RuntimeError: Expected format to be AV_PIX_FMT_CUDA, got yuv420p

[marcmk6]

🐛 Describe the bug

I failed to open the demo video (https://videos.pexels.com/video-files/854132/854132-sd_640_360_25fps.mp4) with the following simple code.

from torchcodec.decoders import VideoDecoder

device = "cuda"
decoder = VideoDecoder(
    "854132-sd_640_360_25fps.mp4",
    device=device,
)
frame = decoder[0]

the code gives

RuntimeError                              Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[3], line 1
----> 1 f = decoder[0]  # 

File /opt/conda/lib/python3.11/site-packages/torchcodec/decoders/_video_decoder.py:161, in VideoDecoder.__getitem__(self, key)
    152 """Return frame or frames as tensors, at the given index or range.
    153 
    154 Args:
   (...)
    158     torch.Tensor: The frame or frames at the given index or range.
    159 """
    160 if isinstance(key, numbers.Integral):
--> 161     return self._getitem_int(int(key))
    162 elif isinstance(key, slice):
    163     return self._getitem_slice(key)

File /opt/conda/lib/python3.11/site-packages/torchcodec/decoders/_video_decoder.py:136, in VideoDecoder._getitem_int(self, key)
    131 if key >= self._num_frames or key < 0:
    132     raise IndexError(
    133         f"Index {key} is out of bounds; length is {self._num_frames}"
    134     )
--> 136 frame_data, *_ = core.get_frame_at_index(self._decoder, frame_index=key)
    137 return frame_data

File /opt/conda/lib/python3.11/site-packages/torch/_ops.py:723, in OpOverload.__call__(self, *args, **kwargs)
    722 def __call__(self, /, *args, **kwargs):
--> 723     return self._op(*args, **kwargs)

RuntimeError: Expected format to be AV_PIX_FMT_CUDA, got yuv420p

Versions

Collecting environment information...
PyTorch version: 2.6.0+cu124
Is debug build: False
CUDA used to build PyTorch: 12.4
ROCM used to build PyTorch: N/A

OS: Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (x86_64)
GCC version: (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0
Clang version: Could not collect
CMake version: version 3.30.5
Libc version: glibc-2.35

Python version: 3.11.10 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Oct 16 2024, 01:27:36) [GCC 13.3.0] (64-bit runtime)
Python platform: Linux-5.4.0-155-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35
Is CUDA available: True
CUDA runtime version: 12.1.105
CUDA_MODULE_LOADING set to: LAZY
GPU models and configuration:
GPU 0: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3
GPU 1: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3
GPU 2: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3
GPU 3: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3
GPU 4: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3
GPU 5: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3
GPU 6: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3
GPU 7: NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3

Nvidia driver version: 545.23.06
cuDNN version: Could not collect
Is XPU available: False
HIP runtime version: N/A
MIOpen runtime version: N/A
Is XNNPACK available: True

CPU:
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Address sizes: 46 bits physical, 57 bits virtual
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 224
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-223
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
Model name: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8480C
CPU family: 6
Model: 143
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 56
Socket(s): 2
Stepping: 6
Frequency boost: enabled
CPU max MHz: 2001.0000
CPU min MHz: 800.0000
BogoMIPS: 4000.00
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb cat_l3 cat_l2 cdp_l3 invpcid_single cdp_l2 ssbd mba ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid cqm rdt_a avx512f avx512dq rdseed adx smap avx512ifma clflushopt clwb intel_pt avx512cd sha_ni avx512bw avx512vl xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves cqm_llc cqm_occup_llc cqm_mbm_total cqm_mbm_local avx512_bf16 wbnoinvd dtherm ida arat pln pts avx512vbmi umip pku ospke waitpkg avx512_vbmi2 gfni vaes vpclmulqdq avx512_vnni avx512_bitalg tme avx512_vpopcntdq rdpid cldemote movdiri movdir64b md_clear pconfig flush_l1d arch_capabilities
Virtualization: VT-x
L1d cache: 5.3 MiB (112 instances)
L1i cache: 3.5 MiB (112 instances)
L2 cache: 224 MiB (112 instances)
L3 cache: 210 MiB (2 instances)
NUMA node(s): 2
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-55,112-167
NUMA node1 CPU(s): 56-111,168-223
Vulnerability Itlb multihit: Not affected
Vulnerability L1tf: Not affected
Vulnerability Mds: Not affected
Vulnerability Meltdown: Not affected
Vulnerability Mmio stale data: Not affected
Vulnerability Retbleed: Not affected
Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
Vulnerability Spectre v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2: Mitigation; Enhanced IBRS, IBPB conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS SW sequence
Vulnerability Srbds: Not affected
Vulnerability Tsx async abort: Not affected

Versions of relevant libraries:
[pip3] botorch==0.14.0
[pip3] gpytorch==1.14
[pip3] mypy_extensions==1.1.0
[pip3] numpy==2.1.2
[pip3] nvidia-cublas-cu12==12.4.5.8
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-cupti-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-nvrtc-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-runtime-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvidia-cudnn-cu12==9.1.0.70
[pip3] nvidia-cufft-cu12==11.2.1.3
[pip3] nvidia-curand-cu12==10.3.5.147
[pip3] nvidia-cusolver-cu12==11.6.1.9
[pip3] nvidia-cusparse-cu12==12.3.1.170
[pip3] nvidia-cusparselt-cu12==0.6.2
[pip3] nvidia-nccl-cu12==2.21.5
[pip3] nvidia-nvjitlink-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvidia-nvtx-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] onnxruntime-gpu==1.21.1
[pip3] optree==0.13.0
[pip3] pytorch-lightning==2.5.1
[pip3] torch==2.6.0
[pip3] torchaudio==2.6.0
[pip3] torchelastic==0.2.2
[pip3] torchmetrics==1.7.1
[pip3] torchvision==0.21.0
[pip3] triton==3.2.0
[conda] botorch 0.14.0 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] gpytorch 1.14 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] numpy 2.1.2 py311h71ddf71_0 conda-forge
[conda] nvidia-cublas-cu12 12.4.5.8 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-cuda-cupti-cu12 12.4.127 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-cuda-nvrtc-cu12 12.4.127 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-cuda-runtime-cu12 12.4.127 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-cudnn-cu12 9.1.0.70 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-cufft-cu12 11.2.1.3 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-curand-cu12 10.3.5.147 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-cusolver-cu12 11.6.1.9 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-cusparse-cu12 12.3.1.170 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-cusparselt-cu12 0.6.2 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-nccl-cu12 2.21.5 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-nvjitlink-cu12 12.4.127 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] nvidia-nvtx-cu12 12.4.127 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] optree 0.13.0 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] pytorch-lightning 2.5.1 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] torch 2.6.0 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] torchaudio 2.6.0 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] torchcodec 0.2.1+cu124 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] torchelastic 0.2.2 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] torchmetrics 1.7.1 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] torchvision 0.21.0 pypi_0 pypi
[conda] triton 3.2.0 pypi_0 pypi

[marcmk6]

#670 this seems related, but the issue author solved the problem by converting his video to yuv420p, which is exactly what's not working here

[NicolasHug]

Thanks for the report @marcmk6 . This should have been recently fixed by #792. If you install the torchvision nightly release you should be able to decode it.

[marcmk6]

Hi @NicolasHug , #792 addressed the problem of falling back to CPU decoding. But I do want NVDEC to work.
I can successfully run the code snippet on colab and I observed speedup over CPU decoding.

here's the env info of a colab T4 instance

Collecting environment information...
PyTorch version: 2.6.0+cu124
Is debug build: False
CUDA used to build PyTorch: 12.4
ROCM used to build PyTorch: N/A

OS: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS (x86_64)
GCC version: (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0
Clang version: 14.0.0-1ubuntu1.1
CMake version: version 3.31.6
Libc version: glibc-2.35

Python version: 3.11.13 (main, Jun  4 2025, 08:57:29) [GCC 11.4.0] (64-bit runtime)
Python platform: Linux-6.1.123+-x86_64-with-glibc2.35
Is CUDA available: True
CUDA runtime version: 12.5.82
CUDA_MODULE_LOADING set to: LAZY
GPU models and configuration: GPU 0: Tesla T4
Nvidia driver version: 550.54.15
cuDNN version: Probably one of the following:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn.so.9.2.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_adv.so.9.2.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_cnn.so.9.2.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_engines_precompiled.so.9.2.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_engines_runtime_compiled.so.9.2.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_graph.so.9.2.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_heuristic.so.9.2.1
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcudnn_ops.so.9.2.1
Is XPU available: False
HIP runtime version: N/A
MIOpen runtime version: N/A
Is XNNPACK available: True

CPU:
Architecture:                         x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):                       32-bit, 64-bit
Address sizes:                        46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
Byte Order:                           Little Endian
CPU(s):                               2
On-line CPU(s) list:                  0,1
Vendor ID:                            GenuineIntel
Model name:                           Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU @ 2.20GHz
CPU family:                           6
Model:                                79
Thread(s) per core:                   2
Core(s) per socket:                   1
Socket(s):                            1
Stepping:                             0
BogoMIPS:                             4399.99
Flags:                                fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch invpcid_single ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm rdseed adx smap xsaveopt arat md_clear arch_capabilities
Hypervisor vendor:                    KVM
Virtualization type:                  full
L1d cache:                            32 KiB (1 instance)
L1i cache:                            32 KiB (1 instance)
L2 cache:                             256 KiB (1 instance)
L3 cache:                             55 MiB (1 instance)
NUMA node(s):                         1
NUMA node0 CPU(s):                    0,1
Vulnerability Gather data sampling:   Not affected
Vulnerability Itlb multihit:          Not affected
Vulnerability L1tf:                   Mitigation; PTE Inversion
Vulnerability Mds:                    Vulnerable; SMT Host state unknown
Vulnerability Meltdown:               Vulnerable
Vulnerability Mmio stale data:        Vulnerable
Vulnerability Reg file data sampling: Not affected
Vulnerability Retbleed:               Vulnerable
Vulnerability Spec rstack overflow:   Not affected
Vulnerability Spec store bypass:      Vulnerable
Vulnerability Spectre v1:             Vulnerable: __user pointer sanitization and usercopy barriers only; no swapgs barriers
Vulnerability Spectre v2:             Vulnerable; IBPB: disabled; STIBP: disabled; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Vulnerable
Vulnerability Srbds:                  Not affected
Vulnerability Tsx async abort:        Vulnerable

Versions of relevant libraries:
[pip3] intel-cmplr-lib-ur==2025.2.0
[pip3] intel-openmp==2025.2.0
[pip3] mkl==2025.2.0
[pip3] numpy==2.0.2
[pip3] nvidia-cublas-cu12==12.5.3.2
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-cupti-cu12==12.5.82
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-nvrtc-cu12==12.5.82
[pip3] nvidia-cuda-runtime-cu12==12.5.82
[pip3] nvidia-cudnn-cu12==9.3.0.75
[pip3] nvidia-cufft-cu12==11.2.3.61
[pip3] nvidia-curand-cu12==10.3.6.82
[pip3] nvidia-cusolver-cu12==11.6.3.83
[pip3] nvidia-cusparse-cu12==12.5.1.3
[pip3] nvidia-cusparselt-cu12==0.6.2
[pip3] nvidia-nccl-cu12==2.21.5
[pip3] nvidia-nvjitlink-cu12==12.5.82
[pip3] nvidia-nvtx-cu12==12.4.127
[pip3] nvtx==0.2.12
[pip3] optree==0.17.0
[pip3] pynvjitlink-cu12==0.7.0
[pip3] tbb==2022.2.0
[pip3] tcmlib==1.4.0
[pip3] torch==2.6.0+cu124
[pip3] torchao==0.10.0
[pip3] torchaudio==2.6.0+cu124
[pip3] torchdata==0.11.0
[pip3] torchsummary==1.5.1
[pip3] torchtune==0.6.1
[pip3] torchvision==0.21.0+cu124
[pip3] triton==3.2.0
[pip3] umf==0.11.0
[conda] Could not collect

I presume the problem I encountered is about packages and/or cuda env. Anything suspicious you can notice?

[marcmk6]

I seemed to solve the problem by adding video to NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES
refer to https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/latest/docker-specialized.html#driver-capabilities