AMD AMA Blocks - VisioForge Media Blocks SDK .Net¶

Media Blocks SDK .Net

The AMD AMA Video SDK is AMD's hardware media-acceleration platform for AMD Alveo media accelerators. It ships a family of GStreamer elements (ama_h264enc, ama_h265enc, ama_av1enc, ama_h264dec, ama_h265dec, ama_av1dec, ama_scaler, ama_upload, ama_download) that run H.264, HEVC, and AV1 encoding, decoding, and scaling entirely on the accelerator. VisioForge Media Blocks SDK wraps this platform so you can offload video processing to AMD hardware from a standard C# pipeline. The AMA platform is distinct from AMD AMF (which drives Radeon GPUs) — AMA targets dedicated Alveo media accelerators such as the Alveo MA35D, the device currently supported.

Key facts:

• Platform: AMD AMA Video SDK on AMD Alveo media accelerators (currently the Alveo MA35D).
• Codecs: H.264, HEVC (H.265), and AV1 — hardware encode and decode.
• Operating system: Linux x86_64 only. There is no Windows or macOS AMA support.
• Device selection: the Device property picks the accelerator — -1 (default) auto-selects, 0/1/2… pin a specific card when several AMD devices are present.
• Memory model: encoding/decoding/scaling run in device memory; the SDK inserts ama_upload / ama_download automatically when data crosses to or from system memory.
• Distribution: VisioForge ships only the managed wrapper. The AMA runtime (kernel driver + GStreamer plugins) is installed separately from AMD; no AMD binaries are bundled with the SDK.

Prerequisites¶

Before the AMA blocks can be used, the target machine must have:

• Linux x86_64 (Ubuntu, Alma/RHEL, or Debian per the AMD AMA SDK support matrix).
• An AMD Alveo media accelerator installed and provisioned (kernel driver, huge pages, IOMMU / Above-4G decoding enabled in the host firmware).
• The AMD AMA Video SDK installed, including its GStreamer plugins, so the ama_* elements are discoverable by GStreamer.

Every AMA settings and block class exposes a static IsAvailable() method that probes for the required ama_* elements. Call it before building a pipeline and fall back to a software or other-vendor encoder when it returns false:

if (AMAH264EncoderSettings.IsAvailable())
{
    // AMA H.264 encoder is present — use hardware encoding.
}

AMA H.264 encoder¶

Hardware H.264 encoder backed by the ama_h264enc element. Configure it with AMAH264EncoderSettings (implements IH264EncoderSettings) and pass it to a standard H264EncoderBlock.

Block info¶

Name: H264EncoderBlock (with AMAH264EncoderSettings).

The sample pipeline¶

graph LR;
    UniversalSourceBlock-->H264EncoderBlock;
    H264EncoderBlock-->MP4SinkBlock;

Sample code¶

var pipeline = new MediaBlocksPipeline();

var fileSource = new UniversalSourceBlock(await UniversalSourceSettings.CreateAsync("test.mp4"));

// AMD AMA (Alveo) hardware H.264 encoder. Device = -1 auto-selects the accelerator.
var h264Settings = new AMAH264EncoderSettings
{
    Device = -1,
    Bitrate = 6000, // Kbps
    RateControl = AMARateControl.CBR
};
var h264EncoderBlock = new H264EncoderBlock(h264Settings);
pipeline.Connect(fileSource.VideoOutput, h264EncoderBlock.Input);

var mp4SinkBlock = new MP4SinkBlock(new MP4SinkSettings("output.mp4"));
pipeline.Connect(h264EncoderBlock.Output, mp4SinkBlock.CreateNewInput(MediaBlockPadMediaType.Video));

await pipeline.StartAsync();

Platforms¶

Linux (x86_64) with the AMD AMA Video SDK.

AMA HEVC encoder¶

Hardware HEVC (H.265) encoder backed by the ama_h265enc element. Configure it with AMAHEVCEncoderSettings (implements IHEVCEncoderSettings) and pass it to a standard HEVCEncoderBlock.

Block info¶

Name: HEVCEncoderBlock (with AMAHEVCEncoderSettings).

The sample pipeline¶

graph LR;
    UniversalSourceBlock-->HEVCEncoderBlock;
    HEVCEncoderBlock-->MP4SinkBlock;

Sample code¶

var pipeline = new MediaBlocksPipeline();

var fileSource = new UniversalSourceBlock(await UniversalSourceSettings.CreateAsync("test.mp4"));

var hevcSettings = new AMAHEVCEncoderSettings
{
    Device = -1,
    Bitrate = 6000, // Kbps
    TuneMetrics = AMATuneMetrics.VMAF
};
var hevcEncoderBlock = new HEVCEncoderBlock(hevcSettings);
pipeline.Connect(fileSource.VideoOutput, hevcEncoderBlock.Input);

var mp4SinkBlock = new MP4SinkBlock(new MP4SinkSettings("output.mp4"));
pipeline.Connect(hevcEncoderBlock.Output, mp4SinkBlock.CreateNewInput(MediaBlockPadMediaType.Video));

await pipeline.StartAsync();

Platforms¶

Linux (x86_64) with the AMD AMA Video SDK.

AMA AV1 encoder¶

Hardware AV1 encoder backed by the ama_av1enc element. Configure it with AMAAV1EncoderSettings (implements IAV1EncoderSettings) and pass it to a standard AV1EncoderBlock. AV1 adds a DeviceType property (AMAAV1DeviceType) that selects the AV1 engine.

Block info¶

Name: AV1EncoderBlock (with AMAAV1EncoderSettings).

The sample pipeline¶

graph LR;
    UniversalSourceBlock-->AV1EncoderBlock;
    AV1EncoderBlock-->MP4SinkBlock;

Sample code¶

var pipeline = new MediaBlocksPipeline();

var fileSource = new UniversalSourceBlock(await UniversalSourceSettings.CreateAsync("test.mp4"));

var av1Settings = new AMAAV1EncoderSettings
{
    Device = -1,
    DeviceType = AMAAV1DeviceType.Type1,
    Bitrate = 6000 // Kbps
};
var av1EncoderBlock = new AV1EncoderBlock(av1Settings);
pipeline.Connect(fileSource.VideoOutput, av1EncoderBlock.Input);

var mp4SinkBlock = new MP4SinkBlock(new MP4SinkSettings("output.mp4"));
pipeline.Connect(av1EncoderBlock.Output, mp4SinkBlock.CreateNewInput(MediaBlockPadMediaType.Video));

await pipeline.StartAsync();

Platforms¶

Linux (x86_64) with the AMD AMA Video SDK.

Common encoder settings¶

The three AMA encoder settings classes share the same core properties (AV1 additionally exposes DeviceType, and its QP range is 0–255 rather than 0–51):

AMA decoders¶

Hardware decoders for H.264 (ama_h264dec), HEVC (ama_h265dec), and AV1 (ama_av1dec). Configure them with AMAH264DecoderSettings / AMAHEVCDecoderSettings / AMAAV1DecoderSettings (implementing IH264/HEVC/AV1DecoderSettings) and pass them to the corresponding decoder block. When a decoder feeds a system-memory consumer, the SDK appends ama_download automatically.

Block info¶

Name: H264DecoderBlock / HEVCDecoderBlock / AV1DecoderBlock (with an AMA settings object).

Settings¶

The sample pipeline¶

graph LR;
    BasicFileSourceBlock-->UniversalDemuxBlock;
    UniversalDemuxBlock-->HEVCDecoderBlock;
    HEVCDecoderBlock-->VideoRendererBlock;

Sample code¶

var pipeline = new MediaBlocksPipeline();

// AMD AMA (Alveo) hardware HEVC decoder.
var hevcDecoder = new HEVCDecoderBlock(new AMAHEVCDecoderSettings { Device = -1 });

var basicFileSource = new BasicFileSourceBlock("test_hevc.mp4");
var reader = new MediaInfoReaderX();
await reader.OpenAsync("test_hevc.mp4");
var mediaInfo = reader.Info;
var universalDemux = new UniversalDemuxBlock(mediaInfo, renderVideo: true, renderAudio: false);
var videoRenderer = new VideoRendererBlock(pipeline, VideoView1);

pipeline.Connect(basicFileSource.Output, universalDemux.Input);
pipeline.Connect(universalDemux.GetVideoOutput(), hevcDecoder.Input);
pipeline.Connect(hevcDecoder.Output, videoRenderer.Input);

await pipeline.StartAsync();

Platforms¶

Linux (x86_64) with the AMD AMA Video SDK.

AMA scaler¶

The AMAScalerBlock resizes video (and optionally halves the frame rate) on the accelerator using the ama_scaler element. The block wraps the chain ama_upload ! ama_scaler ! capsfilter ! ama_download, so it accepts system-memory frames on its input and emits system-memory frames downstream — you can drop it into any pipeline without managing device memory yourself.

Block info¶

Name: AMAScalerBlock.

Settings¶

AMAScalerSettings:

The sample pipeline¶

graph LR;
    UniversalSourceBlock-->AMAScalerBlock;
    AMAScalerBlock-->H264EncoderBlock;
    H264EncoderBlock-->MP4SinkBlock;

Sample code¶

var pipeline = new MediaBlocksPipeline();

var fileSource = new UniversalSourceBlock(await UniversalSourceSettings.CreateAsync("test.mp4"));

// Scale to 1280x720 on the AMD accelerator.
var scaler = new AMAScalerBlock(new AMAScalerSettings(1280, 720));
pipeline.Connect(fileSource.VideoOutput, scaler.Input);

var h264EncoderBlock = new H264EncoderBlock(new AMAH264EncoderSettings());
pipeline.Connect(scaler.Output, h264EncoderBlock.Input);

var mp4SinkBlock = new MP4SinkBlock(new MP4SinkSettings("output.mp4"));
pipeline.Connect(h264EncoderBlock.Output, mp4SinkBlock.CreateNewInput(MediaBlockPadMediaType.Video));

await pipeline.StartAsync();

Platforms¶

Linux (x86_64) with the AMD AMA Video SDK.

Full hardware transcode¶

An AMA decoder, the AMA scaler, and an AMA encoder chained together run every stage — decode, scale, and encode — on the AMD accelerator. Each block is self-contained: it accepts and emits system-memory frames, so the SDK moves data on and off the device (ama_download / ama_upload) at each block boundary while the decode, scale, and encode work itself runs on the accelerator:

graph LR;
    Source-->AMADecoder-->AMAScaler-->AMAEncoder-->Sink;

Wire an H264DecoderBlock (with AMAH264DecoderSettings), an AMAScalerBlock, and an HEVCEncoderBlock (with AMAHEVCEncoderSettings) in sequence to transcode H.264 → scaled HEVC, with every stage running on the AMD accelerator.

Enums reference¶

Selecting the device¶

Every AMA settings object (AMA*EncoderSettings, AMA*DecoderSettings, and AMAScalerSettings) exposes a Device property that decides which AMD accelerator runs the work — set it on the settings object you pass to the block (the blocks themselves have no Device property):

• Device = -1 (default) — the AMA runtime auto-selects an available accelerator.
• Device = 0 / 1 / 2… — pins the work to a specific card, which is how you choose one Alveo accelerator when several AMD devices are installed in the same host.

Because AMA targets dedicated Alveo media accelerators rather than a Radeon GPU, selecting an AMA settings class already directs the work to the accelerator, not to any integrated AMD graphics.

Limitations¶

• Linux x86_64 only. The AMA elements do not exist on Windows or macOS; the settings classes are compiled only into the Linux build of the SDK.
• MediaBlocks pipeline only. The AMA encoders run on the direct Media Blocks pipeline. They are not supported on the VideoEditCoreX encodebin output path and raise a NotSupportedException there — build AMA encoding with H264EncoderBlock / HEVCEncoderBlock / AV1EncoderBlock instead.
• The AMA runtime must be installed separately (see Prerequisites); the SDK bundles no AMD binaries.

FAQ¶

Does VisioForge support AMD AMA and Alveo hardware encoding?¶

Yes. VisioForge Media Blocks SDK wraps the AMD AMA Video SDK to provide H.264, HEVC, and AV1 hardware encoding and decoding, plus a hardware scaler, on AMD Alveo media accelerators. Support is Linux x86_64 only and requires the AMD AMA Video SDK to be installed.

How do I choose which AMD device the AMA encoder runs on?¶

Set the Device property on the AMA settings object. -1 (the default) auto-selects an available accelerator; 0, 1, 2, and so on pin the encode, decode, or scale to a specific card when multiple AMD devices are present in the host.

Is AMA hardware acceleration available on Windows or macOS?¶

No. The AMD AMA Video SDK is Linux x86_64 only, so the AMA encoder, decoder, and scaler blocks are available only on Linux. On Windows or macOS, use the AMF, NVENC, QSV, or software encoders instead.

What is the difference between AMD AMF and AMD AMA encoders?¶

AMD AMF drives Radeon GPUs and is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS through classes such as AMFH264EncoderSettings. AMD AMA is a separate platform that drives dedicated Alveo media accelerators (such as the MA35D) on Linux, exposed through the AMA* classes. They target different hardware and are configured with different settings classes.

How do I run a full transcode on the AMD accelerator?¶

Chain an AMA decoder, the AMAScalerBlock, and an AMA encoder. Each stage runs on the AMD accelerator; the blocks exchange frames through system memory, and the SDK moves data on and off the device automatically (ama_download / ama_upload) at each boundary.

See Also¶

• Video Encoders — all H.264, HEVC, AV1, and VP9 encoder blocks, including the AMD AMF, NVENC, and QSV hardware encoders.
• Video Decoders — hardware and software decoder blocks for every supported codec.
• Linux-Specific Blocks — blocks and features available on Linux builds of the SDK.
• HEVC Encoding Guide — hardware HEVC encoding across AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel.
• AV1 Encoding Guide — AV1 hardware and software encoding options.