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FFMPEG and Android media

Hi everyone!
Since Qualcomm isn't releasing armv6 binary blobs for the QDSP5 (HTC Legend) for ICS, and software decoding through ffmpeg is blazingly fast anyways, I thought that perhaps I could use ffmpeg instead of the apparently slow software implementation used now in ICS when a dedicated device is missing.
So this is about fixing two things: HQ Youtube/IMDB video playback which is currently at 4-10fps and video recording.
After some investigation (and currently building CM7.2 from source), I have come to the following possibilities:
1. Use something like limoa which provides an OpenMax interface to the full power of ffmpeg. This has the highest chance of also getting camcordering to work for free.
2. Integrate ffmpeg into libstagefright directly: some files and ffmpeg configure options seem to support the feasability of this idea, but I am not sure if this still works and if it will influence video recording as nr.1.
Any and lots of helpful input is appreciated. I believe I can compile the limoa thing for Android (I have gotten it to compile on native linux and I have experience in cross-compiling), but I wouldn't know how to tie it into the Android media stack as a replacement for whatever is in place now. Frankly, I'm hoping some renaming of an so and manual installation steps would do the job (ie, replace libomx????.so with the ffmpeg-based one), but I doubt it.
This will of course have direct benefits for any device left out in the cold by the non-release of armv6 OpenMax IL binaries by Qualcomm, so help me help yourself
Thanks!

Did anyone try this?

The furthest I got was compiling the omx library based on ffmpeg for arm-linux-androideabi-gcc. I have no idea where I can plug this in, as I can't find the omx symbols this library exports (also the symbols described by the OMX IL spec/headers).
Since ICS runs flakily on my device, I'm not pursuing this anymore. I'll keep to Froyo (HTC) or GB (CM7.2), currently on the old stuff.
PS: I asked this Q on SO, with no response:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...264-software-encoder-with-an-ffmpeg-based-one

Interesting
This look interesting, I would like to participate in this field as my phone is Sony Ericsson Xperia 8 such as the cpu is armv6...
But my programming knowledge are none
I have linux & Gcc
What should i do ? if you are willing to lend me a hand?

This is a great idea!!!
Hopefully it
enviado desde mi U8180

CKKNot, are you working on this effort? I have a P500 running jellybean, but developers there are stuck without OMX drivers.
This is one alternative that could potentially help a lot of device owners.

I hope it could help us with this Jelly Bean ROM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1789713

Neur0Nerd said:
I hope it could help us with this Jelly Bean ROM: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1789713
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how is that related to ffdshow

vNa5h said:
how is that related to ffdshow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read the first post dude

Amy news yet
Swyped on my blade

The latest mx player supports ffdshow...
Swyped on my blade

vNa5h said:
The latest mx player supports ffdshow...
Swyped on my blade
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But you can't play youtube
Sent from my LG-P500

vlt96 said:
But you can't play youtube
Sent from my LG-P500
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by YouTube
Swyped on my blade

vNa5h said:
What do you mean by YouTube
Swyped on my blade
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We need those for playing YouTube videos, mx with sw decoder is known workaround since the beginning (at least on my O1)
Sent from my LG-P500

vlt96 said:
We need those for playing YouTube videos, mx with sw decoder is known workaround since the beginning (at least on my O1)
Sent from my LG-P500
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ffdshow is not SW decoder...
I guess it can play x264 videos too..
I mean the YouTube ones too...
The only thing iswe need a wrapper for ffdshow
Swyped on my blade

Any news where to get the codecs for mobile to play with Mx player
Swyped on my B l a d e

^^

Any news yet
Swyped on my blade

rubenvb said:
PS: I asked this Q on SO, with no response:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...264-software-encoder-with-an-ffmpeg-based-one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I replied you and you didn't even accept the answer.

Anybody tried this player
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...xLDIxMiwiY29tLkFuZHJvaWRBLk9ubGluZVBsYXllciJd
thisa codec is not compatible with armv6 vfp
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.AndroidA.ffmpegCodec.armV6&hl=en
anybody tried for v7 and 6

[Q] Integrating MX Codecs into AOSP build

Hi,
I'm having troubles using the stock JB Android 4.1.2 play m3u8 live streaming. Issue described in:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26181554/stock-android-h264-decoder-failing-on-m3u8-url-files
After some debugging, seems to me that only the "baseline profile" is supported by the stock SW codec (frameworks/av/media/libstagefright/codecs/on2/h264dec), while the stream has the entropy_coding_mode_flag set (i.e. it is a CABAC encoding - I'm not an expert about H264, but I read it's a rather different encoding scheme).
So, I was wondering if it was ever possible to entirely replace the libstagefright/codecs provided with stock AOSP with the SW codecs of MX Player, which seems to be working fine on the same m3u8 stream.s.
Any idea if ever feasble and, if so, about how to proceed?
thanks
Fabio

ffxx68 said:
So, I was wondering if it was ever possible to entirely replace the libstagefright/codecs provided with stock AOSP with the SW codecs of MX Player, which seems to be working fine on the same m3u8 stream.s.
Any idea if ever feasble and, if so, about how to proceed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
E.g. I was thinking if that was possible by simply hacking the codec declarations in
device/.../.../media_codecs.xml
or if a more complex code integration in AOSP is required. Note - I can rebuild AOSP for my device.
Any advice welcome, anyway.

I think its not only a matter of software, hardware must supports it.

ffxx68 said:
E.g. I was thinking if that was possible by simply hacking the codec declarations in
device/.../.../media_codecs.xml
or if a more complex code integration in AOSP is required. Note - I can rebuild AOSP for my device.
Any advice welcome, anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even if you declare, if it's not supported by your gpu then it will simply through a error.
Mx player uses the hardware decoders included with your system. If it's not supported ffmpeg is used. But, it will use the cpu to decode the video.
So, there won't be much benefits.

ktsamy said:
Even if you declare, if it's not supported by your gpu then it will simply through a error.
Mx player uses the hardware decoders included with your system. If it's not supported ffmpeg is used. But, it will use the cpu to decode the video.
So, there won't be much benefits.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know.... actually, I didn't know ffmpeg was the underlying SW decoder.
I'm afraid my HW GPU doesn't support H264 coded in CABAC. while it does decode seamlessly CAVLC (two flavors of H264 encoding... I found out.).
There will be a benefit in having SW codec, so - at least screen doesn't blank out
I noticed it takes 30-35% CPU while using SW MX Player on those streams. Still acceptable (I don't think GPU will use greatly less power). Final quality is definitely OK.
Any suggestion about how to proceed with ffmpeg codec integration in AOSP? What are the main integration points to consider?
thanks
Fabio

ffxx68 said:
I noticed it takes 30-35% CPU while using SW MX Player on those streams. Still acceptable (I don't think GPU will use greatly less power).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd just like to note that generally, GPU rendering reduces power consumption dramatically. For example, a SW rendered 30min video will use 25% of battery life on a Nexus 5. The same video reencoded to a GPU-supported codec will use closer to 10% battery.

ffxx68 said:
...
Any suggestion about how to proceed with ffmpeg codec integration in AOSP? What are the main integration points to consider?
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just for the sake of informing the audience here, I think I found a very good starting point for this, here:
https://github.com/omxcodec/stagefright-plugins

ffxx68 said:
Just for the sake of informing the audience here, I think I found a very good starting point for this, here:
https://github.com/omxcodec/stagefright-plugins
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm working on the porting of the above to my AOSP, but found issues with the integration.. There's something not going well with picture quality. Still debugging (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-x86/mTnTe39D5Co).
Meanwhile, let me ask here whether there's any documentation, about how to access access the MPlayer SW codecs from other apps, or AOSP libstagefright.
thanks
Fabio

ffxx68 said:
I'm working on the porting of the above to my AOSP, but found issues with the integration.. There's something not going well with picture quality. Still debugging (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-x86/mTnTe39D5Co).
Meanwhile, let me ask here whether there's any documentation, about how to access access the MPlayer SW codecs from other apps, or AOSP libstagefright.
thanks
Fabio
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI
Mx player is free can be distributed with rom without any modifications.
https://sites.google.com/site/mxvpe...e-or-preinstall-on-commercial-Android-device-
You can call mx player free/pro through the api
Read the following link for more information
https://sites.google.com/site/mxvpen/api

X265 playback on nexus 5?

Greetings!
Anyone know of a way to get x265 playback working properly on the nexus 5?
Ive tested most of the android players , mxplayer seems to work best but struggles in 1080p at points.
MXplayer seems to work a bit better than KODI on the nexus 5.
Mxplayer in SW mode plays it , HW mode i get a black screen , HW+ does not work at all.
Android video player seems to play full speed but i have no option for audio , its always mute on the files ive tried.
KODI on my pc plays all my files a+
I noticed an HEVC player (HODI) on the store but its 15$ and has 1 rating , and its a bad one.
Anyone have any experience on this? I found a codec pack for this for android but seems to be for x86 only , and i also have no idea how to use it.
Any information would be appreciated - thanks!
As info i am using android 5.0 xtraslim on my nexus 5
Edit : This is the link i found the codec on , seems to be a demo only.
http://xhevc.com/en/downloads/downloadCenter.jsp
Also as a side note i have the same issues on my nexus player.

Does changing the "Use NuPlayer" option in Developer section give any difference to the playback?

gamer.11 said:
Does changing the "Use NuPlayer" option in Developer section give any difference to the playback?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed , i didnt know that was an option , i just checked and that seems to be on by default.
I just turned it off and tried.
It seems to actually run better , i shall test this when @ home and have more time ,appreciate the suggestion!
Edit ; actually i tried a bit more it doesnt seem to have changed anything. Will keep tinkering and update this if i find something else - it seems when a lot of things are going on it slows down the FPS of the video

[Bug report] HW and HW+ decoder lags on some videos

1. Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 wifi (SM-T520)
2. Android version: Kitkat 4.4.4
3. Official CyanogenMod 11 nightly 11-20141209
4. When I play some videos and using HW and HW+ decoder, I experience video is out of sync. It looks like there's frame dropping. Problem also exists on my Xperia V with latest CM. I use on both devices custom codecs from this forum. While using SW decoder everything is fine.
Logs are here
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uqvra9vqkefynrl/report_2014-12-13_085318.zip?dl=0

Yeah, I was constantly having the same bug on my stock Android 5.01 Nexus 7 2013. HW mode is not even available for most of my high quality mkvs, while in HW+ mode playback is choppy. In the end the solution was painful, but simple: I gave up Mx player pro and returned to bs player pro. Playback is a lot smoother now with HW mode in bs player. After more than a year with mx player I must say it's an extremely overrated piece of software with a non-existant price/performance ratio. While I like a lot it when it works, it has too many annoying bugs to recommend it anymore.

Mihai B said:
Yeah, I was constantly having the same bug on my stock Android 5.01 Nexus 7 2013. HW mode is not even available for most of my high quality mkvs, while in HW+ mode playback is choppy. In the end the solution was painful, but simple: I gave up Mx player pro and returned to bs player pro. Playback is a lot smoother now with HW mode in bs player. After more than a year with mx player I must say it's an extremely overrated piece of software with a non-existant price/performance ratio. While I like a lot it when it works, it has too many annoying bugs to recommend it anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just checked BS Player (free version) and on my Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 it was just as choppy as MX Player. Maybe there's a bug in CM 11?

Did it previously work on older versions of your ROM? If yes, then it's likely a ROM issue.
@Mihai B mind posting the media info of the problem videos in question? Was this on stock ROM for the 2013 N7?

CDB-Man said:
Did it previously work on older versions of your ROM? If yes, then it's likely a ROM issue.
@Mihai B mind posting the media info of the problem videos in question? Was this on stock ROM for the 2013 N7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I am using stock Android 5.01 ROM with a Nexus 7 2013 WiFi only, 32 GB, rooted with chainfire's autoroot, stock recovery, waited for OTA to arrive, factory reset with clear cache partition after applying the update. Worth mentioning that on KitKat 4.4.4. playback was much more smoother on the same files, with the same settings in MX Player. I only have a few applications, nothing that could conflict with MX Player. Here you will find an example of a file lagging when played. Basically every high quality mkv stutters like hell. If you need a file, I can upload it somewhere.
Thank you for your help!

Mihai B said:
Yes, I am using stock Android 5.01 ROM with a Nexus 7 2013 WiFi only, 32 GB, rooted with chainfire's autoroot, stock recovery, waited for OTA to arrive, factory reset with clear cache partition after applying the update. Worth mentioning that on KitKat 4.4.4. playback was much more smoother on the same files, with the same settings in MX Player. I only have a few applications, nothing that could conflict with MX Player. Here you will find an example of a file lagging when played. Basically every high quality mkv stutters like hell. If you need a file, I can upload it somewhere.
Thank you for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it happens with HW?
If it's so,
Have you tried the same video on Stock Player?
The same should happen with stock player too as HW basically uses android's standard mediaplayer interface.
So, if it stutters on HW, Possibly there might be some issues with in the rom itself.
Have you tried SW decoder?
It might work well since it's based on ffmpeg

HW mode doesn't work at all (mx player says decoder is not supported or something like this), therefore stock player is unable to play it, too. Battery drain is huge with SW mode, what's the purpose of buying applications like MX player that offer accelerated HW decoding then? But just FYI, software mode plays the file flawlessly. The ROM is the purest Android experience one can get right now, so this should not be a problem either. If HW+ mode doesn't work as it should even on stock Android, with developer previews available since months, I don't want to think what will happen with custom ROMs.
We are far away from highly compressed formats like divx, xvid or wmv, high definition content is the present and it seems Mx player with its HW+ decoder can't keep the pace.
I wrote about these problems ever since Android 5 was officially launched a month ago and still no fix was issued.

Mihai B said:
HW mode doesn't work at all (mx player says decoder is not supported or something like this), therefore stock player is unable to play it, too. Battery drain is huge with SW mode, what's the purpose of buying applications like MX player that offer accelerated HW decoding then? But just FYI, software mode plays the file flawlessly. The ROM is the purest Android experience one can get right now, so this should not be a problem either. If HW+ mode doesn't work as it should even on stock Android, with developer previews available since months, I don't want to think what will happen with custom ROMs.
We are far away from highly compressed formats like divx, xvid or wmv, high definition content is the present and it seems Mx player with its HW+ decoder can't keep the pace.
I wrote about these problems ever since Android 5 was officially launched a month ago and still no fix was issued.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HW+ uses the same native codecs to decode. Only difference is that H/W uses android media framework and mx player uses its own media framework which itself depends on another android library. So, if any issues on codec configuration will affect both.
MX Player was working well on L preview (except the last one in which google hasn't released the sources).
Do you think your device doesn't has enough power to decode a 720p video natively?. Then, have ever thinked about why your stock player can't play the video?
Just google. MX Payer is not the only product. You will see the very large list of complaints all around the world. You are supposed to blame on Google for the semi baked ROM rather than MX Player.
Look at the article from famous Android Police Portal
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...o-playback-issues-after-updating-to-lollipop/

ktsamy said:
HW+ uses the same native codecs to decode. Only difference is that H/W uses android media framework and mx player uses its own media framework which itself depends on another android library. So, if any issues on codec configuration will affect both.
MX Player was working well on L preview (except the last one in which google hasn't released the sources).
Do you think your device doesn't has enough power to decode a 720p video natively?. Then, have ever thinked about why your stock player can't play the video?
Just google. MX Payer is not the only product. You will see the very large list of complaints all around the world. You are supposed to blame on Google for the semi baked ROM rather than MX Player.
Look at the article from famous Android Police Portal
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...o-playback-issues-after-updating-to-lollipop/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your answer, Ktsamy.
My device is powerful enough to play a 720p video, as in KitKat there were no problems in doing this. I know about the issues mentioned in the link you posted, but they refer to Android 5.0, and as far as I know, this is one of the reasons Google halted 5.0 OTAs, fixed some of the bugs reported by early adopters and then updated most of the devices directly to 5.01. The video issues found in Nexus 7 2013 were supposed to be fixed in 5.01.
So what has to be done? Should we all patiently wait for Google to eventually fix the native android codecs/libraries problems you say they generated in Lollipop? And while we are waiting, applications like MX Player and other similar products are right now useless for the unlucky ones who have Android L installed?
I mean: ok, we do have a problem, but what about everyone (Google, paid app developers) working on a solution instead of blaming each other?

Mihai B said:
Thank you for your answer, Ktsamy.
My device is powerful enough to play a 720p video, as in KitKat there were no problems in doing this. I know about the issues mentioned in the link you posted, but they refer to Android 5.0, and as far as I know, this is one of the reasons Google halted 5.0 OTAs, fixed some of the bugs reported by early adopters and then updated most of the devices directly to 5.01. The video issues found in Nexus 7 2013 were supposed to be fixed in 5.01.
So what has to be done? Should we all patiently wait for Google to eventually fix the native android codecs/libraries problems you say they generated in Lollipop? And while we are waiting, applications like MX Player and other similar products are right now useless for the unlucky ones who have Android L installed?
I mean: ok, we do have a problem, but what about everyone (Google, paid app developers) working on a solution instead of blaming each other?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all lollipop devices aren't affected.
Reportedly Google is aware of this issue.
second thing, Since Google is controlling the ROM, app developers can't fix the issue lies on ROM. But, developers can look for temporary workarounds to resolve the issue. But. No guarantee that all bugs will have some workarounds.

Well, stock 5.0 ROM for Nexus devices is fine, so it might just be a recompile or other issue for 5.0.1. @bleu8888 mind taking a look to see if it's just a simple versioning issue with 5.0.1? The updated OTA was released a few days ago for Nexus devices.

CDB-Man said:
Well, stock 5.0 ROM for Nexus devices is fine, so it might just be a recompile or other issue for 5.0.1. @bleu8888 mind taking a look to see if it's just a simple versioning issue with 5.0.1? The updated OTA was released a few days ago for Nexus devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CDB-Man, the problem was present on 5.00 as well. I flashed the factory image, posted info about the stuttering in the Android 5 topic, Ktsamy pointed me and others affected by this problem to the same link he provided yesterday. In the mean time Google halted the OTAs for 5.00, fixed some bugs, including the one with the video lag present on the Nexus 7 2013 and directly released OTA 5.01. Unfortunately the stuttering in playing high quality mkvs is still present in MX Player, no matter if the ROM is stock 5.00 or 5.01.

Mihai B said:
CDB-Man, the problem was present on 5.00 as well. I flashed the factory image, posted info about the stuttering in the Android 5 topic, Ktsamy pointed me and others affected by this problem to the same link he provided yesterday. In the mean time Google halted the OTAs for 5.00, fixed some bugs, including the one with the video lag present on the Nexus 7 2013 and directly released OTA 5.01. Unfortunately the stuttering in playing high quality mkvs is still present in MX Player, no matter if the ROM is stock 5.00 or 5.01.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it's fixed it supposed to playable in H/W decoder or by Stock Video Player. But, none of these are working.
Can you do the following?
Long Press the video, Play using H/W decoder. if it says H/W decoder is not supported or automatically switches to S/W, close the playback. Collect the logs & upload here.
BTW, According to leaks Google is planning for another major update to 5.1 in Feb 15 to address the major bugs exists in lollipop
---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 PM ----------
CDB-Man said:
Well, stock 5.0 ROM for Nexus devices is fine, so it might just be a recompile or other issue for 5.0.1. @bleu8888 mind taking a look to see if it's just a simple versioning issue with 5.0.1? The updated OTA was released a few days ago for Nexus devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I have said already, the issue doesn't appear on all nexus devices. Most of the reports are from Nexus 7.

Thanks again, ktsamy, for your help. I was not very sure about how to collect the log, hope it is okay. It said decoder not supported, then switched to sw.

Same here on stock 5.0.1. But the same player is smooth on 4.4.4. So I guess it's Google's problem.

Ktsamy, have you found the time to check the log I have posted a few days ago?

I have an nvidia shield tablet LTE and can confirm HW+ makes video stutter on my device. Was working perfectly prior to the lollipop update. Hope Google, MX Devs or whoever can resolve the issue. Noticed that SW mode is a HUGE battery drain!

I guess it seems that Google really rushed the release of Lollipop.

Mihai B said:
Ktsamy, have you found the time to check the log I have posted a few days ago?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Mihai B @isamu99 @kneep
I've tried some high resolution videos on Nexus 7 2013 5.0.1 but can't reproduce this issue.
So it looks not like happening with all videos.
So I've tried download one of files having this issue -- The.Secret.Life.of.Walter.Mitty.2013.BluRay.720p.x264.DTS-HDWinG.mkv -- but it is taking forever.
Would someone send download link or torren file having enough seed?

bleu8888 said:
@Mihai B @isamu99 @kneep
I've tried some high resolution videos on Nexus 7 2013 5.0.1 but can't reproduce this issue.
So it looks not like happening with all videos.
So I've tried download one of files having this issue -- The.Secret.Life.of.Walter.Mitty.2013.BluRay.720p.x264.DTS-HDWinG.mkv -- but it is taking forever.
Would someone send download link or torren file having enough seed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bleu8888, I have PM'd you with the link to the file. If you can't download it, please let me know.

[Q] how to disable gpu hw accelleration on app/rom

hello, i have lg l3 II e430 with cm11 rc1. that rom only show video with mxplayer in software mode. other program cant show video (youtube,browser etc) because all use hw accelleration.
my question is: exist a way for use software (like mxplayer) with YouTube app or browser? or disabled it directly for all app?
thank you!
(kitkat cm11 on lg L3 II e430) 4.13.0 build 486

nobody knows?
nobody knows how to disable hw accell?

Naxil said:
nobody knows how to disable hw accell?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why would you want to do that?

u not read my firts post? the rom i use ONLY show video in software mode. but only mxplayer have the switch from hw to sw rendering. for watch a youtube i need to use tubemate ,extract stream link and watch it on mxplayer! thats why i dream use YouTube app in software mode directly on YouTube app!
(kitkat cm11 on lg L3 II e430) 4.14.0 build 494

Maybe an xposed module or such?

exist? its possible choice on app manifest if it work with hw accell. who know???
(kitkat cm11 on lg L3 II e430) 4.14.0 build 494

I don't know if it exist, you can search for it are you using a mediatek phone? I'm making cm11 for my phone and already succeded to make it work but it has a few issues. This is one of the issues I also have, so I will try to fix it either way. If I find a fix I'll say it to you

Playing youtube video's should work on max 360p. Youtube should use sw decoding when i'ts not HD