Image buffer display order using VTDecompressionSession

Question

I have a project where I need to decode h264 video from a live network stream and, ultimately, get a texture that I can display in a different structure (Unity3D) on iOS devices. I can successfully decode the video using VTDecompressionSession, and then capture the texture using CVMetalTextureCacheCreateTextureFromImage (or OpenGL variant). It works great when I use a low latency encoder and the image buffers go out in the display order, however when I use a regular encoder, the image buffers don't go out in the display order, and reordering the image buffers seems to be a lot more complicated than I expected.

The first attempt was to set VTDecodeFrameFlags with kVTDecodeFrame_EnableAsynchronousDecompression and kVTDecodeFrame_EnableTemporalProcessing ... However, it turns out that VTDecompressionSession can ignore the flag and do whatever it wants ... and in my case, it prefers to ignore the flag in the buffer as well coding order (not display order). Essentially useless.

The next attempt was to link the image buffers with the timestamp of the view, and then throw them into a vector that would allow me to capture the image buffer that I need when I create the texture. The problem is that the image buffer that is included with VTDecompressionSession associated with the timestamp is no longer the same buffer that does not substantially render the timestamp useless.

For example, switching to a decoder ...

  VTDecodeFrameFlags flags = kVTDecodeFrame_EnableAsynchronousDecompression;
  VTDecodeInfoFlags flagOut;
  // Presentation time stamp to be passed with the buffer
  NSNumber *nsPts = [NSNumber numberWithDouble:pts];

  VTDecompressionSessionDecodeFrame(_decompressionSession, sampleBuffer, flags,
                                          (void*)CFBridgingRetain(nsPts), &flagOut);

On the callback side ...

void decompressionSessionDecodeFrameCallback(void *decompressionOutputRefCon, void *sourceFrameRefCon, OSStatus status, VTDecodeInfoFlags infoFlags, CVImageBufferRef imageBuffer, CMTime presentationTimeStamp, CMTime presentationDuration)
 {
      // The presentation time stamp...
      // No longer seems to be associated with the buffer that it went in with!
      NSNumber* pts = CFBridgingRelease(sourceFrameRefCon);
 }

When ordering, time stamps on the callback side monotonically increase at the expected speed, but the buffers are not in the correct order. Does anyone see where I am making a mistake here? Or do you know how to determine the order of buffers on the callback side? At the moment, I have tried everything that I can think of.

Answer 1

VTDecompressionSession, , PTS. VTDecompressionSession () kVTDecodeFrame_EnableAsynchronousDecompression kVTDecodeFrame_EnableTemporalProcessing, PTS .

, CMSampleBuffer , VTDecompressionSession.

// Wrap our CMBlockBuffer in a CMSampleBuffer...
CMSampleBufferRef sampleBuffer;

CMTime duration = ...;
CMTime presentationTimeStamp = ...;
CMTime decompressTimeStamp = ...;

CMSampleTimingInfo timingInfo{duration, presentationTimeStamp, decompressTimeStamp};

_sampleTimingArray[0] = timingInfo;
_sampleSizeArray[0] = nalLength;

// Wrap the CMBlockBuffer...
status = CMSampleBufferCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, blockBuffer, true, NULL, NULL, _formatDescription, 1, 1, _sampleTimingArray, 1, _sampleSizeArray, &sampleBuffer);

... .

VTDecodeFrameFlags flags = kVTDecodeFrame_EnableAsynchronousDecompression | kVTDecodeFrame_EnableTemporalProcessing;
VTDecodeInfoFlags flagOut;

VTDecompressionSessionDecodeFrame(_decompressionSession, sampleBuffer, flags,
                                      (void*)CFBridgingRetain(NULL), &flagOut);

CVImageBufferRef. , CVImageBufferRef PTS. , .

struct Buffer
{
    CVImageBufferRef imageBuffer = NULL;
    double pts = 0;
};

std::vector <Buffer> _buffer;

. PTS .

 -(int) getMinIndex
 {
     if(_buffer[0].pts > _buffer[1].pts)
     {
         return 1;
     }

     return 0;
 }      

...

 void decompressionSessionDecodeFrameCallback(void *decompressionOutputRefCon, void *sourceFrameRefCon, OSStatus status, VTDecodeInfoFlags infoFlags, CVImageBufferRef imageBuffer, CMTime presentationTimeStamp, CMTime presentationDuration)
 {
    StreamManager *streamManager = (__bridge StreamManager     *)decompressionOutputRefCon;

    @synchronized(streamManager)
    {
    if (status != noErr)
    {
        NSError *error = [NSError errorWithDomain:NSOSStatusErrorDomain code:status userInfo:nil];
        NSLog(@"Decompressed error: %@", error);
    }
    else
    {
        // Get the PTS
        double pts = CMTimeGetSeconds(presentationTimeStamp);

        // Fill our buffer initially
        if(!streamManager->_bufferReady)
        {
            Buffer buffer;

            buffer.pts = pts;
            buffer.imageBuffer = imageBuffer;

            CVBufferRetain(buffer.imageBuffer);

            streamManager->_buffer[streamManager->_bufferIndex++] = buffer;
        }
        else
        {
            // Push new buffers to the index with the lowest PTS
            int index = [streamManager getMinIndex];

            // Release the old CVImageBufferRef
            CVBufferRelease(streamManager->_buffer[index].imageBuffer);

            Buffer buffer;

            buffer.pts = pts;
            buffer.imageBuffer = imageBuffer;

            // Retain the new CVImageBufferRef
            CVBufferRetain(buffer.imageBuffer);

            streamManager->_buffer[index] = buffer;
        }

        // Wrap around the buffer when initialized
        // _bufferWindow = 2
        if(streamManager->_bufferIndex == streamManager->_bufferWindow)
        {
            streamManager->_bufferReady = YES;
            streamManager->_bufferIndex = 0;
        }
    }
}
}

, () ...

 - (void)drainBuffer
 {
      @synchronized(self)
      {
         if(_bufferReady)
         {
             // Drain buffers from the index with the lowest PTS
             int index = [self getMinIndex];

             Buffer buffer = _buffer[index];

             // Do something useful with the buffer now in display order
         }
       }
 }

Answer 2

. , , . 2, 3. , , ( ) pts/duration. - . , , "", .. pts ( I-) "" ( ...). , :

#include <CoreVideo/CVImageBuffer.h>

#include <boost/container/flat_set.hpp>

inline bool operator<(const CMTime& left, const CMTime& right)
{
    return CMTimeCompare(left, right) < 0;
}

inline bool operator==(const CMTime& left, const CMTime& right)
{
    return CMTimeCompare(left, right) == 0;
}

inline CMTime operator+(const CMTime& left, const CMTime& right)
{
    return CMTimeAdd(left, right);
}

class reorder_buffer_t
{
public:

    struct entry_t
    {
        CFGuard<CVImageBufferRef> image;
        CMTime pts;
        CMTime duration;
        bool operator<(const entry_t& other) const
        {
            return pts < other.pts;
        }
    };

private:

    typedef boost::container::flat_set<entry_t> buffer_t;

public:

    reorder_buffer_t()
    {
    }

    void push(entry_t entry)
    {
        if (!_head)
            _head = entry.pts;
        _buffer.insert(std::move(entry));
    }

    bool empty() const
    {
        return _buffer.empty();
    }

    bool ready() const
    {
        return !empty() && _buffer.begin()->pts == _head;
    }

    entry_t pop()
    {
        assert(ready());
        auto entry = *_buffer.begin();
        _buffer.erase(_buffer.begin());
        _head = entry.pts + entry.duration;
        return entry;
    }

    void clear()
    {
        _buffer.clear();
        _head = boost::none;
    }

private:

    boost::optional<CMTime> _head;
    buffer_t _buffer;
};