The video transcoding software Handbrake has been able to use Intel’s QuickSync hardware H.264 encoding since sometime last year. It is one of the few applications to support this feature. The quality is debatable, especially on earlier chip generations, but the speed (hundreds of fps on SD video) and CPU usage (around 10% on Main profile) are impressive.

However, the exact configuration to enable Handbrake to use the QuickSync API (dubbed “Intel Media SDK”), and furthermore to have the QuickSync API activate the hardware encoding path, is not very clear-cut. The former requires a compatible version of the SDK, while the latter requires a compatible GPU driver. Intel has the fatuous policy of removing its older SDK’s and drivers, and possibly disabling certain features in later releases. Also, Intel doesn’t seem too interested in this consumer-facing feature to begin with. In light of that, I’m noting here one configuration that works for me, and archiving its relevant packages.
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