diff --git a/DOCS/interface-changes/hwdec-threads.txt b/DOCS/interface-changes/hwdec-threads.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6b5c93b3d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/DOCS/interface-changes/hwdec-threads.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+add `--hwdec-threads`
diff --git a/DOCS/man/options.rst b/DOCS/man/options.rst
index c9c9dcfac6..d718baed62 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/options.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/options.rst
@@ -1848,6 +1848,15 @@ Video
         ``mpv --hwdec=vdpau --hwdec-codecs=h264,mpeg2video``
             Enable vdpau decoding for h264 and mpeg2 only.
 
+``--hwdec-threads=<N>``
+    Number of threads used for hardware decoding (default: 4). This, as opposed
+    to vd-queue, enables frame and slice threading in libavcodec. It can help
+    with pipelining the decoding process and improve performance. The exact
+    behavior depends on the hardware decoder API used.
+
+    If this is set to 0, the number of threads will be automatically determined
+    by the number of CPU cores available.
+
 ``--hwdec-software-fallback=<yes|no|N>``
     Fallback to software decoding if the hardware-accelerated decoder fails
     (default: 3). If this is a number, then fallback will be triggered if
diff --git a/video/decode/vd_lavc.c b/video/decode/vd_lavc.c
index a7c21548df..2bc9f6ef8c 100644
--- a/video/decode/vd_lavc.c
+++ b/video/decode/vd_lavc.c
@@ -140,6 +140,7 @@ struct hwdec_opts {
     char *hwdec_codecs;
     int hwdec_image_format;
     int hwdec_extra_frames;
+    int hwdec_threads;
 };
 
 const struct m_sub_options hwdec_conf = {
@@ -156,6 +157,7 @@ const struct m_sub_options hwdec_conf = {
         {"hwdec-software-fallback", OPT_CHOICE(software_fallback,
             {"no", INT_MAX}, {"yes", 1}), M_RANGE(1, INT_MAX),
             .flags = UPDATE_HWDEC},
+        {"hwdec-threads", OPT_INT(hwdec_threads), M_RANGE(0, DBL_MAX)},
         {"vd-lavc-software-fallback", OPT_REPLACED("hwdec-software-fallback")},
         {0}
     },
@@ -169,6 +171,7 @@ const struct m_sub_options hwdec_conf = {
         // for example, if vo_gpu increases the number of reference surfaces for
         // interpolation, this value has to be increased too.
         .hwdec_extra_frames = 6,
+        .hwdec_threads = 4,
     },
 };
 
@@ -741,9 +744,9 @@ static void init_avctx(struct mp_filter *vd)
     if (!ctx->avpkt)
         goto error;
 
+    int threads = lavc_param->threads;
     if (ctx->use_hwdec) {
         avctx->opaque = vd;
-        avctx->thread_count = 1;
         avctx->hwaccel_flags |= AV_HWACCEL_FLAG_IGNORE_LEVEL;
         if (!lavc_param->check_hw_profile)
             avctx->hwaccel_flags |= AV_HWACCEL_FLAG_ALLOW_PROFILE_MISMATCH;
@@ -777,10 +780,18 @@ static void init_avctx(struct mp_filter *vd)
         if (ctx->hwdec.copying)
             ctx->max_delay_queue = HWDEC_DELAY_QUEUE_COUNT;
         ctx->hw_probing = true;
-    } else {
-        mp_set_avcodec_threads(vd->log, avctx, lavc_param->threads);
+
+        threads = ctx->hwdec_opts->hwdec_threads;
+#if LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_INT < AV_VERSION_INT(62, 11, 100)
+        // Vulkan threading was not safe before 62.11.100
+        bstr hwdec_name = bstr0(ctx->hwdec.name);
+        if (bstr_endswith0(hwdec_name, "vulkan") || bstr_endswith0(hwdec_name, "vulkan-copy"))
+            threads = 1;
+#endif
     }
 
+    mp_set_avcodec_threads(vd->log, avctx, threads);
+
     if (!ctx->use_hwdec && ctx->vo && lavc_param->dr) {
         avctx->opaque = vd;
         avctx->get_buffer2 = get_buffer2_direct;