Video Codec Overview

This document provides an overview of the video codecs supported by Vegas Pro, detailing the formats and hardware acceleration capabilities available.

The following table outlines the video formats supported by Vegas, including compatibility with various hardware decoders and fallback options.

TIP

Ensure your hardware is compatible with the required decoding capabilities to maximize performance and quality.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Video Decoder Capabilities

H.264 / AVC Decoder Support

Format NVDec AMF Intel HW Fallback
4:2:0 8bit ✓ (up to 4K)¹ ✓ (up to 4K)¹ ✓ (up to 4K)¹ ✓²
4:2:0 10bit ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓³
4:2:2 8bit ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓³
4:2:2 10bit ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓³
4:4:4 8bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓³
4:4:4 10bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓³

¹ even though AVC itself supports 8K resolution HW decoding is limited to 4K

² Intel SW decode

³ Mainconcept Fallback

H.265 / HEVC Decoder Support

Format NVDec (GM206 or newer) AMF Intel HW Fallback
4:2:0 8bit ✓(up to 8k) ✓ ✓ (up to 8k) ✓
4:2:0 10bit ✓ ✓ (up to 8k) ✓ (up to 8k) ✓
4:2:0 12bit ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓²
4:2:2 8bit (REXT) ✓ ✓ ✓² ✓²
4:2:2 10bit (REXT) ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓
4:2:2 12bit ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓²
4:4:4 8bit ✓      
4:4:4 10bit ✓      
4:4:4 12bit ✓      

² Intel Hardware 11th generation or higher needed with iGPU activated (even for SW encoding!)

AV1 Decoder Support

Format NVDec (GA10x/AD10x or newer) AMF (RX6xxxx or newer) Intel oneVPL HW SW fallback SVT Fallback DAV1D
4:2:0 8bit ✓ ✓ ✓ not implemented ✓
4:2:0 10bit ✓ ✓³ ✓³ not implemented ✓
4:2:0 12bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:2:2 8bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:2:2 10bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:2:2 12bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:4:4 8bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:4:4 10bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:4:4 12bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓

³ certain RAV1E encoded material cannot be decoded

Hardware Decoder support availability

Module Codec Architecture example GFX card Release Date

AMF

AVC

VCN 2.0 / UVD 1.0

ATI RV 610

2007

AMF

HEVC

VCN 2.0 / UVD 6.0

Radeon R7

2014

AMF

AV1

VCN 3.0

RX 6000

2020

NVDEC

AVC

GF 1xx / Fermi

GF 100

2010

NVDEC

HEVC

GM 206 / NV 126 / Maxwell

GM 206

2015

NVDEC

AV1

GA 10x / AD 10x / Ampere

GA 100 / RTX 30

2020

IMSDK

AVC

5th gen / Broadwell

Intel Core i3 5xxx

2014

IMSDK

HEVC

9th gen / Coffee Lake

Intel Core i3 9xxx

2018

ONEVPL

AV1

11th gen / Rocket Lake

Intel Core i3 11xxx

2021

Video Encoder Capabilities

NOTE

Encoder support and decoder support are listed separately. The encoder tables describe codec paths, not every available render template.

H.264 / AVC Encoder Support

Format NVEnc AMF Intel HW SW Fallback
4:2:0 8bit ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
4:2:0 10bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
4:2:2 8bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
4:2:2 10bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
4:4:4 8bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
4:4:4 10bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

¹ fallback through IMSDK

H.265 / HEVC Encoder Support

Format NVEnc AMF (RX 5xxx) AMF (RX 6xxx or newer) Intel HW SW Fallback
4:2:0 8bit ✓ (up to 8k) ✓ (up to 4k) ✓ (up to 8k) ✓ (up to 8k) ✓¹
4:2:0 10bit ✓ (up to 8k) ✓ (up to 4k) ✓ (up to 8k) ✓ (up to 8k) ✓¹
4:2:0 12bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

✗
4:2:2 8bit (REXT) ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
4:2:2 10bit (REXT) ✗ ✗ ✗

✗

✗
4:2:2 12bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗

¹ fallback through IMSDK

AV1 Encoder Support

Format NVEnc (4xxx or newer) AMF (RX7xxx or newer) Intel HW (requires Arc) SW Fallback SVT Fallback RAV1E
4:2:0 8bit ✓(up to 8K level 7.3) ✓(up to 8K and level 6.0) ✓(up to 4K and level 5.3) ✓¹ ✓¹
4:2:0 10bit ✓(up to 8K level 7.3) ✓(up to 8K and level 6.0) ✓(up to 4K and level 5.3) ✓¹ ✓¹
4:2:0 12bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:2:2 8bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:2:2 10bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:2:2 12bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:4:4 8bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:4:4 10bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓
4:4:4 12bit ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓

¹ priority for SVT over Rav1e due to superior performance

Hardware Encoder support availability

Module Codec Architecture example GFX card Release Date

AMF

AVC

Navi 1x / VCN 2.0 ¹

Radeon HD 7000

2012

AMF

HEVC

VCN 2.0 / VCE 3.0

Radeon RX 400

2018

AMF

AV1

VCN 4.0

RX 7xxx

05/2023

NVENC

AVC

GK 107 / Kepler

GeForce GTX 650

10/2012

NVENC

HEVC

NV 126 / Maxwell 2nd gen

GeForce GTX 750

02/2014

NVENC

AV1

Ada

RTX 40

10/2022

IMSDK

AVC

6th gen / Skylake

Intel Core 3 6xxx

08/2015

IMSDK

HEVC

10th gen / Comet Lake

Intel Core 3 10xxx

08/2019

ONEVPL

AV1

Arc Series

A310 / Iris Xe Max

03/2022

¹ without B-Frame encoding