Strange error from OMX.google.h264.encoder using MediaCodec API

Question

I am unable to create an media/avc encoder when the OMX.google.h264.encoder is used, I get some pretty strange output:

I/VideoStreamer﹕ Selected color format: 21
I/VideoStreamer﹕ Format: {height=480, slice-height=480, crop-left=0, width=640, crop-bottom=480, crop-top=0, mime=video/avc, stride=640, crop-right=640}
I/VideoStreamer﹕ Width: 640 Height: 480
I/OMXClient﹕ Using client-side OMX mux.
I/SoftAVCEncoder﹕ Construct SoftAVCEncoder
I/ACodec﹕ setupVideoEncoder succeeded
E/OMXNodeInstance﹕ OMX_GetExtensionIndex failed
E/SoftAVCEncoder﹕ Failed to initialize the encoder: -8
E/ACodec﹕ [OMX.google.h264.encoder] ERROR(0x80001001)
E/MediaCodec﹕ Codec reported an error. (omx error 0x80001001, internalError -2147483648)

Whereas the code works on other devices. How can I figure out why the OMX.google.h264.encoder is failing with such an unhelpful error?

For reference: I probe for the list of available encoders, then probe for the list of supported color formats. I work around a few bugs where a device crashes on color format 19 by forcing it to color format 21. I can provide code samples, but it's this specific encoder and I'm at a loss how to figure out what this error is telling me.

EDIT: Found the failure AVCENC_LEVEL_FAIL but still not sure what this is telling me. As far as I know it is not possible to set the level the AVC encoder should use.

Answer 1

The problem with your device is that it probably lacks hardware encoder. Software h264 encoder has significantly limited functionality - among other things it cuts out high quality profiles, because these are likely to under-perform on low-end devices.

If you are working on your own, custom device, you may want to remove this limitation among with setting the encoder level to AVC_LEVEL5_1. This will unlock your stagefright library and you'll be able to encode high quality videos using software codec.