scottrfrancis / image_h264_encoder

ROS package for hardware accelerated encoding of images to h264 mp4.

Usage

Example:

<launch>
  <node name="h264_encoder" pkg="image_h264_encoder" type="image_h264_encoder_node" output="log">
    <param name="fps" value="30" />
    <param name="bitrate" value="10000" />
    <param name="targetLocation" value="./h264Encoder_front.mp4" />

    <param name="publishScaledImage" value="true"/>
    <param name="imageScaleFactor" value="0.15"/>

    <remap from="~image" to="/front_camera" />
  </node>
</launch>

Dependencies

OpenCV

Make sure that your OpenCV build supports GStreamer.
Use python to querry the build configuration:

import cv2
print(cv2.getBuildInformation())

Check for GStreamer support:

GStreamer:                   
  base:                      YES (ver 1.8.3)
  video:                     YES (ver 1.8.3)
  app:                       YES (ver 1.8.3)
  riff:                      YES (ver 1.8.3)
  pbutils:                   YES (ver 1.8.3)

NVIDIA H264 encoder

Test

To test if the encoder is installed properly:

gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=./sample.mp4 ! qtdemux  ! h264parse ! avdec_h264 ! nvh264enc rc-mode=2 bitrate=10000 ! h264parse ! mp4mux ! filesink location=./encoded.mp4

Installation

1. Download the Vision SDK from https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-video-codec-sdk/download

2. check if current nvidia driver is sufficent with nvidia-smi

3. Install the SDK:

   unzip Video_Codec_SDK.zip
   cd Video_Codec_SDK
   
   sudo cp include/* /usr/local/cuda/include
   sudo cp Lib/linux/stubs/x86_64/* /usr/local/cuda/lib64/stubs

4. Get GStreamer Bad plugins

   sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad
   git clone https://github.com/GStreamer/gst-plugins-bad.git
   cd gst-plugins-bad
   
   git checkout $(gst-launch-1.0 --version | grep version | tr -s ' ' '\n' | tail -1)
   
   ./autogen.sh --disable-gtk-doc --noconfigure
   
   export NVENCODE_CFLAGS="-I/usr/local/cuda/include"
   ./configure --with-cuda-prefix="/usr/local/cuda"

5. Check output to confirm that nvenc, nvdec plugins is going to be build

6. Build and install nvenc

   cd sys/nvenc
   make 
   sudo make install
   cd ../..
   

7. Build and install nvdec

   cd sys/nvdec
   make 
   sudo make install
   cd ../..
   

8. Add GST_PLUGIN_PATH to bashrc

   echo "export GST_PLUGIN_PATH=$GST_PLUGIN_PATH:/usr/local/lib/gstreamer-1.0/" >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   

Common issues

openCV is not found

In some cases catkin searches for opencv, a symbolic link fixes the issue:

sudo ln -s /usr/include/opencv4/ /usr/include/opencv

If OpenCV is still not found, try to set the environment variable OpenCV_DIR.

OpenCV version specific videowriter

OpenCV changed the behavior of the videwriter class.
To enable support for OpenCV 4 adjust the OPENCVVERSION to 4 in the encoder source file.