android - How to encode Bitmaps into a video using MediaCodec?

Question

I would like to encode a set of Bitmaps that I have into an h264. Is this possible via MediaEncoder? I have written some code in order to do it, but the output cannot be played in any media player I have tried. Here's some of the code that I primarily borrowed from other sources that I found on Stackoverflow.

mMediaCodec = MediaCodec.createEncoderByType("video/avc");
mMediaFormat = MediaFormat.createVideoFormat("video/avc", 320, 240);
mMediaFormat.setInteger(MediaFormat.KEY_BIT_RATE, 125000);
mMediaFormat.setInteger(MediaFormat.KEY_FRAME_RATE, 15);
mMediaFormat.setInteger(MediaFormat.KEY_COLOR_FORMAT, MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities.COLOR_FormatYUV420Planar);
mMediaFormat.setInteger(MediaFormat.KEY_I_FRAME_INTERVAL, 5);
mMediaCodec.configure(mMediaFormat, null, null, MediaCodec.CONFIGURE_FLAG_ENCODE);
mMediaCodec.start();
mInputBuffers = mMediaCodec.getInputBuffers();

ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
image.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 100, byteArrayOutputStream); // image is the bitmap
byte[] input = byteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray();

int inputBufferIndex = mMediaCodec.dequeueInputBuffer(-1);
if (inputBufferIndex >= 0) {
    ByteBuffer inputBuffer = mInputBuffers[inputBufferIndex];
    inputBuffer.clear();
    inputBuffer.put(input);
    mMediaCodec.queueInputBuffer(inputBufferIndex, 0, input.length, 0, 0);
}

What should I adjust?

Answer 1

I have modified the code provided by abalta to accept bitmaps in realtime (ie you don't already need to have the bitmaps saved to disc). It also has a performance improvement since you don't need to write then read the bitmaps from disc. I also increased the TIMEOUT_USEC from the original example which fixed some timeout related errorsng I was having.

Hopefully this helps someone. I spent a long time trying to do this without having to pack a large third party library into my app (ex ffmpeg), so I really appreciate abalta's answer.

I am using rxjava, so you will need this in your app's build.gradle dependencies:

implementation 'io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxandroid:2.0.2'

If you are trying to write to external storage you will need the external storage permission defined in your manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

and either manually toggle the permission on in the system Settings app for your app, or add permission request handling for it to your activity.

And here is the class:

import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.media.MediaCodec;
import android.media.MediaCodecInfo;
import android.media.MediaCodecList;
import android.media.MediaFormat;
import android.media.MediaMuxer;
import android.util.Log;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import java.util.Queue;
import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentLinkedQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;

import io.reactivex.Completable;
import io.reactivex.android.schedulers.AndroidSchedulers;
import io.reactivex.schedulers.Schedulers;

public class BitmapToVideoEncoder {
    private static final String TAG = BitmapToVideoEncoder.class.getSimpleName();

    private IBitmapToVideoEncoderCallback mCallback;
    private File mOutputFile;
    private Queue<Bitmap> mEncodeQueue = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue();
    private MediaCodec mediaCodec;
    private MediaMuxer mediaMuxer;

    private Object mFrameSync = new Object();
    private CountDownLatch mNewFrameLatch;

    private static final String MIME_TYPE = "video/avc"; // H.264 Advanced Video Coding
    private static int mWidth;
    private static int mHeight;
    private static final int BIT_RATE = 16000000;
    private static final int FRAME_RATE = 30; // Frames per second

    private static final int I_FRAME_INTERVAL = 1;

    private int mGenerateIndex = 0;
    private int mTrackIndex;
    private boolean mNoMoreFrames = false;
    private boolean mAbort = false;

    public interface IBitmapToVideoEncoderCallback {
        void onEncodingComplete(File outputFile);
    }

    public BitmapToVideoEncoder(IBitmapToVideoEncoderCallback callback) {
        mCallback = callback;
    }

    public boolean isEncodingStarted() {
        return (mediaCodec != null) && (mediaMuxer != null) && !mNoMoreFrames && !mAbort;
    }

    public int getActiveBitmaps() {
        return mEncodeQueue.size();
    }

    public void startEncoding(int width, int height, File outputFile) {
        mWidth = width;
        mHeight = height;
        mOutputFile = outputFile;

        String outputFileString;
        try {
            outputFileString = outputFile.getCanonicalPath();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Unable to get path for " + outputFile);
            return;
        }

        MediaCodecInfo codecInfo = selectCodec(MIME_TYPE);
        if (codecInfo == null) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Unable to find an appropriate codec for " + MIME_TYPE);
            return;
        }
        Log.d(TAG, "found codec: " + codecInfo.getName());
        int colorFormat;
        try {
            colorFormat = selectColorFormat(codecInfo, MIME_TYPE);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            colorFormat = MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities.COLOR_FormatYUV420SemiPlanar;
        }

        try {
            mediaCodec = MediaCodec.createByCodecName(codecInfo.getName());
        } catch (IOException e) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Unable to create MediaCodec " + e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        MediaFormat mediaFormat = MediaFormat.createVideoFormat(MIME_TYPE, mWidth, mHeight);
        mediaFormat.setInteger(MediaFormat.KEY_BIT_RATE, BIT_RATE);
        mediaFormat.setInteger(MediaFormat.KEY_FRAME_RATE, FRAME_RATE);
        mediaFormat.setInteger(MediaFormat.KEY_COLOR_FORMAT, colorFormat);
        mediaFormat.setInteger(MediaFormat.KEY_I_FRAME_INTERVAL, I_FRAME_INTERVAL);
        mediaCodec.configure(mediaFormat, null, null, MediaCodec.CONFIGURE_FLAG_ENCODE);
        mediaCodec.start();
        try {
            mediaMuxer = new MediaMuxer(outputFileString, MediaMuxer.OutputFormat.MUXER_OUTPUT_MPEG_4);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            Log.e(TAG,"MediaMuxer creation failed. " + e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        Log.d(TAG, "Initialization complete. Starting encoder...");

        Completable.fromAction(() -> encode())
                .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
                .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
                .subscribe();
    }

    public void stopEncoding() {
        if (mediaCodec == null || mediaMuxer == null) {
            Log.d(TAG, "Failed to stop encoding since it never started");
            return;
        }
        Log.d(TAG, "Stopping encoding");

        mNoMoreFrames = true;

        synchronized (mFrameSync) {
            if ((mNewFrameLatch != null) && (mNewFrameLatch.getCount() > 0)) {
                mNewFrameLatch.countDown();
            }
        }
    }

    public void abortEncoding() {
        if (mediaCodec == null || mediaMuxer == null) {
            Log.d(TAG, "Failed to abort encoding since it never started");
            return;
        }
        Log.d(TAG, "Aborting encoding");

        mNoMoreFrames = true;
        mAbort = true;
        mEncodeQueue = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue(); // Drop all frames

        synchronized (mFrameSync) {
            if ((mNewFrameLatch != null) && (mNewFrameLatch.getCount() > 0)) {
                mNewFrameLatch.countDown();
            }
        }
    }

    public void queueFrame(Bitmap bitmap) {
        if (mediaCodec == null || mediaMuxer == null) {
            Log.d(TAG, "Failed to queue frame. Encoding not started");
            return;
        }

        Log.d(TAG, "Queueing frame");
        mEncodeQueue.add(bitmap);

        synchronized (mFrameSync) {
            if ((mNewFrameLatch != null) && (mNewFrameLatch.getCount() > 0)) {
                mNewFrameLatch.countDown();
            }
        }
    }

    private void encode() {

        Log.d(TAG, "Encoder started");

        while(true) {
            if (mNoMoreFrames && (mEncodeQueue.size() ==  0)) break;

            Bitmap bitmap = mEncodeQueue.poll();
            if (bitmap ==  null) {
                synchronized (mFrameSync) {
                    mNewFrameLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
                }

                try {
                    mNewFrameLatch.await();
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {}

                bitmap = mEncodeQueue.poll();
            }

            if (bitmap == null) continue;

            byte[] byteConvertFrame = getNV21(bitmap.getWidth(), bitmap.getHeight(), bitmap);

            long TIMEOUT_USEC = 500000;
            int inputBufIndex = mediaCodec.dequeueInputBuffer(TIMEOUT_USEC);
            long ptsUsec = computePresentationTime(mGenerateIndex, FRAME_RATE);
            if (inputBufIndex >= 0) {
                final ByteBuffer inputBuffer = mediaCodec.getInputBuffer(inputBufIndex);
                inputBuffer.clear();
                inputBuffer.put(byteConvertFrame);
                mediaCodec.queueInputBuffer(inputBufIndex, 0, byteConvertFrame.length, ptsUsec, 0);
                mGenerateIndex++;
            }
            MediaCodec.BufferInfo mBufferInfo = new MediaCodec.BufferInfo();
            int encoderStatus = mediaCodec.dequeueOutputBuffer(mBufferInfo, TIMEOUT_USEC);
            if (encoderStatus == MediaCodec.INFO_TRY_AGAIN_LATER) {
                // no output available yet
                Log.e(TAG, "No output from encoder available");
            } else if (encoderStatus == MediaCodec.INFO_OUTPUT_FORMAT_CHANGED) {
                // not expected for an encoder
                MediaFormat newFormat = mediaCodec.getOutputFormat();
                mTrackIndex = mediaMuxer.addTrack(newFormat);
                mediaMuxer.start();
            } else if (encoderStatus < 0) {
                Log.e(TAG, "unexpected result from encoder.dequeueOutputBuffer: " + encoderStatus);
            } else if (mBufferInfo.size != 0) {
                ByteBuffer encodedData = mediaCodec.getOutputBuffer(encoderStatus);
                if (encodedData == null) {
                    Log.e(TAG, "encoderOutputBuffer " + encoderStatus + " was null");
                } else {
                    encodedData.position(mBufferInfo.offset);
                    encodedData.limit(mBufferInfo.offset + mBufferInfo.size);
                    mediaMuxer.writeSampleData(mTrackIndex, encodedData, mBufferInfo);
                    mediaCodec.releaseOutputBuffer(encoderStatus, false);
                }
            }
        }

        release();

        if (mAbort) {
            mOutputFile.delete();
        } else {
            mCallback.onEncodingComplete(mOutputFile);
        }
    }

    private void release() {
        if (mediaCodec != null) {
            mediaCodec.stop();
            mediaCodec.release();
            mediaCodec = null;
            Log.d(TAG,"RELEASE CODEC");
        }
        if (mediaMuxer != null) {
            mediaMuxer.stop();
            mediaMuxer.release();
            mediaMuxer = null;
            Log.d(TAG,"RELEASE MUXER");
        }
    }

    private static MediaCodecInfo selectCodec(String mimeType) {
        int numCodecs = MediaCodecList.getCodecCount();
        for (int i = 0; i < numCodecs; i++) {
            MediaCodecInfo codecInfo = MediaCodecList.getCodecInfoAt(i);
            if (!codecInfo.isEncoder()) {
                continue;
            }
            String[] types = codecInfo.getSupportedTypes();
            for (int j = 0; j < types.length; j++) {
                if (types[j].equalsIgnoreCase(mimeType)) {
                    return codecInfo;
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    private static int selectColorFormat(MediaCodecInfo codecInfo,
                                         String mimeType) {
        MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities capabilities = codecInfo
                .getCapabilitiesForType(mimeType);
        for (int i = 0; i < capabilities.colorFormats.length; i++) {
            int colorFormat = capabilities.colorFormats[i];
            if (isRecognizedFormat(colorFormat)) {
                return colorFormat;
            }
        }
        return 0; // not reached
    }

    private static boolean isRecognizedFormat(int colorFormat) {
        switch (colorFormat) {
            // these are the formats we know how to handle for
            case MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities.COLOR_FormatYUV420Planar:
            case MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities.COLOR_FormatYUV420PackedPlanar:
            case MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities.COLOR_FormatYUV420SemiPlanar:
            case MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities.COLOR_FormatYUV420PackedSemiPlanar:
            case MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities.COLOR_TI_FormatYUV420PackedSemiPlanar: