RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell Linux 595.71.05: HEVC NVENC/NVDEC unsupported, cuvidGetDecoderCaps returns zero caps

Gaming and Visualization Technologies Video Codec, PyNv & OFA
, , , , , , ,
1

I am seeing a host-level HEVC video codec failure on an NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell using Linux driver 595.71.05.

This is not a Plex, Docker, LXC, or container passthrough issue. I reproduced the failure directly on the bare Proxmox host with FFmpeg.

System:

  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell
  • PCI ID: 2d30
  • Bus ID: 00000000:01:00.0
  • VBIOS: 98.06.4D.00.01
  • Driver: 595.71.05
  • CUDA reported by nvidia-smi: 13.2
  • GSP Firmware Version: 595.71.05
  • Host OS: Proxmox VE 9.1.9
  • Kernel/userspace NVIDIA libraries appear matched:
    • libcuda.so.1 → libcuda.so.595.71.05
    • libnvcuvid.so.1 → libnvcuvid.so.595.71.05

nvidia-smi detects the GPU normally:

NVIDIA-SMI 595.71.05
Driver Version: 595.71.05
CUDA Version: 13.2
Product Name: NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell
Product Architecture: Blackwell
GSP Firmware Version: 595.71.05

Summary of behavior:

  • H.264 NVENC works
  • H.264 NVDEC works
  • HEVC NVDEC fails for both 8-bit Main and 10-bit Main10
  • HEVC NVENC fails with “Codec not supported” / “No capable devices found”

This appears to be a driver capability reporting issue specific to HEVC on this GPU/driver branch.

H.264 NVDEC test works:

Command:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -f lavfi -i testsrc2=size=1920x1080:rate=30 -t 5 \
  64_nvenc -preset p1 -f matroska /tmp/nvenc_h264_test.mkv -y

ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel verbose \
  -hwaccel cuda \
  -hwaccel_output_format cuda \
  -i /tmp/nvenc_h264_test.mkv \
  -map 0:v:0 \
  -f null -

Relevant output:

\[h264\] NVDEC capabilities:
format supported: yes, max_mb_count: 262144
min_width: 48, max_width: 8192
min_height: 64, max_height: 8192
Reinit context to 1920x1088, pix_fmt: cuda

HEVC 8-bit NVDEC test fails:

Command:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -f lavfi -i testsrc2=size=1920x1080:rate=30 -t 5 \
  -c:v libx265 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset ultrafast \
  /tmp/software_hevc_8bit_test.mkv -y

ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel verbose \
  -hwaccel cuda \
  -hwaccel_output_format cuda \
  -i /tmp/software_hevc_8bit_test.mkv \
  -map 0:v:0 \
  -f null -

Relevant output:

\[hevc\] NVDEC capabilities:
format supported: no, max_mb_count: 0
min_width: 0, max_width: 0
min_height: 0, max_height: 0
Hardware is lacking required capabilities
Failed setup for format cuda: hwaccel initialisation returned error.

The file continues decoding in software afterward, but CUDA/NVDEC initialization clearly fails.

HEVC Main10 NVDEC test also fails:

Input file is a normal UHD HEVC Main10 4:2:0 stream:

codec_name=hevc
profile=Main 10
width=3840
height=2160
pix_fmt=yuv420p10le

Command:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel verbose \
  -hwaccel cuda \
  -hwaccel_output_format cuda \
  -i "/mnt/unraid/media/tv/Game of Thrones/Season 1/Game of Thrones - S01E09 - Baelor \[Bluray-2160p\].mkv" \
  -map 0:v:0 \
  -f null -

Relevant output:

\[hevc\] NVDEC capabilities:
format supported: no, max_mb_count: 0
min_width: 0, max_width: 0
min_height: 0, max_height: 0
Hardware is lacking required capabilities
Failed setup for format cuda: hwaccel initialisation returned error.

HEVC NVENC also fails:

Command:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -f lavfi -i testsrc2=size=1920x1080:rate=30 -t 5 \
  -c:v hevc_nvenc -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset p1 \
  -f matroska /tmp/nvenc_hevc_8bit_test.mkv -y

Relevant output:

\[hevc_nvenc\] Codec not supported
\[hevc_nvenc\] No capable devices found
Error while opening encoder - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height.

Additional notes:

  • H.264 encode/decode works through NVENC/NVDEC on the same host.
  • The same HEVC failures occur on the Proxmox host directly, before any containerization.
  • I originally noticed this in Plex, but FFmpeg reproduces the issue outside Plex.
  • dmesg does not show obvious NVIDIA/GSP/RM/firmware errors.
  • /dev/nvidia-caps permissions were checked and are not the root cause.
  • libcuda and libnvcuvid symlinks point to the matching 595.71.05 libraries.

This looks like RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell + Linux 5

nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (507.6 KB)

95.71.05 is not exposing HEVC encode/decode capabilities correctly. Could NVIDIA confirm whether this GPU/driver branch currently supports HEVC NVENC/NVDEC, and whether this is a known bug or requires a newer/different driver branch?

Attached: nvidia-bug-report.log.gz

2

Hi @mbhargav294,

I tested this on what appears to be the same configuration:

  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell
  • Driver: 595.71.05
  • CUDA reported by nvidia-smi: 13.2
  • OS: Ubuntu Server 24.04
  • FFmpeg: built with NVIDIA codec support

On my system, both HEVC NVDEC decode and HEVC NVENC encode work correctly.

NVDEC / HEVC decode test

I first generated a software HEVC 8-bit test file:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -f lavfi -i testsrc2=size=1920x1080:rate=30 -t 5 \
  -c:v libx265 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset ultrafast \
  /tmp/software_hevc_8bit_test.mkv -y

Then I decoded it using CUDA/NVDEC:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel verbose \
  -hwaccel cuda \
  -hwaccel_output_format cuda \
  -i /tmp/software_hevc_8bit_test.mkv \
  -map 0:v:0 \
  -f null -

The important part of the output was:

[hevc @ ...] NVDEC capabilities:
[hevc @ ...] format supported: yes, max_mb_count: 262144
[hevc @ ...] min_width: 144, max_width: 8192
[hevc @ ...] min_height: 144, max_height: 8192
...
150 frames decoded; 0 decode errors

So on this system, the HEVC NVDEC capability query is not returning zero — it reports HEVC support correctly and decodes successfully.

NVENC / HEVC encode test

I also tested HEVC encode with hevc_nvenc:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -f lavfi -i testsrc2=size=1920x1080:rate=30 -t 5 \
  -c:v hevc_nvenc -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset p1 \
  -f matroska /tmp/nvenc_hevc_8bit_test.mkv -y

This also completed successfully:

Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (wrapped_avframe (native) -> hevc (hevc_nvenc))
...
frame=150 ... speed=14x

Conclusion

This suggests that RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell + Linux driver 595.71.05 does support HEVC NVENC/NVDEC, and the issue is likely environment- or application-specific rather than a hardware capability limitation.

Things I would suggest checking on the failing system:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -hwaccels
ffmpeg -hide_banner -decoders | grep -E 'cuvid|hevc'
ffmpeg -hide_banner -encoders | grep nvenc
ldconfig -p | grep -E 'nvcuvid|nvidia-encode'
ls -l /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnvcuvid.so*
ls -l /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnvidia-encode.so*
cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version

Based on my test, the driver/hardware path is working correctly for HEVC encode and decode on this GPU.