test0r 8594d74275 h264: derive sps.level_idc from H.264 Annex A.3 MaxFS
Replaces patch 0013's hardcoded level_idc = 51 with a small lookup
that picks the smallest level whose MaxFS contains the encoded
frame size. Patch 0013's TODO is resolved by this change.

VAAPI does not expose level_idc on the decode side
(VAPictureParameterBufferH264 has no such field; only
VAEncSequenceParameterBufferH264 carries it). The H.264 SPS NAL is
parsed client-side by ffmpeg-vaapi and only slice data forwards in
VASliceDataBuffer, so a SPS-NAL byte parser is not viable from the
bitstream the libva-v4l2-request layer receives. We therefore
derive level_idc from picture dimensions, which VAAPI does provide
in VAPictureParameterBufferH264.picture_{width,height}_in_mbs_minus1.

Annex A.3 (Table A-1) MaxFS thresholds:
  Level 1.0:    99 MBs   ( 176×144  =  11×9   = 99 )
  Level 1.1:   396       ( 352×288  =  22×18  = 396 )
  Level 2.0:   396
  Level 2.1:   792       ( 352×576  /  720×288 )
  Level 2.2:  1620       ( 720×480 ≈ 1350; 720×576 = 1620 )
  Level 3.0:  1620
  Level 3.1:  3600       (1280×720 ≈ 3600 )
  Level 3.2:  5120
  Level 4.0:  8192       (1920×1088 = 8160 fits )
  Level 4.1:  8192
  Level 4.2:  8704
  Level 5.0: 22080
  Level 5.1: 36864       (3840×2176 = 32640 fits; 4K@8K-edge )
  Level 5.2: 36864
  Level 6.0: 139264      (8K )

V4L2 control encoding: level_idc = (level major × 10) + (level minor).
Level 4.1 → 41, Level 5.1 → 51, Level 6.0 → 60.

Picks for typical content:
  1080p (1920×1088 = 8160 MBs) → Level 4.1 (level_idc = 41)
  4K    (3840×2176 = 32640 MBs) → Level 5.1 (level_idc = 51)
  8K   (7680×4352 = 130560 MBs) → Level 6.0 (level_idc = 60)

The previous hardcode of 51 was over-allocating for 1080p; with
this patch hantro can pre-allocate based on the actual frame size.
For our ohm corpus (1080p) this drops the requested DPB / MV
buffer sizing from level-5.1 generosity to level-4.1 right-sized.

Without VAAPI exposing framerate we cannot also check MaxMBPS /
MaxBR / MaxCPB. The frame-size-based pick is acceptable in
practice: temporally-dense streams almost always also push
spatially-large frames, so MaxFS captures the dominant
resource-sizing signal.

Cross-reference: H.264 spec Annex A, Table A-1 ("Level limits").
ext-ctrls-codec-stateless.rst V4L2_CID_STATELESS_H264_SPS lists
level_idc as required-userspace-input, no kernel-derives annotation.

Signed-off-by: Markus Fritsche <fritsche.markus@gmail.com>
2026-05-04 09:45:05 +00:00
2016-08-26 15:43:09 +02:00
2016-08-26 15:43:09 +02:00
2018-09-08 08:51:51 +02:00

v4l2-request libVA Backend

About

This libVA backend is designed to work with the Linux Video4Linux2 Request API that is used by a number of video codecs drivers, including the Video Engine found in most Allwinner SoCs.

Status

The v4l2-request libVA backend currently supports the following formats:

  • MPEG2 (Simple and Main profiles)
  • H264 (Baseline, Main and High profiles)
  • H265 (Main profile)

Instructions

In order to use this libVA backend, the v4l2_request driver has to be specified through the LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME environment variable, as such:

export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=v4l2_request

A media player that supports VAAPI (such as VLC) can then be used to decode a video in a supported format:

vlc path/to/video.mpg

Sample media files can be obtained from:

http://samplemedia.linaro.org/MPEG2/
http://samplemedia.linaro.org/MPEG4/SVT/

Technical Notes

Surface

A Surface is an internal data structure never handled by the VA's user containing the output of a rendering. Usualy, a bunch of surfaces are created at the begining of decoding and they are then used alternatively. When created, a surface is assigned a corresponding v4l capture buffer and it is kept until the end of decoding. Syncing a surface waits for the v4l buffer to be available and then dequeue it.

Note: since a Surface is kept private from the VA's user, it can ask to directly render a Surface on screen in an X Drawable. Some kind of implementation is available in PutSurface but this is only for development purpose.

Context

A Context is a global data structure used for rendering a video of a certain format. When a context is created, input buffers are created and v4l's output (which is the compressed data input queue, since capture is the real output) format is set.

Picture

A Picture is an encoded input frame made of several buffers. A single input can contain slice data, headers and IQ matrix. Each Picture is assigned a request ID when created and each corresponding buffer might be turned into a v4l buffers or extended control when rendered. Finally they are submitted to kernel space when reaching EndPicture.

The real rendering is done in EndPicture instead of RenderPicture because the v4l2 driver expects to have the full corresponding extended control when a buffer is queued and we don't know in which order the different RenderPicture will be called.

Image

An Image is a standard data structure containing rendered frames in a usable pixel format. Here we only use NV12 buffers which are converted from sunxi's proprietary tiled pixel format with tiled_yuv when deriving an Image from a Surface.

S
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bootlin/libva-v4l2-request fork: multiplanar V4L2 support for Rockchip hantro (Fourier)
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