thanks for the response - yes - i am referring to linux - can you give a more detailed call flow on what happens in user space and kernel space. How does sink element pass memory region to decoder element in user space? omx decoder element needs an fd, offset, length to mmap framebuffer memory into user space or does this all happen in kernel space without any intervention in userspace/framework. This applies to use cases like camera v4l2 src sending data to omx video encoder in gst framework. if camera and omx vid enc need to share the same physical memory, additional information about memory region (like a buffer identifier or fd) needs to be exchanged between user space elements in gst. <div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 3:38 AM, Felipe Contreras <<a href="mailto:felipe.contreras@nokia.com">felipe.contreras@nokia.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> <div><div></div><div class="h5"><a href="mailto:hdandroid@gmail.com">hdandroid@gmail.com</a> wrote: > New to gst - need some help: > > what is the best way to pass meta data from one element to the other in gst > pipeline? > example use case: in a HW accelerated transcoding session, OMX video decoder > output buffer is sent to OMX video encode. decoder output is present in a > physically contiguous memory identified by a file descriptor and encode > needs to use this file descriptor to derive the physical address of > decoder's output buffer. OMX buffer header provides platform private field > to carry platform specific data. > Gst seems to define buffer meta data but what is the best place to embed > this information. Does gst have any platform private/reserved fields > (similar to OMX buffer hdr platform private data) to carry such information? > <a href="http://www.gstreamer.net/data/doc/gstreamer/head/gstreamer/html/gstreamer-GstBuffer.html#GstBufferFlag" target="_blank">http://www.gstreamer.net/data/doc/gstreamer/head/gstreamer/html/gstreamer-GstBuffer.html#GstBufferFlag</a> > Another question is how does buffer from one element get passed to another > element when elements are in different processes? Or gst assume all elements > run in the same process.this cannot be practical scenario as usually display > resides in a different process. </div></div>All GStreamer elements run in the same process. The display server might run in a separate process, but that's independent of GStreamer (i.e. the API is X11, not Gst). If you only want to provide custom data between two contiguous elements in the pipeline you have two options: 1) Provide a GstBuffer sub-type, like GstOmxBuffer. Then it should be easy to add any information that you want, but you should check that the GType is the right one. 2) Add a custom field to the GstCaps of the buffer. However, I don't see why you need a fd for contiguous memory. On OMAP3 platform I have simple sink element that provides framebuffer memory (which is contiguous), and the video decoder element mmaps that memory. At kernel level the dspbridge driver is able to identify this memory as VM_IO, and the mmap operation is very fast. IOW; everything happens behind the scene; at kernel level. Are we talking about linux? -- Felipe Contreras </blockquote></div>