Gstreamer on Salt and Pepper

Create a Smaller Video File with H.264 Encoding

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 22:53:50 +0300

In the previous post, we created our first video file using GStreamer. The pipeline worked correctly, but there was one major problem: the generated file was very large.

The reason is simple. We stored every video frame as raw, uncompressed image data. While this is easy to understand, it is highly inefficient for storage and distribution.

In this post, we will introduce video compression using the H.264 codec and see how dramatically it reduces file size.

Part 1: Creating Your First Video File with GStreamer

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 21:34:56 +0300

In the previous post, we displayed a test video on the screen using GStreamer. This time, we will take the next step and create our first video file.

We will start with a slightly modified version of the command from the previous article:

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc num-buffers=90 ! \
video/x-raw,width=640,height=480,framerate=30/1 ! \
autovideosink

Understanding Caps

You may notice something new in the pipeline:

video/x-raw,width=640,height=480,framerate=30/1

This is called Caps (Capabilities).

Caps describe the type of media flowing between elements. They define properties such as:

Part 0: Helloworld Gstreamer

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:54:49 +0300

In this series, we will have a beginner-friendly introduction to the world of GStreamer.

GStreamer is a powerful open-source multimedia framework used to build streaming media applications. It allows developers to create pipelines that process, transform, and transmit audio, video, and other multimedia data.

My primary focus throughout this series will be video processing. Since GStreamer is built on top of GLib, I will also highlight the differences between GStreamer APIs and GLib APIs whenever they appear. Understanding this distinction early will help avoid confusion when reading examples and documentation.