RK MPP

Rockchip's Media Process Platform (MPP) is a general-purpose media processing software platform for Rockchip chip series.

Hardware Codec Repository Differences

Rockchip provides hardware codec repositories including native-codec, rkvpu-codec, mpp-codec, and a dedicated JPEG hardware codec library libhwjpeg. These repositories are designed based on Android/Rockchip multimedia architecture layering, with significant performance differences.

Repository Comparison

The core of Rockchip multimedia hardware codec is MPP, which directly interfaces with the VPU kernel driver. The upper layer is the native Android MediaCodec framework, following the OMX standard. The middle layer libvpu encapsulates MPP interfaces and provides easier hardware calling capabilities. The four types of repositories are distributed across different layers: application layer, framework layer, and bottom layer.

Repository	Layer	Core Dependency
native-codec	Android Framework	MediaCodec, OMX
rkvpu-codec	Android Framework	libvpu, MPP
mpp-codec	Android Kernel	MPP
libhwjpeg	Android Framework	MPP

Repository Details

MediaCodec

MediaCodec is a multimedia "codec" component and part of Android's underlying multimedia support framework.

MediaCodec can directly process raw audio/video streams and finely control codec details.

As a codec component, MediaCodec follows the OpenMax framework and can distinguish between hardware and software codecs via codec-name:

• OMX.rk prefix → Rockchip hardware codec
• OMX.google or c2.android prefix → Google software codec

MediaCodec provides Java / Native (C++) two-layer API interfaces with similar usage. For Java layer application design, refer to MediaCodec API.

native-codec

native-codec provides usage examples for Android Native layer MediaCodec codec interface.

rkvpu-codec

The libvpu hardware codec library implements the VpuApiLegacy user interface, using VpuCodecContext objects to facilitate hardware codec interface calls. VpuApiLegacy directly interacts with the underlying codec library, reducing performance overhead from intermediate links.

mpp-codec

MPP is the lowest-level media middleware, directly interacting with the VPU kernel driver. Whether native-codec or rkvpu-codec, ultimately they need to interact with MPP to complete hardware codec operations.

libhwjpeg

Since Google's native MediaCodec does not support JPEG codec, and JPEG codec may involve EXIF header operations, it is necessary to integrate JPEG hardware codec functionality in Rockchip system multimedia applications. libhwjpeg can be used to compensate for JPEG hardware codec support.

Codec Specifications

Decoding Specifications

SoC	H264	H265	VP9	JPEG
RK3588	7680x4320@30f	7680x4320@60f	7680x4320@60f	1920x1080@280f
RK3576	4096x2304@60f	4096x2304@60f	4096x2304@60f	3840x2160@90f
RK3562	1920x1080@60f	4096x2304@30f	4096x2304@30f	1920x1080@60f
RK3528	4096x2304@30f	4096x2304@60f	4096x2304@60f	1920x1080@120f
RK356X	4096x2304@30f	4096x2304@60f	4096x2304@60f	1920x1080@80f
RK3399	4096x2304@30f	4096x2304@60f	4096x2304@60f	1920x1080@30f
RK3328	4096x2304@30f	4096x2304@60f	4096x2304@60f	1920x1080@30f
RK3288	3840x2160@30f	4096x2304@60f	N/A	1920x1080@30f
RK3358/PX5	4096x2160@25f	4096x2304@60f	N/A	1920x1080@30f
RK3326/PX30	1920x1080@60f	1920x1080@60f	N/A	1920x1080@30f
RK312X	1920x1080@60f	1920x1080@60f	N/A	1920x1080@30f

Additional notes:

1. RK3588 supports AVS2 (7680x4320@60f) and AV1 (3840x2160@60f) decoding
2. RK3528 supports AVS2 (4096x2160@60f) decoding
3. RK3562 does not support mpeg1/2/4, vp8, h263 format decoding
4. Except for RK3562, other chips support mpeg1/2/4, vp8, h263 decoding with maximum specification of 1080P

Encoding Specifications

SoC	H264	H265	VP8	JPEG
RK3588	7680x4320@30f	7680x4320@30f	1920x1080@30f	3840x2160@30f
RK3576	3840x2160@60f	3840x2160@60f	N/A	3840x2160@160f
RK3562	1920x1080@30f	N/A	N/A	N/A
RK3528	1920x1080@60f	1920x1080@60f	N/A	3840x2160@30f
RK356X	1920x1080@60f	1920x1080@60f	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@60f
RK3399	1920x1080@30f	N/A	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@30f
RK3328	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@30f
RK3288	1920x1080@30f	N/A	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@30f
RK3368/PX5	1920x1080@30f	N/A	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@30f
RK3326/PX30	1920x1080@30f	N/A	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@30f
RK312X	1920x1080@30f	N/A	1920x1080@30f	1920x1080@30f

Repository Dependencies

All repositories ultimately depend on MPP to interface with VPU hardware, as shown below:

Player Cannot Use Hardware Decoder

Problem: When using certain Android players to play videos, hardware decoder cannot be used.

Troubleshooting: Confirm whether the Android player selected the decoder named c2.rk.avc.decoder when calling MediaCodec. If RK-specific decoders are filtered out, hardware decoder cannot be used during video playback.

MediaCodec Usage Example

For Android platform codec development scenarios, a MediaCodec codec example is provided:

• MediaCodec Codec Project