[HW Accel Support]: Unable to Enable Hardware Acceleration for Video Recording on Intel Celeron J4025 (Frigate on Synology DS220+)

[tklkalok]

Describe the problem you are having

Hi,

I am encountering an issue where I am unable to enable hardware acceleration for my cameras in Frigate, despite following the documentation. My setup is as follows:
• Hardware: Synology DS220+ with Intel Celeron J4025 CPU
• Frigate Version: 0.15-1
• Container Management: Synology Container Manager (Docker)

My Goal:

I simply want to have four cameras recording 24/7 without any object detection, filters, or masks—just continuous recording. However, when I set up only one camera, the FFMPEG CPU usage for that camera reaches 100%, which significantly impacts system performance.

Problem:
• When trying to enable hardware acceleration for Intel core (VAAPI), the following warning appears in the logs:

`ERROR   : Unable to poll intel GPU stats: Failed to initialize PMU! (Invalid argument)`

Despite configuring hardware acceleration using VAAPI, I am still unable to lower the CPU usage or enable the hardware acceleration successfully.

Steps Already Taken:
• Tried enabling VAAPI hardware acceleration via both LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME: iHD and FRIGATE_FFMPEG_HWACCEL_ARGS: preset-vaapi.
• Checked the device /dev/dri mappings and ensured they’re correctly passed into the container.
• Reduced the resolution and FPS of the camera (2560x1440, 10 fps), but CPU usage remains high.

I’ve tried troubleshooting using online answers and guides, but I still cannot get the hardware acceleration to work. Could anyone assist with how to properly enable hardware acceleration or help reduce CPU usage while recording? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Version

0.15.0-cea210d

Frigate config file

mqtt:
  enabled: false

record:
  enabled: true
  retain:
    days: 7
    mode: all

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args:
    - preset-vaapi

cameras:
  camera1:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://username:[email protected]:554/stream1
          roles:
            - record
    detect:
      enabled: false
      width: 2560
      height: 1440
      fps: 5

birdseye:
  enabled: false

ui: {}

version: 0.15-1

docker-compose file or Docker CLI command

version: "3.9"
services:
  frigate:
    container_name: frigate
    restart: unless-stopped
    stop_grace_period: 30s
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    privileged: true
    shm_size: "1gb"
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri
      - /dev/video0:/dev/video0
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - ./storage:/media/frigate
      - type: tmpfs
        target: /tmp/cache
        tmpfs:
          size: 1000000000
    environment:
      TZ: America/Edmonton
      LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME: iHD
      FRIGATE_FFMPEG_HWACCEL_ARGS: preset-vaapi
    ports:
      - "8971:8971"
      - "8554:8554" # RTSP feeds

Relevant Frigate log output

2025-03-30 17:54:28.555473086  [INFO] Preparing Frigate...
2025-03-30 17:54:29.009317180  [INFO] Starting Frigate...
2025-03-30 17:54:36.307044061  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.util.config            INFO    : Checking if frigate config needs migration...
2025-03-30 17:54:36.320571307  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.util.config            INFO    : frigate config does not need migration...
2025-03-30 17:54:36.352768868  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.app                    INFO    : Starting Frigate (0.15.0-cea210d)
2025-03-30 17:54:36.363486705  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] peewee_migrate.logs            INFO    : Starting migrations
2025-03-30 17:54:36.364062352  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] peewee_migrate.logs            INFO    : There is nothing to migrate
2025-03-30 17:54:36.377710692  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.app                    INFO    : Recording process started: 272
2025-03-30 17:54:36.378168204  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.app                    INFO    : Review process started: 273
2025-03-30 17:54:36.382084546  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.app                    INFO    : go2rtc process pid: 103
2025-03-30 17:54:36.417889323  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.app                    INFO    : Output process started: 303
2025-03-30 17:54:36.432841834  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.app                    INFO    : Camera processor started for camera1: 317
2025-03-30 17:54:36.443768255  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.app                    INFO    : Capture process started for camera1: 318
2025-03-30 17:54:36.533255943  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] detector.cpu                   INFO    : Starting detection process: 288
2025-03-30 17:54:36.534344996  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.detectors              WARNING : CPU detectors are not recommended and should only be used for testing or for trial purposes.
2025-03-30 17:54:36.684180185  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.api.fastapi_app        INFO    : Starting FastAPI app
2025-03-30 17:54:36.875446907  [2025-03-30 11:54:36] frigate.api.fastapi_app        INFO    : FastAPI started
2025-03-30 17:55:38.108354310  [2025-03-30 11:55:38] frigate.util.services          ERROR   : Unable to poll intel GPU stats: Failed to initialize PMU! (Invalid argument)
2025-03-30 11:55:39.997651  2025-03-30 17:55:38.108361198

Relevant go2rtc log output

2025-03-30 17:54:28.550397930  [INFO] Preparing new go2rtc config...
2025-03-30 17:54:30.524519818  [INFO] Starting go2rtc...
2025-03-30 17:54:30.820376394  11:54:30.820 INF go2rtc platform=linux/amd64 revision=b2399f3 version=1.9.2
2025-03-30 17:54:30.820746015  11:54:30.820 INF config path=/dev/shm/go2rtc.yaml
2025-03-30 17:54:30.821369259  11:54:30.821 INF [rtsp] listen addr=:8554
2025-03-30 17:54:30.821926909  11:54:30.821 INF [webrtc] listen addr=:8555/tcp
2025-03-30 17:54:30.823023049  11:54:30.822 INF [api] listen addr=:1984
2025-03-30 17:54:38.555516701  [INFO] Starting go2rtc healthcheck service...

FFprobe output from your camera

camera1 Camera Probe Info
Stream data is obtained with ffprobe.

Stream 1
Video:
Codec: H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
Resolution: 2560x1440 (16/9 aspect ratio)
FPS: 20/1
Audio:
Codec: PCM A-law / G.711 A-law

Install method

Docker Compose

Object Detector

CPU (no coral)

Network connection

Wireless

Camera make and model

Tapo C120

Screenshots of the Frigate UI's System metrics pages

Any other information that may be helpful

Sidenote: If I only want to do 247 recording, not detection is needed, can I just disable the detector config?

I also can see from the log that the detector process is with CPU, and there is a warning about it, how can I get rid of it?
Thank you!!

[NickM-27]

When trying to enable hardware acceleration for Intel core (VAAPI), the following warning appears in the logs:

You're looking at different things. The warning refers to object detection not hwaccel

[NickM-27]

The second one doesn't exist so you can just delete it

[NickM-27]

ERROR : Unable to poll intel GPU stats: Failed to initialize PMU! (Invalid argument)

This is because Synology is being used

[tklkalok]

Gotcha, deleting the FRIGATE_FFMPEG_HWACCEL_ARGS and change LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME to i965, and will try to run it again.

Regarding to the error message because of Synology is being used, are you saying I can just ignore it?

[NickM-27]

yes, it simply means gpu stats won't be available

[tklkalok]

Thank you, @NickM-27. It seems like things are working better than before now.

However, when I add a third camera, the NAS/Frigate container starts hanging, and I suspect it’s due to resource limitations.

I’ve already reduced the resolution from 2K to 720p, but the issue persists.

From your experience, is there anything I can do to make it support 4 cameras? Or is the DS220+ simply not capable of handling that load?

Here is the screenshot of having 2 cameras, after updating the config, it is consuming around 20% of CPU each.

And this is the frigate config I am currently have:

mqtt:
  enabled: false

record:
  enabled: true
  retain:
    days: 7
    mode: all

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args:
    # - preset-vaapi
    - -c:v:1
    - h264_v4l2m2m

cameras:
  camera1:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://username:[email protected]:554/stream1
          roles:
            - record
    detect:
      enabled: false
      width: 1280
      height: 720
      fps: 5
  camera2:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://username:[email protected]:554/stream1
          roles:
            - record
    detect:
      enabled: false
      width: 1280
      height: 720
      fps: 5
  #camera3:
  #  ffmpeg:
  #    inputs:
  #      - path: rtsp://username:[email protected]:554/stream1
  #        roles:
  #          - record
  #  detect:
  #    enabled: false
  #    width: 1280
  #    height: 720
  #    fps: 5

birdseye:
  enabled: false

ui: {}

version: 0.15-1