diff --git a/xpra/codecs/gstreamer/encoder.py b/xpra/codecs/gstreamer/encoder.py
index f0849fd6e2..1b7afd850c 100755
--- a/xpra/codecs/gstreamer/encoder.py
+++ b/xpra/codecs/gstreamer/encoder.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 
 #ENCODER_PLUGIN = "vaapih264enc"
 #ENCODER_PLUGIN = "x264enc"
-ENCODER_PLUGIN = os.environ.get("XPRA_GSTREAMER_ENCODER_PLUGIN", "x264enc")
+ENCODER_PLUGIN = os.environ.get("XPRA_GSTREAMER_ENCODER_PLUGIN", "vaapih264enc")
 DEFAULT_ENCODER_OPTIONS = {
     "vaapih264enc" : {
         "max-bframes" : 0,