NVIDIA Video Codec SDK

NVIDIA Video Codec SDK is a comprehensive set of APIs including high-performance tools, samples, and documentation for hardware-accelerated video encode and decode on Windows and Linux.

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Hardware-Based Decoder and Encoder

NVIDIA GPUs contain one or more hardware-based decoders and encoders (separate from the CUDA cores) which provide fully accelerated hardware-based video decoding and encoding for several popular codecs. GPU hardware accelerator engines for video encoding (NVENC) and video decoding (NVDEC) support faster-than-real-time video processing, which makes them suitable for use in multiple applications, including video transcoding, video data compression/decompression for deep learning, game broadcasting, virtual desktops, cloud gaming, secure video playback, video decode for training AI models etc.

Encoder

NVIDIA GPUs hardware-accelerated video encoder (NVENC), provides video encoding for H.264, HEVC (H.265) and AV1 codecs. 

NVIDIA Blackwell introduces 422 progressive and interlaced encode support in hardware, enabling professional use cases in media and entertainment, video editing and broadcast.

The software enhancements in Video Codec SDK v13.0 enable extending ultra-high quality (UHQ) mode to AV1 encoding. This makes AV1 encoding on NVIDIA Blackwell NVENC comparable to software AV1 encoding with ~3X throughput. In January 2026, Jetson Thor encode/decode support was added to the Video Codec SDK.

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Decoder

NVIDIA GPUs contain an on-chip hardware-accelerated video decoder (NVDEC), which provides video decoding for several popular codecs.
NVDEC supports hardware-accelerated decoding of the following video codecs on Windows and Linux platforms: MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 (AVCHD), H.265 (HEVC), VP8, VP9, and AV1.

With NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, NVDEC doubles the video decoding throughput for H.264 decoding and adds support for 422 decoding for H.264 and HEVC codecs. NVIDIA Blackwell introduces 422 progressive and interlaced decode support in hardware.

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How Video Codec SDK Works 

Video Codec SDK is a comprehensive set of APIs, high-performance tools, sample applications, reusable code, and documentation for hardware-accelerated video encoding and decoding on Windows and Linux. 

These C-style APIs are useful for high-performance encoding and decoding using NVENC and NVDEC, respectively. These APIs expose the hardware functionality, along with other commonly used codec features such as rate control, framerates, codec profile, format selection etc. Video Codec SDK also provides a set of reusable code in the form of C++ classes built on top of the NVENCODE/NVDECODE APIs, which applications can easily integrate. 

The NVENC and NVDEC can also be accessed via low-level APIs such as DirectX and Vulkan Video and via python APIs using PyNvVideoCodec. For more details regarding DirectX, Vulkan Video and PyNvVideoCodec please click here.

Key Features

Get Started With Video Codec SDK

To utilize the dedicated decoding and encoding hardware on your GPU within an existing application, integration can be achieved through FFmpeg. While FFmpeg is suitable for evaluation or rapid integration, it may not offer granular control over every encoder parameter. For low-level, granular control over various encode/decode parameters and direct access to the hardware decoder/encoder, the NVDECODE and NVENCODE APIs should be employed. This direct access is provided via the Video Codec SDK.

Header Files

The Header files contain definition and description of the interface constants, structure, enums and function prototypes used in the APIs.

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For the full Video Codec 13.1 package, please review the license agreement and check the box below to indicate that you accept it and wish to proceed to the download.

What's new in Video Codec SDK 13.1?

• NVENC features support:

• UHQ mode support for iterative encoding

• Support application allocated CUarray as NVENC input surface

• AV1 Hierarchical B-Frame reference mode support

• NVDEC features support:

• Expose QP, MB type decode stats

• Support application allocated CUarray as NVDEC input surface

• Support Seek to a certain frame

• View information using MV-HEVC decode

• Transcode features support:

• Modular, pipeline and queue based transcode sample apps

• Optimization of Transcode pipeline by minimizing GPU memory copies and CUDA context switches

• Docker:

• Dockerfile for building a complete SDK development environment

• Pre-built samples, FFmpeg, Vulkan SDK, and test vector generation

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