topic Re: FPS Drop When Streaming Monochrome Camera Using GStreamer (IMX8MPlus) in i.MX Processors

FPS Drop When Streaming Monochrome Camera Using GStreamer (IMX8MPlus)

Olivia — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 14:50:28 GMT

Hi everyone,

I’m facing a performance issue with streaming from an IMX8MPlus camera using GStreamer. Here's what's happening:

Command 1: Fake Video Sink (Testing FPS)

gst-launch-1.0 -v v4l2src device=/dev/video2 ! video/x-raw,format=GRAY8,width=1280,height=720,framerate=60/1 ! videoconvert ! fpsdisplaysink video-sink=fakevideosink sync=false

In this case, I’m just testing the FPS, and I get a stable ~106 FPS without any issues. Here's part of the debug log output:

/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstFPSDisplaySink:fpsdisplaysink0/GstFakeVideoSink:fakevideosink0/GstFakeSink:sink: sync = false
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstFPSDisplaySink:fpsdisplaysink0/GstTextOverlay:fps-display-text-overlay: text = rendered: 56, dropped: 0, current: 110.36, average: 110.36
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstFPSDisplaySink:fpsdisplaysink0: last-message = rendered: 56, dropped: 0, current: 110.36, average: 110.36

Command 2: Autovideosink (Streaming)

gst-launch-1.0 -v v4l2src device=/dev/video2 ! video/x-raw,format=GRAY8,width=1280,height=720,framerate=60/1 ! videoconvert ! fpsdisplaysink text-overlay=true video-sink=autovideosink sync=false

When I try to stream using autovideosink, the FPS drops drastically to ~7 FPS, and the streaming performance is really poor. Here’s the log output:

/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstFPSDisplaySink:fpsdisplaysink0/GstAutoVideoSink:autovideosink0/GstWaylandSink:autovideosink0-actual-sink-wayland: sync = false
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstFPSDisplaySink:fpsdisplaysink0/GstTextOverlay:fps-display-text-overlay: text = rendered: 5, dropped: 0, current: 9.77, average: 9.77
/GstPipeline:pipeline0/GstFPSDisplaySink:fpsdisplaysink0: last-message = rendered: 5, dropped: 0, current: 9.77, average: 9.77

Questions:

How can I resolve this FPS drop when using autovideosink for streaming?
Are there any GStreamer pipeline tweaks or configurations that could help improve performance in this case?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Re: FPS Drop When Streaming Monochrome Camera Using GStreamer (IMX8MPlus)

Bio_TICFSL — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:56:31 GMT

Hello,

Apparently is the GRAY8 that is not currently default by gstreamer however you can see more pipelines in the following guide:

https://community.nxp.com/pwmxy87654/attachments/pwmxy87654/imx-processors%40tkb/15/2/i.MX8GStreamerUserGuide.pdf

regards

Re: FPS Drop When Streaming Monochrome Camera Using GStreamer (IMX8MPlus)

Olivia — Mon, 19 May 2025 12:48:16 GMT

Hello,

I'm working on an i.MX8M Plus platform and capturing grayscale video from a monochrome camera at 1280x720@60fps using v4l2src, which outputs video/x-raw, format=GRAY8.

I currently use videoconvert to convert GRAY8 to I420 or NV12, so that I can pass it to imxvideoconvert_g2d or display it with autovideosink. However, videoconvert appears to be CPU-bound and is limiting my pipeline to around 25 FPS.

My goal is to achieve full 60 FPS using hardware-accelerated paths only.

Is there any GStreamer element (ideally hardware-accelerated or zero-copy capable) that accepts GRAY8 input directly, bypassing the need for videoconvert?