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I would like to install VLC on my Raspberry Pi and wonder if it is possible?

I can not find a distribution that supports it, but wonder if anyone has done this or knows a link to a site or group who has done it. My search on google didn't give much help.

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Afaik, VLC has a openMax module so it should have the same capabilities as the OMXPlayer. – user1542 Sep 19 '12 at 15:19

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up vote 21 down vote accepted

Yes, VLC can be installed on the recommended Debian image using sudo apt-get install vlc.

As far as I understand, VLC (>= 1.1) uses the VAAPI to decode video, if it is available. VAinfo should tell you whether hardware decoding is available and since all packages are available for armel, hardware acceleration should work from the technical side. Since omxplayer (part of XBMC) can utilize hardware acceleration VLC should be able to do so too, I guess.

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Any idea whether this build has hardware support? – Alex Chamberlain Jun 25 '12 at 12:45
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@AlexChamberlain: I would doubt it. – Jivings♦ Jun 25 '12 at 12:54
I thought about that and extended my answer, thanks. – Bengt Jun 25 '12 at 12:57
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I actually ended up doing it, I have to test different videos to see how smooth it looks like. It seems like VLC 2.0 will have support for the same type of graphic engine that is inside the Broadcom chip and they may detect GPU and use some of it's abilities when 2.0 is officially released. – FarhadA Jun 25 '12 at 13:56
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Just a tip: rather than using a boolean AND (" && "), you can use just "; " It's 2 characters rather than 4, and doesn't require holding shift – XAleXOwnZX Sep 20 '12 at 0:58
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up vote 14 down vote

VLC is available in the extra repository for Arch Linux ARM.

However, unless I'm mistaken, VLC doesn't yet support hardware acceleration with the GPU on the Pi. This means playback wont be as good as using OMXPlayer (see this question for more information).

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I can confirm this, I installed VLC on the vanilla debian squeeze and it ran like a dog, the media player that comes with XBMC OpenElec version does support HW accelerated playback and played 1080p mp4 smoothly with no lag or dropped frames – EdChum Jun 25 '12 at 9:02
So it means that the VLC has the support for the GPU then? I have to get it from there and install it. I am interested in the streaming capabilities of the VLC to make RasPi a simple media player. – FarhadA Jun 25 '12 at 9:03
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Downvoter, please explain. – Jivings♦ Jun 25 '12 at 9:42
@FarhadA: What's wrong with using OMXPlayer? – Jivings♦ Jun 25 '12 at 9:52
Nothing wrong with it, it is just that I am used to VLC and would rather have that in my RasPi, that's all. – FarhadA Jun 25 '12 at 11:01
up vote 0 down vote

VLC openmax module aka omxil module is usually built along with the project. All you need to have is openmax installed, libvlc will then use it.

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Hi Kevin. You really need a bit more detail here. A better answer would demonstrate how to install openmax. – Jivings♦ Sep 21 '12 at 14:10
Can anyone elaborate on this answer? I'd love to get vlc working on my pi. If it's as simple as installing something I'd like to know what to install. – Kurtis Nusbaum Jan 14 at 6:44

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