diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvbaseenc.c b/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvbaseenc.c
index f42f25c48a..b57ba23b99 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvbaseenc.c
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvbaseenc.c
@@ -1847,7 +1847,8 @@ gst_nv_base_enc_set_format (GstVideoEncoder * enc, GstVideoCodecState * state)
 
   if (nv_ret != NV_ENC_SUCCESS) {
     GST_ELEMENT_ERROR (nvenc, LIBRARY, SETTINGS, (NULL),
-        ("Failed to %sinit encoder: %d", reconfigure ? "re" : "", nv_ret));
+        ("Failed to %sinit encoder: %d- %s", reconfigure ? "re" : "", nv_ret,
+            NvEncGetLastErrorString (nvenc->encoder)));
     NvEncDestroyEncoder (nvenc->encoder);
     nvenc->encoder = NULL;
     return FALSE;
diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvenc.c b/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvenc.c
index 7cbd10f50d..a3e1a427cd 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvenc.c
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-bad/sys/nvcodec/gstnvenc.c
@@ -79,6 +79,13 @@ NvEncDestroyEncoder (void *encoder)
   return nvenc_api.nvEncDestroyEncoder (encoder);
 }
 
+const char *NVENCAPI
+NvEncGetLastErrorString (void *encoder)
+{
+  g_assert (nvenc_api.nvEncGetLastErrorString != NULL);
+  return nvenc_api.nvEncGetLastErrorString (encoder);
+}
+
 NVENCSTATUS NVENCAPI
 NvEncGetEncodeGUIDs (void *encoder, GUID * array, uint32_t array_size,
     uint32_t * count)