bcf08c1171
Frame threading in the FFV1 decoder works in a very unusual way - the
state that needs to be propagated from the previous frame is not decoded
pixels(¹), but each slice's entropy coder state after decoding the slice.
For that purpose, the decoder's update_thread_context() callback stores
a pointer to the previous frame thread's private data. Then, when
decoding each slice, the frame thread uses the standard progress
mechanism to wait for the corresponding slice in the previous frame to
be completed, then copies the entropy coder state from the
previously-stored pointer.
This approach is highly dubious, as update_thread_context() should be
the only point where frame-thread contexts come into direct contact.
There are no guarantees that the stored pointer will be valid at all, or
will contain any particular data after update_thread_context() finishes.
More specifically, this code can break due to the fact that keyframes
reset entropy coder state and thus do not need to wait for the previous
frame. As an example, consider a decoder process with 2 frame threads -
thread 0 with its context 0, and thread 1 with context 1 - decoding a
previous frame P, current frame F, followed by a keyframe K. Then
consider concurrent execution consistent with the following sequence of
events:
* thread 0 starts decoding P
* thread 0 reads P's slice header, then calls
ff_thread_finish_setup() allowing next frame thread to start
* main thread calls update_thread_context() to transfer state from
context 0 to context 1; context 1 stores a pointer to context 0's private
data
* thread 1 starts decoding F
* thread 1 reads F's slice header, then calls
ff_thread_finish_setup() allowing the next frame thread to start
decoding
* thread 0 finishes decoding P
* thread 0 starts decoding K; since K is a keyframe, it does not
wait for F and reallocates the arrays holding entropy coder state
* thread 0 finishes decoding K
* thread 1 reads entropy coder state from its stored pointer to context
0, however it finds state from K rather than from P
This execution is currently prevented by special-casing FFV1 in the
generic frame threading code, however that is supremely ugly. It also
involves unnecessary copies of the state arrays, when in fact they can
only be used by one thread at a time.
This commit addresses these deficiencies by changing the array of
PlaneContext (each of which contains the allocated state arrays)
embedded in FFV1SliceContext into a RefStruct object. This object can
then be propagated across frame threads in standard manner. Since the
code structure guarantees only one thread accesses it at a time, no
copies are necessary. It is also re-created for keyframes, solving the
above issue cleanly.
Special-casing of FFV1 in the generic frame threading code will be
removed in a later commit.
(¹) except in the case of a damaged slice, when previous frame's pixels
are used directly
FFmpeg README
FFmpeg is a collection of libraries and tools to process multimedia content such as audio, video, subtitles and related metadata.
Libraries
libavcodecprovides implementation of a wider range of codecs.libavformatimplements streaming protocols, container formats and basic I/O access.libavutilincludes hashers, decompressors and miscellaneous utility functions.libavfilterprovides means to alter decoded audio and video through a directed graph of connected filters.libavdeviceprovides an abstraction to access capture and playback devices.libswresampleimplements audio mixing and resampling routines.libswscaleimplements color conversion and scaling routines.
Tools
- ffmpeg is a command line toolbox to manipulate, convert and stream multimedia content.
- ffplay is a minimalistic multimedia player.
- ffprobe is a simple analysis tool to inspect multimedia content.
- Additional small tools such as
aviocat,ismindexandqt-faststart.
Documentation
The offline documentation is available in the doc/ directory.
The online documentation is available in the main website and in the wiki.
Examples
Coding examples are available in the doc/examples directory.
License
FFmpeg codebase is mainly LGPL-licensed with optional components licensed under GPL. Please refer to the LICENSE file for detailed information.
Contributing
Patches should be submitted to the ffmpeg-devel mailing list using
git format-patch or git send-email. Github pull requests should be
avoided because they are not part of our review process and will be ignored.