AM62 GSTREAMER

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VAR-SOM-AM62 Streaming Video

Introduction to GStreamer

GStreamer is a powerful pipeline-based multimedia framework.
It allows programmers to create a variety of media-handling components, including simple audio playback, audio and video playback, recording, streaming and editing.
This is not a GStreamer reference manual but an overview for using it on the Variscite i.MX8 products.
This release uses the gstreamer-imx set of GStreamer 1.0 plugins for NXP's i.MX platform, which make use of the i.MX multimedia capabilities.

Major GStreamer commands

There are two major commands:
gst-inspect - allows you to to get documentation on available elements and detailed information on a specific element.
gst-launch - allows you to create and execute GStreamer pipelines.

gst-inspect

Lists all available elements:

# gst-inspect-1.0

Lists all available sink elements:

# gst-inspect-1.0 | grep sink

For example:

# gst-inspect-1.0 | grep sink
coreelements:  fakesink: Fake Sink
coreelements:  fdsink: Filedescriptor Sink
coreelements:  filesink: File Sink
fbdevsink:  fbdevsink: fbdev video sink
tcp:  tcpclientsink: TCP client sink
tcp:  tcpserversink: TCP server sink
tcp:  multifdsink: Multi filedescriptor sink
tcp:  multisocketsink: Multi socket sink
multifile:  multifilesink: Multi-File Sink
multifile:  splitmuxsink: Split Muxing Bin
bluez:  a2dpsink: Bluetooth A2DP sink
bluez:  avdtpsink: Bluetooth AVDTP sink
video4linux2:  v4l2sink: Video (video4linux2) Sink
...

Detailed help information on a specific element:

# gst-inspect-1.0 <name of the element>

For example, the output for waylandsink:

# gst-inspect-1.0 waylandsink
Factory Details:
  Rank                     marginal (64)
  Long-name                wayland video sink
  Klass                    Sink/Video
  Description              Output to wayland surface
  Author                   Sreerenj Balachandran <sreerenj.balachandran@intel.com>, George Kiagiadakis <george.kiagiadakis@collabora.com>

Plugin Details:
  Name                     waylandsink
  Description              Wayland Video Sink
  Filename                 /usr/lib/gstreamer-1.0/libgstwaylandsink.so
  Version                  1.16.3
  License                  LGPL
  Source module            gst-plugins-bad
  Binary package           GStreamer Bad Plug-ins source release
  Origin URL               Unknown package origin

GObject
 +----GInitiallyUnowned
       +----GstObject
             +----GstElement
                   +----GstBaseSink
                         +----GstVideoSink
                               +----GstWaylandSink

Implemented Interfaces:
  GstVideoOverlay
  GstWaylandVideo

Pad Templates:
  SINK template: 'sink'
    Availability: Always
    Capabilities:
      video/x-raw
                 format: { (string)BGRx, (string)BGRA, (string)RGBx, (string)xBGR, (string)xRGB, (string)RGBA, (string)ABGR, (string)ARGB, (string)RGB, (string)BGR, (string)RGB16, (string)BGR16, (string)YUY2, (string)YVYU, (string)UYVY, (string)AYUV, (string)NV12, (string)NV21, (string)NV16, (string)YUV9, (string)YVU9, (string)Y41B, (string)I420, (string)YV12, (string)Y42B, (string)v308 }
                  width: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
                 height: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
              framerate: [ 0/1, 2147483647/1 ]
      video/x-raw(memory:DMABuf)
                 format: { (string)BGRx, (string)BGRA, (string)RGBx, (string)xBGR, (string)xRGB, (string)RGBA, (string)ABGR, (string)ARGB, (string)RGB, (string)BGR, (string)RGB16, (string)BGR16, (string)YUY2, (string)YVYU, (string)UYVY, (string)AYUV, (string)NV12, (string)NV21, (string)NV16, (string)YUV9, (string)YVU9, (string)Y41B, (string)I420, (string)YV12, (string)Y42B, (string)v308 }
                  width: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
                 height: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
              framerate: [ 0/1, 2147483647/1 ]

Element has no clocking capabilities.
Element has no URI handling capabilities.

Pads:
  SINK: 'sink'
    Pad Template: 'sink'

Element Properties:
  async               : Go asynchronously to PAUSED
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Boolean. Default: true
  blocksize           : Size in bytes to pull per buffer (0 = default)
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Unsigned Integer. Range: 0 - 4294967295 Default: 4096 
  display             : Wayland display name to connect to, if not supplied via the GstContext
                        flags: readable, writable
                        String. Default: null
  enable-last-sample  : Enable the last-sample property
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Boolean. Default: true
  fullscreen          : Whether the surface should be made fullscreen 
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Boolean. Default: false
  last-sample         : The last sample received in the sink
                        flags: readable
                        Boxed pointer of type "GstSample"
  max-bitrate         : The maximum bits per second to render (0 = disabled)
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Unsigned Integer64. Range: 0 - 18446744073709551615 Default: 0 
  max-lateness        : Maximum number of nanoseconds that a buffer can be late before it is dropped (-1 unlimited)
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Integer64. Range: -1 - 9223372036854775807 Default: 5000000 
  name                : The name of the object
                        flags: readable, writable
                        String. Default: "waylandsink0"
  parent              : The parent of the object
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Object of type "GstObject"
  processing-deadline : Maximum processing deadline in nanoseconds
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Unsigned Integer64. Range: 0 - 18446744073709551615 Default: 15000000 
  qos                 : Generate Quality-of-Service events upstream
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Boolean. Default: true
  render-delay        : Additional render delay of the sink in nanoseconds
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Unsigned Integer64. Range: 0 - 18446744073709551615 Default: 0 
  show-preroll-frame  : Whether to render video frames during preroll
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Boolean. Default: true
  sync                : Sync on the clock
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Boolean. Default: true
  throttle-time       : The time to keep between rendered buffers (0 = disabled)
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Unsigned Integer64. Range: 0 - 18446744073709551615 Default: 0 
  ts-offset           : Timestamp offset in nanoseconds
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Integer64. Range: -9223372036854775808 - 9223372036854775807 Default: 0 

Test Pattern Stream

Test pattern allows you to display pre-built image/video patterns on the display. It is very useful when you don't have a camera but still want to test GStreamer.
Default test pattern:

# gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! autovideosink

Test pattern with specific parameters on the input element:

# gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc pattern=circular ! autovideosink

Camera Loopback

To stream video from a camera to a display, see Testing Camera Preview on Display

Video Playback

The AM625 does not have a VPU. However, video files can be decoded by the CPU. See the following example:

# gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=/run/media/sda1/big_buck_bunny.mp4 ! \
   qtdemux name=demux demux. ! queue ! faad ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! alsasink \
   demux. ! queue ! h264parse ! avdec_h264 ! videoconvert ! waylandsink

This GStreamer pipeline performs the following tasks:

1. filesrc element reads the file located at /run/media/sda1/big_buck_bunny.mp4.
2. qtdemux element demultiplexes the file into audio and video streams. The name demux is assigned to the qtdemux element for later reference.
3. The audio stream is selected and passed to a queue element that helps to buffer and smooth the data flow.
4. The faad element decodes the audio stream in the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format.
5. The audioconvert element is used to convert the audio data from one format to another if required.
6. The audioresample element is used to change the audio sample rate if required.
7. The alsasink element is used to output the audio to the default ALSA sound card.
8. The video stream is selected and passed to a queue element that helps to buffer and smooth the data flow.
9. The h264parse element parses the H.264 encoded video stream.
10. The avdec_h264 element decodes the H.264 encoded video stream.
11. The videoconvert element converts the decoded video data to the required output format.
12. The waylandsink element is used to output the video to a Wayland display server.

RTP Video streaming

Encode video stream from camera using a software based JPEG encoder and stream it over RTP:

# media-ctl --set-v4l2 '"ov5640 0-003c":0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/1280x720@1/30]'
# gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! video/x-raw,width=1280,height=720 ! \
     jpegenc ! rtpjpegpay ! udpsink host=192.168.20.60 port=1223

References

• The GStreamer website
• NXP BSP Linux Users Guide, Multimedia section download link