[FFmpeg-user] VAAPI Decoding/Encoding with C code

[Mark Thompson]

On 02/12/16 10:57, Victor dMdB wrote:
> I was wondering if there were any examples of implementations with
> avformatcontext?
> 
> I've looked at the source of ffmpeg vaapi implementation:
> https://www.ffmpeg.org/doxygen/trunk/ffmpeg__vaapi_8c_source.html
> 
> and there is a reference to the cli values here
> https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-user/2016-May/032153.html
> 
> But I'm not really sure how one actually implements the it within either
> decoding or encoding pipeline?

Start by making an hwdevice.  This can be done with av_hwdevice_ctx_create(), or if you already have a VADisplay (for example, to do stuff in X via DRI[23]) you can use av_hwdevice_ctx_alloc() followed by av_hwdevice_ctx_init().

For a decoder:

Make the decoder as you normally would for software.  You must set an AVCodecContext.get_format callback.
Start feeding data to the decoder.
Once enough there is enough data to determine the output format, the get_format callback will be called (this will always happen before any output is generated).
The callback has a set of possible formats to use, this will contain AV_PIX_FMT_VAAPI if your stream is supported (note that not all streams are supported for a given decoder - for H.264 the hwaccel only supports YUV 4:2:0 in 8-bit depth).
Make an hwframe context for the output frames and a struct vaapi_context containing a decode context*.  See ffmpeg_vaapi.c:vaapi_decode_init() and its callees for this part.
Attach your new hwframe context (AVCodecContext.hw_frames_ctx) and decode context (AVCodecContext.hwaccel_context) to the decoder.
Once you return from the callback, decoding continues and will give you AV_PIX_FMT_VAAPI frames.
If you need the output frames in normal memory rather than GPU memory, you can copy them back with av_hwframe_transfer_data().

For an encoder:

Find an hwframe context to use as the encoder input.  For a transcode case this can be the one from the decoder above, or it could be output from a filter like scale_vaapi.  If only have frames in normal memory, you need to make a new one here.
Make the encoder as you normally would (you'll need to get the codec by name (like "h264_vaapi"), because it will not choose it by default with just the ID), and set AVCodecContext.hw_frames_ctx with your hwframe context.
Now feed the encoder with the AV_PIX_FMT_VAAPI frames from your hwframe context.
If you only have input frames in normal memory, you will need to upload them to GPU memory in the hwframe context with av_hwframe_transfer_data() before giving them to the encoder.


- Mark


* It is intended that struct vaapi_context will be deprecated completely soon, and this part will not be required (lavc will handle that context creation).