diff --git a/DOCS/man/options.rst b/DOCS/man/options.rst
index c1a34317b1..c2b8ad118a 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/options.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/options.rst
@@ -823,6 +823,10 @@ Video
     The result is most likely broken decoding, but may also help if the
     detected or reported profiles are somehow incorrect.
 
+``--vd-lavc-software-fallback=<yes|no>``
+    Fallback to software decoding if the hardware-accelerated decoder fails
+    (default: yes).
+
 ``--vd-lavc-bitexact``
     Only use bit-exact algorithms in all decoding steps (for codec testing).
 
diff --git a/video/decode/vd_lavc.c b/video/decode/vd_lavc.c
index 5c97526d7c..91569b99f3 100644
--- a/video/decode/vd_lavc.c
+++ b/video/decode/vd_lavc.c
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ struct vd_lavc_params {
     int threads;
     int bitexact;
     int check_hw_profile;
+    int software_fallback;
     char **avopts;
 };
 
@@ -101,6 +102,7 @@ const struct m_sub_options vd_lavc_conf = {
         OPT_INT("threads", threads, M_OPT_MIN, .min = 0),
         OPT_FLAG("bitexact", bitexact, 0),
         OPT_FLAG("check-hw-profile", check_hw_profile, 0),
+        OPT_FLAG("software-fallback", software_fallback, 0),
         OPT_KEYVALUELIST("o", avopts, 0),
         {0}
     },
@@ -108,6 +110,7 @@ const struct m_sub_options vd_lavc_conf = {
     .defaults = &(const struct vd_lavc_params){
         .show_all = 0,
         .check_hw_profile = 1,
+        .software_fallback = 1,
         .skip_loop_filter = AVDISCARD_DEFAULT,
         .skip_idct = AVDISCARD_DEFAULT,
         .skip_frame = AVDISCARD_DEFAULT,
@@ -627,7 +630,8 @@ static void decode(struct dec_video *vd, struct demux_packet *packet,
 
     if (ret < 0) {
         MP_WARN(vd, "Error while decoding frame!\n");
-        ctx->hwdec_failed = true;
+        if (lavc_param->software_fallback)
+            ctx->hwdec_failed = true;
         return;
     }