Support -hwaccel vaapi for netcam_decoder

[abishekmuthian]

0. Reviewed guide and contributing documents? (Yes/No): Yes
1. version [x.y.z, hash, other]: 4.3.2
2. installed as a package or compiled from sources [deb, rpm, git, other]: deb
3. standalone or part of third party [motion, MotionEyeOS, other]: motion
4. video stream source [V4L (card or USB), net cam (mjpeg, rtsp, other), mmal]: rtsp
5. hardware [x86, ARM, other]: x86, IvyBridge
6. operating system [16.04, Stretch, etc, FreeBSD, other]: Ubuntu 20.04

netcam_decoder currently expects a ffmpeg decoder like h264_vaapi, but it will not work as h264_vaapi is an encoder and the correct way to use the hardware accelerated decoder for a vaapi device according to FFMPEG is,

-hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device /dev/dri/renderD128

So netcam_decoder should support a string like,

netcam_decoder -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device /dev/dri/renderD128

But currently it just seems to be only supporting and therefore hw acclerated decoding is not possible for <gen8+ intel

netcam_decoder codec

[Mr-DaveDev]

Please upgrade to the current master branch. The parameter now takes the value of vaapi which invokes the hardware accelerated decoding.

[abishekmuthian]

Oh thanks I will, So just to confirm netcam_decoder vaapi is all that's required for decoding rtsp with hw acceleration using vaapi driver?

I there an updated documentation which I have missed?

[abishekmuthian]

With netcam_decoder vaapi I get,

netcam_rtsp_decoder_error: Normal resolution: avcodec_find_decoder_by_name: Failed,Interrupt False

Does this mean my camera does not support hw accelerated decoder? I can confirm that ffmpeg/vaapi is working for encoding the videos using movie_extpipe.

[TheRaven500]

I have the same Problem. It always uses swdecoder and not vaapi. Tried different Radeon graphiccards and also an intel i7 (Skylake Gen9) without success.
OS: Debian 12
Motion: 4.6.0

[0:motion] [INF] [ALL] camera_name               Tor-West
[0:motion] [INF] [ALL] target_dir                /etc/motion/record/01_Tor-West
[0:motion] [INF] [ALL] text_left                 Tor-West
[0:motion] [INF] [ALL] picture_filename          %d-%m-%Y/Tor-West-%d_%m_%Y-%H_%M_%S
[0:motion] [INF] [ALL] snapshot_filename         %d-%m-%Y/Tor-West-%d_%m_%Y-%H_%M_%S
[0:motion] [INF] [ALL] movie_filename            %d-%m-%Y/Tor-West-%d_%m_%Y-%H_%M_%S
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_start_thread: Kamera-ID: 1 Kameraname: Tor-West Dienst: rtsp:
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [NTC] [ALL] motion_init: Kamera 1 gestartet: Bewegungserkennung Aktiviert
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [NTC] [VID] vid_start: Netcam RTSP öffnen
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [DBG] [ALL] util_parms_parse: Parsen: tolerant_check = on,rtsp_transport = udp,decoder = vaapi
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [DBG] [ALL] util_parms_add: Geparst: >tolerant_check< >on<
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [DBG] [ALL] util_parms_add: Geparst: >rtsp_transport< >udp<
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [DBG] [ALL] util_parms_add: Geparst: >decoder< >vaapi<
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_rtsp_set_parms: Norm Stream wird eingerichtet.
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_rtsp_set_path: Einrichtung von rtsp über Netcam
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_rtsp_set_options: Norm: Einstellung von rtsp/rtmp
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_rtsp_set_options: Norm: Option: tolerant_check = on
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_rtsp_set_options: Norm: Option: rtsp_transport = udp
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_rtsp_open_context: Norm: Geöffnete Kamera ( Tor-West)
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_hwdecoders: Norm: HW-Geräte: 
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_hwdecoders: Norm: vdpau (nicht implementiert)
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_hwdecoders: Norm: cuda (verfügbar)
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_hwdecoders: Norm: vaapi (verfügbar)
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_hwdecoders: Norm: qsv (nicht implementiert)
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_hwdecoders: Norm: drm (verfügbar)
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_hwdecoders: Norm: opencl (nicht implementiert)
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_hwdecoders: Norm: vulkan (nicht implementiert)
[1:av0:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_init_vaapi: Norm: Vaapi-Decoder initialisieren
[1:av0:Tor-West] [ERR] [NET] netcam_rtsp_decoder_error: Norm: hwctx: Generic error in an external library
[1:av0:Tor-West] [NTC] [NET] netcam_rtsp_decoder_error: Norm: Decoder vaapi hat nicht funktioniert.
[1:av0:Tor-West] [NTC] [NET] netcam_rtsp_decoder_error: Norm: Ignorieren und Entfernen des vom Benutzer angeforderten Decoders vaapi
[1:av0:Tor-West] [DBG] [ALL] util_parms_update: Neue Netcam-Parameter: tolerant_check=on,rtsp_transport=udp,decoder=NULL
[1:av0:Tor-West] [ERR] [NET] netcam_rtsp_decoder_error: Norm: initdecoder: Die Operation ist nicht erlaubt
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [ERR] [NET] netcam_rtsp_open_context: Norm: Codec-Kontext kann nicht geöffnet werden: Die Operation ist nicht erlaubt
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [INF] [NET] netcam_rtsp_cleanup: Norm: Netzwerkkamera wird heruntergefahren.
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [NTC] [NET] netcam_rtsp_cleanup: Normale Auflösung: Fahren Sie den Computer vollständig herunter.
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [ERR] [VID] vid_start: Netcam RTSP konnte nicht geöffnet werden
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [WRN] [ALL] motion_init: Das ursprüngliche Bild konnte nicht von der Kamera abgerufen werden 
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [WRN] [ALL] motion_init: Die Bewegung verwendet weiterhin die Breite und Höhe der Konfigurationsdatei (en).
[1:ml1:Tor-West] [NTC] [NET] motion_init: Substream nicht verfügbar. Bildgrößen nicht modulo 16.

Maybe any hint or something that i can try?

[Mr-Dave]

Actually, your message is different and has three more versions. Test this in a terminal window via a desktop session. Not on a headless machine, not via a ssh session and not as a service, etc.

[TheRaven500]

Thank you for answering! Difficult because this is a headless video server. I read something that vaapi on headless machine is not so easy. Looks like it is true. I need some time for testing. Will report back with results.

[Mr-Dave]

Yea, so what I noticed was that it worked while I tested it in my development machine but failed on same machine once I put it into a service/headless mode. (I think the vaapi driver needs some sort of access to an X session). I did try further and seem to recall that running it as sudo may also have worked but that brings its own issues.

[TheRaven500]

I read something about a env variable. Maybe something like that will work? Anyway, you pointed me in the right direction. I will do some testing, maybe i find how it works (in headless mode).
Edit: Little update, i got it running when not started via service. 👍
Edit2: It also works if i run the service as root. And with radeon it works if i add user "motion" to group video. But this does not work with intel. Not sure why ATM.