Can't get VAAPI working for recording auto transcode

[patstr]

I've got NPVR v5 set up on a Debian buster virtual machine. I followed the instructions here: https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/Install-Linux. Everything seems to be working fine, except fort the recording auto transcode. I have VAAPI set up, and it works properly when I'm watching a channel from the web browser. VAAPI also works fine for transcoding in Jellyfin. It doesn't work for the NPVR recording auto transcode though. CPU encoding works, but my CPU isn't fast enough to keep up with multiple simultaneous recordings, so I'd really prefer to use VAAPI. If anyone could help me out with this, I'd really appreciate it. I've uploaded my zipped logs. Thanks for the help.

[mvallevand]

Did you pick a resolution for auto transcode? It looks like the w=##:h:## value is not being sent to ffmpeg.

If you are planning to use the auto transcoded file with jellyfin this might not be good option. IMO this is a custom mode primarily meant for users who want to play recordings in the NextPVR web browser. It would be better to create a post processing batch file to leave it in ts format.

Martin

[patstr]

In the transcoding section of the settings, I have the preferred streaming profile set to default, video encoder to VAAPI and recording auto transcode set to 1080p. I'm currently using NPVR to handle live TV and recordings and Jellyfin for ripped or downloaded TV shows and movies, with Kodi as a front end. For now at least, a custom NPVR format isn't a problem. I'm interested in auto transcoding to keep the file size of the recordings smaller.

[mvallevand]

Ok actually I was wrong I thought that it creates a temp file but if this works maybe the temp file gets renamed and the original is deleted.

For disk space a new hard disk makes for more sense especially if you ever want AC3. Using VAAPI doesn't magically eliminate CPU. You still might use a lot of CPU creating the creating the new file.

Martin

[patstr]

Auto transcoding works when the CPU is selected but not when VAAPI is selected. That's really my issue. My hypervisor tells me that when the CPU is used for auto transcoding of recordings, all 12 virtual CPUs assigned to the VM are being used at 100%. When a couple shows are being processed at the same time, it takes multiple hours to process them all. I can throw more cores at it, but I need some for the other VMs I run. I'd be open to getting a post-processing script set up if you could tell me how I might go about doing that.

[mvallevand]

Like I posted sub missed passing the scale parameters once he fixes that it will work with vaapi If you try this you will see how it should work.

Code:

ffmpeg -y -vaapi_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -i "/home/jellyfin/recordings/The Amazing World of Gumball/Season 05/The Amazing World of Gumball.S05E35.The Petals.ts" -ignore_unknown -sn -fflags +genpts -codec:v h264_vaapi -vf "format=nv12,hwupload,scale_vaapi=w=1920:h=1080:format=nv12" -codec:a aac -strict experimental -ac 2 -ab 128k -hls_list_size 0 -hls_time 4 -hls_flags single_file "/home/jellyfin/recordings/The Amazing World of Gumball/Season 05/The Amazing World of Gumball.S05E35.The Petals.temp.m3u8"

Martin

[patstr]

That works, but it's very slow. It takes 20 seconds to encode 10 seconds of video. The GPU is an RX480. Do you think I'd have better luck using Handbrake with the AMD VCE encoder instead? And if I wanted to set up a post-processing script, how do I have NPVR call it when it's finished recording?

[mvallevand]

I am out of the transcoding discussion drives are too cheap and h/w transcoding has a cost too no matter what the speed.

If you create an executable PostProcessing.sh file in the scripts folder it will run at the end. Be sure to read the wiki before posting it can be your friend https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/scripts

Martin