Help adding a new codec for h265 (HEVC)

Feature Requests
1

Hi,

I was wondering how easy it would be to try different codecs - specifically ones aimed at h265 (i.e. GitHub - strukturag/libde265: Open h.265 video codec implementation.).

I’ve got 8 years experience with embedded c - but bare metal so relatively new to embedded Linux.

Thanks,
Steaky

2

It’s unclear what you are suggesting here ?

Kodi already supports HEVC decoding in software since Isengard. (15.0)

Hardware decoding support is platform specific - currently the Vero 2 supports HEVC decoding in hardware but none of the other OSMC platforms do.

On the Raspberry Pi hardware video decoding is largely done inside the GPU firmware which is a binary blob which only the Raspberry Pi foundation have source code access to. The Linux kernel drivers for the GPU on the Pi are basically just “shims” that pass the video stream through to the GPU for decoding and processing.

The Raspberry Pi does not support HEVC decoding in hardware - at least not at this time, and only the Raspberry Pi foundation would be able to add support for this, assuming it was possible.

3

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response.

I might be wrong, but Kodi uses x265 for the software decoding (on RPi). I was just wondering if alternatives would be better?
I tried watching a 720p on my RPi2 that was encoded with h265 and it was unwatchable. With the RPi3 out today I have bought one so hopefully that will be an improvement.

Obviously there are opportunities to select between omxplayer and dvdplayer(?), so maybe selecting different codecs might provide an improvement somewhere else.

Thanks,
Steaky

4

Omxplayer is hardware decoding only. If you try to play a video that can’t be hardware decoded it will drop back to software decoding using dvdplayer, assuming you have not disabled dvdplayer in preferences.

5

I was mentioning omxplayer/dvdplayer as an already existing option to change between decoding options. I don’t know what the “best” implementation of a software h265 codec is, but maybe it isn’t x265?

6

Hello Mr Mandrake…

I was wondering if the Raspberry Pi 2 “foundation” (ah-hem @popcornmix) has been able to stream H.265 using the rpi2 as a platform and running (any) build of OSMC.

My understanding is that ARM7 devices can in fact decode HEVC/x265… An ARM7 Tegra3 device running an AOSP ROM & Kodi can do it wirelessly (using ffmpeg), but it is laggy and not my point…

Will our beloved rpi2 EVER be able to do this?

If I had a money-tree, I would throw down for a Vero2, but many hobbyists like me enjoy the fact that a 30$ device the size of a credit card has replaced the traditional tower HTPC, and I will admit it… I like to not have to spend money just because there are new codecs. :blush:

Frugally,

goober