Video Codec

Uses Q900's VPU for hardware H.264/H.265 video encoding and decoding. Transfers frames via DMA-BUF: the encoder compresses raw NV12 frames into MP4, and the decoder reconstructs raw frames from the compressed stream.

Prerequisites

• QIR SDK installed
• Verify VPU devices: ls /dev/video32 /dev/video33

Out-of-the-Box

Step 1: Install

radxa@airbox$

sudo apt install -y ros-jazzy-qrb-ros-video ros-jazzy-qrb-ros-video-test

Step 2: Prepare Test Data

The official launch files expect the following filenames. Ensure your test data is named accordingly:

• Encode input: /data/1920_1080_nv12.yuv (NV12 raw frames, 1920×1080)
• Decode input: /data/1920_1080.mp4

radxa@airbox$

mkdir -p /data && sudo chmod 777 /data
# Place your test files at the paths and names shown above

Step 3: Encode

radxa@airbox$

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
ros2 launch qrb_ros_video encoder_launch.py

The encoder reads /data/1920_1080_nv12.yuv and writes /data/1920_1080_nv12.mp4.

Step 4: Decode

radxa@airbox$

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
ros2 launch qrb_ros_video decoder_launch.py

The decoder reads /data/1920_1080.mp4 and writes decoded frames to /dev/null (no display output).

Build from Source

Step 1: Install Dependencies

radxa@airbox$

sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake pkg-config \
  libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
  ros-jazzy-qrb-ros-transport-image-type

The official document uses libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-devs which is a typo; the correct package is libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev.

Step 2: Clone the Repository

radxa@airbox$

git clone https://github.com/qualcomm-qrb-ros/qrb_ros_video
cd qrb_ros_video

Step 3: Build

The repository contains two packages (qrb_video_v4l2_lib and qrb_ros_video) which must be built together. File I/O components require BUILD_TESTING=ON:

radxa@airbox$

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
colcon build --cmake-args -DBUILD_TESTING=ON

Step 4: Run

The encode and decode commands are identical to the out-of-the-box method. Source install/setup.bash before running to use the source-built version.

Notes

• To change input/output paths or resolution, edit the input_file / output_file and width / height parameters in the launch files.
• The parameter rate_control in the official document table differs from rate-control used in the actual code. Use the spelling found in the launch files.
• APT version 0.1.2 may segfault on Ctrl+C during decoder cleanup (decoded results are unaffected). Source version 0.1.7 has resolved this.