diff --git a/libavcodec/libx264.c b/libavcodec/libx264.c
index a08fe0ce76..c6cce9ff80 100644
--- a/libavcodec/libx264.c
+++ b/libavcodec/libx264.c
@@ -692,25 +692,13 @@ FF_ENABLE_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS
         x4->params.rc.f_qcompress       = avctx->qcompress; /* 0.0 => cbr, 1.0 => constant qp */
     if (avctx->refs >= 0)
         x4->params.i_frame_reference    = avctx->refs;
-    else if (x4->level) {
+    else if (x4->params.i_level_idc > 0) {
         int i;
         int mbn = AV_CEIL_RSHIFT(avctx->width, 4) * AV_CEIL_RSHIFT(avctx->height, 4);
-        int level_id = -1;
-        char *tail;
         int scale = X264_BUILD < 129 ? 384 : 1;
 
-        if (!strcmp(x4->level, "1b")) {
-            level_id = 9;
-        } else if (strlen(x4->level) <= 3){
-            level_id = av_strtod(x4->level, &tail) * 10 + 0.5;
-            if (*tail)
-                level_id = -1;
-        }
-        if (level_id <= 0)
-            av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_WARNING, "Failed to parse level\n");
-
         for (i = 0; i<x264_levels[i].level_idc; i++)
-            if (x264_levels[i].level_idc == level_id)
+            if (x264_levels[i].level_idc == x4->params.i_level_idc)
                 x4->params.i_frame_reference = av_clip(x264_levels[i].dpb / mbn / scale, 1, x4->params.i_frame_reference);
     }