Android devices with Hardware VP8 encoder

[Pti]

I am wondering, what devices are there currently with HW encoding capability?

I know the Nexus 5 has one, and so I guess all Snapdragon 800 devices support HW encoding. Also Ive read Tegra 4 devices do have the capability.

Have you made any experience with hardware encoders? Im looking for a decent tablet thats not too expensive, and the N9 really doesnt quite please me from what Ive read.

[gla...@webrtc.org]

Currently VP8 HW encoding can be used in WebRTC for Nexus 5, 6 and 9. 

Although Snapdragon 800 and 801 chips have VP8 HW encoder, HW codec is often disabled on devices with these chips - for example on Galaxy S5.

[Pti]

Oh, I see. Are they disabled hardware wise? Or will we see more HW encoding capable devices in the near future, with Android L maybe?

[gla...@webrtc.org]

I think Qualcomm encoder is disabled in device SW. WebRTC uses Android MediaCodec API http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaCodec.html  to access HW encoder. For Snapdragon based devices HW encoder is implemented in Qualcomm omx.qcom.video.encoder.vp8 OpenMax component, but for a lot of devices this component is not exposed by device SW (it is not added to device MediaCodecList).

I hope with Android L we will see more devices with HW VP8 encoder support.