XF 1.5 HEIF / HEIC support? (Comes with iOS 11)

[Stuart Wright]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Image_File_Format
Looks like it might be the default image format for iOS11 and when one of our users with iOS11 tried to upload an image, of course, Xenforo complained.

 

[rainmotorsports]

Given that it's only supported by Safari on Sierra or better and iOS 11 users are just going to have to be intellegent enough to own an apple product and change the setting or jump through hoops.

Add support to upload a format no one can see. I guess the obvious thing is converting it for the user. But do both common image libraries support it yet, if not that's an add-on level of support.

 

[Stuart Wright]

https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/new-hevc-and-heif-media-formats-what-you-need-to-know/

So, What’s the News?
Once again, Apple is bringing to the table some new image and video formats to push the platform foward by saving you storage space, bandwidth and computation time. Here’s the short version:

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is a codec for both images and videos, which requires almost half the storage space (and bandwidth) of H.264 and JPEG. Apple will reuse the existing .mov file extension for HEVC video files. HEVC is also called MPEG-H Part 2 and H.265 by industry standards bodies.

High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF) (pronounced “Heef”) is the file format for HEVC-encoded images, and will use the .heic file extension.

Neither of these formats are bleeding-edge, as both have been ratified by the ISO between 2013 and 2015. This means that many other industry players such as Adobe have already built HEVC/HEIF support into their software.

 

[rainmotorsports]

HEVC is a separate issue. HEIC may have support in image editors but is has browser support only in Safari on Sierra or newer and iOS 11.

Xenforo would need GD or IM to support it. Do they? I expect HEIC to reach a jpeg 2000 level of support. But who knows.

 

[Chris D]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you accept the HEIC extension under "Attachment Options"? Also, which version of the iOS beta is this?

If Apple is smart ... they will appreciate the potential compatibility issues and convert images to a compatible format on the fly before uploading. There seems to be some element of this happening already, in my testing on iOS 11, but alas I can't actually test uploading because in Public Beta 2, the browser locks up when I tap the Upload a File button

Under Settings > Camera > Formats there are a couple of options here.

First, you can turn off "High Efficiency" which reverts back to the old behaviour of saving in JPG.

Secondly there's an option to control what happens when you "Transfer to Mac or PC". It defaults to "Automatic" or you can change it to "Keep Originals".

The text below reads:

Automatically transfer photos and videos in a compatible format, or always transfer the original file without checking for compatibility.

I'd argue that if the "Automatic" option is selected, and Apple still decide to transmit that as a HEIC file via a HTML file input, then this is a flawed logic, and it's likely a bug, and it may be worth reporting it to them as such. But, I would also just check that the "Keep Originals" option isn't selected. If it is, then that's definitely working as expected.

Incidentally, I have tried to transfer a photo taken with my camera from my phone to my Mac and regardless of which setting I choose it always comes through as a JPG file. Again, this looks like it could be a bug.

 

[Naz]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you accept the HEIC extension under "Attachment Options"?

Uploads ok, gets treated as a regular file.

Also, which version of the iOS beta is this?

Dev beta 3.

 

[Chris D]

"regular file" meaning, not an image, I presume. Which is fairly useless.

Does it upload as a HEIC regardless of the Formats transfer settings? If it's set to Automatic, it really shouldn't be uploading as a HEIC IMO, as the device has no way of accurately knowing the capabilities of the server / device that will ultimately receive the image.

I will assume this can be reproduced in any normal HTML5 file input and if that's the case, I'd recommend reporting it directly to Apple as a bug report.

If a number of photos have to be taken, and then uploaded, you might be able to do this by switching off High Efficiency temporarily.

 

[Naz]

"regular file" meaning, not an image, I presume. Which is fairly useless.

Yeah, pretty much.

Does it upload as a HEIC regardless of the Formats transfer settings?

Yup.

 

[Stuart Wright]

Xenforo would need GD or IM to support it.

GD and IM are both available in libraries for php and since Xenforo uses PHP, I guess the answer is yes.

 

[Chris D]

That wasn’t the point. We’d need GD and IM to add support for HEIC which they may have or may not have, yet. But even so, this IMO has to be an iOS bug as the compatibility options do not seem to be working as advertised.

 

[rainmotorsports]

GD and IM are both available in libraries for php and since Xenforo uses PHP, I guess the answer is yes.

As Chris said my point is those libraries have to actually support the format. I was at work and didn't have time to look into it. I'm not finding any data saying either supports it. Without support Xenforo can't convert the file and without conversion only the latest MacOS and iOS users would be able to view the file without downloading it and opening it Photoshop.

I'm not commenting on the problem Chris is reporting because I know nothing of it.

 

[Chris D]

Just an update on this after some testing in iOS 11 Public Beta 4.

They've simplified the settings here and it no longer has settings to decide whether images are transmitted in a particular format. I mentioned this setting above, it's no longer there:

Automatically transfer photos and videos in a compatible format, or always transfer the original file without checking for compatibility.

The good news is that they seem to have come up with some automatic logic for deciding what format to transfer a photo or video in.

For example, I just took a photo and tried to upload it here and it uploaded as a .jpeg file. However, if I try to AirDrop it to my Mac (which is running High Sierra beta and is therefore compatible with the HEIC format) it transfers as a .HEIC file.

So this is great news in that we don't have to worry about compatibility issues.

 

[Đoàn Hoàng Nam]

HEIF Imaging | Android Open Source Project

source.android.com