Possible to work with HEIC format in Windows 7 (using LR Classic 8.x)?

[Mike_B]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom version: 6.14

Operating System

1. Windows 7

Can anyone verify if it's possible to work with iPhone HEIC format images in Lightroom Classic (8.x) in a Windows 7 environment?

From what I have put together HEIC support was introduced by Microsoft in Windows 10, however it looks like you can install the codec in Windows 7 with CopyTrans HEIC for Windows, or perhaps the current version of Lightroom Classic (8.3), which is stated as Windows 7 compatible, comes with the necessary codecs?

Thanks for any thoughts/insight on this.

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Longer version of question
I'm currently running Lightroom 6.14 on a Windows 7 PC. I recently noticed that photos I have been taking on my iPhone are HEIC. Normally I upload photos directly from my iPhone to my PC and was oblivious to the HEIC -> JPG conversion happening on import. It wasn't until today when I decided to use Image Capture on my Mac that I noticed the original image format was HEIC (I guess I must have been living in a cave and never heard the news about Apple's transition to HEIC).

Doing a bit of reading on HEIC it seems a pity to lose the color depth, file size efficiency, LivePhoto support, and perhaps some improvements in overall image quality with the conversion to JPG. I don't mind going from paying nothing (using LR 6.14) to $10/month and upgrading to LR Classic 8.3 to get HEIC support, but if it also necessitates a mandatory upgrade to Windows 10 to get HEIC support, that's a lot of legwork, and something I'd like to know up front. Also, feel free to poke holes in my belief that there's benefit in working with HEIC format images in Lightroom over JPGs.

 

[clee01l]

Lightroom Classic specs: "Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 (64-bit) or Windows 10" (i.e. not Windows 8)
So you should be good with a subscription as long as Windows 7 has the latest SP.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

The official line for HEIC is: Support for HEIC image files has been provided in the August 2018 releases of Lightroom CC 1.5 and Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 running on Windows 10.
There's a bit more blurb here: HEIC and HEVC media files support in Lightroom and Camera Raw

So we might need someone actually running Windows 7 to verify whether the workarounds work, as it's not officially supported.

 

[Mike_B]

Thanks for the responses - much appreciated.

Subsequent to posting I found some information from Adobe, around the time when they first started supporting HEIC, where they effectively stated "now that Windows 10 supports HEIC we can build off that and support it in LR" so I'm doubtful it's as simple as installing LR 8.3 - So boils downs to exactly what you've stated Victoria - Need someone running Windows 7 that's tried installing the 3rd party HEIC codec and can verify it's an acceptable workaround. Perhaps too much of an edge case for anyone to have gone to the trouble?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Perhaps too much of an edge case for anyone to have gone to the trouble?

We don't often see Windows 7 anymore, so I'd guess none of our regulars still have a Windows 7 machine to be able to test it for you. I'd seriously consider getting on with the Windows upgrade, because Microsoft is dropping security updates in January anyway.

 

[Bruce J]

I'm currently running LR 8.3.1 on a Win7 machine. If someone would like to supply me with the required CODEC (or a link to it) and a couple HEIC images, I'd be happy to try it out for you.