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# Hardware video acceleration

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From ArchWiki

Hardware video acceleration makes it possible for the video card to decode/encode video, thus offloading the CPU and saving power.

There are several ways to achieve this on Linux:

- Video Acceleration API (VA-API) is a specification and open source library to provide both hardware accelerated video encoding and decoding, developed by Intel.
- Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix (VDPAU) is an open source library and API to offload portions of the video decoding process and video post-processing to the GPU video-hardware, developed by NVIDIA.
- Advanced Media Framework SDK (AMF) is an open source framework which allows "Optimal" access to AMD GPUs for multimedia processing using the AMDGPU PRO Stack, Developed by AMD.
- NVDEC/NVENC - NVIDIA's proprietary APIs for hardware video acceleration, used by NVIDIA GPUs from Fermi onwards.

For comprehensive overview of driver and application support see #Comparison tables.

## Installation

### Intel

Intel graphics open-source drivers support VA-API:

- HD Graphics series starting from Broadwell (2014) and newer (e.g. Intel Arc) are supported by intel-media-driver.
- GMA 4500 (2008) up to Coffee Lake (2017) are supported by libva-intel-driver.
- GMA 4500 H.264 decoding is supported by libva-intel-driver-g45-h264AUR, see Intel graphics#Hardware accelerated H.264 decoding on GMA 4500.
- Haswell Refresh to Skylake VP9 decoding and Broadwell to Skylake hybrid VP8 encoding is supported by intel-hybrid-codec-driver-gitAUR.
- Skylake or later also need linux-firmware.

Also see VAAPI supported hardware and features.

### NVIDIA

Nouveau open-source driver supports both VA-API and VDPAU:

- GeForce 8 series and newer GPUs up until GeForce GTX 750 are supported by libva-mesa-driver and mesa-vdpau.
- Requires nouveau-fwAUR firmware package, presently extracted from the NVIDIA binary driver.

NVIDIA proprietary driver supports via nvidia-utils:

- VDPAU on GeForce 8 series and newer GPUs;
- NVDEC on Fermi and newer GPUs [1];
- NVENC on Kepler and newer GPUs.

### AMD/ATI

AMD and ATI open-source drivers support both VA-API and VDPAU:

- VA-API on Radeon HD 2000 and newer GPUs is supported by libva-mesa-driver.
- VDPAU on Radeon R600 and newer GPUs is supported by mesa-vdpau.

AMDGPU PRO proprietary driver is built on top of AMDGPU driver and supports both VA-API and VDPAU in addition to AMF.

- AMF on Fiji and newer GPUs supported by amf-amdgpu-proAUR.

Note:

- You may need to force your application to use AMDGPU PRO Vulkan Driver.
- HEVC encoding may not be available on GPUs older than Navi.

### Translation layers

- libva-vdpau-driver — A VDPAU-based backend for VA-API.

  https://cgit.freedesktop.org/vaapi/vdpau-driver || libva-vdpau-driver, libva-vdpau-driver-vp9-gitAUR

- libvdpau-va-gl — VDPAU driver with OpenGL/VAAPI backend. H.264 only.

  https://github.com/i-rinat/libvdpau-va-gl || libvdpau-va-gl

- nvidia-vaapi-driver — A CUDA NVDEC based backend for VA-API.

  https://github.com/elFarto/nvidia-vaapi-driver/ || libva-nvidia-driver

Note:

- Series 525 of the NVIDIA driver introduced a regression, breaking VA-API. nvidia-vaapi-driver#126 You may downgrade the drivers to version 520 or use the experimental direct-backend in the meantime.
- The code for libva-vdpau-driver has not been touched for years. It causes crash when running VLC or OBS with recent versions of the NVIDIA driver. [2] If you need a translation layer for NVIDIA drivers, use libva-nvidia-driver instead.

## Verification

Your system may work perfectly out-of-the-box without needing any configuration. Therefore it is a good idea to start with this section to see that it is the case.

Tip:

- mpv with its command-line support is great for testing hardware acceleration. Look at the log of `mpv --hwdec=auto video_filename` and see hwdec for more details.
- Use nvtop to check "DEC" (decoder) usage on the top lines while playing a video, for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA.
- For Intel GPU, use intel-gpu-tools and run `intel_gpu_top` as root to monitor the GPU activity during video playback for example. The video bar being above 0% indicates GPU video decoder/encoder usage.
- For AMD GPU, use radeontop to monitor GPU activity. Unlike intel-gpu-tools, there is currently no way to see decode/encode usage on radeontop [3].
- For any GPU, you can compare CPU usage with a tool like htop. Especially for higher resolution videos (4k+), CPU usage when VA-API is enabled and working should be dramatically lower on laptops and other relatively low-power devices.

### Verifying VA-API

Verify the settings for VA-API by running `vainfo`, which is provided by libva-utils:

    $ vainfo

    libva info: VA-API version 0.39.4
    libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
    libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/i965_drv_video.so
    libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_39
    libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
    vainfo: VA-API version: 0.39 (libva 1.7.3)
    vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Skylake - 1.7.3
    vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
          VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
          VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
          VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointEncSlice
          VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
          VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
          VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
          VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
          VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
          VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
          VAProfileH264StereoHigh         :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileH264StereoHigh         :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
          VAProfileVC1Simple              :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileVC1Main                :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileVC1Advanced            :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileNone                   :	VAEntrypointVideoProc
          VAProfileJPEGBaseline           :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileJPEGBaseline           :	VAEntrypointEncPicture
          VAProfileVP8Version0_3          :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileVP8Version0_3          :	VAEntrypointEncSlice
          VAProfileHEVCMain               :	VAEntrypointVLD
          VAProfileHEVCMain               :	VAEntrypointEncSlice

`VAEntrypointVLD` means that your card is capable to decode this format, `VAEntrypointEncSlice` means that you can encode to this format.

In this example the `i965` driver is used, as you can see in this line:

    vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Skylake - 1.7.3

If the following error is displayed when running `vainfo`:

    libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
    vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit

You need to configure the correct driver, see #Configuring VA-API.

### Verifying VDPAU

Install vdpauinfo to verify if the VDPAU driver is loaded correctly and retrieve a full report of the configuration:

    $ vdpauinfo

    display: :0   screen: 0
    API version: 1
    Information string: G3DVL VDPAU Driver Shared Library version 1.0

    Video surface:

    name   width height types
    -------------------------------------------
    420    16384 16384  NV12 YV12
    422    16384 16384  UYVY YUYV
    444    16384 16384  Y8U8V8A8 V8U8Y8A8

    Decoder capabilities:

    name                        level macbs width height
    ----------------------------------------------------
    MPEG1                          --- not supported ---
    MPEG2_SIMPLE                    3  9216  2048  1152
    MPEG2_MAIN                      3  9216  2048  1152
    H264_BASELINE                  41  9216  2048  1152
    H264_MAIN                      41  9216  2048  1152
    H264_HIGH                      41  9216  2048  1152
    VC1_SIMPLE                      1  9216  2048  1152
    VC1_MAIN                        2  9216  2048  1152
    VC1_ADVANCED                    4  9216  2048  1152
    ...

## Configuration

Although the video driver should automatically enable hardware video acceleration support for both VA-API and VDPAU, it may be needed to configure VA-API/VDPAU manually. Only continue to this section if you went through #Verification.

The default driver names, used if there is no other configuration present, are guessed by the system. However, they are often hacked together and may not work. The guessed value will be printed in the Xorg log file, which is `~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log` if rootless, or `/var/log/Xorg.0.log` if Xorg is running as root. To search the log file for the values of interest:

    $ grep -iE 'vdpau | dri driver' xorg_log_file

    (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2] DRI driver: radeonsi
    (II) RADEON(0): [DRI2] VDPAU driver: radeonsi

In this case `radeonsi` is the default for both VA-API and VDPAU.

Note: If you use GDM, run `journalctl -b --grep='vdpau | dri driver'` as root instead.

This does not represent the configuration however. The values above will not change even if you override them.

### Configuring VA-API

You can override the driver for VA-API by using the `LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME` environment variable:

- Intel graphics:
  - For libva-intel-driver use `i965`.
  - For intel-media-driver use `iHD`.
- NVIDIA:
  - For Nouveau use `nouveau`.
  - For NVIDIA VDPAU use `vdpau`.
  - For NVIDIA NVDEC use `nvidia`.
- AMD:
  - For AMDGPU driver use `radeonsi`.

Note:

- You can find the installed drivers in `/usr/lib/dri/`. They are used as `/usr/lib/dri/${LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME}_drv_video.so`.
- Some drivers are installed several times under different names for compatibility reasons. You can see which by running `sha1sum /usr/lib/dri/* | sort`.
- `LIBVA_DRIVERS_PATH` can be used to overrule the VA-API drivers location.
- Since version 12.0.1 libva-mesa-driver provides `radeonsi` instead of `gallium`.

### Configuring VDPAU

You can override the driver for VDPAU by using the `VDPAU_DRIVER` environment variable.

The correct driver name depends on your setup:

- For Intel graphics you need to set it to `va_gl`.
- For the open source AMD driver set it to the proper driver version depending on your GPU, see #Verification.
- For the open source Nouveau driver set it to `nouveau`.
- For NVIDIA's proprietary version set it to `nvidia`.

Note:

- You can find the installed drivers in `/usr/lib/vdpau/`. They are used as `/usr/lib/vdpau/libvdpau_${VDPAU_DRIVER}.so`.
- Some drivers are installed several times under different names for compatibility reasons. You can see which by running `sha1sum /usr/lib/vdpau/*`.
- For hybrid setups (both NVIDIA and AMD), it may be necessary to set the `DRI_PRIME` environment variable. For more information see PRIME.

### Configuring applications

Multimedia frameworks:

- FFmpeg#Hardware video acceleration
- GStreamer#Hardware video acceleration

Video players:

- Kodi#Hardware video acceleration
- MPlayer#Hardware video acceleration
- mpv#Hardware video acceleration
- VLC media player#Hardware video acceleration

Web browsers:

- Chromium#Hardware video acceleration
- Firefox#Hardware video acceleration
- GNOME/Web#Video

Multimedia recording/streaming:

- Open Broadcaster Software#Hardware video acceleration

## Troubleshooting

### Failed to open VDPAU backend

You need to set `VDPAU_DRIVER` variable to point to correct driver. See #Configuring VDPAU.

### VAAPI init failed

An error along the lines of `libva: /usr/lib/dri/i965_drv_video.so init failed` is encountered. This can happen because of improper detection of Wayland. One solution is to unset `$DISPLAY` so that mpv, MPlayer, VLC, etc. do not assume it is X11. Another mpv-specific solution is to add the parameter `--gpu-context=wayland`.

This error can also occur if you installed the wrong VA-API driver for your hardware.

### Video decoding corruption or distortion with AMDGPU driver

When experiencing video decoding corruption or distortion with AMDGPU driver, set `allow_rgb10_configs=false` as environment variable or `driconf`. [4]

## Comparison tables

### VA-API drivers

Codec | libva-intel-driver [5] | intel-media-driver [6] | libva-mesa-driver [7] [8] | libva-vdpau-driver (VDPAU adapter) | libva-nvidia-driver (NVDEC adapter)
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Decoding
MPEG-2 | GMA 4500 and newer | Broadwell and newer | Radeon HD 6000 and newer GeForce 8 and newer1 | See #VDPAU drivers | See #NVIDIA driver only
H.263/MPEG-4 Visual4 | No | No | Radeon HD 6000 and newer
VC-1 | Sandy Bridge and newer | Broadwell and newer | Radeon HD 2000 and newer GeForce 9300 and newer1
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | GMA 45002, Ironlake and newer | Radeon HD 2000 and newer GeForce 8 and newer1
H.265/HEVC 8bit | Cherryview/Braswell and newer | Skylake and newer | Radeon R9 Fury and newer
H.265/HEVC 10bit | Broxton and newer | Broxton/Apollo Lake and newer | Radeon 400 and newer
VP8 | Broadwell and newer | Broadwell and newer | No | No
VP9 8bit | Broxton and newer Hybrid: Haswell refresh to Skylake3 | Broxton/Apollo Lake and newer | Raven Ridge + Radeon RX 5000 and newer | See #VDPAU drivers5
VP9 10bit & 12bit | Kaby Lake and newer | Kaby Lake and newer | No
AV1 8bit & 10bit | No | Tiger Lake and newer | Radeon RX 6600 and higher/newer
Encoding
MPEG-2 | Ivy Bridge and newer | Broadwell and newer except Broxton/Apollo Lake | No | – | No6
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | Sandy Bridge and newer | Broadwell and newer | Radeon HD 7000 and newer
H.265/HEVC 8bit | Skylake and newer | Skylake and newer | Radeon 400 and newer
H.265/HEVC 10bit | Kaby Lake and newer | Kaby Lake and newer | Raven Ridge + Radeon RX 5000 and newer
VP8 | Cherryview/Braswell and newer Hybrid: Haswell to Skylake3 | No
VP9 8bit | Kaby Lake and newer | Icelake and newer
VP9 10bit & 12bit | No
AV1 8bit & 10bit | Alchemist and newer | Radeon RX 7900 and higher/newer

- 1 Up until GeForce GTX 750.
- 2 Supported by libva-intel-driver-g45-h264AUR instead.
- 3 Hybrid VP8 encoder and VP9 decoder supported by intel-hybrid-codec-driver-gitAUR.
- 4 MPEG-4 Part 2 is disabled by default due to VAAPI limitations. Set the environment variable `VAAPI_MPEG4_ENABLED=true` to try to use it anyway.
- 5 Experimental VP9 support provided by libva-vdpau-driver-vp9-gitAUR instead.
- 6 NVIDIA CUDA adapter codec support is in active development and susceptible to change [9].

### VDPAU drivers

Codec | Color depth | mesa-vdpau [10] [11] | nvidia-utils | libvdpau-va-gl (VA-API adapter)
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Decoding
MPEG-2 | 8bit | Radeon R600 and newer GeForce 8 and newer1 | GeForce 8 and newer | No
H.263/MPEG-4 Visual | 8bit | Radeon HD 6000 and newer GeForce 200 and newer1 | GeForce 200 and newer
VC-1 | 8bit | Radeon HD 2000 and newer GeForce 9300 and newer1 | GeForce 8 and newer2
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | 8bit | Radeon HD 2000 and newer GeForce 8 and newer1 | GeForce 8 and newer | See #VA-API drivers
H.265/HEVC | 8bit | Radeon R9 Fury and newer | GeForce 900 and newer3 | No
10bit | Radeon 400 and newer | No4
VP9 | 8bit | Raven Ridge + Radeon RX 5000 and newer | GeForce 900 and newer3
10bit/12bit | No4
AV1 | 8bit | Radeon RX 6600 and higher/newer | GeForce 30 and newer5
10bit | No4

- 1 Up until GeForce GTX 750.
- 2 Except GeForce 8800 Ultra, 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS (320/640 MB).
- 3 Except GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980.
- 4 NVIDIA implementation is limited to 8bit streams [12] [13].
- 5 Starting with driver version 510.[14]

### NVIDIA driver only

Codec | nvidia-utils [15]
--- | ---
NVDEC | NVENC
MPEG-2 | Fermi and newer1 | No
VC-1
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC | Kepler and newer2
H.265/HEVC 8bit | Maxwell (GM206) and newer | Maxwell (2nd Gen) and newer
H.265/HEVC 10bit | Pascal and newer
VP8 | Maxwell (2nd Gen) and newer | No
VP9 8bit | Maxwell (GM206) and newer
VP9 10bit & 12bit | Pascal and newer
AV1 8bit & 10bit | Ampere and newer3 | Ada Lovelace and newer

- 1 Except GM108 (not supported)
- 2 Except GM108 and GP108 (not supported)
- 3 Except A100 (not supported)

### Application support

Application | Decoding | Encoding | Documentation
--- | --- | --- | ---
VA-API | VDPAU | NVDEC | VA-API | NVENC
FFmpeg | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | FFmpeg#Hardware video acceleration
GStreamer | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | GStreamer#Hardware video acceleration
Kodi | Yes | Yes | No | – | – | Kodi#Hardware video acceleration
mpv | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – | mpv#Hardware video acceleration
VLC media player | Yes | Yes | No | – | – | VLC media player#Hardware video acceleration
MPlayer | Yes1 | Yes | No | – | – | MPlayer#Hardware video acceleration
Flash | No2 | Yes2 | No | – | – | Browser plugins#Adobe Flash Player
Chromium | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Chromium#Hardware video acceleration
Firefox | Yes | No | No | No | No | Firefox#Hardware video acceleration
GNOME/Web | GStreamer | ? | ? | GNOME/Web#Video

- 1 VA-API support provided by mplayer-vaapiAUR instead.
- 2 VDPAU is supported only by NPAPI plugin. PPAPI plugin to NPAPI browser experimental adapter is available that provides partial VA-API and VDPAU acceleration.

Categories:

- Graphics
- X server