diff --git a/media/libmediatranscoding/transcoder/MediaSampleWriter.cpp b/media/libmediatranscoding/transcoder/MediaSampleWriter.cpp
index d6ae0f3..0e800bc 100644
--- a/media/libmediatranscoding/transcoder/MediaSampleWriter.cpp
+++ b/media/libmediatranscoding/transcoder/MediaSampleWriter.cpp
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #include <media/MediaSampleWriter.h>
 #include <media/NdkMediaMuxer.h>
 #include <sys/prctl.h>
+#include <utils/AndroidThreads.h>
 
 namespace android {
 
@@ -174,6 +175,7 @@
 
     mState = STARTED;
     std::thread([this] {
+        androidSetThreadPriority(0 /* tid (0 = current) */, ANDROID_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND);
         prctl(PR_SET_NAME, (unsigned long)"SampleWriterTrd", 0, 0, 0);
 
         bool wasStopped = false;
diff --git a/media/libmediatranscoding/transcoder/MediaTrackTranscoder.cpp b/media/libmediatranscoding/transcoder/MediaTrackTranscoder.cpp
index 15f7427..f01a948 100644
--- a/media/libmediatranscoding/transcoder/MediaTrackTranscoder.cpp
+++ b/media/libmediatranscoding/transcoder/MediaTrackTranscoder.cpp
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 #include <android-base/logging.h>
 #include <media/MediaTrackTranscoder.h>
 #include <media/MediaTrackTranscoderCallback.h>
+#include <utils/AndroidThreads.h>
 
 namespace android {
 
@@ -72,6 +73,7 @@
     mState = STARTED;
 
     std::thread([this] {
+        androidSetThreadPriority(0 /* tid (0 = current) */, ANDROID_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND);
         bool stopped = false;
         media_status_t status = runTranscodeLoop(&stopped);