diff --git a/drivers/media/platform/mediatek/vcodec/vdec_msg_queue.c b/drivers/media/platform/mediatek/vcodec/vdec_msg_queue.c
index 3f016c87d722..ad5002ca953e 100644
--- a/drivers/media/platform/mediatek/vcodec/vdec_msg_queue.c
+++ b/drivers/media/platform/mediatek/vcodec/vdec_msg_queue.c
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ static void vdec_msg_queue_core_work(struct work_struct *work)
 	mtk_vcodec_dec_disable_hardware(ctx, MTK_VDEC_CORE);
 	vdec_msg_queue_qbuf(&ctx->msg_queue.lat_ctx, lat_buf);
 
-	if (!list_empty(&dev->msg_queue_core_ctx.ready_queue)) {
+	if (atomic_read(&lat_buf->ctx->msg_queue.core_list_cnt)) {
 		mtk_v4l2_debug(3, "re-schedule to decode for core: %d",
 			       dev->msg_queue_core_ctx.ready_num);
 		queue_work(dev->core_workqueue, &msg_queue->core_work);