NVIDIA Video Codec SDK 13.0 Powered by NVIDIA Blackwell
The release of
NVIDIA Video Codec SDK 13.0
marks a significant upgrade, adding support for the latest-generation NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. This version brings a wealth of improvements aimed at elevating both video encoding and decoding capabilities. From enhanced compression efficiency to better throughput and encoding quality, SDK 13.0 addresses the ever-evolving demands of the video ecosystem.
Here are some of the key features introduced in this update.
Encode features:
Improved compression efficiency:
Achieve better video quality at lower bitrates.
New YUV 4:2:2 encoding support (H.264 and HEVC):
Enables a broader range of use cases, particularly in professional video production and broadcasting.
Higher bit-depth encoding:
Introduces support for 10-bit encoding in H.264, and new hardware capabilities to encode 8-bit content as 10-bit.
Interlaced encoding (H.264):
Adds interlaced encoding support in H.264.
AV1 lookahead level and UHQ:
Introduces lookahead level and UHQ modes for AV1, for latency-tolerant use cases that require the highest possible video quality.
MV-HEVC support:
Supports two views to improve compression for stereoscopic content. For more information, see
Enabling Stereoscopic and 3D Views Using MV-HEVC in NVIDIA Video Codec SDK 13.0
.
Decode features:
4:2:2 decode support (H.264 and HEVC):
Expands decoding capabilities, which is especially valuable for professional video workflows.
Higher bit-depth H.264 decoding:
Introduces support for 10-bit decoding in H.264.
2x H.264 throughput on NVIDIA Blackwell:
Brings an impressive 2x throughput improvement in H.264 decoding compared to previous-generation GPUs.
H.264 8K support:
Now handles ultra-high-definition video decoding with ease, providing future-proof capabilities for 8K content.
Dynamic decode surface allocation:
Enables applications to minimize GPU memory usage.
Encode quality enhancements in NVIDIA Blackwell
Here’s more information about the key encode features in this update.
Improved compression efficiency
NVIDIA encoder (NVENC) hardware in NVIDIA Blackwell includes many enhancements for improving compression efficiency. These include improvement in motion estimation including enhanced subpixel search and better rate distortion optimization (RDO), among others for HEVC and AV1. These enhancements apply across presets and provide significant quality gain over ADA-generation GPUs.
4:2:2 chroma subsampling
In previous generations, NVENC supported formats including 4:2:0 and 4:4:4. YUV 4:4:4 retains full color, resulting in a larger file size and bandwidth requirements to transfer data. In 4:2:0, the full information is retained in the luminance channel but the chroma channel contains only 25% of the original color content.
To overcome the loss in color, NVIDIA Blackwell introduces 4:2:2 chroma. 4:2:2 retains 50% of the color information compared to 4:4:4 but reduces the required bandwidth to transfer video data.
4:2:2 is popular in the video editing and broadcasting eco-system due to higher color resolution compared to 4:2:0 but lower bandwidth requirements compared to 4:4:4.
As with YUV 4:2:0, semi-planar layouts are supported for 4:2:2 for 8-bit and 10-bit depths. The NVENCODE API introduces two new formats for YUV 4:2:2 semi-planar inputs:
NV_ENC_BUFFER_FORMAT_NV16
, for 8-bit YUV 4:2:2
NV_ENC_BUFFER_FORMAT_P210
, for 10-bit YUV 4:2:2
chromaFormatIdc =2
enables 4:2:2 encoding. As with 4:2:0 and 4:4:4, an application can also pass ARGB input with
chromaFormatIdc=2
to generate a 4:2:2 subsample encoded output. The color space conversion from ARGB to YUV 4:2:2 is done inside the encode driver using the CUDA kernel.
The compression efficiency for 4:2:2 input is similar to 4:2:0 and 4:4:4 formats.
Higher bit-depth encoding enhancement
NVIDIA Video Codec SDK 13.0 introduces 10-bit encoding support in H.264 on NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. All the chroma subsampling formats—4:2:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4—support encoding 10-bit content.
In addition, NVIDIA Blackwell NVENC can encode 8-bit content as 10-bit for H.264 and HEVC, a feature already available for AV1 in ADA.
ADA and earlier GPUs continue to support this feature for HEVC, but unlike NVIDIA Blackwell, the input YUV is upscaled from 8- to 10-bit as a preprocessing step using CUDA.
This feature improves the coding efficiency due to higher precision in the encoding pipeline. This upgrade results in smoother gradations and more accurate color reproduction, ideal for high-quality video production. Many of the input-related calculations in the encoder are done in 10-bit instead of 8-bit. Applications can expect an improvement of around 3% in compression efficiency when using this feature without any significant impact on encoder performance.
Unlike AV1, 10-bit encoding is supported only on select profiles for H.264 and HEVC. Applications should only enable this feature if the decoder supports 10-bit profiles.
H.264 interlaced encoding
NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs bring back the support for encoding interlaced content, with improved flexibility for legacy video workflows for users working with traditional broadcast video formats.
Interlaced encoding
involves splitting a frame into two fields. The first field includes the odd lines of the image while the second field includes the even lines. These fields are transmitted sequentially at a rapid rate creating an illusion of a single frame. Field encoding is supported for YUV 4:2:0 and YUV 4:2:2, 8- and 10-bit content on H.264.
NVENCODE API supports both top field first and bottom field first layouts for interlaced content.
Lookahead level and UHQ
Lookahead level analyzes future frames and enables efficient allocation of bits to different blocks within a frame based on how much a given block is referenced in next frames. The statistics generated during lookahead encoding are used for complexity estimation in rate control.
Video Codec SDK 13.0 adds the support for the lookahead level in AV1 and introduces AV1 UHQ tuning info, which combines lookahead level and temporal filtering to provide the best quality and performance for various HQ latency-tolerant encoding presets. These features provide best-in-class visual quality, perfect for demanding video applications
In the UHQ tuning, the optimal settings for lookahead and temporal filtering are applied in combination rather than individually. As with UHQ HEVC, the number of B-frames is set to five, while using the middle B-frame as the reference. UHQ mode also disables adaptive I- and B-frames and uses a fixed GOP (group of pictures) structure.
NVIDIA Blackwell NVENC supports new encode stats enabling the lookahead algorithm to identify the referencing details across multiple references, resulting in much better quality and performance of the UHQ tuning info for both HEVC and AV1 than ADA.
For AV1, the UHQ tuning info in NVIDIA Blackwell has seven B-frames, instead of five, further enhancing the compression efficiency.
Figure 1 and 2 shows the bitrates saving for ADA HQ, ADA UHQ, NVIDIA Blackwell HQ and NVIDIA Blackwell UHQ for HEVC and AV1, respectively.
Figure 1. HEVC Bit-rate savings for HQ and UHQ tuning info with natural content
Figure 2. AV1 Bit-rate savings for HQ and UHQ tuning info with natural content
Enhanced video decoding capabilities
NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs bring significant advancements to the world of video decoding, particularly in H.264 and HEVC formats. These enhancements offer both feature set and performance improvements, setting new standards in the industry.
H.264 decoding enhancements
With NVIDIA Blackwell, the H.264 decoding capabilities have undergone major improvements. Some of the key features include the following:
4:2:0 10-bit support (exclude MBAFF):
This provides improved color depth, making it ideal for working in color-sensitive fields such as video production or gaming.
4:2:2 8/10-bit support (exclude MBAFF):
With support for both 8-bit and 10-bit chroma sampling, NVIDIA Blackwell ensures high-quality video playback, even in compressed formats, which provides better visual fidelity.
2x performance improvement:
Perhaps the most exciting update is the performance boost. NVIDIA Blackwell offers a 2x performance improvement compared to previous generations, which means smoother video playback and faster decoding even for the most demanding video files.
Resolution support up to 8192×8192:
Whether you’re working with ultra-high-definition video or cutting-edge 3D content, NVIDIA Blackwell has the ability to handle resolutions up to 8192×8192. This means that you can decode videos with greater clarity and detail.
These improvements ensure that NVIDIA Blackwell delivers top-tier video decoding, whether you’re working on high-resolution video projects or handling large-scale video processing tasks.
HEVC decoding for enhanced flexibility and speed
High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) has become the go-to format for efficient video compression, and NVIDIA Blackwell takes it to the next level. The new enhancements include the following:
Support for 4:2:2 8/10-bit and 12-bit decoding:
NVIDIA Blackwell now offers a wider range of decoding options for HEVC, making it easier to process high-quality video with minimal loss of fidelity.
Performance improvements:
Thanks to improvements in the NVDCLK, you see noticeable performance boosts when decoding HEVC content. This translates into smoother playback and more efficient video rendering.
Figure 3. H.264 and HEVC Decode performance (fps)
The NVDECODE API introduces two new formats for 4:2:2 decode output:
cudaVideoSurfaceFormat_NV16=4,      /**< Semi-Planar YUV 422 [Y plane followed by interleaved UV plane] */

cudaVideoSurfaceFormat_P216=5       /**< 16 bit Semi-Planar YUV 422[Y plane followed by interleaved UV plane]*/
Dynamic decode surface allocation for GPU memory efficiency
One of the standout features in Video Codec SDK 13.0 is the introduction of dynamic decode surface allocation. By adapting to varying video bitstreams, this capability reduces unnecessary memory consumption, leading to a higher number of decode sessions. This improvement is crucial for optimizing GPU memory usage in a few video-decoding use cases.
In some cases, the bitstream may use fewer reference frames than what the DPB size suggests, wasting valuable video memory. Allocating the max decode surface results in higher memory foot prints.
Comparing the new SDK
Before this release, video applications created the decoder object with a fixed minimum number of surfaces based on the DPB size. This approach, while functional, sometimes allocated memory more than necessary.
CUVIDDECODECREATEINFO stDecodeCreateInfo;
memset(&stDecodeCreateInfo, 0x0, sizeof(CUVIDDECODECREATEINFO ));
. . . // Setup the remaining structure members
stDecodeCreateInfo.ulNumDecodeSurfaces = <dpb_size>// Prior to SDK 13.0, this could not change
rResult = cuvidCreateDecoder(&hDecoder, &stDecodeCreateInfo)
With Video Codec SDK 13.0, you gain the flexibility to allocate extra YUV surfaces only when needed. You can create a decoder object with a smaller initial allocation of YUV surfaces (such as 3 or 4) and use the cuvidReconfigureDecoder API to allocate more surfaces dynamically as needed. This dynamic allocation reduces unnecessary memory consumption and enhances the overall efficiency of the decoding process.
Unlocking new possibilities with Video Codec SDK 13.0
NVIDIA Video Codec SDK 13.0 pushes the boundaries of video encoding and decoding with the latest NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Whether you’re creating content for broadcast, editing high-quality video, or working with the latest 8K footage, this update offers the tools you need to elevate your workflows.
With improvements in compression efficiency, support for new color formats, enhanced encoding quality, and more, Video Codec SDK 13.0 is designed to meet the growing demands of modern video applications.
In support of the Video Codec SDK 13.0 launch, NVIDIA partners Blackmagic, Capcut, and Wondershare have already integrated features such as 4:2:2 encode, 4:2:2 decode,  AV1 UHQ, and split encoding in their video pipelines.
NVIDIA 视频编解码器 SDK 13.0 由 NVIDIA Blackwell 驱动
NVIDIA Video Codec SDK 13.0
的发布标志着重大升级，增加了对新一代 NVIDIA Blackwell GPU 的支持。此版本带来了大量改进，旨在提升视频编码和解码功能。从增强的压缩效率到更好的吞吐量和编码质量，SDK 13.0 可满足视频生态系统不断变化的需求。
以下是本次更新中引入的一些主要功能。
编码功能:
提高压缩效率:
以更低的比特率实现更好的视频质量。
新的 YUV 4:2:2 编码支持 (H.264 和 HEVC):
支持更广泛的用例，特别是在专业视频制作和广播中。
更高的位深编码:
在 H.264 中引入对 10 位编码的支持，以及将 8 位内容编码为 10 位的新硬件功能。
交错编码（H.264）:
在 H.264 中添加交错编码支持。
AV1 前瞻性级别和 UHQ:
为 AV1 引入前瞻性级别和 UHQ 模式，适用于需要尽可能高的视频质量的延迟容忍用例。
MV-HEVC 支持:
支持两个视图，以提高立体内容的压缩率。有关更多信息，请参阅在
NVIDIA Video Codec SDK 13.0 中使用 MV-HEVC 启用立体和 3D 视图
。
解码功能:
4:2:2 解码支持 (H.264 和 HEVC):
扩展解码功能，这对于专业视频工作流程尤其重要。
更高位深的 H.264 解码:
在 H.264 中引入对 10 位解码的支持。
NVIDIA Blackwell 上的 H.264 吞吐量提高了 2 倍:
与上一代 GPU 相比，H.264 解码的吞吐量提高了 2 倍，令人印象深刻。
支持 H.264 8K:
现在，可轻松处理超高清视频解码，为 8K 内容提供面向未来的功能。
动态解码表面分配:
支持应用更大限度地减少 GPU 显存占用。
在 NVIDIA Blackwell 中对质量增强进行编码
以下是本次更新中有关关键编码功能的详细信息。
提高压缩效率
NVIDIA Blackwell 中的 NVIDIA 编码器 (NVENC) 硬件包含许多用于提高压缩效率的增强功能。其中包括改进运动估计，包括增强的子像素搜索和更好的速率失真优化（RDO），以及 HEVC 和 AV1。这些增强功能适用于所有预设，与 ADA 代 GPU 相比，可显著提升质量。
4:2:2 色度二次采样
在前几代产品中，NVENC 支持的格式包括 4:2:0 和 4:4:4。YUV 4:4:4 保留全彩，导致传输数据的文件大小和带宽需求更大。在 4:2:0 模式下，全部信息将保留在亮度通道中，而色度通道仅包含原始颜色内容的 25%。
为克服色差问题，NVIDIA Blackwell 引入了 4:2:2 色度。与 4:4:4 相比，4:2:2 可保留 50%的颜色信息，但降低了传输视频数据所需的带宽。
4:2:2 在视频编辑和广播生态系统中很受欢迎，因为与 4:2:0 相比，4:2:2 的色彩分辨率更高，但与 4:4:4 相比，带宽要求更低。
与 YUV 4:2:0 一样，8 位和 10 位深度的半平面布局支持 4:2:2，NVENCODE API 为 YUV 4:2:2 半平面输入引入了两种新格式:
NV_ENC_BUFFER_FORMAT_NV16
，对于 8 位 YUV 4:2:2
NV_ENC_BUFFER_FORMAT_P210
，对于 10 位 YUV 4:2:2
chromaFormatIdc =2
支持 4:2:2 编码。与 4:2:0 和 4:4:4 一样，应用还可以通过
chromaFormatIdc=2
传递 ARGB 输入，以生成 4:2:2 的子样本编码输出。使用 CUDA 内核在编码驱动中完成从 ARGB 到 YUV 4:2:2 的色彩空间转换。
4:2:2 输入的压缩效率类似于 4:2:0 和 4:4:4 格式。
更高的位深度编码增强
NVIDIA 视频编解码器 SDK 13.0 在 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs 上的 H.264 中引入 10 位编码支持。所有色度子采样格式—4:2:0、4:2:2 和 4:4:4—支持对 10 位内容进行编码。
此外，NVIDIA Blackwell NVENC 可以将 8 位内容编码为 H.264 和 HEVC 的 10 位内容，这项功能已在 ADA 中的 AV1 中提供。
ADA 和早期 GPU 继续支持 HEVC 的此功能，但与 NVIDIA Blackwell 不同的是，输入 YUV 从 8 位升级到 10 位，作为使用 CUDA 的预处理步骤。
由于编码管线的精度更高，此功能可提高编码效率。此次升级可实现更平滑的渐变和更准确的色彩再现，是高质量视频制作的理想之选。编码器中的许多与输入相关的计算均在 10 位 (而非 8 位) 下完成。应用程序的压缩效率有望提高约 3%，而不会对编码器性能产生任何重大影响。
与 AV1 不同，仅 H.264 和 HEVC 的特定配置文件支持 10 位编码。应用程序应仅在解码器支持 10 位配置文件的情况下启用此功能。
H.264 交错编码
NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs 恢复了对交错内容编码的支持，并为传统广播视频格式的用户提高了传统视频工作流程的灵活性。
交错编码
需要将一帧拆分成两个字段。第一个字段包含图像的奇数行，第二个字段包含偶数行。这些字段以快速的顺序传输，会产生单帧的错觉。H.264 上的 YUV 4:2:0 和 YUV 4:2:2、8- 和 10 位内容支持字段编码。
NVENCODE API 支持用于交错内容的“top field first”(顶部字段优先) 和“bottom field first”(底部字段优先) 布局。
前瞻性和 UHQ
前瞻性分析未来帧，并根据给定块在后续帧中的引用量，将位高效分配到帧中的不同块。前瞻性编码期间生成的统计数据用于速率控制的复杂性估计。
Video Codec SDK 13.0 在 AV1 中增加了对前瞻性级别的支持，并引入了 AV1 UHQ 调优信息，该信息结合了前瞻性级别和时间性过滤，可为各种 HQ 延迟容忍编码预设提供出色的质量和性能。这些功能可提供出色的视觉质量，非常适合要求严苛的视频应用
在 UHQ 调优中，前瞻性和时间过滤的最佳设置是组合应用的，而不是单独应用的。与 UHQ HEVC 一样，B 帧的数量设置为 5，同时使用中间的 B 帧作为参考。UHQ 模式还会禁用自适应 I 帧和 B 帧，并使用固定的 GOP（group of pictures）结构。
NVIDIA Blackwell NVENC 支持新的编码统计信息，使前瞻性算法能够识别多个引用的引用详细信息，从而使 HEVC 和 AV1 的 UHQ 调整信息的质量和性能比 ADA 高得多。
对于 AV1，NVIDIA Blackwell 中的 UHQ 调整信息有 7 个 B 帧，而不是 5 个 B 帧，这进一步提高了压缩效率。
图 1 和 2 分别显示了 ADA HQ、ADA UHQ、NVIDIA Blackwell HQ 和 NVIDIA Blackwell UHQ 在 HEVC 和 AV1 上节省的比特率。
图 1、使用自然内容为 HQ 和 UHQ 调优信息节省 HEVC 比特率
图 2、使用自然内容，为 HQ 和 UHQ 调优信息节省 AV1 码率
增强的视频解码功能
NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs 为视频解码领域带来了巨大进步，尤其是 H.264 和 HEVC 格式的视频解码。这些增强功能同时提供功能集和性能改进，为行业树立了新的标杆。
H.264 解码增强功能
借助 NVIDIA Blackwell，H.264 解码功能得到了重大改进。其中一些主要特性包括:
4:2:0 10 位支持 (MBAFF 除外):这可改善色彩深度，非常适合视频制作或游戏等色彩敏感领域的工作。
4:2:2 8/10 位支持 (MBAFF 除外):NVIDIA Blackwell 支持 8 位和 10 位色度采样，可确保高质量的视频播放 (即使是压缩格式)，从而提供更好的视觉保真度。
2 倍性能提升:最令人兴奋的更新或许是性能提升。与前几代产品相比，NVIDIA Blackwell 的性能提升了 2 倍，这意味着视频播放更流畅，解码速度更快，即使是对于要求严苛的视频文件也是如此。
支持分辨率高达 8192 × 8192:
无论您是处理超高清视频还是处理先进的 3D 内容，NVIDIA Blackwell 都能处理高达 8192 × 8192 的分辨率。这意味着您可以更清晰、更精细地解码视频。
无论您是处理高分辨率视频项目，还是处理大规模视频处理任务，这些改进都能确保 NVIDIA Blackwell 提供出色的视频解码功能。
HEVC 解码可提高灵活性和速度
高效视频编码 (HEVC) 已成为高效视频压缩的首选格式，而 NVIDIA Blackwell 将其提升至更高水平。新的增强功能包括:
支持 4:2:2 8/10 位和 12 位解码:
NVIDIA Blackwell 现在为 HEVC 提供了更广泛的解码选项，可更轻松地处理高质量视频，并将保真度损失降至最低。
性能提升
:得益于 NVDCLK 的改进，您可以在解码 HEVC 内容时看到明显的性能提升。这转化为更流畅的播放和更高效的视频渲染。
图 3、H.264 和 HEVC 解码性能 (fps)
NVDECODE API 为 4:2:2 解码输出引入了两种新格式:
cudaVideoSurfaceFormat_NV16=4,      /**< Semi-Planar YUV 422 [Y plane followed by interleaved UV plane] */

cudaVideoSurfaceFormat_P216=5       /**< 16 bit Semi-Planar YUV 422[Y plane followed by interleaved UV plane]*/
动态解码表面分配，提高 GPU 显存效率
Video Codec SDK 13.0 的一个突出特性是引入了动态解码表面分配。通过适应不同的视频位流，此功能可减少不必要的内存消耗，从而增加解码会话的数量。这一改进对于在一些视频解码用例中优化 GPU 内存使用至关重要。
在某些情况下，bitstream 使用的参考帧可能少于 DPB 大小，因此会浪费宝贵的视频内存。分配最大解码表面会产生更高的显存占用空间。
比较新的 SDK
在此版本发布之前，视频应用程序根据 DPB 大小创建了具有固定最小表面数量的解码器对象。这种方法虽然实用，但有时分配的内存超过了需要。
CUVIDDECODECREATEINFO stDecodeCreateInfo;
memset(&stDecodeCreateInfo, 0x0, sizeof(CUVIDDECODECREATEINFO ));
. . . // Setup the remaining structure members
stDecodeCreateInfo.ulNumDecodeSurfaces = <dpb_size>// Prior to SDK 13.0, this could not change
rResult = cuvidCreateDecoder(&hDecoder, &stDecodeCreateInfo)
借助 Video Codec SDK 13.0，您可以灵活地仅在需要时分配额外的 YUV 表面。您可以创建具有较小 YUV 表面初始分配 (例如 3 或 4) 的解码器对象，并使用 cuvidReconfigureDecoder API 根据需要动态分配更多表面。这种动态分配可减少不必要的内存消耗，并提高解码过程的整体效率。
借助 Video Codec SDK 13.0 解锁新的可能性
NVIDIA Video Codec SDK 13.0 借助最新的 NVIDIA Blackwell GPU 突破视频编码和解码的极限。无论是创作广播内容、编辑高质量视频，还是处理最新的 8K 视频片段，此更新都提供了改进工作流程所需的工具。
Video Codec SDK 13.0 的压缩效率有所提升，支持新的颜色格式，编码质量有所提升，可满足现代视频应用日益增长的需求。
为支持 Video Codec SDK 13.0 的发布，NVIDIA 合作伙伴 Blackmagic、Capcut 和 Wondershare 已在其视频工作流中集成 4:2:2 编码、4:2:2 解码、AV1 UHQ 和分割编码等功能。