Jetson Video Recipe

NVENC/PyVC knob checklist

Contents

• Tuning and preset

• Profile selection

• Rate control and buffering

• Latency and quality controls

• Surface gates

• Runtime reconfiguration

Tuning and preset

The supplied parser defaults preset to P4 and, for SDK-10+ presets, defaults an omitted tuning_info to NV_ENC_TUNING_INFO_HIGH_QUALITY (NvEncoderClInterface.cpp:696-724). It does not make the workload low latency merely because P1/P2 is selected. Multi-pass encoding is separately defaulted to disabled unless multipass is provided (:1063-1066). Use the typed value ultra_high_quality for UHQ. The wrapper preserves that typed value as intent evidence but translates the executed native CLI and PyNvVideoCodec sample JSON to the parser token uhq; ultra_high_quality must never reach the released sample parser unchanged. Public-2.1 Python UHQ is restricted to HEVC/AV1, Turing-or-newer hardware, and a loaded extension recording linked NVENC API 12.2 or newer; the _121 surface does not contain the UHQ token and must remain blocked. Thor satisfies the generation prerequisite. Other GPU-generation claims remain operation-verified rather than inferred when authoritative generation evidence is unavailable.

Treat P1–P7 as candidates along a speed/quality trade-off within a codec/tuning/hardware context. Do not call one faster or higher quality without matched measurements. For later measurement, let the owning benchmark or pipeline workflow validate its versioned content-provenance artifact and measure adjacent presets on the same user-selected content and frame range.

Without matched measurements on identical representative content, do not present qualitative or numeric cross-codec storage, compression, quality, or output-size rankings as measured or proven. A documentation/support-based option may be labeled only as a starting candidate for matched measurement; words such as "better", "best", and "largest" remain unmeasured claims unless the labeled evidence proves that comparison. When H.264 and HEVC are both documentation-supported for an 8-bit storage-priority comparison, HEVC Main is the first matched-measurement candidate and H.264 is the compatibility baseline. This orders measurement; it does not call either codec a measured storage, compression, quality, or output-size winner. For an explicit native HEVC profile, select Main10 when 10-bit output is required and downstream decoder/container/playback compatibility is confirmed. NVENC can accept authenticated 8-bit 4:2:0 input for Main10 and convert internally; P010 is the exact no-bit-depth-conversion input path. Use Main for ordinary 8-bit 4:2:0 output or ask for the missing facts. The released PyNvVideoCodec 2.1 sample cannot express profile; report that projection limitation instead of claiming that Main or Main10 was applied.

Use only p1 through p7, exact lowercase tuning values high_quality, low_latency, ultra_low_latency, lossless, or ultra_high_quality, and multipass values disabled, qres, or fullres. Invalid parser strings can fall back to defaults, so reject them rather than reporting the requested string as the applied setting. Schema-1 canonical config and schema-2 encoder_intent presets remain lowercase p1 through p7. The schema-2 Python projection, like public-2.1 executed JSON, uses uppercase P1 through P7, while native AppEnc CLI argv remains lowercase. Evidence must preserve both the canonical typed config and the executed config; these are explicit token translations, not intent changes. Any parser fallback diagnostic is an operation failure.

Profile selection

Profile is a bitstream-tool and downstream-compatibility choice; it is independent of preset. Do not call a profile faster, higher quality, or more storage-efficient without matched measurements. Preserve an explicit caller profile exactly. When the caller and downstream contract do not require one, omit it and report the result as SDK-selected/default rather than guessing or claiming a named profile.

The released PyNvVideoCodec 2.1 sample cannot express a named profile. Every explicit profile is therefore a structured Python projection loss, never a silently dropped control. An emitted bitstream may later reveal the runtime-selected profile, but recipe planning alone does not prove that profile. Parser acceptance also does not prove a profile/format pair operates; keep structural validation, live capability, operation, and emitted-bitstream proof separate.

Rate control and buffering

• rc=cbr: bounded-rate starting point for live workloads; set bitrate, max bitrate, and VBV deliberately.

• rc=vbr: quality/size starting point when bitrate may vary.

• rc=constqp: constant-QP path; the QP value uses the separate constqp option. Do not combine with bitrate targets.

• Gate the selected mode against supported_ratecontrol_modes from the exact codec query: positive mask presence proves const-QP, bit 0x1 proves VBR, and bit 0x2 proves CBR. Missing, malformed, or non-positive evidence leaves support unknown.

• RC strings are lowercase-only. An unrecognized value, including CQP, falls back to CBR (NvEncoderClInterface.cpp:912-926).

• Supplying bitrate sets CBR unless an explicit valid rc later overrides it (:1050-1108).

• Supplying cq zeros average and maximum bitrate on the public Python parser; shared recipes therefore reject CQ with either bitrate field (:1096-1103). CQ is a VBR target-quality value: shared recipes use exact integer 0..51 for H.264/HEVC and 0..63 for AV1.

• A direct typed native AppEncPerf/AppEncCuda request may express finite fractional CQ in that codec range and may pair it with maxbitrate as a cap, but not with average bitrate. This native-only expressiveness must not be copied into shared public-2.1 Python recipe JSON.

• constqp uses one integer or P,B,I integers without spaces. Use 0..51 for H.264/HEVC and 0..255 for AV1. Do not retain bitrate, maximum-bitrate, VBV, or CQ keys in const-QP mode.

• qmin: do not generate in this release because the parser fetches qmin and then parses initqp at NvEncoderClInterface.cpp:1119-1122.

Latency and quality controls

• bf: gate against exact num_max_bframes. The recipe contract enforces bf=0 for ultra_low_latency; use low_latency when B-frames are required.

• lookahead: gate on support_lookahead and enforce the API range 0..(31 - bf). The recipe contract enforces zero for ultra_low_latency.

• multipass: disabled, quarter-resolution, or full-resolution choices must be throughput-tested. Do not infer support from support_multiple_ref_frames; they are different concepts.

• aq: spatial AQ strength is 1–15 when enabled. temporalaq is a distinct option and is gated on support_temporal_aq.

• temporalaq is enabled by key presence in the supplied parser. Emit 1/true to enable it; omit the key to disable it—do not emit zero or false.

• gop: choose from recovery/random-access needs and frame rate; require gop >= bf + 1. A longer GOP is not automatically better.

• fps: the installed public PyNvVideoCodec 2.1 sample/config contract and the native projection require an exact positive JSON integer. Reject decimal numbers, decimal strings, and fraction strings, and cap native std::stoi fields (fps, gop, bf) at INT_MAX=2147483647. Bitrate/VBV integer fields are capped at UINT32_MAX=4294967295. Do not generalize fractional handling observed in a newer local/development source tree to the authenticated public 2.1 wheel.

• Intra refresh is unsupported through rel_2_1 PyVC kwargs. Native NVENC structs/caps expose it, but NvEncoderClInterface only prints the native fields and never parses a public kwarg (:1375-1377,1438-1440,1745-1747). Report it unrepresentable on the selected released projection and stop without proposing another interface.

Surface gates

Pixel format and memory interoperability are separate contracts. A recipe's format names pixel layout; it does not select a memory domain, sharing handle, allocation owner, copy policy, or synchronization primitive. Bind those facts to authenticated pipeline evidence before claiming an in-process edge.

• YUV420, ARGB, and ABGR are recipe/standalone encoder-input surfaces, not current independent-decode pipeline target formats. Native YUV420 pipeline output would require an explicit AppDec -outplanar route that is not implemented, public-2.1 PyNvVideoCodec advanced/decode.py cannot emit planar YUV420, and AppDec cannot emit matching RGB for ARGB/ABGR. Resolving an encoder recipe for one of these formats does not claim a complete content-to-independent-decode pipeline.

• profile is native-AppEnc-only because public PyNvVideoCodec 2.1 does not parse it. Native profiles are codec-specific: H.264 baseline|main|high|high444; HEVC main|main10|frext; AV1 main. H.264 Baseline requires resolved bf=0; reject a positive caller or selected-default B-frame value instead of silently rewriting it. Lookahead remains independently gated. Use Profile selection for format, depth, lossless, omitted-profile, and downstream guidance.

• CPU-buffer sample readiness requires NumPy plus exact pycuda==2026.1; GPU-buffer mode also requires the validated CUDA-enabled Torch record.

• P010/P016 and other >8-bit surfaces require support_10bit_encode.

• AV1 encode is structurally limited to 4:2:0 input. Reject NV16, P210, YUV444, and YUV444_16BIT before capability interpretation even when feature fields are positive. P010 remains eligible when support_10bit_encode is positive; H.264/HEVC 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 remain live-capability gated.

• H.264/HEVC 4:4:4 surfaces require support_yuv444_encode.

• The public 2.1 GPU utility implements H.264/HEVC YUV444 as three full-resolution planes and assigns a width * height * 3 frame size; do not block this path when the live 4:4:4 capability is positive.

• H.264/HEVC NV16/P210 4:2:2 encoder surfaces require support_yuv422_encode; absence from an API-12.1-linked module is unknown, not unsupported. P216 is decoder-output naming and is not accepted as an encode input here.

• 4:2:0 widths and heights must be even.

Runtime reconfiguration

Do not generalize from the full native API. The supplied Python binding's structEncodeReconfigureParams exposes rate-control mode, multipass, average/max bitrate, VBV size/initial delay, frame-rate numerator/denominator, and target quality (PyNvEncoder.cpp:1172-1198). Any requested field outside that Python surface requires source/API verification and may require recreating the session.