media-pp

media-pp is a small, GStreamer-flavored media pipeline library for Rust, built on ffmpeg-next. It provides synchronous pipeline stages by default and explicit thread boundaries through bounded queues.

The library crate lives in lib/. Each directory below examples/ is an independent example crate, so platform-specific dependencies do not leak into the core library.

Quick start

FFmpeg development libraries must be installed and discoverable by ffmpeg-sys-next.

Add the crate to your project:

[dependencies]

media-pp = "0.1"

This minimal pipeline generates video for one second and counts the frames:

use std::{sync::atomic::Ordering, time::Duration};
use media_pp::{
    elements::{FrameCounter, TestVideoOptions, TestVideoSource},
    pipeline::Pipeline,
};

fn main() -> media_pp::Result<()> {
    media_pp::init()?;
    let source = TestVideoSource::new("source", TestVideoOptions::default());
    let (counter, frames) = FrameCounter::new("counter");
    let pipeline = Pipeline::new("demo", source, |source, ctx| {
        let branch = ctx.branch().to(Box::new(counter))?;
        ctx.attach(source, 0, branch)?;
        Ok(())
    })?;
    pipeline.run();
    std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_secs(1));
    pipeline.stop();
    println!("frames: {}", frames.load(Ordering::Relaxed));
    Ok(())
}

To work with this repository directly:

cargo test -p media-pp

cargo run -p decode -- path/to/video.mp4

File-based examples require a media path. No media files are checked into the repository and examples do not use a default path.

How pipelines work

A pipeline connects a source to filters and a terminal sink:

FileDemuxer → SwDecoder → Queue → Pacer → FrameCounter

The core types are deliberately small:

• MediaBuffer carries packets, video, audio, and EOS.
• Sink::consume is a synchronous call and may return an error.
• SrcPad connects one source output to one downstream sink.
• Queue introduces a bounded worker-thread boundary. Downstream errors are reported through the pipeline Bus, and the worker continues.
• Pipeline owns source threads, control flow, the shared clock, bus, and topology graph.
• Tee provides fan-out; AudioMixer and the video compositors provide fan-in.

Buffers use shared ownership, so fan-out clones references rather than media payloads. PTS, duration, packet time bases, video color information, and EOS are preserved through stages that do not intentionally create a new timeline. Use Pipeline::finish to stop a live source with ordered EOS and drain queued buffers, codecs, and muxers; Pipeline::stop abandons buffered work immediately.

Element inventory

Backend-specific elements are available only on Windows and require their corresponding Cargo feature. See each type's Rust documentation for buffer requirements, ownership, error behavior, and runtime-control semantics. WebRtcPeer is the WebRTC driver and creates the WebRtcHandle used to add tracks and obtain each WebRtcTrackSink/WebRtcTrackSource pair.

Examples

The examples are grouped by purpose:

• examples/core: decoding, queues, fan-out, dynamic tees, app sources/sinks, audio, muxing, HLS, and CPU compositing.
• examples/render: D3D11/D3D12 playback, upload, capture, synchronization, GPU compositing, NVENC hardware encoding, and recording.
• examples/rtsp: publishing, seeking, and receiving RTSP streams.
• examples/vision: scaling and ONNX object detection.
• examples/webrtc: data and encoded A/V loopback pipelines.

Useful starting points:

cargo run -p probe -- path/to/video.mp4

cargo run -p fanout -- path/to/video.mp4

cargo run -p app_sink -- path/to/video.mp4

cargo run -p scale -- path/to/video.mp4

Windows rendering and capture examples enable their required library features in their own Cargo.toml files. Run an example without arguments to see its usage line.

Feature flags

The library has no default features.

For example, build all Windows API documentation locally. Nightly rustdoc is what labels each item with the feature that enables it:

$env:RUSTDOCFLAGS = "--cfg docsrs"
cargo +nightly doc -p media-pp --open --features d3d11,d3d12,dxgi-capture,wasapi-capture,wasapi-renderer,webrtc

docs.rs builds this crate for Linux, so it documents only the backend-independent API and omits Windows-only types. The complete API, including D3D11, D3D12, DXGI, and WASAPI, is available in the Windows API documentation published on GitHub Pages.

Logging

Library diagnostics use a private, opt-in logger and never install a global log logger or tracing subscriber:

let _log_guard = media_pp::log::init(
    "media-pp",
    "./logs",
    media_pp::log::Level::Info,
    7,
)?;

Keep the returned guard alive until logging is no longer needed. Pipeline starts and dynamic Tee changes include a stable-ID topology diagram; detailed EOS and control propagation is available at Trace level. Ordinary media buffers are not logged one record per buffer.

Requirements and platform notes

• Install FFmpeg development headers and libraries in a location discoverable by ffmpeg-sys-next.
• Rust 1.88 or newer is required.
• D3D11VA/D3D12VA require compatible FFmpeg builds, Windows drivers, and GPU hardware. Check available accelerators with ffmpeg -hwaccels.
• D3D11 elements in one pipeline must share the same ID3D11Device and immediate context.
• D3d11Decoder uses a fixed-size FFmpeg surface pool; extra_hw_frames must cover the deepest downstream buffering.
• D3d11NvencEncoder needs an NVIDIA GPU and an FFmpeg build with NVENC. It fails to open with a typed error, not a panic, on any other GPU. The other d3d11 elements are vendor-neutral.
• RTSP publishing requires an external server that accepts publishing, such as MediaMTX.
• Tests needing real media read MEDIA_PP_TEST_VIDEO. They skip when it is unset or unreadable, so set it when testing demuxing, seeking, or decoding.
• Windows-backed examples compile as unsupported stubs on other targets.

License

Licensed under either the Apache License, Version 2.0 or the MIT License, at your option.

media-pp does not bundle FFmpeg. Users are responsible for complying with the license of their FFmpeg build and optional codecs.