Qualcomm releases Iris video encoder for H.265 and VP9 codecs on Snapdragon

Qualcomm has released the new driver for the Iris video encoder. This allows Linux devices with a Qualcomm SoC to handle H.264, H.265 and VP9 codecs. At least that works on modern Snapdragons.

Qualcomm developers writing to a mailing list that they are rolling out the new video acceleration encoder, called Iris, via a patch. It is not clear exactly on which Qualcomm Socs the encoder/decoder is supported, but in any case it is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and most likely also the upcoming Gen 3.

Iris is Qualcomm’s encoder and decoder for various codecs. Iris can encode H.264 and H.265 and decode those codes and VP9. The email sent by the developers does not mention the AV1 codec, which recently appeared to be gaining market share.