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Intel has released the Media Driver 2025Q4 and VPL GPU Runtime 2025Q4. Key highlights include upstreamed Nova Lake S support for video decoding and processing, confirmation that MPEG2 hardware decoding is being dropped with Nova Lake and newer, an AV1 decode fix for Panther Lake X3_LPM platforms, and AV1 encode improvements such as LUT rounding under CQP on Xe2 for better image quality.

Intel Media Driver Update Brings Nova Lake S Support, AV1 Improvements