diff --git a/libavcodec/cabac.c b/libavcodec/cabac.c
index 25ddb0377b..0c02d6c168 100644
--- a/libavcodec/cabac.c
+++ b/libavcodec/cabac.c
@@ -139,6 +139,10 @@ void ff_init_cabac_decoder(CABACContext *c, const uint8_t *buf, int buf_size){
 void ff_init_cabac_states(void)
 {
     int i, j;
+    static int initialized = 0;
+
+    if (initialized)
+        return;
 
     for(i=0; i<64; i++){
         for(j=0; j<4; j++){ //FIXME check if this is worth the 1 shift we save
@@ -163,6 +167,8 @@ void ff_init_cabac_states(void)
     for(i=0; i< 63; i++){
       ff_h264_last_coeff_flag_offset_8x8[i] = last_coeff_flag_offset_8x8[i];
     }
+
+    initialized = 1;
 }
 
 #ifdef TEST
diff --git a/libavcodec/h264.c b/libavcodec/h264.c
index 4af37eb470..51484edce1 100644
--- a/libavcodec/h264.c
+++ b/libavcodec/h264.c
@@ -1593,6 +1593,8 @@ av_cold int ff_h264_decode_init(AVCodecContext *avctx)
 
     ff_h264_decode_init_vlc();
 
+    ff_init_cabac_states();
+
     h->pixel_shift        = 0;
     h->sps.bit_depth_luma = avctx->bits_per_raw_sample = 8;
 
@@ -1629,7 +1631,6 @@ av_cold int ff_h264_decode_init(AVCodecContext *avctx)
         h->low_delay           = 0;
     }
 
-    ff_init_cabac_states();
     avctx->internal->allocate_progress = 1;
 
     return 0;