* This base class is for video decoders turning encoded data into raw video
* frames.
*
- * GstVideoDecoder and subclass should cooperate as follows.
+ * The GstVideoDecoder base class and derived subclasses should cooperate as follows:
* <orderedlist>
* <listitem>
* <itemizedlist><title>Configuration</title>
* <listitem><para>
* Initially, GstVideoDecoder calls @start when the decoder element
- * is activated, which allows subclass to perform any global setup.
+ * is activated, which allows the subclass to perform any global setup.
* </para></listitem>
* <listitem><para>
- * GstVideoDecoder calls @set_format to inform subclass of caps
+ * GstVideoDecoder calls @set_format to inform the subclass of caps
* describing input video data that it is about to receive, including
* possibly configuration data.
* While unlikely, it might be called more than once, if changing input
* parameters require reconfiguration.
* </para></listitem>
* <listitem><para>
+ * Incoming data buffers are processed as needed, described in Data Processing below.
+ * </para></listitem>
+ * <listitem><para>
* GstVideoDecoder calls @stop at end of all processing.
* </para></listitem>
* </itemizedlist>
* <itemizedlist>
* <title>Data processing</title>
* <listitem><para>
- * Base class gathers input data, and optionally allows subclass
+ * The base class gathers input data, and optionally allows subclass
* to parse this into subsequently manageable chunks, typically
* corresponding to and referred to as 'frames'.
* </para></listitem>
* <listitem><para>
- * Input frame is provided to subclass' @handle_frame. The ownership of
- * the frame is given to @handle_frame.
+ * Each input frame is provided in turn to the subclass' @handle_frame callback.
+ * The ownership of the frame is given to the @handle_frame callback.
* </para></listitem>
* <listitem><para>
- * If codec processing results in decoded data, subclass should call
+ * If codec processing results in decoded data, the subclass should call
* @gst_video_decoder_finish_frame to have decoded data pushed.
- * downstream.
+ * downstream. Otherwise, the subclass must call @gst_video_decoder_drop_frame, to
+ * allow the base class to do timestamp and offset tracking, and possibly to
+ * requeue the frame for a later attempt in the case of reverse playback.
* </para></listitem>
* </itemizedlist>
* </listitem>
* <listitem>
* <itemizedlist><title>Shutdown phase</title>
* <listitem><para>
- * GstVideoDecoder class calls @stop to inform the subclass that data
+ * The GstVideoDecoder class calls @stop to inform the subclass that data
* parsing will be stopped.
* </para></listitem>
* </itemizedlist>
* </listitem>
+ * <listitem>
+ * <itemizedlist><title>Additional Notes</title>
+ * <listitem>
+ * <itemizedlist><title>Seeking/Flushing</title>
+ * <listitem><para>
+ * When the pipeline is seeked or otherwise flushed, the subclass is informed via a call
+ * to its @reset callback, with the hard parameter set to true. This indicates the
+ * subclass should drop any internal data queues and timestamps and prepare for a fresh
+ * set of buffers to arrive for parsing and decoding.
+ * </para></listitem>
+ * </itemizedlist>
+ * </listitem>
+ * <listitem>
+ * <itemizedlist><title>End Of Stream</title>
+ * <listitem><para>
+ * At end-of-stream, the subclass @parse function may be called some final times with the
+ * at_eos parameter set to true, indicating that the element should not expect any more data
+ * to be arriving, and it should parse and remaining frames and call
+ * gst_video_decoder_have_frame() if possible.
+ * </para></listitem>
+ * </itemizedlist>
+ * </listitem>
+ * </itemizedlist>
+ * </listitem>
* </orderedlist>
*
- * Subclass is responsible for providing pad template caps for
+ * The subclass is responsible for providing pad template caps for
* source and sink pads. The pads need to be named "sink" and "src". It also
- * needs to set the fixed caps on srcpad, when the format is ensured. This
- * is typically when base class calls subclass' @set_format function, though
- * it might be delayed until calling @gst_video_decoder_finish_frame.
+ * needs to provide information about the ouptput caps, when they are known.
+ * This may be when the base class calls the subclass' @set_format function,
+ * though it might be during decoding, before calling
+ * @gst_video_decoder_finish_frame. This is done via
+ * @gst_video_decoder_set_output_state
*
- * Subclass is also responsible for providing (presentation) timestamps
+ * The subclass is also responsible for providing (presentation) timestamps
* (likely based on corresponding input ones). If that is not applicable
- * or possible, baseclass provides limited framerate based interpolation.
+ * or possible, the base class provides limited framerate based interpolation.
*
- * Similarly, the baseclass provides some limited (legacy) seeking support
- * (upon explicit subclass request), as full-fledged support
+ * Similarly, the base class provides some limited (legacy) seeking support
+ * if specifically requested by the subclass, as full-fledged support
* should rather be left to upstream demuxer, parser or alike. This simple
* approach caters for seeking and duration reporting using estimated input
- * bitrates.
+ * bitrates. To enable it, a subclass should call
+ * @gst_video_decoder_set_estimate_rate to enable handling of incoming byte-streams.
*
- * Baseclass provides some support for reverse playback, in particular
+ * The base class provides some support for reverse playback, in particular
* in case incoming data is not packetized or upstream does not provide
- * fragments on keyframe boundaries. However, subclass should then be prepared
- * for the parsing and frame processing stage to occur separately (rather
- * than otherwise the latter immediately following the former),
- * and should ensure the parsing stage properly marks keyframes or rely on
- * upstream to do so properly for incoming data.
+ * fragments on keyframe boundaries. However, the subclass should then be prepared
+ * for the parsing and frame processing stage to occur separately (in normal
+ * forward processing, the latter immediately follows the former),
+ * The subclass also needs to ensure the parsing stage properly marks keyframes,
+ * unless it knows the upstream elements will do so properly for incoming data.
*
- * Things that subclass need to take care of:
+ * The bare minimum that a functional subclass needs to implement is:
* <itemizedlist>
* <listitem><para>Provide pad templates</para></listitem>
* <listitem><para>
- * Set source pad caps when appropriate
- * </para></listitem>
- * <listitem><para>
- * Configure some baseclass behaviour parameters.
+ * Inform the base class of output caps via @gst_video_decoder_set_output_state
* </para></listitem>
* <listitem><para>
- * Optionally parse input data, if it is not considered packetized.
+ * Parse input data, if it is not considered packetized from upstream
* Data will be provided to @parse which should invoke @gst_video_decoder_add_to_frame and
- * @gst_video_decoder_have_frame as appropriate.
+ * @gst_video_decoder_have_frame to separate the data belonging to each video frame.
* </para></listitem>
* <listitem><para>
* Accept data in @handle_frame and provide decoded results to
- * @gst_video_decoder_finish_frame.
+ * @gst_video_decoder_finish_frame, or call @gst_video_decoder_drop_frame.
* </para></listitem>
* </itemizedlist>
*/
*
*/
+/* Implementation notes:
+ * The Video Decoder base class operates in 2 primary processing modes, depending
+ * on whether forward or reverse playback is requested.
+ *
+ * Forward playback:
+ * * Incoming buffer -> @parse() -> add_to_frame()/have_frame() -> handle_frame() ->
+ * push downstream
+ *
+ * Reverse playback is more complicated, since it involves gathering incoming data regions
+ * as we loop backwards through the upstream data. The processing concept (using incoming
+ * buffers as containing one frame each to simplify things) is:
+ *
+ * Upstream data we want to play:
+ * Buffer encoded order: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 EOS
+ * Keyframe flag: K K
+ * Groupings: AAAAAAA BBBBBBB CCCCCCC
+ *
+ * Input:
+ * Buffer reception order: 7 8 9 4 5 6 1 2 3 EOS
+ * Keyframe flag: K K
+ * Discont flag: D D D
+ *
+ * - Each Discont marks a discont in the decoding order.
+ * - The keyframes mark where we can start decoding.
+ *
+ * Initially, we prepend incoming buffers to the gather queue. Whenever the
+ * discont flag is set on an incoming buffer, the gather queue is flushed out
+ * before the new buffer is collected.
+ *
+ * The above data will be accumulated in the gather queue like this:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 9 8 7
+ * D
+ *
+ * Whe buffer 4 is received (with a DISCONT), we flush the gather queue like
+ * this:
+ *
+ * while (gather)
+ * take head of queue and prepend to parse queue (this reverses the sequence,
+ * so parse queue is 7 -> 8 -> 9)
+ *
+ * Next, we process the parse queue, which now contains all un-parsed packets (including
+ * any leftover ones from the previous decode section)
+ *
+ * for each buffer now in the parse queue:
+ * Call the subclass parse function, prepending each resulting frame to
+ * the parse_gather queue. Buffers which precede the first one that
+ * produces a parsed frame are retained in the parse queue for re-processing on
+ * the next cycle of parsing.
+ *
+ * The parse_gather queue now contains frame objects ready for decoding, in reverse order.
+ * parse_gather: 9 -> 8 -> 7
+ *
+ * while (parse_gather)
+ * Take the head of the queue and prepend it to the decode queue
+ * If the frame was a keyframe, process the decode queue
+ * decode is now 7-8-9
+ *
+ * Processing the decode queue results in frames with attached output buffers
+ * stored in the 'output_queue' ready for outputting in reverse order.
+ *
+ * After we flushed the gather queue and parsed it, we add 4 to the (now empty) gather queue.
+ * We get the following situation:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 4
+ * decode queue: 7 8 9
+ *
+ * After we received 5 (Keyframe) and 6:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 6 5 4
+ * decode queue: 7 8 9
+ *
+ * When we receive 1 (DISCONT) which triggers a flush of the gather queue:
+ *
+ * Copy head of the gather queue (6) to decode queue:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 5 4
+ * decode queue: 6 7 8 9
+ *
+ * Copy head of the gather queue (5) to decode queue. This is a keyframe so we
+ * can start decoding.
+ *
+ * gather queue: 4
+ * decode queue: 5 6 7 8 9
+ *
+ * Decode frames in decode queue, store raw decoded data in output queue, we
+ * can take the head of the decode queue and prepend the decoded result in the
+ * output queue:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 4
+ * decode queue:
+ * output queue: 9 8 7 6 5
+ *
+ * Now output all the frames in the output queue, picking a frame from the
+ * head of the queue.
+ *
+ * Copy head of the gather queue (4) to decode queue, we flushed the gather
+ * queue and can now store input buffer in the gather queue:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 1
+ * decode queue: 4
+ *
+ * When we receive EOS, the queue looks like:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 3 2 1
+ * decode queue: 4
+ *
+ * Fill decode queue, first keyframe we copy is 2:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 1
+ * decode queue: 2 3 4
+ *
+ * Decoded output:
+ *
+ * gather queue: 1
+ * decode queue:
+ * output queue: 4 3 2
+ *
+ * Leftover buffer 1 cannot be decoded and must be discarded.
+ */
+
#include "gstvideodecoder.h"
#include "gstvideoutils.h"