VLC 3.0 with hardware acceleration

[ShiftPlusOne]

another dependency issue,
ffmpeg update to stretch version not rpt version, just like previous vlc-306 do.

Thanks. On it.

[LTolledo]

Just recently updated/upgraded my RPi3B+ (this unit am using to post to this forum)

After the update/upgrade (which included the update for VLC), I accidentally double clicked a 24-minute .mkv file.
....oh what the heck might as well try it... played in window mode.... while I browse the forum....

...then VLC stopped/closed (crashed?) after about 20 minutes......

....re-watched the .mkv file again in Kodi...and will probably continue to watch in Kodi..

...until the next VLC iteration......

[geigercounter]

When using MMAL (overlay) output, the video size is not stretched to fill the screen. A 720p50 video will be displayed in the upper left side using the original size. And it looks even worse when you play SD video. This may not be called a "bug", but it really should be changed.

@gkreidl did you ever find a way to display the video occupying the entire screen with the mmal_vout (overlay) output? I need to play some 720p vidoes on my 1080p tv. Using the vlc zoom option (zoom=2) fills the height, but there is a big black band on the right. I'd like to show the black band equally on both left and right (which omxplayer does out of the box). Is there a way you are aware of to achieve that?

[cjan]

vlc got updated, what improved?
test mmal_vout full screen, some can play some can not.

[geigercounter]

Thanks. I am using the latest VLC version on a headless RPi, with mmal_vout (--fullscreen does nothing). Still, the videos are shown at the original resolution in the top left corner, leaving most of the screen black.

[grkblood13]

Using @6by9's build instructions, VLC will not playback video. It only enters a "flickering" state where it appears that's it trying to do something and the timeline progresses, but no video is actually displayed. My test bed is a freshly built raspbian Stretch running on a RPI3B+.

For my build I performed the following:
1) uncommented sources in /etc/apt/sources.list
2) sudo apt update
3) sudo apt build-deps vlc
4) git clone https://github.com/RPi-Distro/vlc.git
5) cd vlc
6) ./bootstrap
7) ./configure --build=arm-linux-gnueabihf --prefix=/opt --includedir=${prefix}/include --mandir=${prefix}/share/man --infodir=${prefix}/share/info --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --disable-silent-rules --libdir=${prefix}/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf --libexecdir=${prefix}/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf --disable-maintainer-mode --disable-dependency-tracking --config-cache --disable-update-check --enable-fast-install --docdir=/usr/share/doc/vlc --with-binary-version=3.0.3-1-0+deb9u1+rpt1 --enable-a52 --enable-aa --enable-bluray --enable-avahi --enable-caca --enable-chromaprint --enable-chromecast --enable-dbus --enable-dca --enable-dvbpsi --enable-dvdnav --enable-faad --enable-flac --enable-fluidsynth --enable-freerdp --enable-freetype --enable-fribidi --enable-gles2 --enable-gnutls --enable-harfbuzz --enable-jack --enable-kate --enable-libass --enable-libmpeg2 --enable-libxml2 --enable-lirc --enable-live555 --enable-mad --enable-matroska --enable-mod --enable-mpc --enable-mpg123 --enable-mtp --enable-ncurses --enable-notify --enable-ogg --enable-opus --enable-pulse --enable-qt --enable-realrtsp --enable-samplerate --enable-sdl-image --enable-sftp --enable-shine --enable-shout --enable-skins2 --enable-sndio --enable-soxr --enable-speex --enable-svg --enable-svgdec --enable-taglib --enable-theora --enable-twolame --enable-upnp --enable-vdpau --enable-vnc --enable-vorbis --enable-x264 --enable-x265 --enable-zvbi --with-kde-solid=/usr/share/solid/actions/ --disable-aribsub --disable-d3d11va --disable-decklink --disable-directx --disable-dsm --disable-dxva2 --disable-fdkaac --disable-fluidlite --disable-goom --disable-gst-decode --disable-libplacebo --disable-libtar --disable-macosx --disable-macosx-avfoundation --disable-macosx-qtkit --disable-mfx --disable-opencv --disable-projectm --disable-schroedinger --disable-sparkle --disable-srt --disable-telx --disable-vpx --disable-vsxu --disable-wasapi --enable-alsa --enable-dc1394 --enable-dv1394 --enable-linsys --enable-nfs --enable-omxil --enable-udev --enable-v4l2 --disable-wayland --enable-libva --enable-vcd --enable-smbclient --disable-oss --disable-crystalhd --disable-mmx --disable-sse --enable-neon --enable-mmal --disable-altivec
8) make -j3
9) sudo make install
10) /opt/bin/vlc
* browsed to Tools > Preferences > Video > Display Output
* selected "MMAL-based vout plugin for Raspberry Pi"
* selected SAVE and closed player
11) Downloaded "I Am Legend" movie trailer and extracted to ~/Videos/I_Am_Legend.mp4
* source link: https://dvdloc8.com/clip.php?movieid=13599&clipid=4
12) /opt/bin/vlc -vvv /home/pi/Videos/I_Am_Legend.mp4 2>/tmp/out

The following is the generated error log:

https://gist.github.com/grkblood13/47dc ... 9f786e9681

[cjan]

* selected "MMAL-based vout plugin for Raspberry Pi"
no one said this will work.

[grkblood13]

* selected "MMAL-based vout plugin for Raspberry Pi"
no one said this will work.

No display output works, including "automatic". They all either do the same thing or crash completely.

The only way I am able to get video to play is if I disable hardware decoding from the terminal with vlc --codec="avcodec,none"

This however doesn't playback video in a speed that is watchable at all.

[cjan]

why not mmal splitter vout?

[grkblood13]

why not mmal splitter vout?

This was not an option in the VLC interface compiled from the steps I listed. I also tried backing up the the latest 3.0.3 branch from rpi-distro, which didn't have that option either.

[ShiftPlusOne]

Just cloning the repo isn't enough. It's a debian package, so the patch is applied as a part of the debian build process. Otherwise, it's just a vanilla build of upstream VLC. If you want to do it manually, look in ./debian/patches

[cjan]

try to enable omxil vout and work

[cjan]

another dependency issue,
ffmpeg update to stretch version not rpt version, just like previous vlc-306 do.

Thanks. On it.

update to 3.2.14, debian version over raspbian again.

[6by9]

another dependency issue,
ffmpeg update to stretch version not rpt version, just like previous vlc-306 do.

Thanks. On it.

update to 3.2.14, debian version over raspbian again.

I can't reproduce that.

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Installed: 3.0.6-0+rpt4+deb9u1
  Candidate: 3.0.6-0+rpt4+deb9u1
  Version table:
 *** 3.0.6-0+rpt4+deb9u1 500
        500 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian stretch/main armhf Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.0.6-0+deb9u1 500
        500 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian stretch/main armhf Packages

Upstream Stretch doesn't list it either https://packages.debian.org/stretch/vlc (same for Buster and Sid too).
So I don't know where you've got a 3.2.14 from. Please post the output from "apt-cache policy vlc".

[cjan]

@6by9
we are talk about ffmpeg, sorry.

[ShiftPlusOne]

Ah, I saw VLC when I looked at it as well. Will update when I get a chance.

[solelunauno]

Test of Raspberry Pi 3 model B. Raspbian reinstalled on a new microSD.
I first tried the official last version of Raspbian with desktop, that is called "buster".
It comes with VLC 3.0.7 wich has HW acceleration and doesn't need to be installed with manuallì compiled.
I made some tests with this new system.
I noticed that now it's possible to play videos in Cromium browser from youtube and other sites with Hw acceleration.
I tested VLC with tose results:
1) It can play some video formats, some mpeg2 and some videos downloaded from youtube with youtube-dl.
2) It cannot play other video formats (mpeg 4), that instead previous VLC manually compiled could play well.
3) it can play some video directly from youtube url, but not all videos; some will play bad, with damaged frames.
So I decided that I need to install also Kweb suite with omxplayer, in order to play videos not still well supported by VLC.
But I noticed that omxplayer installs and doesn't work on this new "buster" Raspbian.
So I thought that the last Stretch version of April 2019 will have both the advantages of new VLC 3.0 and omxplayer.

[fruitoftheloom]

Test of Raspberry Pi 3 model B. Raspbian reinstalled on a new microSD.
I first tried the official last version of Raspbian with desktop, that is called "buster".
It comes with VLC 3.0.7 wich has HW acceleration and doesn't need to be installed with manuallì compiled.
I made some tests with this new system.
I noticed that now it's possible to play videos in Cromium browser from youtube and other sites with Hw acceleration.
I tested VLC with tose results:
1) It can play some video formats, some mpeg2 and some videos downloaded from youtube with youtube-dl.
2) It cannot play other video formats (mpeg 4), that instead previous VLC manually compiled could play well.
3) it can play some video directly from youtube url, but not all videos; some will play bad, with damaged frames.
So I decided that I need to install also Kweb suite with omxplayer, in order to play videos not still well supported by VLC.
But I noticed that omxplayer installs and doesn't work on this new "buster" Raspbian.
So I thought that the last Stretch version of April 2019 will have both the advantages of new VLC 3.0 and omxplayer.

KWeb has not been compiled for Raspbian Buster as yet:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 0#p1495780

[gkreidl]

fruetoftheloom is right. I don't have a Buster system running, yet, and it will take at least another 2 weeks. My Systems all run from HDD and I have to do a lot of backups and move applications to other RPis before I can install a Buster system and start working on Buster versions of my software.

I have just heard that Midory and Epiphany crash on Buster and so I cannot even be sure, when I will be able to get kweb working, which uses the same webkit engine.

[solelunauno]

I loaded last Stretch version of April 2019. I installed Kweb suite and I obtained both the advantages of omxplayer gui and vlc 3.0 .
I can play some video formats with vlc 3.0.7 (the same that could be handled in raspbian buster) and I can play the other formats and also youtube urls with omxplayer.
But unfortunately if I stop using the hdmi output and I start the Raspberry pi with an analog monitor connected, both vlc and omxplayer don't work.
Vlc plays videos, but doesn't go full screen (in full screen I've only audio and a still image).
Omxplayer doesn't play video at all, it plays onlt the audio with a black screen.

[solelunauno]

Tested now always with raspbian-2019-04-09 , but without the update wizard after first boot. Vlc in this way is 3.0.6 and works well in full screen in analog video output.
Omxplayergui also works well, it plays videos and full screen on analog tv.
So there is something broken with the update wizard.
Tomorrow I'll try the apt-get update and apt-get upgrade from this stage, to confirm that the problems of analog output are from some broken update.

[Rascas]

Tested now always with raspbian-2019-04-09 , but without the update wizard after first boot. Vlc in this way is 3.0.6 and works well in full screen in analog video output.
Omxplayergui also works well, it plays videos and full screen on analog tv.
So there is something broken with the update wizard.
Tomorrow I'll try the apt-get update and apt-get upgrade from this stage, to confirm that the problems of analog output are from some broken update.

Yes, I believe it is the latest packaged firmware in Raspbian Stretch which has problems with the composite output.

[solelunauno]

I confirm that if you make apt-get update and apt-get upgrade over raspbian-2019-04-09 installed, you lose analog video output functionality. After these updates you can't play any video both with vlc 3.0.7 and with omxplayergui over the analog TV. So, be careful and we'll wait for something better on raspbian buster, avoiding updates on last stretch version.