This library wraps hardware video decoding in a simple interface. There are no performance loses (at the cost of library flexibility).
Currently it supports VAAPI, VDPAU, NVDEC/CUVID (tested) and a few other hardware decoders (not tested).
Various codecs are supported (e.g. H.264, HEVC, VP8, VP9)
See library documentation.
See also twin HVE Hardware Video Encoder library.
See hardware-video-streaming for other related projects.
Raw H.264 (and other codecs) decoding:
- custom network streaming protocols
- low latency streaming
- ...
Complex pipelines (demuxing, scaling, color conversions, filtering) are beyond the scope of this library.
Cross-platform but tested only on Linux (Ubuntu 18.04).
Tested with:
- Intel VAAPI compatible hardware decoders (Quick Sync Video)
- AMD/ATI VAAPI compatible hardware decoders
- VDPAU compatible hardware decoders (e.g. Nvidia GPU)
- Nvidia NVDEC compatible hardware decoders (e.g. Nvidia GPU)
Also implemented (but not tested):
- DirectX 9 Video Acceleration (dxva2)
- DirectX 11 Video Acceleration (d3d11va)
- VideoToolbox
Library depends on:
- FFmpeg
avcodec
andavutil
(at least 3.4 version)
Works with system FFmpeg on Ubuntu 18.04/20.04
Tested on Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04
# update package repositories
sudo apt-get update
# get avcodec and avutil (and ffmpeg for testing)
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev
# get compilers and make and cmake
sudo apt-get install build-essential
# get cmake - we need to specify libcurl4 for Ubuntu 18.04 dependencies problem
sudo apt-get install libcurl4 cmake
# get git
sudo apt-get install git
# clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/bmegli/hardware-video-decoder.git
# finally build the library and examples
cd hardware-video-decoder
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
./hvd-decoding-example
Follow with printed usage examples.
See examples directory for a more complete and commented examples with error handling.
There are just 4 functions and 3 user-visible data types:
hvd_init
hvd_send_packet
(sends compressed data to hardware)hvd_receive_frame
(retrieves uncompressed data from hardware)hvd_close
struct hvd_config hardware_config = {"vaapi", "h264", "/dev/dri/renderD128", "rgb0"};
struct hvd *hardware_decoder = hvd_init(&hardware_config);
struct hvd_packet packet= {0}; //here we will be passing encoded data
//...
//whatever logic you have to prepare data source
//...
while(keep_decoding)
{
//...
//update your_data in some way (e.g. file read, network)
//...
packet.data = your_data; //set pointer to your encoded data
packet.size = your_data_size; //here some dummy size for dummy data
hvd_send_packet(hardware_decoder, &packet);
AVFrame *frame; //FFmpeg AVFrame, here we will be getting decoded data
int error;
while( (frame = hvd_receive_frame(hardware_decoder, &error) ) != NULL)
{
//...
//consume decoded video data in the frame (e.g. use frame.data, frame.linesize)
//...
}
}
//flush the decoder when your are done by sending NULL packet
hvd_send_packet(hardware_decoder, NULL);
while( (frame = hvd_receive_frame(hardware_decoder, &error) ) != NULL)
; //do whatever you want with some last frames, here ignoring
hvd_close(hardware_decoder);
That's it! You have just seen all the functions and data types in the library.
You have several options.
For static linking of HVD and dynamic linking of FFmpeg libraries (easiest):
- copy
hvd.h
andhvd.c
to your project and add them in your favourite IDE - add
avcodec
andavutil
to linked libraries in IDE project configuration
For dynamic linking of HVD and FFmpeg libraries:
- place
hvd.h
where compiler can find it (e.g.make install
for/usr/local/include/hvd.h
) - place
libhvd.so
where linker can find it (e.g.make install
for/usr/local/lib/libhvd.so
) - make sure
/usr/local/...
is considered for libraries - add
hvd
,avcodec
andavutil
to linked libraries in IDE project configuration - make sure
libhvd.so
is reachable to you program at runtime (e.g. setLD_LIBRARIES_PATH
)
Assuming directory structure with HVD as hardware-video-decoder
subdirectory (or git submodule) of your project.
your-project
│ main.cpp
│ CMakeLists.txt
│
└───hardware-video-decoder
│ │ hvd.h
│ │ hvd.c
│ │ CMakeLists.txt
You may use the following top level CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0)
project(
your-project
)
# drop the SHARED if you would rather link with HVE statically
add_library(hvd SHARED hardware-video-decoder/hvd.c)
add_executable(your-project main.cpp)
target_include_directories(your-project PRIVATE hardware-video-decoder)
target_link_libraries(your-project hvd avcodec avutil)
Assuming your main.c
/main.cpp
and hvd.h
, hvd.c
are all in the same directory:
C
gcc main.c hvd.c -lavcodec -lavutil -o your-program
C++
gcc -c hvd.c
g++ -c main.cpp
g++ hvd.o main.o -lavcodec -lavutil -o your program
Library is licensed under Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0
This is similiar to LGPL but more permissive:
- you can use it as LGPL in prioprietrary software
- unlike LGPL you may compile it statically with your code
Like in LGPL, if you modify this library, you have to make your changes available. Making a github fork of the library with your changes satisfies those requirements perfectly.
You are linking to FFmpeg libraries. Consider also avcodec
and avutil
and the codec licensing.