Amazon EC2 VT1 now supports the AMD-Xilinx Video SDK 2.0 that enables GStreamer and 10-bit video transcoding

We are excited to announce that the Amazon EC2 VT1 instances now support the AMD-Xilinx Video SDK 2.0, bringing support for Gstreamer, 10-bit HDR video, and dynamic encoder parameters. In addition to new features, this new version offers improved visual quality for 4k video, support for a newer version of FFmpeg (4.4), expanded OS/kernel support, and bug fixes.

VT1 instances are the first Amazon EC2 instances that deliver hardware acceleration for video transcoding, and are optimized for workloads such as live streaming, video conferencing, video library optimization, and just-in-time asset transcoding. These instances are powered by the AMD-Xilinx Alveo U30 media accelerator to deliver up to 30% lower cost per stream than Amazon EC2 GPU-based instances and up to 60% lower cost per stream than Amazon EC2 CPU-based instances.

Customers can get started quickly with VT1 instances by launching the AMD-Xilinx Video SDK AMI available on the AWS Marketplace to access a pre-built development environment to test and migrate existing video pipelines built with FFmpeg or GStreamer. In the coming weeks, new AMIs optimized for deploying VT1 instances via Amazon ECS and EKS will be made available via the AWS Marketplace. To take advantage of the new features, existing customers should upgrade to the newest driver version and relaunch their instances.

VT1 instances are available in the AWS US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland), and Asia Pacific (Tokyo) regions. Customers can purchase VT1 instances as On-Demand Instances, Reserved Instances, Spot Instances, or as part of Savings Plan.

To get started with Amazon EC2 VT1 instances, visit Getting Started on Amazon EC2 VT1 or visit our product details page to learn more.