H264 Support (Encoding Freezes Computer)

[fvates]

Hi everyone,

I know this topic has been covered many times. But I tried "every" suggested solution and nothing seems to be working.
Even though quick sync seems to be supported (I followed this guide and the script says "hardware acceleration is fully supported"). When I try to export a video in Adobe Premiere though (with H264, MPEG2 seems to be working), the whole system freezes at 0-3 %. I also downloaded VideoProc and wanted to check if Hardware acceleration is enabled, but every time I open the settings to show h264 and HEVC support, the computer freezes as well.

My setup:

• GIGABYTE Z370 HD3
• Intel i5 8600K
• Radeon Sapphire Nitro+ RX 580
• Ballistic Sport LT 2x 8 GB RAM
• Samsung 970 Evo NVME 250 GB
• OSX Mojave

Clover (as suggested from the guide mentioned before):

• [Acpi] No patches
  
• [Boot] everything disabled
• [Devices] IntelGFX FakeID "0x0"
  
• [Devices] UseIntelHDMI disabled
  
• [Graphics] Inject Intel disabled
  
• [Graphics] no ig-platform-id
  
• [Graphics] RadeonDeInit disabled
• [SMBIOS] iMac 18,1 (I found suggestions for changing this to 19,1 to get it to work but without any success. Anything else then 18,1 seems to produce weird stuff, for example, dual monitor setup not working)

Kexts:

• WhateverGreen
• Lilo
• FakeSMC
• IntelMausiEthernet
• USBInjectAll
• AppleALC

BIOS:

• VT-d: disabled
• Internal Graphics: enabled
• Pre Allocated VRam: 128M

I'm really grateful for any help!

Thanks!

 

[fvates]

Ok, so the 100th try of different settings finally worked..
Since everyone just suggests to add bits and pieces, here is my full clover, kext and bios setup.
With these settings, quick-sync is supported and I am finally able to encode h264 videos.
Keep in mind, that this will highly depend on your setup but if you have a setup close to mine (post above), chances are, these settings will also work for you.
I think some of the more important changes are the following ones:

• ig-platform-id = 59120003
• BIOS -> Integrated Graphics: Enabled
  
• kext: Lilo, WhateverGreen
• Clover -> Boot -> Arguments "-disablegfxfirmware"

Here are detailed images of my whole setup. (For SMBIOS I didn't want to upload all of my details, I just chose the 18,1 iMac Preset from the Clover Configurator List)

 

[macnb]

Here are detailed images of my whole setup. (For SMBIOS I didn't want to upload all of my details, I just chose the 18,1 iMac Preset from the Clover Configurator List)

Well done.
Instead of screenshots, it's much easier to upload your working config.plist (with your serial numbers removed if that's what you are worried about).

Also, when you say you can now encode h.264, have you checked which GPU is doing that encode (IGPU or dGPU) ?
If it's the IGPU, is there any need to have the AMD GPU at all ?

 

[fvates]

Yeah you are right, sorry.

In my case, h264 encoding didn't work at all without this setup. I didn't do a lot of research yet but apparently, quick sync is faster than just GPU/CPU encoding. It doesn't solely use the iGPU but additionally. Also, I still heavily use the dGPU for editing itself. I checked the stats and it's using both GPUs.

 

[jaymonkey]

Ok, so the 100th try of different settings finally worked..I think some of the more important changes are the following ones:

• ig-platform-id = 59120003
• BIOS -> Integrated Graphics: Enabled
  
• kext: Lilo, WhateverGreen

@fvates,

The most significant change you made from your initial post to post #2 is that you enabled the IGPU and configured a headless PlatformID ... this allows MacOS to use the IGPU for Intel Quicksync which MacOS uses for H264 encode and decode which is why it is now working .. for more info on headless PlatformID's and why its important see the WhatEverGreen section this guide :-

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/an-idiots-guide-to-lilu-and-its-plug-ins.260063/

The only other observation that I can see from your post is that you are using iMac 18,1 SMBIOS .. this is known to cause issues, the recommended SMBIOS to use with your hardware configuration is iMac 18,3.

iMac 18,1 uses a i5 low power/mobile "U" class CPU
iMac18,3 uses the 65W i5 & i7 Desktop class CPU's

You should see marginally better performance with iMac 18,3 and much better stability.
As detailed in the linked guide, you can use MacTracker to compare hardware specifications between different SMBIOS's

Cheers
Jay

 

[fvates]

Oh, interesting, thanks Jay

I also tried changing the SMBIOS to 18,3 but for some reason, nothing worked with this setting. Bluetooth and WIFI didn't work anymore and the secondary monitor as well.