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• FFmpeg decode H264 video too slowly

  17 décembre 2012, par user1158196

  I am currently working on a project on iPhone using FFMpeg. I can decode all the formats I need but when I want to play a h264 video, ffmpeg decodes frames too slowly.

  I tried to see where the problem is. I think that the options from the compilation of the library are good, decoding and displaying the frames are made ​​on different threads. In the end, it seems that it is the function avcodec_decode_video2 that takes too long (3 to 4 seconds to decode 30 frames).

• VP8 And FFmpeg

  18 juin 2010, par Multimedia Mike — VP8

  UPDATE, 2010-06-17 : You don’t need to struggle through these instructions anymore. libvpx 0.9.1 and FFmpeg 0.6 work together much better. Please see this post for simple instructions on getting up and running quickly.

  Let’s take the VP8 source code (in Google’s new libvpx library) for a spin ; get it to compile and hook it up to FFmpeg. I am hesitant to publish specific instructions for building in the somewhat hackish manner available on day 1 (download FFmpeg at a certain revision and apply a patch) since that kind of post has a tendency to rise in Google rankings. I will just need to remember to update this post after the library patches are applied to the official FFmpeg tree.

  Statement of libvpx’s Relationship to FFmpeg
  I don’t necessarily speak officially for FFmpeg. But I’ve been with the project long enough to explain how certain things work.

  Certainly, some may wonder if FFmpeg will incorporate Google’s newly open sourced libvpx library into FFmpeg. In the near term, FFmpeg will support encoding and decoding VP8 via external library as it does with a number of other libraries (most popularly, libx264). FFmpeg will not adopt the code for its own codebase, even if the license may allow it. That just isn’t how the FFmpeg crew rolls.

  In the longer term, expect the FFmpeg project to develop an independent, interoperable implementation of the VP8 decoder. Sometime after that, there may also be an independent VP8 encoder as well.

  Building libvpx
  Download and build libvpx. This is a basic ’configure && make’ process. The build process creates a static library, a bunch of header files, and 14 utilities. A bunch of these utilities operate on a file format called IVF which is apparently a simple transport method for VP8. I have recorded the file format on the wiki.

  We could use a decoder for this in the FFmpeg code base for testing VP8 in the future. Who’s game ? Just as I was proofreading this post, I saw that David Conrad has sent an IVF demuxer to the ffmpeg-devel list.

  There doesn’t seem to be a ’make install’ step for the library. Instead, go into the overly long directory (on my system, this is generated as vpx-vp8-nopost-nodocs-generic-gnu-v0.9.0), copy the contents of include/ to /usr/local/include and the static library in lib/ to /usr/local/lib .

  Building FFmpeg with libvpx
  Download FFmpeg source code at the revision specified or take your chances with the latest version (as I did). Download and apply provided patches. This part hurts since there is one diff per file. Most of them applied for me.

  Configure FFmpeg with 'configure --enable-libvpx_vp8 --enable-pthreads'. Ideally, this should yield no complaints and ’libvpx_vp8’ should show up in the enabled decoders and encoders sections. The library apparently relies on threading which is why '--enable-pthreads' is necessary. After I did this, I was able to create a new webm/VP8/Vorbis file simply with :

   ffmpeg -i input_file output_file.webm
  

  Unfortunately, I can’t complete the round trip as decoding doesn’t seem to work. Passing the generated .webm file back into FFmpeg results in a bunch of errors of this format :

  [libvpx_vp8 @ 0x8c4ab20]v0.9.0
  [libvpx_vp8 @ 0x8c4ab20]Failed to initialize decoder : Codec does not implement requested capability
  

  Maybe this is the FFmpeg revision mismatch biting me.

  FFmpeg Presets
  FFmpeg features support for preset files which contain collections of tuning options to be loaded into the program. Google provided some presets along with their FFmpeg patches :

  • 1080p50
  • 1080p
  • 360p
  • 720p50
  • 720p

  To invoke one of these (assuming the program has been installed via ’make install’ so that the presets are in the right place) :

   ffmpeg -i input_file -vcodec libvpx_vp8 -vpre 720p output_file.webm
  

  This will use a set of parameters that are known to do well when encoding a 720p video.

  Code Paths
  One of goals with this post was to visualize a call graph after I got the decoder hooked up to FFmpeg. Fortunately, this recon is greatly simplified by libvpx’s simple_decoder utility. Steps :

  • Build libvpx with --enable-gprof
  • Run simple_decoder on an IVF file
  • Get the pl_from_gprof.pl and dot_from_pl.pl scripts frome Graphviz’s gprof filters
  • gprof simple_decoder | ./pl_from_gprof.pl | ./dot_from_pl.pl > 001.dot
  • Remove the 2 [graph] and 1 [node] modifiers from the dot file (they only make the resulting graph very hard to read)
  • dot -Tpng 001.dot > 001.png

  Here are call graphs generated from decoding test vectors 001 and 017.

  
  

  

  Like this, only much larger and scarier (click for full graph)

  
  

  It’s funny to see several functions calling an empty bubble. Probably nothing to worry about. More interesting is the fact that a lot of function_c() functions are called. The ’_c’ at the end is important— that generally indicates that there are (or could be) SIMD-optimized versions. I know this codebase has plenty of assembly. All of the x86 ASM files appear to be written such that they could be compiled with NASM.

  Leftovers
  One interesting item in the code was vpx_scale/leapster. Is this in reference to the Leapster handheld educational gaming unit ? Based on this item from 2005 (archive.org copy), some Leapster titles probably used VP6. This reminds me of finding references to the PlayStation in Duck/On2’s original VpVision source release. I don’t know of any PlayStation games that used Duck’s original codecs but with thousands to choose from, it’s possible that we may find a few some day.

• Nexus One

  19 mars 2010, par Mans — Uncategorized

  I have had a Nexus One for about a week (thanks Google), and naturally I have an opinion or two about it.
  

  Hardware

  With the front side dominated by a touch-screen and a lone, round button, the Nexus One appearance is similar to that of most contemporary smartphones. The reverse sports a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, a Google logo, and a smaller HTC logo. Power button, volume control, and headphone and micro-USB sockets are found along the edges. It is with appreciation I note the lack of a front-facing camera ; the silly idea of video calls is finally put to rest.

  Powering up the phone (I’m beginning to question the applicability of that word), I am immediately enamoured with the display. At 800×480 pixels, the AMOLED display is crystal-clear and easily viewable even in bright light. In a darker environment, the display automatically dims. The display does have one quirk in that the subpixel pattern doesn’t actually have a full RGB triplet for each pixel. The close-up photo below shows the pattern seen when displaying a solid white colour.

  

  The result of this is that fine vertical lines, particularly red or blue ones, look a bit jagged. Most of the time this is not much of a problem, and I find it an acceptable compromise for the higher effective resolution it provides.

  Basic interaction

  The Android system is by now familiar, and the Nexus offers no surprises in basic usage. All the usual applications come pre-installed : browser, email, calendar, contacts, maps, and even voice calls. Many of the applications integrate with a Google account, which is nice. Calendar entries, map placemarks, etc. are automatically shared between desktop and mobile. Gone is the need for the bug-ridden custom synchronisation software with which mobile phones of the past were plagued.

  Launching applications is mostly speedy, and recently used apps are kept loaded as long as memory needs allow. Although this garbage-collection-style of application management, where you are never quite sure whether an app is still running, takes a few moments of acclimatisation, it works reasonably well in day to day use. Most of the applications are well-behaved and save their data before terminating.

  Email

  Two email applications are included out of the box : one generic and one Gmail-only. As I do not use Gmail, I cannot comment on this application. The generic email client supports IMAP, but is rather limited in functionality. Fortunately, a much-enhanced version, K-9, is available for download. The main feature I find lacking here is threaded message view.

  The features, or lack thereof, in the email applications is not, however, of huge importance, as composing email, or any longer piece of text, is something one rather avoids on a system like this. The on-screen keyboard, while falling among the better of its kind, is still slow to use. Lack of tactile feedback means accidentally tapping the wrong key is easily done, and entering numbers or punctuation is an outright chore.

  Browser

  Whatever the Nexus lacks in email abilities, it makes up for with the browser. Surfing the web on a phone has never been this pleasant. Page rendering is quick, and zooming is fast and simple. Even pages not designed for mobile viewing are easy to read with smart reformatting almost entirely eliminating the sideways scrolling which hampered many a mobile browser of old.

  Calls and messaging

  Being a phone, the Nexus One is obviously able to make and receive calls, and it does so with ease. Entering a number or locating a stored contact are both straight-forward operations. During a call, audio is clear and of adequate loudness, although I have yet to use the phone in really noisy surroundings.

  The other traditional task of a mobile phone, messaging, is also well-supported. There isn’t really much to say about this.

  Multimedia

  Having a bit of an interest in most things multimedia, I obviously tested the capabilities of the Nexus by throwing some assorted samples at it, revealing ample space for improvement. With video limited to H.264 and MPEG4, and the only supported audio codecs being AAC, MP3, Vorbis, and AMR, there are many files which will not play.

  To make matters worse, only selected combinations of audio and video will play together. Several video files I tested played without sound, yet when presented with the very same audio data alone, it was correctly decoded. As for container formats, it appears restricted to MP4/MOV, and Ogg (for Vorbis). AVI files are recognised as media files, but I was unable to find an AVI file which would play.

  With a device clearly capable of so much more, the poor multimedia support is nothing short of embarrassing.

  The Market

  Much of the hype surrounding Android revolves around the Market, Google’s virtual marketplace for app authors to sell or give away their creations. The thousands of available applications are broadly categorised, and a search function is available.

  The categorised lists are divided into free and paid sections, while search results, disappointingly, are not. To aid the decision, ratings and comments are displayed alongside the summary and screenshots of each application. Overall, the process of finding and installing an application is mostly painless. While it could certainly be improved, it could also have been much worse.

  The applications themselves are, as hinted above, beyond numerous. Sadly, quality does not quite match up to quantity. The vast majority of the apps are pointless, though occasionally mildly amusing, gimmicks of no practical value. The really good ones, and they do exist, are very hard to find unless one knows precisely what to look for.

  Battery

  Packing great performance into a pocket-size device comes with a price in battery life. The battery in the Nexus lasts considerably shorter time than that in my older, less feature-packed Nokia phone. To some extent this is probably a result of me actually using it a lot more, yet the end result is the same : more frequent recharging. I should probably get used to the idea of recharging the phone every other night.

  Verdict

  The Nexus One is a capable hardware platform running an OS with plenty of potential. The applications are still somewhat lacking (or very hard to find), although the basic features work reasonably well. Hopefully future Android updates will see more and better core applications integrated, and I imagine that over time, I will find third-party apps to solve my problems in a way I like. I am not putting this phone on the shelf just yet.