Software Migration Considerations

This section of documentation covers the notable API differences between the current release of SDK, 1.0, and previous versions.

API Changes from Alveo U30

This sub-section describes differences between U30 and MA35D

FFmpeg API Changes

Options General	MA35D	U30
-c:v: Used for codec selection. Aside from naming convention changes, new AV1 codec and VP9 decoder are now available.	-c:v	-c:v
-filter_complex: Used for frame filtering operation. Aside from naming convention changes, new 2D composition and ML operations are now available.	-filter_complex	-filter_complex
-hwaccel: Used to select hardware accelerator engine. This option was previously referred to as xlnx_hwdev.	-hwaccel	-xlnx_hwdev
-vf: Used to select the DMA transfer direction between host and accelerator.	-vf	xvbm_convert

Options Encoder	Version 1.0	U30
-level: Used to specify encoder's level. It now supports AV1's levels.	-level	-level
-profile: Used to set encoder's profile. It now supports AV1's main.	-profile	-profile
-control_rate: Used to set rate control mode. Options to this setting have changed.	-control_rate	-control-rate
-tune_metrics: Used to tune VQ metrics. Options to this setting have changed.	-tune_metrics	-tune-metrics
-cores: Used to explicitly specify the number of processing cores.	Deprecated	-cores
-periodicity-idr: Used to determine IDR frame frequency.	Deprecated	-periodicity-idr
-force_key_frames: Used to force IDR frame insertion, at specified frame numbers.	Deprecated	-force_key_frames
-disable-pipeline: Used to enable/disable pipelining.	Deprecated	-disable-pipeline
-aspect-ratio: Used to set video's aspect ratio.	Deprecated	-aspect-ratio
-expert-options: Used to set encoder's expert option.	Deprecated	-expert-options
-avc-lowlat: Used to enable/disable ULL for AVC.	Deprecated	-avc-lowlat

Options Decoder	Version 1.0	U30
-splitbuff_mode: Used to configure decoder's buffer mode.	Deprecated	-splitbuff_mode
-entropy_buffers_count: Used to set number of decoder's entropy buffers.	Deprecated	-entropy_buffers_count

Options Scaler	Version 1.0	U30
-out_{N}_width: Used to configure width of an output rung.	Deprecated	-out_{N}_width
-out_{N}_height: Used to configure height of an output rung.	Deprecated	-out_{N}_height
-out_{N}_rate: Used to configure frame rate of an output rung.	Deprecated	-out_{N}_rate

Gstreamer API Changes

Options Encoder	Version 1.0	U30
tune_metrics: Used to tune VQ metrics. Options to this setting have changed.	tune-metrics	tune-metrics
ultra-low-latency: Used to set ULL mode.	Set lookahead-depth to 0.	ultra-low-latency
target-bitrate: Used to set target bit rate.	bitrate	target-bitrate
control_rate: Used to set rate control mode. Options to this setting have changed.	rate-control	control-rate
dev-idx: Used to specify the index of the device on which the encoder should be executed.	device	dev-idx
aspect-ratio: Used to set video’s aspect ratio.	Deprecated	aspect-ratio
avc-lowlat: Used to enable/disable ULL for AVC.	Deprecated	avc-lowlat
dependent-slice: Used to specify slice dependency.	Deprecated	dependent-slice
enable-pipeline: Used to enable/disable pipelining.	Deprecated	enable-pipeline
ip-delta: Used to set IP delta.	Deprecated	ip-delta
loop-filter-beta-offset: Used to set loop filter beta offset.	Deprecated	loop-filter-beta-offset
loop-filter-tc-offset: Used to set loop filter tc offset..	Deprecated	loop-filter-tc-offset
slice-qp: Used to set slice QP mode.	Deprecated	slice-qp
scaling-list: Used to set lscaling list mode.	Deprecated	scaling-list
reservation-id: Used to set resource pool reservation id.	Deprecated	reservation-id
rc-mode: Used to enable custom rate control mode.	Deprecated	rc-mode
qp-mode: Used to set QP control mode used by the encoder.	Deprecated	qp-mode
pb-delta: Used to set PB delta.	Deprecated	pb-delta
periodicity-idr: Used to set periodicity of IDR frames.	Deprecated	periodicity-idr
num-cores: Used to set the number of encoder cores to be used for current stream.	Deprecated	num-cores
num-slices: Used to set the number of slices produced for each frame.	Deprecated	num-slices

Options Decoder	Version 1.0	U30
dev-idx: Used to specify the index of the device on which the decoder should be executed.	device	dev-idx
avoid-dynamic-alloc: Used to set a flag to avoid dynamic allocation of output buffers.	Deprecated	avoid-dynamic-alloc
avoid-output-copy: Used to set a flag to avoid output frames copy.	Deprecated	avoid-output-copy
disable-hdr10-sei: Used to configure whether to passthrough HDR10/10+ SEI messages or not.	Deprecated	disable-hdr10-sei
interpolate-timestamps: Used to configure interpolation of output buffers PTS.	Deprecated	interpolate-timestamps
num-entropy-buf: Used to specifie the number of decoder internal entropy buffers.	Deprecated	num-entropy-buf
reservation-id: Used to set resource Pool Reservation id.	Deprecated	reservation-id
splitbuff-mode: Used to configure decoder in split/unsplit input buffer mode.	Deprecated	splitbuff-mode

Options Scaler	Version 1.0	U30
dev-idx: Used to specify the index of the device on which the scaler should be executed.	device	dev-idx
avoid-output-copy: Used to set a flag to avoid output frames copy on all source pads.	Deprecated	avoid-output-copy
coef-load-type: Used to configure coefficients loading type for scaling.	Deprecated	coef-load-type
enable-pipeline: Used to enable buffer pipelining to improve performance in non zero-copy use cases.	Deprecated	enable-pipeline
reservation-id: Used to configure resource pool reservation id.	Deprecated	reservation-id