NVIDIA has released Video Codec SDK 13.1, adding a set of video encoding and decoding upgrades for developers. The update includes AV1 hierarchical reference mode, a zero-copy transcoding architecture, frame-level precise search, enhanced hardware decoding statistics, and a new Docker development environment. According to NVIDIA, the release is aimed at improving performance and efficiency in AI video processing, streaming, and large-scale content delivery workflows. On the decoding side, SDK 13.1 adds per-macroblock decoding statistics for H.264 and H.265, while avoiding extra CPU parsing overhead. NVIDIA said demand continues to rise for high-quality video streaming, generative AI video tools, remote collaboration, and content distribution at scale. The company said the new SDK is designed to help developers build video processing pipelines that are more efficient, lower in latency, and easier to scale.