How to encode a video stream with the hardware video encoder

Applicable for

When using complex GStreamer bins such as encodebin or encodebin2, hardware acceleration is abstracted to the user and automatically selected to achieve the best level of performances.

Here is an example with a local encoding of a 10 s video test pattern in VP8 at 30 fps (300 frames) with matroskamux for a webm file:

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc num-buffers=300 ! video/x-raw, width=640, height=480, framerate=30/1 ! encodebin profile="video/x-vp8" ! matroskamux ! filesink location=v_vp8_640x480_30fps.webm
[...]
Got EOS from element "pipeline0".
Execution ended after 0:00:01.229040368
[...]

Play back the file to check the encoded content:

gst-play-1.0 v_vp8_640x480_30fps.webm
[...]
0:00:10.0 / 0:00:10.0     
Reached end of play list.

Here is another example with a local encoding of a 10 s video test pattern in H264 at 30 fps (300 frames) with qtmux for a mp4 file:

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc num-buffers=300 ! video/x-raw, width=640, height=480, framerate=30/1 ! encodebin profile="video/x-h264" ! qtmux ! filesink location=v_h264_640x480_30fps.mp4
[...]
Got EOS from element "pipeline0".
Execution ended after 0:00:01.125719575
[...]

Play back the file to check the encoded content:

gst-play-1.0 v_h264_640x480_30fps.mp4
[...]
0:00:10.0 / 0:00:10.0     
Reached end of play list.

Information

Notes:

Above encoding is done as fast as possible, about 1.2 s here but play back of encoded content well shows 10 s of videos played meaning that the framerate information is well considered while encoding.
Camera recording example: Please refer to STM32MP2 V4L2 camera overview (chapter "Video record with preview").
Camera streaming over network example: Please refer to How to stream RAW camera over network.

Information

More information related to video encoding can be found in the article V4L2 video codec overview.