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RDP Video Performance

Guide to optimizing RDP video quality and frame rate through rustguac, particularly for video monitoring workloads.

Connections Settings

Three per-entry settings control RDP video behaviour:

  • Enable Graphics Pipeline (GFX) — Activates the RDP Graphics Pipeline Extension (RDPGFX), which enables the RemoteFX codec for better video compression. Recommended for video monitoring and media-heavy sessions. Requires 32-bit colour depth (set automatically).

  • Enable Desktop Composition — Enables Windows Desktop Window Manager (DWM) compositing in the remote session. Improves rendering of video overlays, transparency effects, and smooth scrolling. Increases bandwidth slightly.

  • Force Lossless — Forces PNG-only encoding (no JPEG/WebP lossy compression). Better for text-heavy workloads where visual fidelity matters. Uses significantly more bandwidth — not recommended for video content.

These settings appear in the connections entry editor for RDP entries under "Video Performance".

Windows RDP Server Tuning

For the best video experience, configure the Windows RDP server (2022+).

Quick Setup with Script

A PowerShell script is provided in contrib/. Run on the Windows RDP target server as Administrator:

# Standard setup (software encoding, AVC444, 60fps)
.\setup-rdp-performance.ps1

# With GPU hardware encoding (requires DirectX 11+ GPU)
.\setup-rdp-performance.ps1 -EnableGPU

This configures: AVC 4:4:4, 60 FPS, desktop composition, RemoteFX, audio, and network tuning. A reboot is recommended after.

Manual Setup

Enable AVC 4:4:4 (H.264 full-colour)

Group Policy: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment

  • Prioritize H.264/AVC 444 Graphics mode for Remote Desktop Connections → Enabled

Or via registry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services
  AVC444ModePreferred = 1 (DWORD)
  AVCHardwareEncodePreferred = 1 (DWORD)

Enable 60 FPS

Windows RDP defaults to 30 FPS. To enable 60 FPS:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations
  DWMFRAMEINTERVAL = 15 (DWORD)

Enable GPU Hardware Encoding

Any DirectX 11+ GPU (NVIDIA, Intel iGPU, AMD) can offload H.264 encoding. Enable via the same Group Policy path:

  • Configure H.264/AVC hardware encoding for Remote Desktop connections → Enabled
  • Use hardware graphics adapters for all Remote Desktop Services sessions → Enabled

Verify Settings

Check Windows Event Viewer at Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > RemoteDesktopServices-RdpCoreTS:

  • Event ID 162 — AVC444 mode is active
  • Event ID 170 — Hardware encoding is active

Linux xrdp Tuning (Debian 13)

Debian 13 (trixie) ships xrdp 0.10.x, but the stock package does not include x264 H.264 encoding support. The contrib/setup-xrdp-gfx.sh script rebuilds xrdp from the Debian sid source package with --enable-x264 and configures the GFX pipeline.

Quick Setup

A single setup script handles everything — desktop, audio, xrdp rebuild, and configuration. Run on the xrdp target machine (not the rustguac server):

wget -O setup-xrdp-gfx.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sol1/rustguac/main/contrib/setup-xrdp-gfx.sh
sudo bash setup-xrdp-gfx.sh --desktop mate

Desktop options: mate (default, recommended), xfce, kde, gnome, none. MATE is lightweight and works reliably over xrdp without GPU.

The script runs in three phases:

  1. Phase 1 (pure trixie): Desktop + Firefox + Chromium, build tools, PulseAudio xrdp audio module, PipeWire→PulseAudio switch
  2. Phase 2 (temporary sid): Adds sid repo, installs matching xorgxrdp, rebuilds xrdp with --enable-x264, removes sid
  3. Phase 3 (configure): Xorg backend, Xwrapper, startwm.sh, gfx.toml with H.264 + x264

After setup, use bash setup-xrdp-gfx.sh --diagnose to troubleshoot, or --help for all options.

Manual Setup

Prerequisites

# Add sid repo for newer xrdp source
echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian sid main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sid.list

# Pin trixie as default (prevent accidental sid upgrades)
cat > /etc/apt/preferences.d/pin-trixie << 'EOF'
Package: *
Pin: release a=trixie
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 100
EOF

apt-get update

# Install xorgxrdp from sid (must match xrdp version)
apt-get install -y -t unstable xorgxrdp

# Install x264 and build dependencies
apt-get install -y libx264-dev build-essential devscripts
apt-get build-dep -y xrdp

Rebuild xrdp with x264

The stock Debian xrdp package is built without --enable-x264. Rebuild from sid source:

cd /tmp
apt-get source xrdp=<sid-version>
cd xrdp-*
sed -i "s|--enable-opus|--enable-opus --enable-x264|" debian/rules
sed -i "s|^ autoconf,| libx264-dev,\n autoconf,|" debian/control
dpkg-buildpackage -b -uc -us -j$(nproc)
dpkg -i ../xrdp_*.deb

Verify x264 is linked: ldd /usr/sbin/xrdp | grep libx264

GFX Pipeline (Video)

The GFX pipeline requires the Xorg backend, not Xvnc. Set in /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini:

autorun=Xorg

Allow non-root Xorg in /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config:

allowed_users=anybody

Create /etc/xrdp/gfx.toml:

[codec]
order = ["H.264", "RFX"]
h264_encoder = "x264"

[x264.default]
preset = "ultrafast"
tune = "zerolatency"
profile = "main"
vbv_max_bitrate = 0
vbv_buffer_size = 0
fps_num = 60
fps_den = 1
threads = 1

[x264.lan]
# inherits default — uncapped bitrate, 60fps

[x264.wan]
vbv_max_bitrate = 15000
vbv_buffer_size = 1500

[x264.broadband_high]
preset = "superfast"
vbv_max_bitrate = 8000
vbv_buffer_size = 800

Audio Redirection

Debian 13 does not package pulseaudio-module-xrdp — it must be built from source. The contrib/setup-xrdp-audio.sh script automates this, or manually:

# Install build deps
apt install git build-essential dpkg-dev libpulse-dev autoconf libtool m4

# Clone and build
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/neutrinolabs/pulseaudio-module-xrdp.git
cd pulseaudio-module-xrdp
scripts/install_pulseaudio_sources_apt.sh
./bootstrap
./configure PULSE_DIR=/root/pulseaudio.src
make
sudo make install

This installs module-xrdp-sink.so and module-xrdp-source.so into the PulseAudio modules directory, plus an XDG autostart entry that loads them automatically when an RDP session starts.

Verify audio in a session:

pactl list sinks short
# Should show: xrdp-sink  module-xrdp-sink.c  s16le 2ch 44100Hz  RUNNING

NVIDIA GPU Acceleration

If the xrdp server has an NVIDIA GPU with NVENC support, set in /etc/xrdp/sesman.ini:

XRDP_USE_ACCEL_ASSIST=1

Restart

sudo systemctl restart xrdp

Network Requirements

Estimated bandwidth per session at different quality levels:

Resolution FPS Encoding Bandwidth
1080p 30 JPEG (default) ~10 Mbps
1080p 30 WebP ~7 Mbps
1080p 60 JPEG ~18 Mbps
4K 30 WebP ~29 Mbps

For video monitoring workloads, a minimum of 20 Mbps per session is recommended. Use GFX + Desktop Composition for the best results.

How It Works

Standard Pipeline (non-H.264 servers)

  1. RDP Server sends screen updates (Planar/RemoteFX codec)
  2. FreeRDP (inside guacd) decodes to bitmaps
  3. guacd re-encodes dirty regions as JPEG, WebP, or PNG based on content type and network conditions
  4. rustguac relays over WebSocket to the browser
  5. Browser decodes and renders to HTML Canvas

guacd automatically adapts encoding quality based on network lag:

  • Low lag (<20ms): quality 90 (high detail)
  • Medium lag (50ms): quality 70 (balanced)
  • High lag (80ms): quality 30 (aggressive compression)

H.264 Passthrough Pipeline (xrdp with x264)

When the RDP server sends H.264 (AVC420/AVC444), guacd passes the raw H.264 NAL units directly to the browser, bypassing the server-side decode and re-encode:

  1. xrdp encodes the screen as H.264 via x264
  2. FreeRDP (inside guacd) receives the H.264 SurfaceCommand
  3. guacd copies the raw H.264 NAL data and also runs the normal GDI decode (for frame sync)
  4. During frame flush, guacd sends the raw H.264 data as a custom h264 instruction
  5. rustguac relays over WebSocket to the browser
  6. Browser decodes H.264 using the WebCodecs VideoDecoder API (hardware-accelerated)

Benefits:

  • Lower server CPU — no decode + re-encode cycle on the server
  • Lower latency — one fewer encoding pass
  • Consistent quality — single lossy encoding pass (x264) instead of H.264 → bitmap → JPEG/WebP

H.264 passthrough activates automatically when the RDP server sends AVC420/AVC444 codec data. Servers that don't support H.264 (stock Debian xrdp, Windows without GPU) use the standard pipeline automatically.

Browser requirements: Chrome/Edge 94+, Firefox 130+ (WebCodecs support).