Writegear - use hardware encoder

[mj43]

Writegear uses libx264 or libx265 encoders. Is it possible to make use of existing hardware encoders - for example on an Intel CPU the h264_vaapi encoder. I ask as using libx264 my CPU is saturating and the output video is dropping frames. In tests I have done outside of Writegear, using the h264_vaapi encoder significantly reduces the CPU load.

[abhiTronix]

@mj43

Writegear uses libx264 or libx265 encoders.

That's incorrect, WriteGear DOES NOT exclusively use libx264 or libx265 encoders, but only use them as fallback encoders when no -vcodec parameter is passed in output_param dict.

Is it possible to make use of existing hardware encoders - for example on an Intel CPU the h264_vaapi encoder.

(The solution is in docs, kindly refer it for more details.)

How to change Output Codec?

Changing codec is a piece of cake in VidGear, just pass the encoder -vcodec:h264_vaapi in output_param dict in WriteGear class. Also you can specify the device/harware to be used with '-vaapi_device':'/dev/dri/renderD128'or other features such as '-vf':'format=nv12,hwupload' in outputparam dict. You can easily find such options in FFmpeg docs with a little bit of googling. But first remember to check if your FFmpeg supports VAAPI encoders as below.

Important :warning:

Kindly first confirm that your FFmpeg supports VAAPI encoders, with command as follows:

ffmpeg  -hide_banner -encoders | grep vaapi 

 V..... h264_vaapi           H.264/AVC (VAAPI) (codec h264)
 V..... hevc_vaapi           H.265/HEVC (VAAPI) (codec hevc)
 V..... mjpeg_vaapi          MJPEG (VAAPI) (codec mjpeg)
 V..... mpeg2_vaapi          MPEG-2 (VAAPI) (codec mpeg2video)
 V..... vp8_vaapi            VP8 (VAAPI) (codec vp8)

:bulb: Finally, Remember You can alter almost any parameter that is supported by FFmpeg itself with VidGear library!

[mj43]

Many thanks for this guidance.