H264 V4L decoding does not work

[ngarafol]

1. version: 4.0.1+gitd23e263490a54329329b64883f1860ada5e5920b
2. installed as a package or compiled from sources: git
3. standalone or part of third party: MotionEyeOS rpi-omx branch
4. video stream source: v4l, logitech c920
5. hardware: arm, rpi1
6. operating system: linux (motioneyeos)

# motion -c motion.conf -d 6 -n                         
[-1259994232:motion] [ALR] [ALL] conf_load: Configfile motion.conf not found - trying defaults.: No such file or directory
[-1259994232:motion] [ALR] [ALL] conf_load: could not open configfile /etc/motion/motion.conf: No such file or directory
[-1259994232:motion] [CRT] [ALL] conf_load: No config file to process, using default values
[-1259994232:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Motion 4.0.1+gitd23e263490a54329329b64883f1860ada5e5920b Started
[-1259994232:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to syslog
[-1259994232:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Using default log type (ALL)
[-1259994232:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Using log type (ALL) log level (NTC)
[-1259994232:motion] [NTC] [ENC] ffmpeg_global_init: ffmpeg libavcodec version 57.89.100 libavformat version 57.71.100
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Camera 0 is from motion.conf
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Camera 0 is device: /dev/video0 input -1
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Stream port 0
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Waiting for threads to finish, pid: 1664
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_init: Camera 0 started: motion detection Enabled
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] vid_start: Opening V4L2 device
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_start: Using videodevice /dev/video0 and input -1
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability: 
------------------------
cap.driver: "uvcvideo"
cap.card: "HD Pro Webcam C920"
cap.bus_info: "usb-20980000.usb-1.2"
cap.capabilities=0x84200001
------------------------
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability: - VIDEO_CAPTURE
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability: - STREAMING
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: name = "Camera 1", type 0x00000002, status 00000000
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: - CAMERA
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: Device doesn't support specifying PAL/NTSC norm
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Config palette index 17 (YU12) doesn't work.
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Supported palettes:
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: (0) YUYV (YUYV 4:2:2)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: 0 - YUYV 4:2:2 (compressed : 0) (0x56595559)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: (1) H264 (H.264)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: 1 - H.264 (compressed : 1) (0x34363248)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: (2) MJPG (Motion-JPEG)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: 2 - Motion-JPEG (compressed : 1) (0x47504a4d)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Selected palette H264
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_do_set_pix_format: Testing palette H264 (352x288)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_do_set_pix_format: Using palette H264 (352x288) bytesperlines 704 sizeimage 202752 colorspace 00000008
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980900, "Brightness", range 0,255 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Brightness", default -8193, current 128
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980901, "Contrast", range 0,255 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Contrast", default 57343, current 128
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980902, "Saturation", range 0,255 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Saturation", default 57343, current 128
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980918, "Power Line Frequency", range 0,2 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Power Line Frequency", default 2, current 2
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980913, "Gain", range 0,255 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Gain", default 57343, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] image_ring_resize: Resizing pre_capture buffer to 1 items
[1:ml1] [ERR] [ALL] motion_init: Error capturing first image

motioneyeos related issue: motioneye-project/motioneyeos#1112

[tosiara]

First, Configfile motion.conf not found - make sure that motion.conf exists in current directory
Seconds, it looks like motion tires V4L H264 palette and that does not work. I need to try H264 with my camera. Until that you cant try to specify MJPEG pixel forma, that should work fine

[ngarafol]

Hmm, using h264 is the point because of using openmax hardware acceleration? If I am getting it right :) You are correct about motion.conf, forgot its located at /data/etc. Now log looks like this:

# motion -c motion.conf -d 6 -n 
[-1260522616:motion] [NTC] [ALL] conf_load: Processing thread 0 - config file motion.conf
[-1260522616:motion] [ALR] [ALL] conf_cmdparse: Deprecated config option "thread" since after version 3.4.1:
[-1260522616:motion] [ALR] [ALL] conf_cmdparse: The "thread" option has been replaced by the "camera" option.
[-1260522616:motion] [NTC] [ALL] config_camera: Processing camera config file thread-1.conf
[-1260522616:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Motion 4.0.1+gitd23e263490a54329329b64883f1860ada5e5920b Started
[-1260522616:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to syslog
[-1260522616:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Using default log type (ALL)
[-1260522616:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Using log type (ALL) log level (NTC)
[-1260522616:motion] [NTC] [ENC] ffmpeg_global_init: ffmpeg libavcodec version 57.89.100 libavformat version 57.71.100
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Camera 1 is from thread-1.conf
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Camera 1 is device: /dev/v4l/by-id/usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_6F2ED99F-video-index0 input -1
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Stream port 8081
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Waiting for threads to finish, pid: 2933
[0:web_control] [NTC] [STR] http_bindsock: listening on 127.0.0.1 port 7999
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_init: Camera 1 started: motion detection Enabled
[0:web_control] [NTC] [STR] httpd_run: Started motion-httpd server on port 7999 (auth Disabled)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] vid_start: Opening V4L2 device
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_start: Using videodevice /dev/v4l/by-id/usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_6F2ED99F-video-index0 and input -1
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability: 
------------------------
cap.driver: "uvcvideo"
cap.card: "HD Pro Webcam C920"
cap.bus_info: "usb-20980000.usb-1.2"
cap.capabilities=0x84200001
------------------------
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability: - VIDEO_CAPTURE
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability: - STREAMING
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: name = "Camera 1", type 0x00000002, status 00000000
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: - CAMERA
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: Device doesn't support specifying PAL/NTSC norm
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Config palette index 17 (YU12) doesn't work.
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Supported palettes:
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: (0) YUYV (YUYV 4:2:2)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: 0 - YUYV 4:2:2 (compressed : 0) (0x56595559)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: (1) H264 (H.264)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: 1 - H.264 (compressed : 1) (0x34363248)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: (2) MJPG (Motion-JPEG)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: 2 - Motion-JPEG (compressed : 1) (0x47504a4d)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Selected palette H264
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_do_set_pix_format: Testing palette H264 (320x240)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_do_set_pix_format: Using palette H264 (320x240) bytesperlines 640 sizeimage 153600 colorspace 00000008
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980900, "Brightness", range 0,255 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Brightness", default -8193, current 128
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980901, "Contrast", range 0,255 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Contrast", default 57343, current 128
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980902, "Saturation", range 0,255 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Saturation", default 57343, current 128
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980918, "Power Line Frequency", range 0,2 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Power Line Frequency", default 2, current 2
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980913, "Gain", range 0,255 
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: 	"Gain", default 57343, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] image_ring_resize: Resizing pre_capture buffer to 1 items
[1:ml1] [ERR] [ALL] motion_init: Error capturing first image
[1:ml1] [NTC] [STR] http_bindsock: listening on any IPv4 address port 8081
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_init: Started motion-stream server on port 8081 (auth Disabled)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] image_ring_resize: Resizing pre_capture buffer to 21 items
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] mlp_capture: Video signal lost - Adding grey image

[tosiara]

I'm not sure if you will get any hardware acceleration for decoding H264. Motion needs to decode a frame before it can be processed. From my experience, decoding of H264 takes more CPU, but can utilize more than one core. So overall on a multicore you invest more CPU, but can get higher FPS.
Until your MJPEG hits 100% you basically don't need H264

Another scenario when you could need H264 is pass-through recording. But it is not yet implemented

[tosiara]

I can confirm that H264 does not work with traditional V4L capture. Frames are being captured, but not decoded. Reproduced on my H264 camera. Status is "Error capturing first image"

$ ./motion -c ../motion.conf -n -d 7
[1357336:motion] [NTC] [ALL] conf_load: Processing thread 0 - config file ../motion.conf
[1357336:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Motion 4.0.1+git5974859 Started
[1357336:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to syslog
[1357336:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Using log type (ALL) log level (INF)
[1357336:motion] [NTC] [ENC] ffmpeg_global_init: ffmpeg libavcodec version 56.60.100 libavformat version 56.40.101
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Camera 0 is from ../motion.conf
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Camera 0 is device: /dev/video2 input -1
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Stream port 8081
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Waiting for threads to finish, pid: 10974
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_init: Camera 0 started: motion detection Enabled
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] vid_start: Opening V4L2 device
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_start: Using videodevice /dev/video2 and input -1
[0:web_control] [NTC] [STR] http_bindsock: listening on 127.0.0.1 port 8080
[0:web_control] [NTC] [STR] httpd_run: Started motion-httpd server on port 8080 (auth Disabled)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability:
------------------------
cap.driver: "uvcvideo"
cap.card: "HD USB Camera"
cap.bus_info: "usb-sunxi-ehci-1"
cap.capabilities=0x04000001
------------------------
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability: - VIDEO_CAPTURE
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_get_capability: - STREAMING
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: name = "Camera 1", type 0x00000002, status 00000000
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: - CAMERA
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_select_input: Device doesn't support specifying PAL/NTSC norm
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Config palette index 8 (MJPG) doesn't work.
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Supported palettes:
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: (0) H264 (H.264)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: 0 - H.264 (compressed : 1) (0x34363248)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_set_pix_format: Selected palette H264
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_do_set_pix_format: Testing palette H264 (1280x720)
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_do_set_pix_format: Using palette H264 (1280x720) bytesperlines 2560 sizeimage 1843200 colorspace 00000008
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980900, "Brightness", range -64,64
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls:         "Brightness", default 0, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980901, "Contrast", range 0,64
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls:         "Contrast", default 32, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980902, "Saturation", range 0,128
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls:         "Saturation", default 64, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980903, "Hue", range -40,40
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls:         "Hue", default 0, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980918, "Power Line Frequency", range 0,2
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls:         "Power Line Frequency", default 1, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980910, "Gamma", range 72,500
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls:         "Gamma", default 100, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls: found control 0x00980913, "Gain", range 0,100
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_scan_controls:         "Gain", default 0, current 0
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] image_ring_resize: Resizing pre_capture buffer to 1 items
[1:ml1] [ERR] [ALL] motion_init: Error capturing first image
[1:ml1] [NTC] [STR] http_bindsock: listening on any IPv4 address port 8081
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_init: Started motion-stream server on port 8081 (auth Disabled)
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 2 frames per 3295.86 seconds, FPS=0.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 53 frames per 10.13 seconds, FPS=5.23
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 50 frames per 10.00 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.18 seconds, FPS=5.01
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.21 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.20 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.16 seconds, FPS=5.02
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.20 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.20 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.16 seconds, FPS=5.02
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.19 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.16 seconds, FPS=5.02
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.21 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.16 seconds, FPS=5.02
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 50 frames per 10.01 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.16 seconds, FPS=5.02
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 50 frames per 10.01 seconds, FPS=5.00
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_loop: 51 frames per 10.18 seconds, FPS=5.01
^C[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] mlp_actions: End of event 1
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_loop: Thread exiting
[1:ml1] [NTC] [STR] stream_stop: Closing motion-stream listen socket & active motion-stream sockets
[1:ml1] [NTC] [STR] stream_stop: Closed motion-stream listen socket & active motion-stream sockets
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] motion_cleanup: Calling vid_close() from motion_cleanup
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] vid_close: Cleaning up V4L2 device
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] v4l2_cleanup: Closing video device /dev/video2
[0:web_control] [NTC] [STR] httpd_run: motion-httpd - Finishing
[0:web_control] [NTC] [STR] httpd_run: motion-httpd Closing
[0:web_control] [NTC] [STR] motion_web_control: motion-httpd thread exit
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Threads finished
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Motion terminating

[tosiara]

@ngarafol try this workaround:

v4l2_palette 21
netcam_url v4l2:///dev/video0

[Mr-Dave]

The above referenced "workaround" is the only method that will ever be available for H264 on v4l2 devices. This issue will be tracking a revision to prevent it from being selected and reporting as such in the log.

[ngarafol]

Workaround gives bad performance at least in my case. Low FPS and video artifacts when motion is detected.

[tosiara]

Check CPU load. Is it 100%?

[ngarafol]

You are right. Not 100% but solid 96% most of the time :) So more cpu power (e.g. rpi 3) would help? Asking because someone mentioned that H264 can work with multiple cpu (cores)?