AMD VAAPI / AMF

AMD uses VAAPI on Linux and AMF on Windows. Set Settings → Hardware → Preferred Vendor to amd if you want to pin it instead of using auto detection.

AMD AV1 remains driver- and FFmpeg-stack-dependent and is not part of the validated 0.3.0 support matrix. HEVC and H.264 are the recommended AMD paths for 0.3.0.

Supported hardware

Codec	Support
H.264	Polaris+
HEVC	Polaris+
AV1	RDNA 2+ on compatible driver/FFmpeg stacks; available but not part of the validated 0.3.0 support matrix

Linux

Host setup

Install the Mesa VAAPI drivers and verification tool:

sudo apt install mesa-va-drivers vainfo

Verify the render node on the host:

vainfo --display drm --device /dev/dri/renderD128

Docker

Pass /dev/dri into the container and set the AMD VAAPI driver name to radeonsi.

services:
  alchemist:
    image: ghcr.io/bybrooklyn/alchemist:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - ~/.config/alchemist:/app/config
      - ~/.config/alchemist:/app/data
      - /path/to/media:/media
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri
    group_add:
      - video
      - render
    environment:
      - ALCHEMIST_CONFIG_PATH=/app/config/config.toml
      - ALCHEMIST_DB_PATH=/app/data/alchemist.db
      - LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=radeonsi
    restart: unless-stopped

docker run equivalent:

docker run -d \
  --name alchemist \
  --device /dev/dri:/dev/dri \
  --group-add video \
  --group-add render \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -v ~/.config/alchemist:/app/config \
  -v ~/.config/alchemist:/app/data \
  -v /path/to/media:/media \
  -e ALCHEMIST_CONFIG_PATH=/app/config/config.toml \
  -e ALCHEMIST_DB_PATH=/app/data/alchemist.db \
  -e LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=radeonsi \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/bybrooklyn/alchemist:latest

Verify

vainfo --display drm --device /dev/dri/renderD128
ffmpeg -encoders | grep vaapi

Windows

Windows AMD support uses AMF. No device passthrough is required. Install current AMD graphics drivers and confirm FFmpeg exposes the AMF encoders:

ffmpeg -encoders | findstr amf

If NVIDIA and Intel are absent, Alchemist uses AMF automatically when AMF probing succeeds.

In Alchemist

Set Settings → Hardware → Preferred Vendor → amd. On Linux, only set Device Path if you need to force a specific render node.