diff --git a/libavcodec/vc1_parser.c b/libavcodec/vc1_parser.c
index 8257e0ccfa..d57fcdf1e1 100644
--- a/libavcodec/vc1_parser.c
+++ b/libavcodec/vc1_parser.c
@@ -65,7 +65,6 @@ static void vc1_extract_header(AVCodecParserContext *s, AVCodecContext *avctx,
     GetBitContext gb;
     int ret;
     vpc->v.s.avctx = avctx;
-    vpc->v.parse_only = 1;
     init_get_bits8(&gb, buf, buf_size);
     switch (vpc->prev_start_code) {
     case VC1_CODE_SEQHDR & 0xFF:
@@ -260,6 +259,7 @@ static av_cold int vc1_parse_init(AVCodecParserContext *s)
     VC1ParseContext *vpc = s->priv_data;
     vpc->v.s.slice_context_count = 1;
     vpc->v.first_pic_header_flag = 1;
+    vpc->v.parse_only = 1;
     vpc->prev_start_code = 0;
     vpc->bytes_to_skip = 0;
     vpc->unesc_index = 0;