HEVC level 156 always transcoding on supported devices

[VampiricAlien]

Describe the bug

I knew something was going on when the media was slow to play or the subtitles skipped ahead.

Reason for transcoding: The video codec's level is not supported

I think this #3281 has effected HEVC support on devices that once supported it.

Codec: HEVC
Profile: Main 10
Level: 156
Resolution: 1920x1080
Aspect ratio: 16:9

@lawadr @nielsvanvelzen pinging both of you because the pull request has effected playback.

Logs

Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (hevc (native) -> h264 (libx264))
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[libx264 @ 0x563eef26b080] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 0x563eef26b080] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 BMI2 AVX2
[libx264 @ 0x563eef26b080] profile Main, level 4.0, 4:2:0, 8-bit

"SupportsTranscoding":true,"SupportsDirectStream":true,"SupportsDirectPlay":true

Application version

v0.16.5

Where did you install the app from?

Sideloaded APK

Device information

Shield

Android version

Android 11

Jellyfin server version

10.8.13

[lawadr]

This is odd. The only thing I can think of is that MediaCodec is reporting a lower level than is really supported, causing transcoding. But even that I can't believe is true.

Level 156 is profile level 5.2, which the Shield should definitely support. Does logcat show the device profile being sent to the server? Or maybe the server logs show it. This would certainly help narrow down the problem.

I'll take a look to see what could be causing this, even though I don't have a Shield to test on.

[lawadr]

I don't think this affects the behaviour, but @nielsvanvelzen cherry picked the first commit in that PR for v0.16.5 rather than all of them. Therefore v0.16.5 contains the initial unfixed-up version of my change. I assume this was a mistake.

As I said, shouldn't affect anything, but more confusing to debug.

[lawadr]

Is there any chance you can run dumpsys media.player in an adb shell and attach the result? This should dump exactly what MediaCodec reports as supported on the device.

[VampiricAlien]

Nothing transcoded before last update, Does this help?

  Decoder "OMX.Nvidia.h265.decode" supports
    aliases: []
    attributes: 0xa: [
      encoder: 0,
      vendor: 1,
      software-only: 0,
      hw-accelerated: 1 ]
    owner: "default"
    rank: 256
    profile/levels: [
          1/131072 (Main/High 5.1),
          2/131072 (Main10/High 5.1),
       4096/131072 (Main10HDR10/High 5.1) ]
    colors: [
      0x7f420888 (YUV420Flexible),
      0x15 (YUV420SemiPlanar) ]
    details: AMessage(what = 0x00000000) = {
        string alignment = "2x2"
        string bitrate-range = "1-120000000"
        string block-size = "16x16"
        string blocks-per-second-range = "1-2000000"
        int32_t feature-adaptive-playback = 0
        int32_t feature-low-latency = 0
        string measured-frame-rate-1280x720-range = "1030-1030"
        string measured-frame-rate-1920x1088-range = "409-589"
        string measured-frame-rate-352x288-range = "2239-2239"
        string measured-frame-rate-640x368-range = "1950-1950"
        string performance-point-3840x2160-range = "60-60"
        string size-range = "144x144-3840x2176"
      }
  Decoder "OMX.Nvidia.h265.decode.secure" supports
    aliases: []
    attributes: 0xa: [
      encoder: 0,
      vendor: 1,
      software-only: 0,
      hw-accelerated: 1 ]
    owner: "default"
    rank: 256
    profile/levels: [
          1/131072 (Main/High 5.1),
          2/131072 (Main10/High 5.1),
       4096/131072 (Main10HDR10/High 5.1) ]
    colors: [
      0x7f420888 (YUV420Flexible),
      0x15 (YUV420SemiPlanar) ]
    details: AMessage(what = 0x00000000) = {
        string alignment = "2x2"
        string bitrate-range = "1-120000000"
        string block-size = "16x16"
        string blocks-per-second-range = "1-2000000"
        int32_t feature-adaptive-playback = 0
        int32_t feature-secure-playback = 1
        string performance-point-3840x2160-range = "60-60"
        string size-range = "144x144-3840x2176"
      }
  Decoder "OMX.google.hevc.decoder" supports
    aliases: []
    attributes: 0: [
      encoder: 0,
      vendor: 0,
      software-only: 0,
      hw-accelerated: 0 ]
    owner: "default"
    rank: 528
    profile/levels: [
          1/65536 (Main/Main 5.1),
          4/65536 (MainStill/Main 5.1) ]
    colors: [
      0x7f420888 (YUV420Flexible),
      0x13 (YUV420Planar) ]
    details: AMessage(what = 0x00000000) = {
        string alignment = "2x2"
        string bitrate-range = "1-10000000"
        string block-count-range = "1-196608"
        string block-size = "8x8"
        string blocks-per-second-range = "1-2000000"
        int32_t feature-adaptive-playback = 0
        string measured-frame-rate-1280x720-range = "120-140"
        string measured-frame-rate-1920x1080-range = "63-78"
        string measured-frame-rate-352x288-range = "584-590"
        string measured-frame-rate-640x360-range = "306-319"
        string size-range = "2x2-4096x4096"
      }

[nielsvanvelzen]

I don't think this affects the behaviour, but @nielsvanvelzen cherry picked the first commit in that PR for v0.16.5 rather than all of them. Therefore v0.16.5 contains the initial unfixed-up version of my change. I assume this was a mistake.

It wasn't intentional and I've now cherrypicked the missing commits to make sure they will be in the next 0.16 release.

[lawadr]

  Decoder "OMX.Nvidia.h265.decode" supports
    profile/levels: [
          1/131072 (Main/High 5.1),
          2/131072 (Main10/High 5.1),
       4096/131072 (Main10HDR10/High 5.1) ]

This shows that the device is self reporting a maximum of level 5.1 high tier for the Main 10 profile. This should guarantee support for all high tier and main tier streams at level 5.1 and below.

Your file appears to be encoded at level 5.2 main tier which your device doesn't report to support.

If you have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Video_Coding#Tiers_and_levels you can see that 5.2 main tier supports a bitrate of 60,000 kbit/s while 5.1 high tier supports up to 160,000 kbit/s. But as far as I know, a 5.2 encoding can support things that a 5.1 decoder can't handle.

My guess is that the Shield actually supports a higher level main tier than high tier, such as 5.2 main tier and 5.1 high tier, but it's not reporting that fact.

[MichaelRUSF]

The shield probably has hardware decoders for up to 5.1 and software decoding for 5.2. Seems like the same issue with the Fire TV Stick 4K - 2nd Gen (2023). 5.2 now transcodes instead of relying on the built-in software decoder.

The device specs even state it only goes up to 5.1
"H.265 (HEVC). Hardware accelerated up to 3840x2160p (4K) @ 60 fps, 35 Mbps, Main 10 Profile Level 5.1, Color space 8-bit and 10-bit input with HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG"

Fire TV Stick's reported capabilities:

Media type 'video/ ':
  Decoder "OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.HEVC" supports
    aliases: []
    attributes: 0xa: [
      encoder: 0,
      vendor: 1,
      software-only: 0,
      hw-accelerated: 1 ]
    owner: "default"
    rank: 256
    profile/levels: [
          1/    1 (Main/Main 1),
          1/    2 (Main/High 1),
          1/    4 (Main/Main 2),
          1/    8 (Main/High 2),
          1/   16 (Main/Main 2.1),
          1/   32 (Main/High 2.1),
          1/   64 (Main/Main 3),
          1/  128 (Main/High 3),
          1/  256 (Main/Main 3.1),
          1/  512 (Main/High 3.1),
          1/ 1024 (Main/Main 4),
          1/ 2048 (Main/High 4),
          1/ 4096 (Main/Main 4.1),
          1/ 8192 (Main/High 4.1),
          1/16384 (Main/Main 5),
          1/32768 (Main/High 5),
          1/65536 (Main/Main 5.1),
          1/131072 (Main/High 5.1),
          2/    1 (Main10/Main 1),
          2/    2 (Main10/High 1),
          2/    4 (Main10/Main 2),
          2/    8 (Main10/High 2),
          2/   16 (Main10/Main 2.1),
          2/   32 (Main10/High 2.1),
          2/   64 (Main10/Main 3),
          2/  128 (Main10/High 3),
          2/  256 (Main10/Main 3.1),
          2/  512 (Main10/High 3.1),
          2/ 1024 (Main10/Main 4),
          2/ 2048 (Main10/High 4),
          2/ 4096 (Main10/Main 4.1),
          2/ 8192 (Main10/High 4.1),
          2/16384 (Main10/Main 5),
          2/32768 (Main10/High 5),
          2/65536 (Main10/Main 5.1),
          2/131072 (Main10/High 5.1),
       4096/    1 (Main10HDR10/Main 1),
       4096/    2 (Main10HDR10/High 1),
       4096/    4 (Main10HDR10/Main 2),
       4096/    8 (Main10HDR10/High 2),
       4096/   16 (Main10HDR10/Main 2.1),
       4096/   32 (Main10HDR10/High 2.1),
       4096/   64 (Main10HDR10/Main 3),
       4096/  128 (Main10HDR10/High 3),
       4096/  256 (Main10HDR10/Main 3.1),
       4096/  512 (Main10HDR10/High 3.1),
       4096/ 1024 (Main10HDR10/Main 4),
       4096/ 2048 (Main10HDR10/High 4),
       4096/ 4096 (Main10HDR10/Main 4.1),
       4096/ 8192 (Main10HDR10/High 4.1),
       4096/16384 (Main10HDR10/Main 5),
       4096/32768 (Main10HDR10/High 5),
       4096/65536 (Main10HDR10/Main 5.1),
       4096/131072 (Main10HDR10/High 5.1),
       8192/    1 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 1),
       8192/    2 (Main10HDR10Plus/High 1),
       8192/    4 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 2),
       8192/    8 (Main10HDR10Plus/High 2),
       8192/   16 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 2.1),
       8192/   32 (Main10HDR10Plus/High 2.1),
       8192/   64 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 3),
       8192/  128 (Main10HDR10Plus/High 3),
       8192/  256 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 3.1),
       8192/  512 (Main10HDR10Plus/High 3.1),
       8192/ 1024 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 4),
       8192/ 2048 (Main10HDR10Plus/High 4),
       8192/ 4096 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 4.1),
       8192/ 8192 (Main10HDR10Plus/High 4.1),
       8192/16384 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 5),
       8192/32768 (Main10HDR10Plus/High 5),
       8192/65536 (Main10HDR10Plus/Main 5.1),

	   
 Decoder "c2.android.hevc.decoder" supports
    aliases: [
      "OMX.google.hevc.decoder" ]
    attributes: 0x4: [
      encoder: 0,
      vendor: 0,
      software-only: 1,
      hw-accelerated: 0 ]
    owner: "codec2::software"
    rank: 512
    profile/levels: [
          1/524288 (Main/High 5.2),
          4/524288 (MainStill/High 5.2)

[lawadr]

The shield probably has hardware decoders for up to 5.1 and software decoding for 5.2. Seems like the same issue with the Fire TV Stick 4K - 2nd Gen (2023). 5.2 now transcodes instead of relying on the built-in software decoder.

I don't think this is the case because all decoders are checked for the maximum, including software decoders.

From the information that @VampiricAlien provided, the software decoder on the Shield can't even handle Main 10 profile, which is what we're looking at. It supports only up to 5.1 main tier for the Main profile, while the hardware decoder supports up to 5.1 high tier for both Main and Main 10.

From the information you've provided from the Fire TV Stick 4K - 2nd Gen (2023), the software decoder supports only up to 5.2 high tier for the Main profile (and not the Main 10 profile). The hardware decoder supports up to 5.1 high tier for both Main and Main 10, which is the same as the Shield.

If you are also talking about a Main 10 level 5.2 main tier video stream, like @VampiricAlien is, then neither the Fire TV Stick 4K or the Shield seems to be reporting support for this. This indicates nothing in the logic of the change is broken as such, just that both devices seem to support beyond what they claim.

The previous behaviour for the Android TV client was to accept any HEVC Main stream if any HEVC decoder exists (practically all devices), and HEVC Main 10 if profile level 5 main tier is supported for it. The behaviour now is base support for both Main and Main 10 on the maximum level supported by any decoder. Therefore transcoding would be expected based on given the source file and reported decoder support.

[MichaelRUSF]

Yeah, you are correct. I failed to notice that the software encoder was Main not Main10.

Current:
Main 5.2 plays without transcoding
Main10 5.2 transcodes

Without the level checks in the prior build, Main10 5.2 played without transcoding.

[lawadr]

Here are some solutions:

1. Do nothing and report issues to the device manufacturers to fix their media configs
2. Remove the limit when the device reports a specific level or higher, such as 5.1 high tier
3. Remove the limit for specific device IDs

[VampiricAlien]

Here are some solutions:

1. Do nothing and report issues to the device manufacturers to fix their media configs

2. Remove the limit when the device reports a specific level or higher, such as 5.1 high tier

3. Remove the limit for specific device IDs

I don't see option 1 happening anytime soon, upgrade hardware should solved it but this might not be an option for everyone.
Since the update, I never hand an issue with HEVC main 10 level 5.1. ( as you said that both devices seem to support beyond what they claim), I am open to temp solution if needed.

[VampiricAlien]

v0.16.6 doesn't fix this issue, is there a workaround?

[lawadr]

v0.16.6 doesn't fix this issue, is there a workaround?

I'm struggling to find any information about what profile levels are supported on the Shield. I can't find a source that it supports HEVC Main 10 5.2. My concern is that you can get your specific media to play back on it, but other valid 5.2 media will fail.