boulanger commented
UPDATE: seems that the V22.6.3 version is now working
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Tim Cone commented
I have found the beta version that I have works with the hardware encoder and it’s great. The main software is screwed up still to my knowledge.
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Antoine Autokroma.com (Independent Developer of AfterCodecs, BRAW Studio, PlumePack, Influx) commented
Is this still happening ?
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MICHELLE MANSFIELD commented
This issue is really slowing me down on critical exports on location with client waiting. I'm glad to see this thread though to confirm what I was experiencing. Now if I could just change the default export to always use software.
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Xavier Carbo commented
I can't believe we aren't able to use our new M1 chip machines with Adobe software for exporting things to professional standards.
Almost a year that glitches appear absolutely everywhere and Adobe haven't fixed it yet.
WHEN?!!
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John D Frey commented
This is still a problem. Approaching a year now.
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Antoine Autokroma.com (Independent Developer of AfterCodecs, BRAW Studio, PlumePack, Influx) commented
It's only the builtin encoder that is like this, AfterCodecs exporter works fine !
Could you send us an exported file that is not working or displaying glitches ?
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Beau Trembly commented
Holy God I'm so glad people are also having this issue. (Although I can't believe Adobe let this become an issue at all). I feel like I've been taking crazy pills! For some reason the combination of Premiere + the M1 Chip + ProRes files just isn't working. It seems like it just cant render the clips fully. Like others have mentioned, the only solution seems to be to open in Rosetta Mode and turn off the hardware encoding... which completely destroys rendering times, effectively making the power of the M1 chip useless. And of course, this is a non issue when working with Davinci or Final Cut.
All the compressed H.265 stuff works fine, this seems to only be when working with the ProRes codec.
I keep hoping an update will fix the issue, but after downloading the newest one today... still no fix. Come on adobe. How can you expect us to stay excited about the program if you can't keep up on this stuff? I guess it's time to move on to greener pastures. -
Mayank Jain commented
Hi All, Sorry for this problem again. We have made some fixes to increase the bit rates(file sizes) of exported files in the latest beta build(22.5.0.16 or higher) and consequently improve the quality of exported files. You should see better bit rates(file sizes) now on M1 machines in all exported files. Please check the latest beta build and let us know how it goes.
Thanks,
Mayjain -
Matthew Rowland commented
Have the same issue on my M1 Pro MBP. What resolves the issue for me is to have it export twice.
Set Bitrate Encoding: VBR to 2 passes. That pretty much nails my target bitrate and quality. Although it may say "Software only", when sending it to Media Encoder it will still use the hardware encoding.
But it takes twice the time as usual. Pretty annoying but better than having to wait 4+ times when encoding using software only.
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John D Frey commented
Adam Fyfe... I didn't think about that. I've been looking for a reason to leave the Adobe ecosystem. At this point After Effects is the only thing keeping me in, and that license is looking pretty pathetic considering I can't properly render on a brand new computer. My hardware isn't getting any newer. Final Cut and Motion may be the only choice.
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Adam Fyfe commented
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I canceled my subscription which was a joke because of the outrageous cancellation fee. I've moved my services over to Final Cut Pro which I can buy outright. should have never doubted native apple software. Lesson learned ✔️
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Anders Larsson commented
Actually this is a huge issue. Parts of a 4k video becomes pixelated down to perhaps 144p.
It's clearly related to the Apple Hardware.I'm on a Macbook Pro Max 64 GB, latest everything. Had the issue for 6 months now. Seen others creators who uploaded the final video on YouTube with this bug appearing here and there.
Now need to run Software encoding which takes 4 times as long and twice as long as the Intel iMac I sold. Might have to buy an intel Mac back. Grrrr.... Has anyone found any workaround??
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Adam Fyfe commented
Im very happy people are commenting on this because I've been losing my mind trying to export multiple projects in different formats. Has anyone been able to talk to Abode because it's deemed to be very difficult.
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Tim Cone commented
Let’s talk about how Davinci which is free is able to encode h.264 in hardware but Adobe which costs can’t?
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Tim Cone commented
Here’s to another comment 2 months after my other one and STILL not fixed!
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John D Frey commented
It’s April and it’s still not working. I’m looking for a new ecosystem at this point. I’ve been with Adobe since 1994 and between this and nerfing 3D tools in CC so they can sell yet another license is ridiculous. If hardware acceleration doesn’t work they need to turn it off or buy a company that knows what they are doing.
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Justin VanAlstyne commented
Personally, I was very afraid of this issue when I first got my M1 Max. But I rendered out a previous project when I got it (hardware acceleration, same preset as before), took 100% screen grabs of the same frame and overlaid them in Photoshop. There were minor differences in the noise/compression pattern, but one was not obviously better than the other. It was VERY difficult to tell the two renders apart. I've now rendered out several 4K 100mbps projects and have no concerns with the quality.
And as a commercial pro photographer/videographer working on client projects, I feel confident in saying the above. Maybe there's an issue, I won't deny it, I'm just thinking that either it's intermittent, affecting only certain machines, or certain PP settings are triggering it.