I tested all the versions released in Hybrid since August 2019. The only version that is "really" working is "Kvazaar v1.3.0-56-g1dd0619b 2019-08-08" released in Hybrid-2019.08.27.
I tested also the April version 2.0 as you suggested but this is not working with my script.
I restored the previous dev version with Kvazaar enabled and I substituted "Kvazaar v2.0.0-44-gd4341b3a 2020-11-18" with "Kvazaar v1.3.0-56-g1dd0619b 2019-08-08".
After this substitution I performed an encoding with Hybrid dev version "2020-12-31.1" and it failed with the reported error of wrong input.
Hybrid generated the following command line:
ffmpeg -y -loglevel fatal -noautorotate -nostdin -threads 8 -i "input.mkv" -map 0:0 -an -sn -pix_fmt yuv420p -vsync 0 -f rawvideo - | kvazaar --preset medium -i --input-res 1280x720 --input-fps 24000/1001 --input-format P420 --input-bitdepth 8 --level 6.2 --high-tier --qp 22 --ref 3 --subme 0 --sar 1:1 --range tv --colorprim undef --transfer undef --colormatrix bt709 auto -o "input_new_2021-01-05@22_00_59_9610_02.265"
In effect in this line there are 2 errors:
1) the "-i" option is not followed by the char "-" this issue generates the input error
2) at the and of the line, just before the "-o" option there is the "auto" parameter that should be removed.
After fixing these 2 errors, I was able to encode the movie with the following results:
preset fast:
Processed 681 frames, 84541352 bits AVG PSNR Y 40.7781 U 45.1778 V 46.2866
Total CPU time: 4.772 s.
Encoding time: 4.755 s.
Encoding wall time: 4.754 s.
Encoding CPU usage: 100.02%
FPS: 143.24
preset medium:
Processed 681 frames, 92746080 bits AVG PSNR Y 41.3425 U 45.4794 V 46.7170
Total CPU time: 11.253 s.
Encoding time: 11.234 s.
Encoding wall time: 11.234 s.
Encoding CPU usage: 100.00%
FPS: 60.62
So if you keep the kvazaar version 1.3.0-56-g1dd0619b and fix these small errors, you can enable again kvazaar.
you can find the movie used for this test at the following link:
https://filebin.net/x5wm9nuvgp82glks
This is a very difficult movie to encode properly and currently I found few encoders able to encode it satisfactory well and unfortunately Kvazaar (like all the hardware encoders) is not among them.
I forgot to specify that in the previous test the flag kvzaar->Misc->Minimize command line was enabled.
If I disable it, I get the following command line (I just renamed the files):
ffmpeg -y -loglevel fatal -noautorotate -nostdin -threads 8 -i "input.mkv" -map 0:0 -an -sn -pix_fmt yuv420p -vsync 0 -f rawvideo - | kvazaar -i - --input-res 1280x720 --input-fps 24000/1001 --input-format P420 --input-bitdepth 8 --level 6.2 --high-tier --qp 22 --no-lossless --ref 3 --open-gop --gop 8 --period 64 --deblock 0:0 --sao full --mv-constraint none --no-smp --no-amp --no-full-intra-search --no-transform-skip --me hexbs --me-steps -1 --subme 0 --pu-depth-inter 0-3 --pu-depth-intra 1-4 --tr-depth-intra 0 --no-bipred --cu-split-termination zero --me-early-termination on --fast-residual-cost 0 --rdoq --no-rdoq-skip --rd 0 --no-mv-rdo --early-skip --max-merge 5 --no-implicit-rdpcm --tmvp --no-intra-rdo-et --sar 1:1 --range tv --colorprim undef --transfer undef --colormatrix bt709 --no-erp-aqp --vps-period 0 --info --no-aud --no-signhide --threads auto --owf auto --wpp auto --psnr -o "output_new.265"
In this case it seems that the generated command line is correct, but this not the case, to be able to encode the movie I had, to remove the following options (even if theoretically are supported by the version 1.3.0): "--sao full", "--threads auto --owf auto --wpp auto"
This is the command line that worked for me:
ffmpeg -y -loglevel fatal -noautorotate -nostdin -threads 8 -i "input.mkv" -map 0:0 -an -sn -pix_fmt yuv420p -vsync 0 -f rawvideo - | kvazaar -i - --input-res 1280x720 --input-fps 24000/1001 --input-format P420 --input-bitdepth 8 --level 6.2 --high-tier --qp 22 --no-lossless --ref 3 --open-gop --gop 8 --period 64 --deblock 0:0 --mv-constraint none --no-smp --no-amp --no-full-intra-search --no-transform-skip --me hexbs --me-steps -1 --subme 0 --pu-depth-inter 0-3 --pu-depth-intra 1-4 --tr-depth-intra 0 --no-bipred --cu-split-termination zero --me-early-termination on --fast-residual-cost 0 --rdoq --no-rdoq-skip --rd 0 --no-mv-rdo --early-skip --max-merge 5 --no-implicit-rdpcm --tmvp --no-intra-rdo-et --sar 1:1 --range tv --colorprim undef --transfer undef --colormatrix bt709 --no-erp-aqp --vps-period 0 --info --no-aud --no-signhide --psnr -o "output_new.265"
No idea on the reason of this behaviour, I think that kvazaar is far to be considered "stable".
