nvdrmvideosink and gdkpixbufoverlay on Jetson: Working Pipeline

If you are building a GStreamer pipeline on Jetson that needs to render video to a display without a running compositor, and you want to overlay PNG or JPEG graphics on top of the camera feed, the combination of nvdrmvideosink and gdkpixbufoverlay comes up quickly. The problem is that they have an incompatible memory format between them — gdkpixbufoverlay produces system RAM buffers, and nvdrmvideosink expects NVMM. The fix is a second nvvidconv stage, but getting the caps chain right takes some trial and error.

Key Insights

• nvdrmvideosink renders directly via DRM/KMS — the right choice for headless or kiosk setups with no Wayland compositor
• gdkpixbufoverlay works with system RAM buffers; you must convert back to NVMM with nvvidconv before nvdrmvideosink
• The full pipeline requires two nvvidconv stages: one before the overlay (NVMM to system RAM) and one after (system RAM back to NVMM)
• For overlays that need to stay entirely in NVMM memory, nvdsosd (NVIDIA DeepStream OSD) is the alternative — but it requires the DeepStream SDK and uses a different metadata-based API
• The supported input format for nvdrmvideosink is video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),format=NV12 — other formats may require an additional nvvidconv conversion step

Understanding the memory incompatibility

nvarguscamerasrc outputs video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),format=NV12. That is GPU-mapped memory — fast, zero CPU copies, stays in hardware. gdkpixbufoverlay is a standard GStreamer element from the gst-plugins-good package. It reads your overlay image file, composites it onto each video buffer, and outputs video/x-raw (system RAM). nvdrmvideosink then expects video/x-raw(memory:NVMM) again.

So the memory path is:

NVMM (camera) → system RAM (gdkpixbufoverlay) → NVMM (nvdrmvideosink)

Both conversions happen via nvvidconv. The element handles both directions.

Working pipeline

gst-launch-1.0 \
  nvarguscamerasrc sensor-id=0 ! \
  video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=1920,height=1080,format=NV12,framerate=30/1 ! \
  nvvidconv ! \
  video/x-raw,format=BGRx ! \
  gdkpixbufoverlay location=/path/to/logo.png \
    offset-x=20 offset-y=20 \
    overlay-width=200 overlay-height=100 ! \
  nvvidconv ! \
  video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),format=NV12 ! \
  nvdrmvideosink sync=false

The explicit caps after each nvvidconv are important. Without them, GStreamer may pick a format path that causes a second negotiation failure downstream.

For a live camera feed where you want to minimize latency, add a leaky queue before the display:

gst-launch-1.0 \
  nvarguscamerasrc sensor-id=0 ! \
  video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),width=1920,height=1080,format=NV12,framerate=30/1 ! \
  nvvidconv ! \
  video/x-raw,format=BGRx ! \
  gdkpixbufoverlay location=/path/to/logo.png offset-x=20 offset-y=20 \
    overlay-width=200 overlay-height=100 ! \
  nvvidconv ! \
  video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),format=NV12 ! \
  queue max-size-buffers=1 leaky=2 ! \
  nvdrmvideosink sync=false

gdkpixbufoverlay properties

Property	Type	Description
location	string	Path to PNG, JPEG, or any GdkPixbuf-supported image
offset-x	int	Horizontal position in pixels from left edge
offset-y	int	Vertical position in pixels from top edge
overlay-width	int	Scale overlay to this width (0 = original size)
overlay-height	int	Scale overlay to this height (0 = original size)
alpha	float	Overlay opacity, 0.0 to 1.0
relative-x	float	Position as fraction of frame width (0.0 to 1.0)
relative-y	float	Position as fraction of frame height (0.0 to 1.0)

To update the overlay image at runtime, set the location property on the element while the pipeline is running:

overlay = pipeline.get_by_name("overlay")
overlay.set_property("location", "/path/to/new-logo.png")

Which display sink to use

The three common display sinks on Jetson have different requirements:

Sink	Compositor needed	Input format	Use case
nvdrmvideosink	No	video/x-raw(memory:NVMM)	Headless, kiosk, no desktop
nv3dsink	Yes (Weston/Wayland)	video/x-raw(memory:NVMM)	Wayland desktop
waylandsink	Yes (any Wayland)	video/x-raw	Standard Wayland

If you are running under a full desktop environment (GNOME on JetPack 4.x, or Weston on JetPack 5/6), use nv3dsink instead. nvdrmvideosink requires exclusive access to the DRM device and will conflict with a running compositor.

Common errors

nvdrmvideosink: DRM device not found — Check ls /dev/dri/. The display driver must be loaded. If the device exists but the error persists, another process (a compositor) may have exclusive access.

Negotiation failed between nvvidconv and nvdrmvideosink — Add explicit caps after the second nvvidconv: video/x-raw(memory:NVMM),format=NV12. Without explicit caps, GStreamer may select a format that nvdrmvideosink does not accept.

gdkpixbufoverlay: Failed to load — Verify the image path is correct and the image is a supported format. gdkpixbufoverlay requires gst-plugins-good with GdkPixbuf support compiled in; verify with gst-inspect-1.0 gdkpixbufoverlay.

For lower-latency overlay that stays entirely in NVMM, consider NVIDIA’s nvdsosd element from DeepStream — it draws text and rectangle overlays in GPU memory without the CPU round-trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is nvdrmvideosink and when should I use it on Jetson?

nvdrmvideosink renders video directly via DRM/KMS without a compositor. Use it in headless or kiosk setups where Wayland is not running. Use nv3dsink or waylandsink when a compositor is present.

Why does nvdrmvideosink require video/x-raw(memory:NVMM)?

It reads directly from GPU-mapped DMA memory to compose the display output without a CPU copy. System RAM buffers are not accepted — use nvvidconv to convert before the sink.

Can I use gdkpixbufoverlay directly before nvdrmvideosink?

No. gdkpixbufoverlay outputs system RAM buffers. You need an nvvidconv stage after it to convert back to NVMM before nvdrmvideosink.

What is the difference between nvdrmvideosink, nv3dsink, and waylandsink on Jetson?

nvdrmvideosink is DRM/KMS direct, no compositor needed. nv3dsink is OpenGL-based, requires Wayland/Weston. waylandsink is standard Wayland protocol. For embedded headless use, nvdrmvideosink is the right choice.

nvdrmvideosink says ‘DRM device not found’ — how do I fix this?

Check ls /dev/dri/. The NVIDIA display driver must be loaded, and no compositor should have exclusive access to the DRM device.

---

ProventusNova builds production GStreamer pipelines on Jetson for hardware startups. Talk to us about your embedded video pipeline.