HEVC decoding on iPads

[englishpremier]

Do the A9 ipads support hardware decoding of HEVC video files?

I've not found a solid answer yet as reports seem to be all over the place. Perhaps depending on bitrate, I'm not sure.

Temped to get a regular iPad since I only need it for a basic navigation app, but would probably also watch the odd HEVC encoded video while travelling, and if it can't do that I'd need to stump up the extra for the Pro 10.5

 

[palaw]

Yes the A9 does support hardware decoding of HEVC video files. I expect the resolution/bitrate would come into play at some point, i.e. high bitrate 4k HEVC it may start to struggle, but that's just a guess rather than any real testing. 1080p content will be absolutely fine.

Here is what Apple themselves said about HW Decode for ios devices during WWDC:

Taken from these slides (slide 71): https://devstreaming-cdn.apple.com/...fvfi7o3/503/503_introducing_heif_and_hevc.pdf

 

[englishpremier]

Excellent. Cheers.

 

[Ev0]

Slightly related, but is there any iPad that will play an HEVC file in an mp4 container in the native videos app?

Not sure if this is possible, or just due to my iPad being old (iPad Air).

I can import them into iTunes on my laptop (an old MacBook, they don’t play properly in QuickTime though, only sound no video but play fine in vlc), but when I try to drag over to the iPad it just prompts me to say sorry file not compatible/won’t work on iPad.

Files play in Vlc on the iPad but would prefer to use the native app

 

[Ev0]

Just to follow up on the above, after some reading and testing got it to work, seems that the nightly builds of Handbrake have the proper tagging of the hevc stream that the iPad can play.