A Comprehensive API for Video Processing

Develop awe-inspiring video applications with state-of-the-art libraries, tools, and samples. They're all accessible via a single API that enables hardware acceleration for fast video transcoding, image processing, and media workflows.

  • Accelerate rich media performance. Speed up video playback, encoding, processing, and media formatting conversion.
  • Achieve real-time 4K video communication at 60 FPS HEVC decode and encode. Some Intel® Xeon® and Intel® Core™ processors can get up to 18 AVC full HD at 30 FPS during transcoding sessions. 1
  • Cut product time to market. Prototype, optimize, and productize your media pipelines with a comprehensive, convenient API.
  • Speed up transition to new codecs. Use efficient codecs with hardware acceleration to increase speed, compression, and quality across AVC, HEVC, and MPEG-2.
  • Debug and customize your products quickly. Find and solve application bugs, port applications to new operating systems, and add new features using source code for open source Linux*.
  • Deliver fast, high-quality, real-time video transcoding in:
    • Broadcasting
    • Over-the-top (OTT) delivery
    • Live video and video-on-demand (VOD)
    • Cloud gaming and remote desktop solutions
  • Access hardware-accelerated video codecs and programmable graphics on the latest Intel® processors.

Note Intel® Media Server Studio is no longer available but you can access its features in other products:

Intel® Media SDK (for media functionality, only)

Intel® VTune™ Amplifier

Intel® SDK for OpenCL™ Applications

Features

 Who Needs the Intel® Media SDK?

Developers Who Want to Quickly Process Video Files

Video is the largest and fastest-growing category of internet traffic, forecasted to be 82 percent by 2022.2 Developers who need fast video encoding, decoding, processing, media format conversion, and image processing use this SDK for:

  • Desktop or mobile video players and editors
  • Video conferencing or streaming applications
  • Smart camera and network video recorder software
  • Content capture and distribution for digital surveillance, industrial, retail, healthcare, and more
  • In-vehicle infotainment and instrument cluster firmware

What's New

2020 Windows* Release

  • Added Screen Content Coding (SCC) support to HEVC
  • Improved samples now include:
    • AVBR, QVBR, and ICQ bitrate control modes to sample_multi_transcode
    • Improved 12-bit format support
    • A command line option that forces use of a fixed function (low-power) version of components, where available
    • ROI file format for sample_multi_transcode
    • A command line option to limit bitrate
    • A metrics monitor that allows a user to specify a path to a graphics device

2017 R4 Release for Embedded Linux*

  • Yocto* MR4 board support package(BSP) kernel update for new graphics driver and performance improvements

Release Notes

Embedded Linux  

Windows

2019 Release

  • Ability to scale the HEVC software encoder across multiple cores for faster, efficient transcoding.
  • Enhanced adaptive long-term reference (LTR) compression support for the parameter ExtBrcAdaptiveLTR. It brings more efficiency for high-quality video while using less bandwidth for online gaming, video conferencing, and similar uses.
  • Support for a motion-compensated temporal filter that delivers better video quality by improving video denoising.
  • Enhancements to software and GACC HEVC encoders that improve video quality for a 100-bit color format.

Key Specifications

Supported Processors

  • 3rd through 10th generation Intel Core processors
  • Intel Xeon E3 processor version 4, select version 5 products, and version 6 with integrated Intel® Processor Graphics
  • Intel Xeon E-2000G processor product family with Intel Processor Graphics.
  • Selected Celeron®, Pentium®, or Intel Atom® processors with integrated graphics
  • For the Intel Xeon E5 processor (versions 4 and 5) and 1st and 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, support of software-only (CPU) HEVC decode and encode, select video preprocessing (CSC, scaling, DI), and virtualization (kernel-based virtual machine, Xen Project Hypervisor*) is available

Embedded Linux

  • Celeron processor N3350
  • Pentium processor N4200
  • Intel Atom processors E3930, E3940, or E3950

Operating Systems

  • Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows® 10, Microsoft Windows Server* 2012 and 2012 R2 and 2016
  • Linux: CentOS* 7.5, Ubuntu*, other Linux distributions through a generic operating system model (Intel® Media SDK generally works on these operating systems, but support is only provided for Linux Gold distributions)
  • Embedded Linux: Yocto Project* 2.5 Sumo - Kernel 4.14.92

Software

  • Windows: Microsoft Visual C++* 2005 with service pack 1, or higher
  • Code samples: GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)* G++, version 4.6, and CMake* version 2.8.0, or higher

Programming Languages

  • C
  • C++

Available Downloads

Windows & Linux

Build applications for data centers and cloud, enterprise, desktop, client, and mobile solutions and devices. These include broadcast and video conferencing, online gaming, and video players and editors.

 

Embedded Linux

Use for embedded and IoT solutions in markets such as digital surveillance, retail, smart home, and transportation—from smart cameras and network video recorders to infotainment for connected cars.

Choose & Download

Community Help

Get the support you need from the developer community and our technical experts through the public forum.

Media Forum

Customer Success Stories

Video Transcoding at Olympic Speed

Explore how NetUP used Intel Media SDK to bring the Rio Olympics to an audience of millions.

Enable Game-Changing Sports Calls

Learn how Slomo.tv, a producer of instant replay servers, leverages the video compression capabilities in Intel Media SDK to innovate their videoReferee* systems.

Give Feedback

Product and Performance Information

1

Specific hardware technical specifications apply. For more information, see performance benchmarks.

2

For more information, see Cisco* Mobile Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2017-2022).

3

Intel's compilers may or may not optimize to the same degree for non-Intel microprocessors for optimizations that are not unique to Intel microprocessors. These optimizations include SSE2, SSE3, and SSSE3 instruction sets and other optimizations. Intel does not guarantee the availability, functionality, or effectiveness of any optimization on microprocessors not manufactured by Intel. Microprocessor-dependent optimizations in this product are intended for use with Intel microprocessors. Certain optimizations not specific to Intel microarchitecture are reserved for Intel microprocessors. Please refer to the applicable product User and Reference Guides for more information regarding the specific instruction sets covered by this notice.

Notice revision #20110804