MP4 Files encoded with ffmpeg do not play back on Kodi with hardware acceleration

Question

I have encoded some files with FFmpeg using ubuntu 16.04 with FFmpeg from ubuntu repos

• ffmpeg version 2.8.14-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
• encoder : Lavf56.40.101

Since I disassembled a video frame by frame I first reassemble the frames as so.

ffmpeg -y -start_number 0 -i %*.png -c:v qtrle -pix_fmt rgb24  outnew.mov

After creating that I can change frame rate to combine with one of two soundtracks like this for the YUV 420P 4:4:4 (this is not software version please do no edit again!)

ffmpeg -y -r 25.02 -i outnew.mov -itsoffset 2.6 -i buggles.flac -c:a aac -strict -2 -b:a 256k -vf eq=brightness=0.024:gamma=1.3:saturation=1.28:contrast=1.22 -shortest bugglesaudio.mp4

To create the YUV420P 4:2:2 , I am using this:

ffmpeg -y -r 25.02 -i outnew.mov -itsoffset 2.6 -i buggles.flac -c:a aac -strict -2 -b:a 256k -vf format=yuv422p eq=brightness=0.024:gamma=1.3:saturation=1.28:contrast=1.22 -shortest bugglesaudio422.mp4

I was not shocked to find that the 4:4:4 version did not hardware decode on Kodi 18.3 (linux) but now I see the 4:2:2 version does not hardware decode on Kodi either.

I have tested many other sources and files on Kodi and hardware decoding is working on other files on Kodi.

Maybe I need to specify a profile? I was reading about profiles but it seemed unclear.

Answer 1

Most hardwares decoders do not support anything other than 4:2:0 chroma subsampleing for h.264. kodi has nothing to do with it. Its a limitation of the device kodi is running on.

Also “YUV420P 4:4:4” is not a thing, its either 420, or 444, it can’t be both.