diff --git a/doc/APIchanges b/doc/APIchanges
index 5934f4517f..5d39ec64c2 100644
--- a/doc/APIchanges
+++ b/doc/APIchanges
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ libavutil:     2014-08-09
 
 API changes, most recent first:
 
+2015-xx-xx - xxxxxxx - lavc 56.23.0
+  Add av_vda_default_init2.
+
 2015-xx-xx - xxxxxxx - lavu 54.12.0
   Add AV_LOG_TRACE for extremely verbose debugging.
 
diff --git a/libavcodec/vda.c b/libavcodec/vda.c
index f71fb16488..eb4b9982cb 100644
--- a/libavcodec/vda.c
+++ b/libavcodec/vda.c
@@ -28,15 +28,22 @@ AVVDAContext *av_vda_alloc_context(void)
 {
     AVVDAContext *ret = av_mallocz(sizeof(*ret));
 
-    if (ret)
+    if (ret) {
         ret->output_callback = ff_vda_output_callback;
+        ret->cv_pix_fmt_type = kCVPixelFormatType_422YpCbCr8;
+    }
 
     return ret;
 }
 
 int av_vda_default_init(AVCodecContext *avctx)
 {
-    avctx->hwaccel_context = av_vda_alloc_context();
+    return av_vda_default_init2(avctx, NULL);
+}
+
+int av_vda_default_init2(AVCodecContext *avctx, AVVDAContext *vdactx)
+{
+    avctx->hwaccel_context = vdactx ?: av_vda_alloc_context();
     if (!avctx->hwaccel_context)
         return AVERROR(ENOMEM);
     return ff_vda_default_init(avctx);
diff --git a/libavcodec/vda.h b/libavcodec/vda.h
index 9aa5d297fb..5e7228c94e 100644
--- a/libavcodec/vda.h
+++ b/libavcodec/vda.h
@@ -153,6 +153,12 @@ typedef struct AVVDAContext {
      * Set by av_vda_alloc_context().
      */
     VDADecoderOutputCallback output_callback;
+
+    /**
+     * CVPixelBuffer Format Type that VDA will use for decoded frames; set by
+     * the caller.
+     */
+    OSType cv_pix_fmt_type;
 } AVVDAContext;
 
 /**
@@ -180,6 +186,17 @@ AVVDAContext *av_vda_alloc_context(void);
  */
 int av_vda_default_init(AVCodecContext *avctx);
 
+/**
+ * This is a convenience function that creates and sets up the VDA context using
+ * an internal implementation.
+ *
+ * @param avctx the corresponding codec context
+ * @param vdactx the VDA context to use
+ *
+ * @return >= 0 on success, a negative AVERROR code on failure
+ */
+int av_vda_default_init2(AVCodecContext *avctx, AVVDAContext *vdactx);
+
 /**
  * This function must be called to free the VDA context initialized with
  * av_vda_default_init().
diff --git a/libavcodec/vda_h264.c b/libavcodec/vda_h264.c
index 3c0775b15a..0692f60809 100644
--- a/libavcodec/vda_h264.c
+++ b/libavcodec/vda_h264.c
@@ -380,7 +380,7 @@ int ff_vda_default_init(AVCodecContext *avctx)
     CFMutableDictionaryRef buffer_attributes;
     CFMutableDictionaryRef io_surface_properties;
     CFNumberRef cv_pix_fmt;
-    int32_t fmt = 'avc1', pix_fmt = kCVPixelFormatType_422YpCbCr8;
+    int32_t fmt = 'avc1', pix_fmt = vda_ctx->cv_pix_fmt_type;
 
     // kCVPixelFormatType_420YpCbCr8Planar;
 
diff --git a/libavcodec/version.h b/libavcodec/version.h
index 50c2b48258..c478ca38d8 100644
--- a/libavcodec/version.h
+++ b/libavcodec/version.h
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@
 #include "libavutil/version.h"
 
 #define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MAJOR 56
-#define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MINOR 23
-#define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MICRO  2
+#define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MINOR 24
+#define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MICRO  0
 
 #define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_INT  AV_VERSION_INT(LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MAJOR, \
                                                LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MINOR, \