vpl-vppenc.exe: can encode to HEVC, but H.264 encoding fails

[mbilio885]

This is on a Windows 10 machine, with CPU i7-8700.  I'm using the pre-built vpl-vppenc.exe which ships with the SDK installer.

HEVC encoding works fine, using this command:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\vpl\2021.2.2\bin>vpl-vppenc.exe -i 420_1080i25.i420 -o out.h265 -n 30 -if i420 -of h265 -sw 1920 -sh 1080 -dw 1920 -dh 1080

I also verified that the output HEVC stream is fine, and decoding it gives out frames that look like the source.

However H.264 encoding fails.  Command used:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\oneAPI\vpl\2021.2.2\bin>vpl-vppenc.exe -i 420_1080i25.i420 -o out.h264 -n 30 -if i420 -of h264 -sw 1920 -sh 1080 -dw 1920 -dh 1080

What I see in the console:

opening 420_1080i25.i420
Dispatcher mode = DISPATCHER_MODE_LEGACY
Memory mode = MEM_MODE_EXTERNAL
Frame mode = INPUT_FRAME_READ_MODE_PITCH
library initialized
Frame size = 3110400
File size = 236390400
Frames estimated = 76
CodecId=541283905 | TargetUsage=4 | TargetKbps=4000 | RateControlMethod=2 | GopPicSize=0 | GopRefDist=0 |
CodecId=541283905 | CodecProfile=100 | CodecLevel=0 | JPEGChromaFormat=4 | JPEGColorFormat=0 | Rotation=0 |
PicStruct=1 | Shift=0 | BitDepthLuma=8 | BitDepthChroma=8 | ChromaFormat=1 | FourCC=1448433993 |
Width=1920 | Height=1080 | CropX=0 | CropY=0 | CropH=1080 | CropW=1920 | AspectRatioH=0 | AspectRatioW=0 |
FrameRateExtD=1 | FrameRateExtN=30 |
could not initialize encode

I also tried the other sample tools that ship with the SDK, and they can also encode to HEVC but not to H.264.

[Mark_L_Intel1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Martin,

Yes, this is expected. Our sample doesn't support H.264 by default and you can find this in the following release notes under known limitation section:

https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/articles/oneapi-video-processing-library-release-notes.html

You can also find the link in the release notes to learn how to enable it manually.

Mark

[Mark_L_Intel1]

Glad this solution works for you. The reason why we setup the default codec HEVC as the CPU implementation is the license restrictions.

If you use GPU implementation, you should use H.264 directly because the codec is support at the hardware level.

Mark