diff --git a/src/torchcodec/_core/Encoder.h b/src/torchcodec/_core/Encoder.h
index 7aff0bdbc..168591616 100644
--- a/src/torchcodec/_core/Encoder.h
+++ b/src/torchcodec/_core/Encoder.h
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ class VideoEncoder {
 
   UniqueEncodingAVFormatContext avFormatContext_;
   UniqueAVCodecContext avCodecContext_;
-  AVStream* avStream_;
+  AVStream* avStream_ = nullptr;
   UniqueSwsContext swsContext_;
 
   const torch::Tensor frames_;