v0.2.5

Release Notes

Added

• ersatztv-channel describe prints a JSON document describing the binary; its schema is schema/describe.json and it includes:
  • Version and commit
  • Playout and channel config schema versions it accepts
  • Output file names, segment and keyframe lengths
  • Video/audio formats, accels and subtitle modes the channel config accepts
  • Headers sent to dynamic source resolvers
• ersatztv-channel describe --probe adds what this machine can do: the ffmpeg version and hwaccels, and for each accel on this platform whether it is available and which codecs and pixel formats it decodes and encodes in hardware
  • VAAPI is tried on every render node with each driver, to show which combinations work
  • Takes optional channel configs (partial is fine) to mark the configured accel, and --ffmpeg <path> to choose the ffmpeg build
• Dynamic source requests send x-etv-playout-schema, the newest playout schema version the channel accepts (playout schema 0.0.8)

Changed

• Require ErsatzTV-ffmpeg 8.1.2-8
• A dynamic source response with an invalid probe_hint plays without its hints, as a playout file item does, instead of showing the fallback

Fixed

• Vulkan: fix hardware decode being chosen for formats the driver can't decode, such as H.264 10-bit on Intel GPUs on Windows
  • Vulkan support is now checked the way ffmpeg checks it, including whether the driver has an image format for it
• Vulkan: never select a CPU (llvmpipe) Vulkan device
• Channel config errors name the field, e.g. normalization: missing field audio instead of missing field audio
• Fix QSV streams failing about 10 s in with Can't allocate a surface or Failed to query an output frame on pre-Tiger Lake Intel GPUs (regression in 0.2.4)
• Fix NVENC failing to start (Gop Length should be greater than number of B frames + 1) on very low frame rate sources, such as 1 fps slideshows
• VAAPI: fix tonemap_opencl and pad_opencl never being used on Intel GPUs when only the OpenCL runtime (libOpenCL.so.1) is installed, such as in the ErsatzTV-ffmpeg base docker image
• Fix still-image watermarks disappearing partway through an item, or (QSV) the item ending early
  • This happened when the source's video parameters change mid-stream, such as spliced or smart-cut files
• Fix QSV, VAAPI and CUDA items failing when the source's color tags change mid-stream
• Fix 4:2:2, 4:4:4 and 12-bit sources (such as ProRes, or HEVC/H.264 from cameras)
  • Hardware decode is no longer attempted; they are converted to 4:2:0 after deinterlacing and scaling
• Fix one invalid playout item failing the whole playout file, so the channel showed failed to load playout JSON file for every item
  • An invalid item now shows the fallback (and error card, if fallback.show_error is on) for its own time only, naming the item and the invalid field
  • An item with an invalid probe_hint plays without its hints instead, with a warning in the log
  • An item without a readable id, start and finish is skipped, and its time is treated as a gap

Known issues

• VAAPI on Intel Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake with the free intel-media-va-driver package (Debian, Ubuntu): channels with a watermark run far below realtime
  • Install intel-media-va-driver-non-free, or set ffmpeg.disabled_filters to ["overlay_vaapi"] in the channel config
  • The docker image is not affected

Compatibility

• Channel config: reads versions 0.1.0 to 0.1.3
• Lineup config: reads versions 0.0.0 to 0.0.1
• Playout: reads versions 0.0.0 to 0.0.8
• ErsatzTV-ffmpeg: 8.1.2-8, bundled in the docker images and recommended for the native binaries