Hardware Transcoding stopped working

numetaler · 2025-08-12T09:53:24+00:00

Hello everyone, for some time now, I have been experiencing issues with hardware transcoding. I am uncertain if this is the appropriate forum, as I am using...

ukn_unknown

numetaler
Can you copy the output of command vainfo -a in a text file and attached to your response?

numetaler

if i connect with ssh to my synology the command gives me an error:

Trying display: drm
error: failed to initialize display

Makes sense, since there is no Display connected. i try to check inside the container

edit:
inside the container i cannot use this command

numetaler

i checked if my gpu is available in the container, and i looks like it is:

Alex@DiskStation:~$ sudo docker exec -it tvheadend_transcode ls -l /dev/dri
total 0
crw------- 1 root root 2445901728, 32552 Aug 14 05:46 card0
crw-rw---- 1 root videoe8bjvu11 2445901728, 32552 Aug 14 05:46 renderD128

numetaler

the next container i can test includes the commits b9d34f9 and 0af87f1 wich results in:
Build: 4.3-2432_g0af87f13f (2025-07-26T15:51:23+0000)

and here it stopped working... so it could be either one of those commits
VLC says the format i set (1280:720) but image is frozen from the start and i don't even have sound.

ukn_unknown

numetaler
To narrow down fully you need a container that includes the commits b9d34f9 --> frankly is hard for me to foreseen that changes from this commit might generate that behavior.
Can you remove (for testing only) the resize (instead of "Down (only)" select "Up & Down") ?

Trying display: drm
error: failed to initialize display

This is expected if you don't have monitor ... I need the rest of the text. Is strange that is trying to use 'drm' 🙁 . Should be something like ... Check if your versions of libva, vaapi and driver version are close to mine.

Trying display: wayland Trying display: x11 error: can't connect to X server! Trying display: drm libva info: VA-API version 1.18.0 libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_18 libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0 vainfo: VA-API version: 1.18 (libva 2.18.0) vainfo: Driver version: Intel iHD driver for Intel(R) Gen Graphics - 23.2.1 () vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints

numetaler

I think idon't get vainfo output because my synology is a nas without display connector. I think i can't get more information.

Regarding the docker i test one with the commit you said

numetaler

ok, so i can just download the container wich includes the two commits b9d34f9 and 0af87f1. unfortunately linuxserver did no update inbetween this two commits...
i try to install vaainfo inside the container. maybe this works.

edit:

it did 🙂
here is the output:

root@tvheadend:/#vainfo
Trying display: wayland
error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is invalid or not set in the environment.
Trying display: x11
error: can't connect to X server!
Trying display: drm
libva info: VA-API version 1.21.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_21
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.21 (libva 2.21.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel iHD driver for Intel(R) Gen Graphics - 23.4.3 ()
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointStats
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointFEI
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointFEI
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointEncPicture
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointFEI
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
VAProfileVP8Version0_3 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP8Version0_3 : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointFEI
VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP9Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD

this is from the container with both commits. from where transcoding isn't working anymore

ukn_unknown

numetaler
Based on this info container is updated 🙁 let's try to capture some logs.
On the web interface: Configuration / Debugging / Configuration

I am not sure how container will affect the file system ... do you have /tmp folder? adjust that to fit the container.

For codec profile use the settings:

for stream profile use:

In order to acquire a small sample of logs, after you press Save button (on first picture with debug settings); you start playing imediately on Kodi one channel. After failure you need to delete the first settings from Debug "/tmp/tvheadend" and press Save again (that will stop the logging acquisition.
After that attach the file on this thread.

numetaler

hello, i testet now like you said with kodi... what can i say... with kodi it works. so the real problem must be in the android TVHclient-App, or android VLC or android itself... who knows... i am very sorry that i took your time.
There is just one minor problem. The sound is about 1 second out of sync with the image during transcoding. Can this be improved, or should I compensate for the delay in Kodi?

numetaler

couldn't edit my last post:

hello, i testet now like you said with kodi... what can i say... with kodi it works. so the real problem must be in the android TVHclient-App, or android VLC or android itself... who knows...
So i testet to open a transcoded stream directly with vlc on my pi5. Same problem like on TVHClient-App. Stream starts, picture frozen and no sound. if i use something else than matroska(mkv) built in it gets me immediately an error in vlc.
There is just one minor problem when using Kodi. The sound is about 1 second out of sync with the image during transcoding. Can this be improved, or should I compensate for the delay in Kodi?

i think it could be that my problem with not starting streams at my father in laws place with kodi, was related to bad/slow connection via tailscale... today i do some testing when i'm at his place.

to test things at home i set up an hotspot and connected my rpi5 with normal wireguard to my homenetwork and startet streaming in kodi. Except for the audio delay, it worked well, but direct in VLC its not working.

i tried to get logs as you said in /tmp. but i didn't find out yet how to achive this in a container. ill get back to you as soon as i managed to log something

numetaler

i testet again with the older container where everything was working fine and there is no sync problem in kodi. VLC is Working fine on this build as well

ukn_unknown

numetaler

The sound is about 1 second out of sync with the image during transcoding. Can this be improved, or should I compensate for the delay in Kodi?

i testet again with the older container where everything was working fine and there is no sync problem in kodi. VLC is Working fine on this build as well

Interesting ... I don't have this problem. Delay is constant? or is variable based on: how close are you from source, is accessed directly or through VPN? Can you perform some tests on local network (in order to remove the VPN from picture)? Another thing to look for is how much CPU is used when you start one container (that works) and second container (that doesn't work). I experienced this delay on RPI4 when I tried to transcode video with large resolution.
Another interesting test is to reduce the resolution (a lot) to confirm if the traffic of information is the problem. Instead of 720 can you set a small value ... like 240?
For RPI 5: can you flash something light like LibreELEC on the SDCard?

i think it could be that my problem with not starting streams at my father in laws place with kodi, was related to bad/slow connection via tailscale... today i do some testing when i'm at his place.

You can use iperf3 to test the throughput before testing video. If you have large variation in throughput this system is not intended to adjust dynamically (like Neflix) 🙁 ... so will fail.

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