diff --git a/README b/README
index 8ff006e942b9..09f8691300f4 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -103,6 +103,28 @@ Notes:
 	this layer, perform the same steps as above except for the step enabling
 	RK_RAUC_DEMO.
 
+  HW video decoding with gstreamer
+
+	Most Rockchip SoCs have some integrated VPU, either Hantro, RKVDEC or
+	RKVDECv2. Those are called stateless VPUs and they require tools to be
+	adapted so they can be used. Upstream ffmpeg doesn't support them (yet)
+	but gstreamer does, via the v4l2sl* plugins. However, by default those
+	aren't built in OE-Core. This layer enables these plugins by default for
+	all SoCs that have at least one VPU (at the time of writing, all SoCs
+	supported by this layer to the exception of RK3308).
+
+	If you wish to NOT build those plugins anymore, you can set
+
+		ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST = "0"
+
+	in any appropriate conf file (or in a
+	gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad_%.bbappend in your own layer).
+
+	Note that this is only relevant for upstream-based Linux kernels as
+	Rockchip have developed their own ABI for their own kernel that isn't
+	compatible (see Rockchip Media Process Platform (MPP) and
+	downstream gstreamer-rockchip plugin for those kernels).
+
 U-Boot Environment:
 ------------------
 	In order to configure U-Boot to be able to store its environment into the
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/px30.inc b/conf/machine/include/px30.inc
index d78409ee5c7e..8173cb19be2c 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/px30.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/px30.inc
@@ -19,3 +19,5 @@ TFA_BUILD_TARGET = "bl31"
 
 UBOOT_SUFFIX ?= "itb"
 UBOOT_ENTRYPOINT ?= "0x06000000"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/rk3066.inc b/conf/machine/include/rk3066.inc
index 026d5b556db7..a898309bbf88 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/rk3066.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/rk3066.inc
@@ -12,3 +12,5 @@ SERIAL_CONSOLES = "115200;ttyS2"
 KBUILD_DEFCONFIG = "multi_v7_defconfig"
 KERNEL_FEATURES:append:rk3066 = " bsp/rockchip/remove-non-rockchip-arch-arm.scc"
 KERNEL_IMAGETYPE ?= "zImage"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/rk3188.inc b/conf/machine/include/rk3188.inc
index 0120e2fd585f..554d4f1c904d 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/rk3188.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/rk3188.inc
@@ -12,3 +12,5 @@ SERIAL_CONSOLES = "115200;ttyFIQ0"
 KBUILD_DEFCONFIG = "multi_v7_defconfig"
 KERNEL_FEATURES:append:rk3188 = " bsp/rockchip/remove-non-rockchip-arch-arm.scc"
 KERNEL_IMAGETYPE ?= "zImage"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/rk3288.inc b/conf/machine/include/rk3288.inc
index 684e8645d176..06fda69a3eb7 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/rk3288.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/rk3288.inc
@@ -14,3 +14,5 @@ KERNEL_FEATURES:append:rk3288 = " bsp/rockchip/remove-non-rockchip-arch-arm.scc"
 KERNEL_IMAGETYPE ?= "zImage"
 
 UBOOT_SUFFIX ?= "bin"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/rk3328.inc b/conf/machine/include/rk3328.inc
index 4ecd6814f9ba..e6f810dcd2ca 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/rk3328.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/rk3328.inc
@@ -20,3 +20,5 @@ TFA_BUILD_TARGET = "bl31"
 
 UBOOT_SUFFIX ?= "itb"
 UBOOT_ENTRYPOINT ?= "0x06000000"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/rk3399.inc b/conf/machine/include/rk3399.inc
index 47f0560d1578..cd1be49064ed 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/rk3399.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/rk3399.inc
@@ -20,3 +20,5 @@ TFA_BUILD_TARGET = "bl31"
 
 UBOOT_SUFFIX ?= "itb"
 UBOOT_ENTRYPOINT ?= "0x06000000"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/rk3566.inc b/conf/machine/include/rk3566.inc
index 586d68806df6..2522851fa392 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/rk3566.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/rk3566.inc
@@ -19,3 +19,5 @@ PREFERRED_PROVIDER_optee-os = "rockchip-rkbin"
 
 UBOOT_SUFFIX ?= "itb"
 UBOOT_ENTRYPOINT ?= "0x06000000"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/rk3568.inc b/conf/machine/include/rk3568.inc
index 1da212a1530c..db188a311297 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/rk3568.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/rk3568.inc
@@ -19,3 +19,5 @@ PREFERRED_PROVIDER_optee-os = "rockchip-rkbin"
 
 UBOOT_SUFFIX ?= "itb"
 UBOOT_ENTRYPOINT ?= "0x06000000"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/conf/machine/include/rk3588s.inc b/conf/machine/include/rk3588s.inc
index cd84461dab41..d349108fb973 100644
--- a/conf/machine/include/rk3588s.inc
+++ b/conf/machine/include/rk3588s.inc
@@ -18,3 +18,5 @@ PREFERRED_PROVIDER_optee-os = "rockchip-rkbin"
 
 UBOOT_SUFFIX ?= "itb"
 UBOOT_ENTRYPOINT ?= "0x06000000"
+
+ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST ?= "1"
diff --git a/recipes-multimedia/gstreamer/gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad_%.bbappend b/recipes-multimedia/gstreamer/gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad_%.bbappend
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..276230411e9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/recipes-multimedia/gstreamer/gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad_%.bbappend
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+PACKAGECONFIG:append:rockchip = "${@' v4l2codecs' if bb.utils.to_boolean(d.getVar('ENABLE_STATELESS_VPU_GST'), False) else ''}"