i.MX 8M: I can't play 4K video on Android.

[gabper3x]

Hi, I'm trying to make an application which has the function play HEVC encoded 4K 60fps video stream on Android system.
But it becomes as below.

4K 24fps -> success
4K 60fps -> fail

Logcat told some frame droppings.
I tried to increase heap size of the system, but got same result.
It seems the problem is not a memory allocation.
I found a case which FFmpeg does not work correctly against V4L2 M2M option (specify hardware decoding) in 64-bit Raspberry Pi 4.
Could my case same to that?

CPU: i.MX 8M(Quad)
SoM: DART-MX8M
Media Player: LibVLC.Android 3.5.1
OS: Android 11

Best Regards,

[joanxie]

what kind of fail do you get?  pls test on the linux firstly, android 11 uses 5.10.52 as kernel, and did you try other media files to playback? all of them are failed or just this one?

[gabper3x]

I try to play HEVC videos which are as below.

video name	size	fps	dynamic range	profile
A	4K	24	SDR	Main
B	4K	60	HDR	Main10

results on Yocto 3.0(kernel=5.4.24 using Gstreamer)

• A = Success
• B = Success

Gstreamer option:

gst-launch-1.0 -v filesrc location=<File Path> ! tsdemux ! h265parse ! vpudec ! autovideosink

results on Android 11(kernel=5.4.47 using VLC)

• A = Success
• B = Fail

VLC option:

:codec=mediacodec_ndk,mediacodec_jni,all

Other video codec(H.264) is no problem.

Error logs of video B on Android is shown in the attachement.

I think It's something matter of during from the instruction of hardware decoding to the actual VPU behavior.

Regards,

[joanxie · Accepted solution]

I have tested this with my download HEVC 4k@60fps on android 11_2.6.0 successfully, I want to test kernel 5.4.47 kernel (android 11_1.2.0), but refer to the release note, this version is only for i.MX 8M Plus (Silicon Revision A1) EVK Board and Platform, so I suggest that you can upgrade your android to the newer version

[gabper3x]

It's very interesting. My EVK is not NXP's so the vendor may customize some settings for kernel 5.4.47.
Actually I already know a solution which can play this video by VPU. But this knowledge is very important that make my system more better.
Thank you for supporting.

[joanxie]

did you try other player on android? pls share your video here

[gabper3x]

Q. did you try other player on android?

It was failed on Cactus Player and Gstreamer.

But I tried two another Android devices(on VLC). All of them succeeded to play.

Q.  pls share your video here

It is difficult because uploading is prohibited by the broadcasting law.

I'll find alternative videos which occurs the same problem.

[gabper3x]

I found a similar video. the same problem occurs with this file.

https://4kmedia.org/travelxp-4k-hdr-hlg-sample/

[joanxie]

I was blocked by this link, do you mind sharing again? 

[gabper3x]

sorry but this is not mine. could you ask anyone to visit this site to get purposed video? 

[joanxie]

I still was blocked by the link even I changed another network, I will try to download one to test for you, pls wait