I have been using an Intel A310 card on my Linux DVR for some time. It uses the legacy "i915" driver with success. I read that the new Intel "xe" driver may offer better performance. I can load that one, and it allows Channels to enable hardware transcode - but - HEVC transcoded streams fail to play. The debug info does show some errors for VAAPI for either driver, but only the i915 offers good reliable playback. Just adding this here to see if others have seen the same.
HEVC is NVIDIA.
I think you are thinking NVENC. HEVC is "High efficiency video codec" or h265 I think? It is not specific to a gpu type.
Yup that's my bad. I'm sorry.