Qt AVPlayer

Free and open-source Qt Media Player library based on FFmpeg.

• Designed to decode video/audio/subtitle frames.

• Supports FFmpeg Bitstream Filters and FFmpeg Filters including filter_complex.

• Supports multiple parallel filters for one input (one input frame produces multiple outputs).

• Supports decoding all available streams at the same time.

• Based on Qt platform the video frames are sent using specific hardware context:

  • VA-API for Linux: DRM with EGL or X11 with GLX.
  • VDPAU for Linux.
  • Video Toolbox for macOS and iOS.
  • D3D11 for Windows.
  • MediaCodec for Android.

  Note: Not all ffmpeg decoders or filters support HW acceleration. In this case software decoders are used.

• It is up to an application to decide how to process the frames.

  • But there is experimental support of converting the video frames to QtMultimedia's QVideoFrame for copy-free rendering if possible. Note: Not all Qt's renders support copy-free rendering. Also QtMultimedia does not always provide public API to render the video frames. And, of course, for best performance both decoding and rendering should be accelerated.
  • Audio frames could be played by QAVAudioOutput which is a wrapper of QtMultimedia's QAudioSink

• Supports accurate seek, it starts playing the closest frame. No weird jumps on pts anymore.

• Supports DASH / mpd: ./qml_video https://bitdash-a.akamaihd.net/content/MI201109210084_1/m3u8s/f08e80da-bf1d-4e3d-8899-f0f6155f6efa.m3u8

• It is bundled directly into an app.

• Designed to be as simple and understandable as possible, to share knowledge about creating efficient FFmpeg applications.

• Might be used for media analytics software like qctools or dvrescue.

• Implements and replaces a combination of FFmpeg and FFplay:

  ffmpeg -i we-miss-gst-pipeline-in-qt6mm.mkv -filter_complex "qt,nev:er,wanted;[ffmpeg];what:happened" - | ffplay -
  

  but using QML or Qt Widgets:

  ./qml_video :/valbok "if:you:like[cats];remove[this]"
  

Features

1. QAVPlayer supports playing from an url or QIODevice or from avdevice:

   player.setSource("http://clips.vorwaerts-gmbh.de/big_buck_bunny.mp4");
   player.setSource("/home/lana/The Matrix Resurrections.mov");
   
   // Playing from qrc
   QSharedPointer<QIODevice> file(new QFile(":/alarm.wav"));
   file->open(QIODevice::ReadOnly);
   QSharedPointer<QAVIODevice> dev(new QAVIODevice(file));
   player.setSource("alarm", dev);
   
   // Getting frames from the camera in Linux
   player.setSource("/dev/video0");
   // Or Windows
   player.setInputFormat("dshow");
   player.setSource("video=Integrated Camera");
   // Or MacOS
   player.setInputFormat("avfoundation");
   player.setSource("default");
   // Or Android
   player.setInputFormat("android_camera");
   player.setSource("0:0");
   
   player.setInputOptions({{"user_agent", "QAVPlayer"}});
   
   // Using various protocols
   player.setSource("subfile,,start,0,end,0,,:/root/Downloads/why-qtmm-must-die.mkv");
   

2. Easy getting video and audio frames:

   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::videoFrame, [&](const QAVVideoFrame &frame) {
       // QAVVideoFrame is comppatible with QVideoFrame
       QVideoFrame videoFrame = frame;
       
       // QAVVideoFrame can be converted to various pixel formats
       auto convertedFrame = frame.convert(AV_PIX_FMT_YUV420P);
       
       // Easy getting data from video frame
       auto mapped = videoFrame.map(); // downloads data if it is in GPU
       qDebug() << mapped.format << mapped.size;
       
       // The frame might contain OpenGL or MTL textures, for copy-free rendering
       qDebug() << frame.handleType() << frame.handle();
   }, Qt::DirectConnection);
   
   // Audio frames could be played using QAVAudioOutput
   QAVAudioOutput audioOutput;
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::audioFrame, [&](const QAVAudioFrame &frame) { 
        // Access to the data
        qDebug() << autioFrame.format() << autioFrame.data().size();
        audioOutput.play(frame);
   }, Qt::DirectConnection);
   
   QObject::connect(&p, &QAVPlayer::subtitleFrame, &p, [](const QAVSubtitleFrame &frame) {
        for (unsigned i = 0; i < frame.subtitle()->num_rects; ++i) {
            if (frame.subtitle()->rects[i]->type == SUBTITLE_TEXT)
                qDebug() << "text:" << frame.subtitle()->rects[i]->text;
            else
                qDebug() << "ass:" << frame.subtitle()->rects[i]->ass;
       }
   }, Qt::DirectConnection);
   

3. Each action is confirmed by a signal:

   // All signals are added to a queue and guaranteed to be emitted in proper order.
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::played, [&](qint64 pos) { qDebug() << "Playing started from pos" << pos;  });
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::paused, [&](qint64 pos) { qDebug() << "Paused at pos" << pos; });
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::stopped, [&](qint64 pos) { qDebug() << "Stopped at pos" << pos; });
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::seeked, [&](qint64 pos) { qDebug() << "Seeked to pos" << pos; });
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::stepped, [&](qint64 pos) { qDebug() << "Made a step to pos" << pos; });
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::mediaStatusChanged, [&](QAVPlayer::MediaStatus status) { 
       switch (status) {
           case QAVplayer::EndOfMedia:
               qDebug() << "Finished to play, no frames in queue"; 
               break;
           case QAVplayer::NoMedia:
               qDebug() << "Demuxer threads are finished";
               break;
           default:
               break;
          }
    });
   

4. Accurate seek:

   QObject::connect(&p, &QAVPlayer::seeked, &p, [&](qint64 pos) { seekPosition = pos; });
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::videoFrame, [&](const QAVVideoFrame &frame) { seekFrame = frame; });
   player.seek(5000)
   QTRY_COMPARE(seekPosition, 5000);
   QTRY_COMPARE(seekFrame.pts(), 5.0);
   

   If there is a frame with needed pts, it will be returned as first frame.

5. FFmpeg filters:

   player.setFilter("crop=iw/2:ih:0:0,split[left][tmp];[tmp]hflip[right];[left][right] hstack");
   // Render bundled subtitles
   player.setFilter("subtitles=file.mkv");
   // Render subtitles from srt file
   player.setFilter("subtitles=file.srt");
   // Multiple filters
   player.setFilters({
        "drawtext=text=%{pts\\\\:hms}:x=(w-text_w)/2:y=(h-text_h)*(4/5):box=1:boxcolor=gray@0.5:fontsize=36[drawtext]",
        "negate[negate]",
        "[0:v]split=3[in1][in2][in3];[in1]boxblur[out1];[in2]negate[out2];[in3]drawtext=text=%{pts\\\\:hms}:x=(w-text_w)/2:y=(h-text_h)*(4/5):box=1:boxcolor=gray@0.5:fontsize=36[out3]"
   }); // Return frames from 3 filters with 5 outputs
   

6. Step by step:

   // Pausing will always emit one frame
   QObject::connect(&player, &QAVPlayer::videoFrame, [&](const QAVVideoFrame &frame) { receivedFrame = frame; });
   if (player.state() != QAVPlayer::PausedState) { // No frames if it is already paused
       player.pause();
       QTRY_VERIFY(receivedFrame);
   }
   
   // Always makes a step forward and emits only one frame
   player.stepForward();
   // the same here but backward
   player.stepBackward();
   

7. Multiple streams:

   qDebug() << "Audio streams" << player.availableAudioStreams().size();
   qDebug() << "Current audio stream" << player.currentAudioStreams().first().index() << player.currentAudioStreams().first().metadata();
   player.setAudioStreams(player.availableAudioStreams()); // Return all frames for all available audio streams
   // Reports progress of playing per stream, like current pts, fps, frame rate, num of frames etc
   for (const auto &s : p.availableVideoStreams())
       qDebug() << s << p.progress(s);
   

8. HW accelerations:

   QT_AVPLAYER_NO_HWDEVICE can be used to force using software decoding. The video codec is negotiated automatically.

• VA-API and VDPAU for Linux: the frames are returned with OpenGL textures.
• Video Toolbox for macOS and iOS: the frames are returned with Metal Textures.
• D3D11 for Windows: the frames are returned with D3D11Texture2D textures.
• MediaCodec for Android: the frames are returned with OpenGL textures.

10. QtMultimedia could be used to render video frames to QML or Widgets. See examples
11. Qt 5.12 - 6.x is supported

How to build

QtAVPlayer should be directly bundled into an app. Some defines should be provided to opt some features.

• QT_AVPLAYER_MULTIMEDIA - enables support of QtMultimedia which requires QtGUI, QtQuick etc.
• QT_AVPLAYER_VA_X11 - enables support of libva-x11 for HW acceleration. For linux only.
• QT_AVPLAYER_VA_DRM - enables support of libva-drm for HW acceleration. For linux only.
• QT_AVPLAYER_VDPAU - enables support of libvdpau for HW acceleration. For linux only.

QMake

Include QtAVPlayer.pri in your pro file:

DEFINES += "QT_AVPLAYER_MULTIMEDIA"
INCLUDEPATH += ../../src/
include(../../src/QtAVPlayer/QtAVPlayer.pri)

FFmpeg on custom path:

$ qmake INCLUDEPATH+="/usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/6.0/include" LIBS="-L/usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/6.0/lib"

CMake

Include QtAVPlayer.cmake in your project:

# Path to QtAVPlayer
include_directories(QtAVPlayer/src)
set(QT_AVPLAYER_DIR QtAVPlayer/src/QtAVPlayer)
include(QtAVPlayer/src/QtAVPlayer/QtAVPlayer.cmake)
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} ${QtAVPlayer_SOURCES})
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} ${QtAVPlayer_LIBS})

FFmpeg on custom path:

% cmake ../ -DQT_AVPLAYER_MULTIMEDIA=ON -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/opt/Qt/6.7.1/macos/lib/cmake -DCMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/lib

Android:

Some exports could be also used: vars that point to libraries in armeabi-v7a, arm64-v8a, x86 and x86_64 target archs.

$ export AVPLAYER_ANDROID_LIB_ARMEABI_V7A=/opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm/ffmpeg/lib
$ export AVPLAYER_ANDROID_LIB_ARMEABI_V8A=/opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm64/ffmpeg/lib
$ export AVPLAYER_ANDROID_LIB_X86=/opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-x86/ffmpeg/lib
$ export AVPLAYER_ANDROID_LIB_X86_64=/opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-x86_64/ffmpeg/lib
$ export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=/opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm64/ffmpeg/include:$CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH
$ qmake DEFINES+="QT_AVPLAYER_MULTIMEDIA"

Don't forget to set extra libs in pro file for your app:

ANDROID_EXTRA_LIBS += /opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm/ffmpeg/lib/libavdevice.so /opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm/ffmpeg/lib/libavformat.so /opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm/ffmpeg/lib/libavutil.so /opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm/ffmpeg/lib/libavcodec.so /opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm/ffmpeg/lib/libavfilter.so /opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm/ffmpeg/lib/libswscale.so /opt/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm/ffmpeg/lib/libswresample.so