[FFmpeg-devel] H264: mp4toannexb BSF and streaming

[Luca Abeni]

On 08/18/2010 02:53 PM, Alexandre Ferrieux wrote:
> On 18/08/2010 14:47, Luca Abeni wrote:
>> On 08/18/2010 02:42 PM, Alexandre Ferrieux wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'm in a (n admittedly suboptimal) situation where I'm receving a
>>> 3GP/H264 video file in streaming (over a TCP socket, yes...).
>>>
>>> I would like to transcode it on-the-fly without waiting for the full 3GP
>>> file to be received. I know that the 3GP format is not AT ALL designed
>>> for that, and that even the first chunks will be invalid since the
>>> 3GP-writer application does a seek() back to the beginning to fill the
>>> header, etc. In short, 3GP is utterly non-streamable, but I need to do
>>> something with it nevertheless :/
>>>
>>> What I've come up with so far, is to detect the beginning of the 'mdat'
>>> chunk, which comes quickly in the stream, since it contains the bulk of
>>> the bitstream (in AVC format).
>>>
>>> Now, I know that this AVC bitstream is not suitable for input by ffmpeg,
>>> who is expecting annex B. I also know of the mp4toannexb BSF, but I can
>>> see in its code that it is relying on extradata coming from the
>>> container (in other chunks, coming at the end), which it will convert
>>> and interleave between the annex B NALUs it will spit out.
>>>
>>> Hence, I conclude that mp4toannexb cannot work on a "pure" AVC bitstream
>>> without extradata.
>>
>> As far as I know "AVC" always has extradata, and is not decodable without
>> it (I think the extradata contain the SPS and PPS NALs, which are needed
>> for decoding the H.264 stream). So, I think "pure AVC" without extradata
>> does not exist (or is not usable).
>
> OK, so the contents of the 'mdat' chunk of a 3GP/H264 are not in
> themselves sufficient for decoding, right ?

Well, I do not know the details of the container (and I do not know what
an "mdat" chunk is :).
What I was trying to say is that (AFAIK) to decode an "AVC" H.264 stream
you need the extradata (since - AFAIK - the "AVC" H.264 syntax stores
PPS and SPS in the extradata).


				Luca