simple_3_encode, MFXVideoCORE_SyncOperation failing with MFX_ERR_DEVICE_FAILED

[Milen_Y_]

Hi,

I'm using the sample simple_3_encode from http://software.intel.com/sites/default/files/mediasdk-tutorials-0.0.3.zip
The sample is compiled with VS 2015 in Release|Win32 mode. The input file is uncompressed YUV: https://bitbucket.org/myordanovps/qsvsamples/downloads/352x240.7z

I run a BAT file with the following code:
 
-----------
:loop_start
simple_encode.exe -g 352x240 -b 300 -f 25/1 352x240.yuv out.h264 && GOTO loop_start
-----------

The simple_encode.exe runs about 5 - 500 times successfully and then MFXVideoCORE_SyncOperation() fails with MFX_ERR_DEVICE_FAILED:

The test machine is i7-4770K, 32GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro 64bit, driver 15.40.10.64.4300. It also has NVIDIA GTX 960 and NVIDIA Quadro K600.

Here is my command prompt log:
-------------------------------------------
E:\tmp\mediasdk-tutorials-0.0.3\_build\Win32\Release>run_test.bat

E:\tmp\mediasdk-tutorials-0.0.3\_build\Win32\Release>simple_encode.exe -g 352x240 -b 300 -f 25/1 352x240.yuv out.h264   && GOTO loop_start
Frame number: 3644
Execution time: 3.59 s (1013.70 fps)

E:\tmp\mediasdk-tutorials-0.0.3\_build\Win32\Release>simple_encode.exe -g 352x240 -b 300 -f 25/1 352x240.yuv out.h264   && GOTO loop_start
Frame number: 3644
Execution time: 3.55 s (1026.90 fps)

E:\tmp\mediasdk-tutorials-0.0.3\_build\Win32\Release>simple_encode.exe -g 352x240 -b 300 -f 25/1 352x240.yuv out.h264   && GOTO loop_start
Frame number: 3644
Execution time: 3.74 s (975.18 fps)

E:\tmp\mediasdk-tutorials-0.0.3\_build\Win32\Release>simple_encode.exe -g 352x240 -b 300 -f 25/1 352x240.yuv out.h264   && GOTO loop_start
Frame number: 3644
Execution time: 3.59 s (1016.45 fps)

E:\tmp\mediasdk-tutorials-0.0.3\_build\Win32\Release>simple_encode.exe -g 352x240 -b 300 -f 25/1 352x240.yuv out.h264   && GOTO loop_start
Frame number: 3644
Execution time: 3.57 s (1021.92 fps)

E:\tmp\mediasdk-tutorials-0.0.3\_build\Win32\Release>simple_encode.exe -g 352x240 -b 300 -f 25/1 352x240.yuv out.h264   && GOTO loop_start
Frame number: 1635
 Device operation failure. src\simple_encode.cpp 223
-------------------------------------------

[Surbhi_M_Intel]

Hi Milen, 

Thanks for sharing the issue, MFX_ERR_DEVICE_FAILED generally comes when there is a failure in hardware acceleration, regarding the setup - any particular reason you are using simple_3_encode instead of simple_3_encode_vmem, making use of d3d9 and d3d11 implementation or use sample_encode and use hw acceleration?
Do you see this issue without the discrete graphics card connected? this will might help to narrow down the issue

Thanks,
Surbhi

[Milen_Y_]

Hi Surbhi,

Today I did some tests. The results are:
1) simple_3_encode runs OK if the monitor is connected to Intel HD Adapter. NVIDIA GTX 960 is present on the machine.
2) simple_3_encode fails with MFX_ERR_DEVICE_FAILED if the monitor is connected NVIDIA GTX 960.
3) simple_3_encode_vmem (DX11) runs OK if the monitor is connected NVIDIA GTX 960.

I'm using the code from the sample in my app. I'm using the simple_3_encode instead of simple_3_encode_vmem because its source code is simpler.
I'm going to switch from simple_3_encode to simple_3_encode_vmem because it does not fail with MFX_ERR_DEVICE_FAILED. Also the test file 352x240 runs about 40% faster with simple_3_encode_vmem (1000FPS vs 1400FPS).

Thanks,
Milen

[Surbhi_M_Intel]

Hi Milen, 

Thanks for doing more experiments and providing detailed analysis. Let me try to explain the reason of the failure and probably you can match with your experiment - 
1) simple_3_encode runs OK if the monitor is connected to Intel HD Adapter. NVIDIA GTX 960 is present on the machine.
2) simple_3_encode fails with MFX_ERR_DEVICE_FAILED if the monitor is connected NVIDIA GTX 960.

In simple_3_encode, default implementation is AUTO_ANY, which choose the default implementation i.e. via d3d9 unless you specifically choose sw. There is a known limitation in MSDK - In the presence of discrete graphics card and using d3d9 implementation, the monitor needs to be connected to Intel graphics device. So you see failure in second case.

3) simple_3_encode_vmem (DX11) runs OK if the monitor is connected NVIDIA GTX 960.
Above limitation is applicable to d3d9 and not applicable to d3d11. 

Since your system supports d3d11 implementation, I will recommend to use the performance goodness of d3d11 instead of using d3d9. If you are doing single stream encode, I would recommend you to check async depth parameter which tells number of asynchronous pipeline to run before calling sync operation. Async depth = 4 or 5, results in better performance, you can find more details in this article https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/aync-and-join-operation-in-media-sdk-multi-transcoding and code details from simple_3_encode_vmem_async tutorial. 

Thanks,
Surbhi