Many links around state some complex installation configuration for this task. I've also heard that the VLC of Raspbian doesn't play videos (really?). Is there a simple, no-frills, way to play an HD MKV file in an RPi?
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4 Answers
The simplest and most performant way is to use omxplayer.
omxplayer filename.mkv
Obviously omxplayer is a commandline-only application. Coupled with an extra GUI it will still outperform (or actually use acceleration instead of) VLC or any gstreamer-based solution like Totem on old Pi models and even the Pi3 in special cases.
A popular GUI is omxplayerGUI , part of the kweb package. Get it here : https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=40860
VLC will works just fine if you're so desired. Just make the following change and it will use hw video acceleration
- Click Tools > Preferences or Ctrl+P
- Click on Video at the top
- Under Display, tick the "Accelerated video output (Overlay)" and change Output to "OpenMAX IL video output"
Play your video and enjoy!!
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1Does the VLC player included in the Raspbian repos support these options ? Apr 25, 2017 at 11:47
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"Edited Nov. 17th, 2018: There is now a hardware accelerated version of VLC 3.0 available from the Foundation repository. No need to compile anything anymore! The new version supports MMAL HW acceleration both in overlay mode (MMAL) and inside the video window (MMAL X11 splitter). You can use apt-get to install it." raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=195221 Apr 23, 2020 at 0:37
It kind of seems like fueling up the jet plane to go to the corner store, but I know people run Kodi on RPi and I know it is quite a capable media player and should be well-supported. I play MKV on it all the time (but running on Android). Might be something to try.
I found a guide to reinstall/compile VLC to enable the option mentioned above, for anyone who's also not seeing OpenMAX IL video. Not sure why this isn't just pre-installed with Raspbian.
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That guide now states this: "Edited Nov. 17th, 2018: There is now a hardware accelerated version of VLC 3.0 available from the Foundation repository. No need to compile anything anymore! The new version supports MMAL HW acceleration both in overlay mode (MMAL) and inside the video window (MMAL X11 splitter). You can use apt-get to install it." Apr 23, 2020 at 0:38