# MediaCodec Canonical URL: https://encode.wiki/tools/hardware-encoders/mediacodec/ Content version: ca42e61ede0a24f789d7287a0001244ad22f4abf Status: current License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Checksum (SHA-256): 7af906232650540eb5acdb1b512e0ac673eeb2fef858f3f12b4fd528a2817bdd MediaCodec is Android's framework for the codec components that ship with a device, which on a phone are mostly hardware blocks in the SoC. FFmpeg wraps its encoders as `h264_mediacodec`, `hevc_mediacodec`, `vp8_mediacodec`, `vp9_mediacodec`, `mpeg4_mediacodec` and `av1_mediacodec`, so you need an FFmpeg build for Android configured with MediaCodec support. The H.264 and HEVC encoders arrived in FFmpeg 6.0, the others in 6.1. It is the Android counterpart of [VideoToolbox](/tools/hardware-encoders/videotoolbox/). Which codecs you get depends on the phone. H.264 and HEVC encoders are nearly universal, VP9 and AV1 encoders are rarer, and quality, rate-control accuracy and bugs vary between vendors much more than with desktop GPUs. ## Hardware or software encoder? Hardware encoders in phones are designed for camera recording and video calls: real time, low power, forgiving of bitrate. They lose to [x264](/tools/software-encoders/x264/), [x265](/tools/software-encoders/x265/) and [SVT-AV1](/tools/software-encoders/svt-av1/) at slow presets in quality per bit, and many components accept only bitrate modes. Use MediaCodec for quick on-device transcodes. For anything you keep, encode on a computer. More in [NVENC: hardware or software](/tools/hardware-encoders/nvenc/#hardware-or-software-encoder). ## Find the encoders on your device Apps such as [Codec Info](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.parseus.codecinfo) list every encoder component with its supported codecs, bitrate modes and quality range. Names are vendor-specific, for example `c2.exynos.h264.encoder` or `c2.google.av1.encoder`, and you pass the exact name to FFmpeg with `-codec_name` when a device has several encoders for a codec. Without `-codec_name` Android picks one for you. ## Example commands Bitrate modes work on virtually every encoder: ```sh ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v hevc_mediacodec -bitrate_mode vbr -b:v 4M -g 60 output.mp4 ``` ```sh ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v av1_mediacodec -codec_name c2.google.av1.encoder -bitrate_mode vbr -b:v 4M -g 60 output.mkv ``` Constant quality only works if the encoder reports `BITRATE_MODE_CQ` and a quality range: ```sh ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v hevc_mediacodec -bitrate_mode cq -global_quality 70 output.mp4 ``` FFmpeg passes `-global_quality` straight to Android's `quality` key, so the value must be inside the range the device reports. It has no relation to CRF. ## Options that matter | Option | What it does | | --- | --- | | `-bitrate_mode` | `cq`, `vbr`, `cbr` or `cbr_fd` (CBR that may drop frames). Unset leaves it to the component. Check what the device supports first. | | `-b:v` | Target bitrate. Required for every mode but `cq`. | | `-g` | Keyframe interval. Android takes whole seconds, so FFmpeg divides `-g` by the integer frame rate and drops the remainder: `-g 60` at 30 fps is a 2-second interval, `-g 89` is still 2 seconds. Anything under one second, including FFmpeg's default of 12 frames, becomes one second. | | `-codec_name` | Pick a specific encoder component. | | `-operating_rate` | Hint for how fast the encoder will be fed; not a frame-rate conversion. | | `-level` | AV1 level. FFmpeg's values are Android bit flags, so use the named values (`4.1`), never numbers copied from NVENC or Vulkan. | | `-qp_i_min` … `-qp_b_max` | Quantizer bounds per frame type, when the component honours them. | ## Pitfalls - Input must be 8-bit `yuv420p` or `nv12`; the wrapper does not take 10-bit pixel formats. - Frame-dropping CBR (`cbr_fd`) changes frame cadence and is wrong for anything that must stay frame-exact. - An encoder that opens is not necessarily good. Check the output for distortion, missing headers (AV1 and VP9 in particular) and correct timestamps before trusting a device. ## Full option reference Every private option of `av1_mediacodec` in FFmpeg 9.0.2; the H.264, HEVC, VP8, VP9 and MPEG-4 MediaCodec encoders share all of them except `-level`, which each defines with its own codec's levels. FFmpeg passes these to the Android component, which may ignore a key it does not support. `INT_MAX` is 2147483647. `-profile:v` also accepts `main`, `high` and `professional` for AV1. | Parameter | Initial default | Accepted values / meaning | | ----------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `-ndk_codec` | `-1` (auto) | Use the NDK MediaCodec API (1) or the Java one (0); auto uses NDK when no Java VM is available | | `-ndk_async` | `0` | Use the NDK API in asynchronous mode | | `-codec_name` | unset | Pick a specific component, e.g. `c2.google.av1.encoder`; unset uses the default for the MIME type | | `-bitrate_mode` | `-1` (component default) | `cq`=`0`, `vbr`=`1`, `cbr`=`2`, `cbr_fd`=`3` (CBR with frame dropping). `cq` takes its quality from `-global_quality` | | `-pts_as_dts` | `-1` (auto) | Copy PTS to DTS; auto enables it when `-bf` is 0 or unset | | `-operating_rate` | `0` (unspecified) | Frames per second the component should be able to process, a speed hint; it does not change the output frame rate | | `-qp_i_min` | `-1` (unset) | Lowest QP for I-frames | | `-qp_p_min` | `-1` (unset) | Lowest QP for P-frames | | `-qp_b_min` | `-1` (unset) | Lowest QP for B-frames | | `-qp_i_max` | `-1` (unset) | Highest QP for I-frames | | `-qp_p_max` | `-1` (unset) | Highest QP for P-frames | | `-qp_b_max` | `-1` (unset) | Highest QP for B-frames | | `-level` | `0` (unspecified) | AV1 level, e.g. `5.1`; named `2`, `2.1`, `2.2`, `2.3`, `3`, `3.1`, `3.2`, `3.3`, `4`, `4.1`, `4.2`, `4.3`, `5`, `5.1`, `5.2`, `5.3`, `6`, `6.1`, `6.2`, `6.3`, `7`, `7.1`, `7.2`, `7.3` map to Android's `AV1Level*` bit constants |