Bug 2521662 - Please continue shipping 13.0 (obs-studio downstream usage)
Summary: Please continue shipping 13.0 (obs-studio downstream usage)
Keywords:
Status: ASSIGNED
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: nv-codec-headers
Version: 45
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Nicolas Chauvet (kwizart)
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-08-23 19:15 UTC by Tarulia
Modified: 2026-09-16 16:36 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Tarulia 2026-08-23 19:15:47 UTC
As noted in the Multimedia SIG Matrix, this came up in the OBS Discord for the second time now:

OBS requires nv-codec-headers of 13.0 to support 10 series GPUs on the 580 driver. Given that there's still a lot of users on 10 series GPUs that are working perfectly reasonably and none of the newer SDK features were required, choosing not to upgrade to 13.1 was a deliberate choice to reduce support impact (as it was also announced as such in the release notes).

13.1 breaks that compatibility as it requires a newer driver that doesn't support these GPUs.

F45 already ships 13.1 which means any OBS builds will end in support requests upstream (as we've already seen on Arch). One such report can be found here:
https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/issues/13685#issuecomment-5363204531

(Previous comments there can be ignored, they're addressing Windows)

Long story short, is there any way we could get both versions in the repos so OBS can still be built against 13.0? :/

I'm not sure if there are other packages that are in the same situation. I'm also not aware for when an upgrade to 13.1 (or newer) is planned.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Nicolas Chauvet (kwizart) 2026-08-24 09:24:40 UTC
Thanks for the report.

I'm gathering few more infos, but for now my take is:

- Let's grow a nv-codec-headers-13.0 separate package
- build ffmpeg, obs and others with that version instead of the main codec for f45+
- epel10 and f43/44 will keep using 13.0 as the main package.
- in the f46/ffmpeg-9.2 timeframe, we will switch back to 13.1 as a default (as ffmpeg-9.2 is expected to use newer nv-codec features)
to be revisited if other softwares at that time.

At some point I will be more relevant for using with an nv-codec API miss-match to rely on vulkan video instead...

Comment 2 Tarulia 2026-08-24 19:09:38 UTC
Hey, thanks for looking into it.

I don't know when ffmpeg 9.2 is slated for release, but it should be noted that the nv-codec-header usage in ffmpeg and OBS is independent of each other.
OBS' nvenc implementation builds against the headers directly, it doesn't rely on ffmpeg for it:

https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/blob/ba2f32bdf791005443988a4955e963663e16b1ed/plugins/obs-nvenc/CMakeLists.txt#L21

The minimum is 12, their official packages use 13. I imagine this will get bumped at *some* point, but I can't speak for the OBS team as to when that may happen. Generally they have held off on bumping it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Consequently ffmpeg shouldn't have to be built against 13.0, and even when ffmpeg 9.2 comes around 13.1 wouldn't be necessary for OBS either.

Vulkan Video has been asked for every now and then by some users, but as far as I'm aware noone is working on an implementation because noone is familiar enough with Vulkan to do it. They're open to PRs, but it would probably have to be cross-platform, which is a whole different beast.

Comment 3 Nicolas Chauvet (kwizart) 2026-09-16 15:08:18 UTC
> ... nv-codec-header usage in ffmpeg and OBS is independent of each other.

Right, but the same reasoning applies to others multimedia components. Using 13.1 will ditch support for older card without gain, as FFmpeg and others multimedia software will not yet take advantage of the 13.1 newer features and capabilities.

Package introduced in f45
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2026-dc9b4e233d

Comment 4 Tarulia 2026-09-16 16:36:51 UTC
Right, I just meant to say that even when ffmpeg 9.2 rolls around and requires 13.1 headers, it wouldn't mean 13 would have to be dropped immediately either. I don't know what else links against these, but it.s well possible that OBS might stay on 13 for a while after ffmpeg 9.2.


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