Using Intel QSV to encode H265 video, GPU only participates in decoding and not in encoding

[Yxini-p]

My hardware is i3 7100, which supports H265 encoding and decoding according to Intel's specifications;
I used Handbrake's Intel QSV to transcode videos and found that GPU only participates in decoding and not in encoding; Then the CPU remains in a fully loaded state;




Can anyone answer or help me

[Yxini-p]

HandBrake 1.9.2 (2025022400)
OS: Alpine Linux v3.19
Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-34-amd64 (x86_64)
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100 CPU @ 3.90GHz x 4
Install Dir: /usr/bin
Config Dir: /config/.ghb

---

[16:25:53] Compile-time hardening features are enabled
Cannot load libnvidia-encode.so.1
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_22
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[16:25:53] hb_display_init: attempting VA driver 'iHD'
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: User environment variable requested driver 'iHD'
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_22
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: User environment variable requested driver 'iHD'
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_22
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[16:25:53] hb_display_init: using VA driver 'iHD'
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: User environment variable requested driver 'iHD'
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_22
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[16:25:53] qsv: is available on this system
[16:25:53] hb_init: starting libhb thread
[16:25:53] hb_init: starting libhb thread
[16:25:53] hb_init: starting libhb thread

(fr.handbrake.ghb:1027): Gtk-WARNING **: 16:25:53.438: GtkGrid 0x7f2fc93f3110 (grid) reported min width 242 and natural width 240 in measure() with for_size=-1; natural size must be >= min size

(fr.handbrake.ghb:1027): Gtk-WARNING **: 16:25:53.511: GtkGrid 0x7f2fc93f3110 (grid) reported min width 242 and natural width 240 in measure() with for_size=-1; natural size must be >= min size

(fr.handbrake.ghb:1027): Gtk-WARNING **: 16:25:53.600: GtkGrid 0x7f2fc93f3110 (grid) reported min width 242 and natural width 240 in measure() with for_size=-1; natural size must be >= min size

[jlesage]

Are you using the GUI or the automatic video converter ? Your first screenshot shows the HandBrake GUI, but your second shows the HandBrake CLI, used by the automatic video converter.

[jlesage]

It should be the reverse: HandBrake uses the GPU to encode, but the CPU to decode. When using the GUI with a QSV encoder, it should work. Do you see any difference in encoding speed when using the QSV H.265 encoder vs the non-QSV H.265 encoder?

[Yxini-p]

In theory, it should be like this. I tried again several times and it was like this; I don't know how to solve it either

[jlesage]

Were you able to compare with the software H.265 encoder ?

[Yxini-p]

Using CPU encoding, the performance provided by the two cores of my poor i3 7100 is very weak;



Reset to qsv-h265, the performance of my CPU will be better；

[jlesage]

So the better encoding speed you see when using qsv-h265 confirms that hardware encoding is used.