1140688 - ###!!! ASSERTION: AppleVDADecoder: Couldn't create decoder!: 'Error', file dom/media/fmp4/apple/AppleVDADecoder.cpp, line 403

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Audio/Video, defect, P2)

Description

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

STR:
1. Using a debug build, load http://dashif.org/reference/players/javascript/1.1.2/index.html
2. Select the "Microsoft #1" stream (or any of the "Microsoft #" streams).
3. Play the video.
4. While the video is playing, seek ahead and back a couple times on the playback progress bar.

RESULT:

AppleVDADecoder assertion failures (repeated a couple times):

[23:10:11.457] vtDecompressionDuctCreate signalled err=-8973 (err) (Could not select and open decoder instance) at /SourceCache/CoreMedia_frameworks/CoreMedia-1562.107/Sources/VideoToolbox/VTDecompressionSession.c line 1181
[Child 68994] ###!!! ASSERTION: AppleVDADecoder: Couldn't create decoder!: 'Error', file /builds/slave/m-cen-osx64-st-an-d-0000000000/build/src/dom/media/fmp4/apple/AppleVDADecoder.cpp, line 403
[Child 68994] ###!!! ASSERTION: AppleVDADecoder an error occurred: 'Error', file /builds/slave/m-cen-osx64-st-an-d-0000000000/build/src/dom/media/fmp4/apple/AppleVDADecoder.cpp, line 505

Comment 1

[Jean-Yves Avenard [:jya]]

This is just a NS_Warning when a VDA (hardware decoder) can't be created. depending on your hardware card, there's only a certain number of hardware decoders that can be created. A Mac mini 2010 can only open 4. 
When that happens, it will fall back to software decoding with Apple VideoToolbox framework instead. 

There's nothing wrong, it's behaving as designed. 

Or are you seeing something else like playback stopping?

Comment 2

[cajbir (:cajbir)]

(In reply to Jean-Yves Avenard [:jya] from comment #1)
> This is just a NS_Warning when a VDA (hardware decoder) can't be created.

It's an NS_ERROR, not an NS_WARNING isn't it? That's a critical error. Maybe it should be changed to something less fatal if it's a warning.

Comment 3

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Jean-Yves Avenard [:jya] from comment #1)
> Or are you seeing something else like playback stopping?

I did see some intermittent problems with the video was black or a frozen frame after I seeked to a new position, but might be the problem I reported in bug 1140690.

Note that I only see these AppleVDADecoder assertion failures for the "Microsoft ##" videos. I selected a few other videos randomly and none of them hit this assertion.

Comment 4

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

I hit this assertion on YouTube, too, but not as easily as with the DASH-IF player's Microsoft videos.

Comment 5

[Ralph Giles (:rillian)]

NS_ERROR asserts on debug builds, not on release. So this doesn't affect users, but if it's expected behaviour we should change it to an NS_WARNING or a debug message.

Comment 6

[Jean-Yves Avenard [:jya]]

Attachment: Only print a warning when VDA decoder couldn't be created

use NS_WARNING, and update message to be more explicit

Comment 7

[Jean-Yves Avenard [:jya]]

note that the inability to create a VDA decoder will be greatly reduced once bug 1128381 lands, as we now only use a single decoder at a time rather than one for every resolutions

Comment 8

[Jean-Yves Avenard [:jya]]

Attachment: Only print a warning when VDA decoder couldn't be created

use NS_WARNING, and update message to be more explicit v2

Comment 9

[Ralph Giles (:rillian)]

Comment on attachment 8575797 [details] [diff] [review]
Only print a warning when VDA decoder couldn't be created

Looks good, thanks.

Comment 10

[Jean-Yves Avenard [:jya]]

remote:   https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/f9807e654ae7

Comment 11

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/f9807e654ae7