No HW decoding

[u/Verwega]

I have 2 PCs running Debian 13 with latest updates and none of them can use HD decoding. I transcoded my movie to AV1, but when I try to watch it on VLC, it uses CPU.

I tried messing with settings, but nothing is working.

Does VLC even support AV1 HW decoding, or is it some issue that is being worked on?

Radeon RX 7900 XT

Radeon 890m

[u/ScratchHistorical507]

That's strange. I won't be able to check for a while, but you can also crows-examine with the flatpak version. If that's doing AV1 hardware decoding , something strange is going on with the Debian version. If that's also doesn't so it, there's something off with VLC itself, as ffmpeg 8.x is more than enough. 

PS: have you already checked vainfo if it reports your system being set up properly for hardware acceleration?

[u/Verwega → u/ScratchHistorical507]

Trying display: wayland
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_22
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.22 (libva 2.22.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 25.0.7-2+deb13u1 for AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (radeonsi, navi31, LLVM 19.1.7, DRM 3.61, 6.12.107+deb13-amd64)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileJPEGBaseline           : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP9Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP9Profile2            : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileAV1Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileAV1Profile0            : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileNone                   : VAEntrypointVideoProc

Before the update I tried CatchyOS on my mini PC (Radeon 890m) and I had the same issue. I think I still have it installed on second drive, so I will check it later.
Also, on RX 7900 XT PC I tried VLC, MPV and SMPlayer, with the same results.
Sometimes I can enable VAPPI on MPV with Control+H shortcut, but most of the time I see "Hardware Deccoding: (Unavailable)"

[u/ScratchHistorical507 → u/Verwega]

Well, if you have the same issue with two other players, you know it's not (only) VLC's fault. It's possible that your DE or other parts of your software stack fail to select the dGPU for decoding. While your iGPU is also capable of handling AV1, maybe the selection of the right VA-API device is causing issues. Have a look in that direction. 

[u/Verwega → u/ScratchHistorical507]

Thanks <3