ParamValidationExt error with WelsInitEncoderExt failed while setting up OpenH264 encoder

Question

Scenario:
I am using OpenH264 with my App to encode into a video_file.mp4.

Environment:
Platform : MacOs Sierra
Compiler : Clang++

The code:
Following is the crux of the code I have:

void EncodeVideoFile() {

  ISVCEncoder     * encoder_;
  std:string      video_file_name = "/Path/to/some/folder/video_file.mp4";
  EncodeFileParam * pEncFileParam;
  SEncParamExt    * pEnxParamExt;

  float frameRate = 1000;
  EUsageType usageType = EUsageType::CAMERA_VIDEO_REAL_TIME;
  bool denoise = false;
  bool lossless = true;
  bool enable_ltr = false;
  int layers = 1;
  bool cabac = false;
  int sliceMode = 1;

  pEncFileParam = new EncodeFileParam;

  pEncFileParam->eUsageType = EUsageType::CAMERA_VIDEO_REAL_TIME;
  pEncFileParam->pkcFileName = video_file_name.c_str();
  pEncFileParam->iWidth = frame_width;
  pEncFileParam->iHeight = frame_height;
  pEncFileParam->fFrameRate = frameRate;
  pEncFileParam->iLayerNum = layers;
  pEncFileParam->bDenoise = denoise;
  pEncFileParam->bLossless = lossless;
  pEncFileParam->bEnableLtr = enable_ltr;
  pEncFileParam->bCabac = cabac;

  int rv = WelsCreateSVCEncoder (&encoder_);

  pEnxParamExt = new SEncParamExt;

  pEnxParamExt->iUsageType                = pEncFileParam->eUsageType;
  pEnxParamExt->iPicWidth                 = pEncFileParam->iWidth;
  pEnxParamExt->iPicHeight                = pEncFileParam->iHeight;
  pEnxParamExt->fMaxFrameRate             = pEncFileParam->fFrameRate;
  pEnxParamExt->iSpatialLayerNum          = pEncFileParam->iLayerNum;

  pEnxParamExt->bEnableDenoise            = pEncFileParam->bDenoise;
  pEnxParamExt->bIsLosslessLink           = pEncFileParam->bLossless;
  pEnxParamExt->bEnableLongTermReference  = pEncFileParam->bEnableLtr;
  pEnxParamExt->iEntropyCodingModeFlag    = pEncFileParam->bCabac ? 1 : 0;

  for (int i = 0; i < pEnxParamExt->iSpatialLayerNum; i++) {
      pEnxParamExt->sSpatialLayers[i].sSliceArgument.uiSliceMode = pEncFileParam->eSliceMode;
  }


  encoder_->InitializeExt(pEnxParamExt);

  int videoFormat = videoFormatI420;
  encoder_->SetOption (ENCODER_OPTION_DATAFORMAT, &videoFormat);

  int frameSize = frame_width * frame_height * 3 / 2;
  int total_num = 500;
  BufferedData buf;
  buf.SetLength (frameSize);

  // check the buffer before proceeding
  if (buf.Length() != (size_t)frameSize) {
      CloseEncoder();
      return;
  }

  SFrameBSInfo info;
  memset (&info, 0, sizeof (SFrameBSInfo));
  SSourcePicture pic;
  memset (&pic, 0, sizeof (SSourcePicture));
  pic.iPicWidth = frame_width;
  pic.iPicHeight = frame_height;
  pic.iColorFormat = videoFormatI420;
  pic.iStride[0] = pic.iPicWidth;
  pic.iStride[1] = pic.iStride[2] = pic.iPicWidth >> 1;
  pic.pData[0] = buf.data();
  pic.pData[1] = pic.pData[0] + frame_width * frame_height;
  pic.pData[2] = pic.pData[1] + (frame_width * frame_height >> 2);

  for(int num = 0; num < total_num; num++) {
     // try to encode the frame
     rv = encoder_->EncodeFrame (&pic, &info);
  }

  if (encoder_) {
      encoder_->Uninitialize();
      WelsDestroySVCEncoder (encoder_);
  }
}

Above code is something I pulled up from official usage examples of OpenH264 where BufferedData.h is a class I reused from OpenH264 utils

Issue:
But, I am getting the following error:

[OpenH264] this = 0x0x1038bc8c0, Error:ParamValidationExt(), width > 0, height > 0, width * height <= 9437184, invalid 0 x 0 in dependency layer settings!
[OpenH264] this = 0x0x1038bc8c0, Error:WelsInitEncoderExt(), ParamValidationExt failed return 2.
[OpenH264] this = 0x0x1038bc8c0, Error:CWelsH264SVCEncoder::Initialize(), WelsInitEncoderExt failed.

Above does not crash the application but it goes through a blank run without creating the video_file.mp4 with the dummy data that I am trying to write into it.

Question:
There seems to be something wrong with the set up config I applying to pEnxParamExtwhich goes into encoder_->InitializeExt.
What am I doing wrong with the set up of the encoder?

Note:
I am not trying to hook up to any camera device. I am just trying to create a .mp4 video out of some dummy image data.

I think, I should mention one thing clearly. Openh264 doesn't deal with .mp4 data. Openh264 is unable to create .mp4 files. Openh264 works with raw video data like yuv420. This library works like this: **YUV420 frames --> Openh264(Encode) --> Openh264(Decode)-->YUV420 frames**. So, if you really want to create .mp4 files from some images, you should probably use other libraries like **FFmpeg**. — RajibTheKing, Oct 16 '17 at 06:11
@RajibTheKing thanks for the response. what is the extension/container I should try in that case. **`.avi` ?** I am new to this field. as I understand `.avi` or `.mp4` is just the container ? I just want to create a video file `.avi` or `.mp4` or anything else doesn't matter. — TheWaterProgrammer, Oct 16 '17 at 06:34
If you want to create video file .avi or .mp4 through some coding procedure, you have to use FFmpeg. But before everything, you should have clear concept of codecs and containers. I guess you can follow this link: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36687188/create-video-using-ffmpeg After studying this post, you can follow this link to create video files: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34823545/cutting-mpeg-ts-file-via-ffmpegwrapper/34984037#34984037 — RajibTheKing, Oct 16 '17 at 06:44
I am able to create the video file with `FFmpeg`. But wanted to do the same without `FFmpeg` because `FFmpeg` is under LGPL & my company doesn't want to use it. that is a different issue. can I create the video file with **Qt** & ask OpenH264 to starting encoding into it ? Mine is a Qt app with C++. Is that a **possibility** ? — TheWaterProgrammer, Oct 16 '17 at 06:54
Is this only file creation that `OpenH264` cannot do ? If this is the only constraint then I can create the file using `Qt` APIs & pass the file pointer somehow to `OpenH264` ? it will be a happy resolution for this question of mine as well — TheWaterProgrammer, Oct 16 '17 at 07:04
As I said earlier, OpenH264 is not able to create .mp4 or .avi files. But you can get encoded data from images using OpenH264 and then use another open source library to make .mp4/.avi file from these encoded data. I guess, you should use **OpenCV** to create video files from sequence of images. — RajibTheKing, Oct 16 '17 at 07:21
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/156804/discussion-between-programist-and-rajibtheking). — TheWaterProgrammer, Oct 16 '17 at 07:31

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 16 '17 at 09:11

If you want to get complete and working OpenH264 Encoder Initialization procedure you can click... here.

According to your problem scenario, you are trying to create a video file(.mp4/.avi) from some dummy images. This task can be accomplished using two different libraries: i) Library for Codec, ii) Library for Container.

i) Library for Codec: It's so much easy to use a OpenH264 to compress data. One thing I must mention is that, OpenH264 always works with raw frames e.g. yuv420 data. So, if you want to compress your image data, you have to convert these image data into yuv420 color format. To get OpenH264 click... here

ii) Library for Container: After getting the encoded data you have to use another library to create the container with extension .mp4, .avi, .flv etc. There exists a lot of libraries in github to do that staff like FFmpeg, OpenCV, Bento4, MP4Maker, mp4parser etc. Before using these libraries please check in detail about the license issues. If you use FFmpeg, you will not need to use OpenH264 becuse FFmpeg itself works along with several codecs. You will also find lot more working examples as so many developers are working with video data out there.

Hope it helps. :)

ParamValidationExt error with WelsInitEncoderExt failed while setting up OpenH264 encoder

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