Can't get transcoding to work

[muzicman0]

Yes, when I installed the PVR plugin, it said that ffmpeginputstreamdirect wasn't installed, so I installed it. I don't actually know what it is for.

[mvallevand]

It is optional and it provides the ability to timeshift (pause and rewind) the transcoded live tv by caching it locally.

Martin

[muzicman0]

Still trying to get VAAPI working.  It is not Kodi specific, it just doesn't work.  I have attached a log, and the relevant section starts at 10:56 on May 10th).  I was using a web browser to attempt HW acceleration.  Still works if I use CPU encoding, but not VAAPI.

EDIT: Well, I tried to attach, but it didn't work.  I will paste in some stuff below.

2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66] Got request [10.1.13.5]: /services/service (channel.transcode.initiate)
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66] method=channel.transcode.initiate
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66] parameters:
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66]    method: channel.transcode.initiate
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66]    channel_id: 7148
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66]    profile: 1080p
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66]    format: json
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66]    sid: 97a71c4f-3131-4f09-9a82-877f3efaea76
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66]    client_ip: 10.1.13.5
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66]    user_agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/90.0.4430.93 Safari/537.36 Edg/90.0.818.51
2021-05-10 10:56:27.323 [DEBUG][66]    host_callback: stream.xxxxxxxxx.com
2021-05-10 10:56:27.332 [DEBUG][66] InitiateTranscode
2021-05-10 10:56:27.332 [DEBUG][66] InitiateTranscode@2..
2021-05-10 10:56:27.332 [DEBUG][66] Using vaapi encoder
2021-05-10 10:56:27.332 [DEBUG][66] CaptureSource.LoadAll()
2021-05-10 10:56:27.332 [DEBUG][66] Not a candidate for avoiding transcode
2021-05-10 10:56:27.332 [DEBUG][66] Default transcoder args: -y [ANALYZE_DURATION] [SEEK] -vaapi_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -i [SOURCE] -map_metadata -1 -threads 0 -ignore_unknown -map 0:v:0? -map 0:a:[AUDIO_STREAM] -map -0 -vf "format=nv12,hwupload,scale_vaapi=[VAAPI_SCALE]:format=nv12" -codec:v:0 h264_vaapi -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -b:v [BITRATE] -maxrate [BITRATE] -bufsize [BUFSIZE] -codec:a:0 [AUDIO_CODEC] -strict experimental -ac [AUDIO_CHANNELS] -ab [AUDIO_BITRATE] -hls_time [SEGMENT_DURATION] -start_number 0 -hls_list_size [SEGMENT_COUNT] -y [TARGET]
...
2021-05-10 10:56:27.333 [DEBUG][66] Executing: ffmpeg -y   -vaapi_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -i http://127.0.0.1:8866/live?channeloid=71...7f3efaea76 -map_metadata -1 -threads 0 -ignore_unknown -map 0:v:0? -map 0:a:0 -map -0 -vf "format=nv12,hwupload,scale_vaapi=w=1920:h=1080:format=nv12" -codec:v:0 h264_vaapi -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -b:v 8000000 -maxrate 8000000 -bufsize 16000000 -codec:a:0 aac -strict experimental -ac 2 -ab 192000 -hls_time 3 -start_number 0 -hls_list_size 2403 -y "/var/opt/nextpvr/web/temp/KCBS-435a05e7cb024995b045e53d96fc0066.m3u8"
2021-05-10 10:56:27.333 [DEBUG][15] SegmenterThread starting
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31] Got request [10.1.13.5]: /services/service (channel.listings.current)
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31] method=channel.listings.current
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31] parameters:
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31]    method: channel.listings.current
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31]    random: 0.7031164544624411
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31]    format: json
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31]    sid: 97a71c4f-3131-4f09-9a82-877f3efaea76
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31]    client_ip: 10.1.13.5
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31]    user_agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/90.0.4430.93 Safari/537.36 Edg/90.0.818.51
2021-05-10 10:56:27.351 [DEBUG][31]    host_callback: stream.xxxxxxxxx.com
2021-05-10 10:56:27.375 [DEBUG][75] Took 54.1196ms to query listings
2021-05-10 10:56:27.376 [DEBUG][75] Loading recordings
2021-05-10 10:56:27.380 [DEBUG][75] Took 4.4154ms to generate output for 2 listings
...
2021-05-10 10:56:27.383 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]: ffmpeg version 4.2.4-1ubuntu0.1 Copyright © 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   built with gcc 9 (Ubuntu 9.3.0-10ubuntu2)
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=1ubuntu0.1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --arch=amd64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --disable-filter=resample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libjack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librsvg --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opencl --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-nvenc --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   WARNING: library configuration mismatch
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   avcodec     configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=1ubuntu0.1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --arch=amd64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --disable-filter=resample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libjack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librsvg --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opencl --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-nvenc --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-shared --enable-version3 --disable-doc --disable-programs --enable-libaribb24 --enable-liblensfun --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-libtesseract --enable-libvo_amrwbenc
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libavutil      56. 31.100 / 56. 31.100
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libavcodec     58. 54.100 / 58. 54.100
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libavformat    58. 29.100 / 58. 29.100
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libavdevice    58.  8.100 / 58.  8.100
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libavfilter     7. 57.100 /  7. 57.100
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libavresample   4.  0.  0 /  4.  0.  0
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libswscale      5.  5.100 /  5.  5.100
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libswresample   3.  5.100 /  3.  5.100
2021-05-10 10:56:27.384 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]:   libpostproc    55.  5.100 / 55.  5.100
2021-05-10 10:56:27.388 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]: [AVHWDeviceContext @ 0x55d7685afd00] No VA display found for device /dev/dri/renderD128.
2021-05-10 10:56:27.388 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]: Device creation failed: -22.
2021-05-10 10:56:27.388 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]: Failed to set value '/dev/dri/renderD128' for option 'vaapi_device': Invalid argument
2021-05-10 10:56:27.388 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]: Error parsing global options: Invalid argument

[mvallevand]

Normally I don't attempt to help users with general linux problems, transcoding or ffmpeg working but your problem is pretty clear, you haven't got your h/w set up properly or you card doesn't support it. That's all I will tell you on this.

2021-05-10 10:56:27.388 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]: [AVHWDeviceContext @ 0x55d7685afd00] No VA display found for device /dev/dri/renderD128.
2021-05-10 10:56:27.388 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]: Device creation failed: -22.
2021-05-10 10:56:27.388 [DEBUG][51] [FFMPEG]: Failed to set value '/dev/dri/renderD128' for option 'vaapi_device': Invalid argument

Martin

[muzicman0]

I can appreciate that, however, it works in my old solution (Channels DVR), and the hardware is fine (Nvidia GTX 1050). It's not the end of the world, as I don't typically watch live TV, and I only use NextPVR as a recording engine.

[mvallevand]

Channels DVR might be using QuickSync for Linux which I don't think sub supports.

Martin

[muzicman0]

I did some research, and found a way to make it work, but it stops working after a reboot. It appears to be a permissions issue, and looks like it is common on later versions of Ubuntu. the permissions on /dev/dri/renderD128 need to be changed since it has no access other than root. But upon reboot, the permissions are reset. If I do a chmod 666 (or 777), on that file, then everything works until the next reboot.

[mvallevand]

Assuming you use the deb installer check

ls -la /dev/dri

If renderD128 is in the render group (or another group) check

groups nextpvr

and if nextpvr is not in the group add it. The deb installer doesn't do this.

Martin

[muzicman0]

Assuming you use the deb installer check

ls -la  /dev/dri

If renderD128 is in the render group (or another group) check

groups nextpvr

and if nextpvr is not in the group add it.  The deb installer doesn't do this. 

Martin

That did it.  I had to add nextpvr to the render group with

Code:

sudo usermod -a -G render nextpvr