As the title suggests, I have a problem with ffmpeg and I can’t figure out why it happens. When I try to transcode a video (any video I’ve tried) with hardware acceleration (h264_vaapi), ffmpeg produces artifacts in the final video. To illustrate what type of artifacts I’m talking about, here is a before and after:
The command used is:
ffmpeg -vaapi_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -i input.mp4 -vf 'format=nv12,hwupload' -c:v h264_vaapi output.mp4 -y
Which simply encodes the file using h264_vaapi (decoding doesn’t seem to be the problem).
I also tried these commands:
# This essentially downscales the video:
ffmpeg -vaapi_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -i input.mp4 -vf 'format=nv12,hwupload,scale_vaapi=w=1280:h=720' -c:v h264_vaapi output.mp4 -y
# If I understand this correctly, this both decodes and encodes using hardware acceleration
# Works only on certain files, doesn't work on included file (top of the post)
# (This was the original command I was trying to use)
ffmpeg -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -hwaccel_output_format vaapi -i input.mp4 -vf scale_vaapi=w=1280:h=720 -c:v h264_vaapi -b:v 2M -maxrate 2M -qp 20 output.mp4
They all have the same effect: random flashes of solid-colored frames. I’ve also noticed that with hevc_vaapi there are no problems, so it must be a problem relating with the h264_encoder.
I tested the same command with the same file on a Fedora live environment (I had a usb with the installer on it lying around) just to make sure the problem is not my hardware or the commands, and for some reason there were no artifacts. The version on fedora was 4.4.1, so other than potential hardware problems or mistakes in the commands, it doesn’t make sense to compare the two. Speaking of versions, on Manjaro I have the standard package from the extra repo (5.0-5). Complete output of ffmpeg -version:
ffmpeg version n5.0 Copyright (c) 2000-2022 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 11.2.0 (GCC)
configuration: --prefix=/usr --disable-debug --disable-static --disable-stripping --enable-amf --enable-avisynth --enable-cuda-llvm --enable-lto --enable-fontconfig --enable-gmp --enable-gnutls --enable-gpl --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libdav1d --enable-libdrm --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgsm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-libjack --enable-libmfx --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librav1e --enable-librsvg --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libsrt --enable-libssh --enable-libsvtav1 --enable-libtheora --enable-libv4l2 --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvmaf --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxcb --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-nvdec --enable-nvenc --enable-shared --enable-version3
libavutil 57. 17.100 / 57. 17.100
libavcodec 59. 18.100 / 59. 18.100
libavformat 59. 16.100 / 59. 16.100
libavdevice 59. 4.100 / 59. 4.100
libavfilter 8. 24.100 / 8. 24.100
libswscale 6. 4.100 / 6. 4.100
libswresample 4. 3.100 / 4. 3.100
libpostproc 56. 3.100 / 56. 3.100
As for the graphics card, I have an AMD RX 5600 XT. Output of vainfo:
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.13 (libva 2.13.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 21.3.7 for AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (NAVI10, DRM 3.44.0, 5.16.14-1-MANJARO, LLVM 13.0.1)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP9Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP9Profile2 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc