In Premiere Pro 25.3 (currently in beta), Adobe is making a change to no longer allow scripts to export to HEVC. Because our benchmarks interface with the host application via methods like this, our benchmarks will NOT be able to test HEVC exporting in upcoming versions of Premiere Pro.

For full details on this change, we have a blog post available:

Why PugetBench for Premiere Pro is Dropping HEVC Encoding Tests

In short, there is no workaround as this is a deliberate change by Adobe to no longer allow scripts to export to HEVC. We have a plan for our benchmarks to address this, with both immediate and long-term components.

First, we are making a live adjustment to the current PugetBench for Premiere Pro benchmarks to only actively support up to Premiere Pro 25.2. If you utilize local copies of the benchmark scripts, they may still show as supporting Premiere Pro 25.3 and newer. However, the benchmark will fail on the second test with an "Error: -1" message.

Second, since Premiere Pro 25.3 is an essential update for those wanting to test NVIDIA's recent Blackwell GPUs, we are releasing a "2.0.0-beta" version of the benchmark for those with a benchmark license. This version drops the HEVC encoding tests entirely, along with a few other test adjustments that we have been holding off on since they affect the test results. Because this significantly affects the tests and scoring, we are changing the major version from”1.x” to “2.x”.

Full update notes for the PugetBench for Premiere Pro 2.0.0-beta is listed below, although make special note that additional benchmark changes are in process. If long-term score stability is desired, we do NOT recommend using the beta benchmark version at this time.

For those wishing to evaluate HEVC encoding performance, we encourage you to use our PugetBench for DaVinci Resolve benchmark, which maintains support for HEVC exporting.

If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please reach out to benchmark-support@pugetsystems.com

Update Notes: PugetBench for Premiere Pro 2.0.0-beta

Due to a change by Adobe in Premiere Pro 25.3 and newer versions, all “Encoding: HEVC […]” tests have been removed. Details are further outlined in this post: Why PugetBench for Premiere Pro is Dropping HEVC Encoding Tests
Compatible with Premiere Pro 25.1 and newer.
Because this significantly affects the tests and scoring, the major version has been changed from"1.x" to "2.x".
Since tests/scoring is being forced to change, we are taking this opportunity to perform additional test adjustments:
- Dropped H.264 software encoding tests (we no longer hear anyone asking about this).
- Updated Cinema RAW Light and ARRIRAW export preset to better match the source framerate. This does not significantly change the relative performance of CPUs/GPUs, but does change the raw result.
- Increased Overall Score modifier by 10x so that the scores are obviously different between 1.x and 2.x versions of the benchmark. A "typical" score will now be in the "100,000" range.
Note: The LongGOP Score in this beta build will be heavily skewed toward the performance of the remaining H.264 encoding test, since the codec type scores are currently based on a 50/50 split between encoding and processing. We do not believe this accurately reflects real-world performance for users working with LongGOP media, and we are actively exploring alternate test/scoring solutions that will be implemented in a future update.
Additional benchmark changes are in process. If long-term score stability is desired, we do NOT recommend using this benchmark version.

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