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VTM

currentMigrated from docs/encoders/VTM.mdx at 37c3317fd058; modified for Encode Wiki · CC BY-SA 4.0

jvet/VVCSoftware_VTM

vcgit.hhi.fraunhofer.de

VVC VTM reference software

Latest release
VTM-24.0
Last commit
License
BSD-3-Clause

VTM (VVC Test Model) is the reference encoder and decoder for H.266 / VVC, developed by JVET. It exists to define and test the standard: it produces conformance bitstreams, is the anchor for evaluating coding tools, and is the base for research on new ones.

It is not a practical encoder. VTM is single-threaded and extremely slow; Fraunhofer’s benchmarks put VVenC’s medium preset, with 8 threads, at roughly 280× (HD) to 380× (UHD) the speed of VTM-19.2, with compression close to VTM’s. For real VVC encodes use VVenC or uvg266. The HEVC and AVC equivalents are HM and JM.

Build

Section titled “Build”

The current release is VTM-24.0 (April 2026). Build a 64-bit binary with CMake:

Terminal window
git clone --branch VTM-24.0 https://vcgit.hhi.fraunhofer.de/jvet/VVCSoftware_VTM.git
cd VVCSoftware_VTM
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel

Current GCC (16) stops on new warnings because the project builds with -Werror; add -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-w to the first cmake command to get past them. On Linux the build copies EncoderAppStatic and DecoderAppStatic into bin/. OpenSSL is only needed for signed-content SEI messages. The software manual is in doc/.

Encode a file

Section titled “Encode a file”

VTM reads Y4M (recognised by the .y4m extension, which supplies size, frame rate and bit depth) or raw planar YUV. Coding settings come from a config file; cfg/ has encoder_randomaccess_vtm.cfg, encoder_lowdelay_vtm.cfg and encoder_intra_vtm.cfg.

Terminal window
./bin/EncoderAppStatic -c cfg/encoder_randomaccess_vtm.cfg -i input.y4m -b stream.266 -o recon.yuv -q 32
./bin/DecoderAppStatic -b stream.266 -o decoded.yuv

For raw YUV, add -wdt 1280 -hgt 720 -fr 24 and --InputBitDepth=10 for 10-bit input. -f limits the frame count. -q is a fixed QP; JVET’s common test conditions use 22, 27, 32 and 37. The shipped configs code at 10 bits internally, so recon.yuv and the decoded output are 10-bit even for 8-bit input. The decoded output should match recon.yuv exactly. The random-access config uses a 32-frame GOP with the intra period set as a multiple of 32 based on frame rate (IntraPeriod). There is a basic rate control (RateControl, TargetBitrate), off by default.

The output is a bare VVC elementary stream. Mux it with FFmpeg or MP4Box if you need a container.