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GStreamer h264 pipes

Gstreamer h264 encoder has few implementation for different hardware support

  • cpu
  • nvidia
  • intel (iGPU)
Encoder name Hardware / Architecture Platform Plugin package Latency Performance Notes / When to use
nvh264enc NVIDIA NVENC (GPU) Desktop NVIDIA (RTX / GTX) gst-plugins-bad ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best choice for RTX. Low latency, very high throughput.
nvv4l2h264enc NVIDIA Tegra V4L2 Jetson (Orin / Xavier / Nano) Jetson Multimedia API ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Jetson-only. Will NOT work on RTX desktops.
vaapih264enc VAAPI (iGPU) Intel / AMD iGPU gstreamer1.0-vaapi ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Uses /dev/dri. Not for NVIDIA systems.
x264enc CPU (x264) Any gst-plugins-ugly ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ Software encoder. Good quality, higher CPU usage.
avenc_h264 CPU (FFmpeg/libav) Any gstreamer1.0-libav ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ Universal fallback. Simplest, but slowest.
v4l2h264enc V4L2 HW encode Embedded SoCs gst-plugins-good ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ Generic V4L2; quality varies widely by hardware.

Demo

Send video data over network using h264 and RTP

Receiver

The receiver pipe common for all sender's 

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gst-launch-1.0 \
  udpsrc port=5000 caps="application/x-rtp, media=video, encoding-name=H264, payload=96" \
  ! rtph264depay \
  ! avdec_h264 \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! autovideosink

x264enc

install

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sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad \
  gstreamer1.0-libav

Sender

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gst-launch-1.0 \
  videotestsrc is-live=true pattern=ball \
  ! video/x-raw,width=640,height=480,framerate=30/1 \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! x264enc tune=zerolatency speed-preset=ultrafast bitrate=2000 \
  ! rtph264pay pt=96 config-interval=1 \
  ! udpsink host=127.0.0.1 port=5000

Using Intel iGPU

Install

install plugins
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sudo apt install -y \
  gstreamer1.0-vaapi \
  intel-media-va-driver \
  vainfo

Sender

intel encoder
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gst-launch-1.0 \
  videotestsrc is-live=true \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! vaapih264enc \
  ! rtph264pay pt=96 \
  ! udpsink host=127.0.0.1 port=5000

Receiver

leggy decoding

On my machine the cpu decoder avdec_h264 work better then vaapih264dec

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gst-launch-1.0 \
  udpsrc port=5000 caps="application/x-rtp,media=video,encoding-name=H264,payload=96" \
  ! rtph264depay \
  ! h264parse \
  ! vaapih264dec \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! autovideosink
with jitter
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gst-launch-1.0 \
  udpsrc port=5000 caps="application/x-rtp,media=video,encoding-name=H264,payload=96" \
  ! rtpjitterbuffer latency=100 drop-on-latency=true \
  ! rtph264depay \
  ! h264parse \
  ! vaapih264dec \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! autovideosink

Using nvidia (NVDEC)

  • nvh264enc
  • nvh264dec

jetson

NVIDIA Jetson hardware using nvv4l2h264enc element

Check that the PC support NVENC 

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nvidia-smi -q | grep -i encoder

The plugin implement in bad package

Sender

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gst-launch-1.0 \
  videotestsrc is-live=true \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! nvh264enc preset=low-latency-hq rc-mode=cbr bitrate=2000 \
  ! rtph264pay pt=96 config-interval=1 \
  ! udpsink host=127.0.0.1 port=5000

Receiver

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gst-launch-1.0 \
  udpsrc port=5000 caps="application/x-rtp,media=video,encoding-name=H264,payload=96" \
  ! rtph264depay \
  ! h264parse \
  ! nvh264dec \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! autovideosink

TODO: check jetson pipe

Jetson

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gst-launch-1.0 \
  videotestsrc is-live=true do-timestamp=true \
  ! video/x-raw,width=1280,height=720,framerate=30/1 \
  ! nvvidconv \
  ! nvv4l2h264enc insert-sps-pps=true iframeinterval=30 bitrate=2000000 \
  ! h264parse \
  ! rtph264pay pt=96 config-interval=1 \
  ! udpsink host=127.0.0.1 port=5000
  • insert-sps-pps=true # required for streaming
  • iframeinterval=30 # one keyframe per second @30fps
  • bitrate=2000000 # 2 Mbps (adjust as needed)
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gst-launch-1.0 \
  udpsrc port=5000 caps="application/x-rtp,media=video,encoding-name=H264,payload=96" \
  ! rtpjitterbuffer latency=50 \
  ! rtph264depay \
  ! h264parse \
  ! nvv4l2decoder \
  ! nvvidconv \
  ! autovideosink

Demo

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gst-launch-1.0 \
  videotestsrc is-live=true do-timestamp=true \
  ! video/x-raw,width=640,height=480,framerate=30/1 \
  ! timeoverlay font-desc="Sans, 24" halignment=left valignment=top shaded-background=true \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! nvh264enc preset=low-latency-hq rc-mode=cbr bitrate=2000 \
  ! h264parse \
  ! rtph264pay pt=96 config-interval=1 \
  ! udpsink host=127.0.0.1 port=5000

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gst-launch-1.0 \
  udpsrc port=5000 caps="application/x-rtp,media=video,encoding-name=H264,payload=96" \
  ! rtpjitterbuffer latency=50 \
  ! rtph264depay \
  ! h264parse \
  ! avdec_h264 \
  ! videoconvert \
  ! fpsdisplaysink