VLC 3.0 with hardware acceleration

[6by9]

There is some magic that can be done on the repo to stop upstream updates overriding our downstream version,

Setting the "Epoch" in the version number will do that. Change 3.0.3 to 1:3.0.3

As stated above, our resident expert is not available at present.
Those who have some knowledge (more than me!) understand Epoch to be if you wish to change your package versioning scheme totally and avoid having the possibility of conflicts/unintentional reverts. It's not for temporary pinning of packages/priority tweaks.

[jaiedsabid]

Warring !!!
update to 3.0.6 break everything, don't know why Devs do that.

It looks like Debian have bumped the version they supply to 3.0.6 (over our 3.0.3), so they have become the default install candidate over our version.

You can force install/downgrade to our version with

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install vlc=3.0.3-1-0+deb9u1+rpt1

There is some magic that can be done on the repo to stop upstream updates overriding our downstream version, but the relevant person isn't in the office at the moment. (It may be quicker to get our version bumped to 3.0.6 instead, but that depends on what changes have happened between the two).

I am unable to downgrade. Please Help me.

[Gadgetguy]

I just locked (via synaptic packager manager) vlc as well as its' associated packages to the the 3.03 version. Then when I "reloaded" synaptic to get updates to my distro I did not get any updates to vlc.

[6by9]

Despite being on holiday, our resident expert has responded and is looking into it.

I've also had confirmation that the bump from 3.0.3 to 3.0.6 should be relatively simple to handle, so we may get a bump of VLC with all the downstream HW acceleration tweaks as well.

Please have a little patience whilst things are finalised.

[6by9]

There should be a patched version of 3.0.6 with HW acceleration landing in the repos within the next hour (so I've been told).

Thanks for the report of the problems, although providing a few details in the first post would have been even better

Edit: It appears to be there now:

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 3.0.6-0+rpt1+deb9u1
  Version table:
     3.0.6-0+rpt1+deb9u1 500
        500 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian stretch/main armhf Packages
     3.0.6-0+deb9u1 500
        500 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian stretch/main armhf Packages

[cjan]

does 2 version with same patch or 3.0.6 with advanced patch?

[ShiftPlusOne]

does 2 version with same patch or 3.0.6 with advanced patch?

Same patch for now

[Gadgetguy]

Gadgetguy said:

" I just locked (via synaptic packager manager) vlc as well as its' associated packages to the the 3.03 version. Then when I "reloaded" synaptic to get updates to my distro I did not get any updates to vlc."

But After seeing in this thread that vlc version 3.06 had now been patched for hardware acceleration I decided to unlock version 3.03 and upgrade to version 3.06. I now wish I could go back to version 3.03 for reasons I will describe below.


I had been very happy with vlc 3.03. I had not only used it to play local video files but also to play web videos especially youtube. . You could drag the web video into vlc''s interface or designate vlc as a media player in smtube. ( I should point out however that dragging a you tube video from the browser into vlc didn't always work because it didn't play the vp8 and vp9 codecs. )I find vlc 3.06 still performs these functions as well as before.

However where I have been experiencing problems with 3.06 is with using it as an iptv player. By opening an iptv .m3u playlist with 3.03 i was able to switch back and forth between several live tv channels and watch/monitor them either in a small window ( or full screen) while i surfed the internet. eg :

https://livecbcdai-i.akamaihd.net/hls/l ... ster6.m3u8

or


https://glblvhalifax-lh.akamaihd.net/i/ ... aster.m3u8


or

http://bcoveliveios-i.akamaihd.net/hls/ ... aster.m3u8




I could switch back and forth between live feeds without closing vlc. With vlc 3.06 I cannot load another channel without closing vlc first or it will crash.. More impessively still with 3.03 I could load an .m3u playlist containing approx. 2000 channels an search through the list and load the channel I wanted. With version 3.06 I have to close vlc before I can view a second channel.
eg see the playlist at :

https://fluxustv.blogspot.com/p/iptv.html

which can be downloaded as a file at

https://pastebin.com/raw/AspPx4sE

Perhaps( although I don't think so) other errors have crept into my system causing this malfunction of vlc. I imagine any problems with vlc will eventually be corrected but in the meantime I would like to go back to version 3.03 but it now seems to have disappeared from the repository. I believe a fair number of people use vlc as an iptv player. I haven't checked to see how it performs with youtube playlists. By the way for those interested smplayer with mmal accelerated mpv as its engine also works well as an iptv player and also with you tube playlists. Using smplayer in this fashion with mmal mpv you have to toggle back and forth between a fixed size and position overlay window and full screen. But to use the english expression" it works a treat".

[Gadgetguy]

Further to my earlier post re vlc 3.06 I can longer use the tunein radio plugin. When I try to load a radio station from the tune in radio plugin vlc crashes. I note that reading from the task manager while the following live tv channel is playing the cpu usage for vlc as shown in task manager will vacillate between 2% to 15 %. It is a 1920x1080 p stream 30fps:


https://livecbcdai-i.akamaihd.net/hls/l ... ster6.m3u8

[gkreidl]

Gadgetguy said:

" I just locked (via synaptic packager manager) vlc as well as its' associated packages to the the 3.03 version. Then when I "reloaded" synaptic to get updates to my distro I did not get any updates to vlc."

But After seeing in this thread that vlc version 3.06 had now been patched for hardware acceleration I decided to unlock version 3.03 and upgrade to version 3.06. I now wish I could go back to version 3.03 for reasons I will describe below.


I had been very happy with vlc 3.03. I had not only used it to play local video files but also to play web videos especially youtube. . You could drag the web video into vlc''s interface or designate vlc as a media player in smtube. ( I should point out however that dragging a you tube video from the browser into vlc didn't always work because it didn't play the vp8 and vp9 codecs. )I find vlc 3.06 still performs these functions as well as before.

However where I have been experiencing problems with 3.06 is with using it as an iptv player. By opening an iptv .m3u playlist with 3.03 i was able to switch back and forth between several live tv channels and watch/monitor them either in a small window ( or full screen) while i surfed the internet. eg :

https://livecbcdai-i.akamaihd.net/hls/l ... ster6.m3u8

or


https://glblvhalifax-lh.akamaihd.net/i/ ... aster.m3u8


or

http://bcoveliveios-i.akamaihd.net/hls/ ... aster.m3u8




I could switch back and forth between live feeds without closing vlc. With vlc 3.06 I cannot load another channel without closing vlc first or it will crash.. More impessively still with 3.03 I could load an .m3u playlist containing approx. 2000 channels an search through the list and load the channel I wanted. With version 3.06 I have to close vlc before I can view a second channel.
eg see the playlist at :

https://fluxustv.blogspot.com/p/iptv.html

which can be downloaded as a file at

https://pastebin.com/raw/AspPx4sE

Perhaps( although I don't think so) other errors have crept into my system causing this malfunction of vlc. I imagine any problems with vlc will eventually be corrected but in the meantime I would like to go back to version 3.03 but it now seems to have disappeared from the repository. I believe a fair number of people use vlc as an iptv player. I haven't checked to see how it performs with youtube playlists. By the way for those interested smplayer with mmal accelerated mpv as its engine also works well as an iptv player and also with you tube playlists. Using smplayer in this fashion with mmal mpv you have to toggle back and forth between a fixed size and position overlay window and full screen. But to use the english expression" it works a treat".

I have not updated yet and suppose I'll won't do it for a while after your report. But I checked the Foundation repository and the 3.0.3 version is still there.

[Gadgetguy]

gkreidl wrote:

" I have not updated yet and suppose I'll won't do it for a while after your report. But I checked the Foundation repository and the 3.0.3 version is still there."



I am afraid I can't find vlc version 3.03. For example using synaptic Package/force version the only version that presents itself as an option is 3.06. As I said I can't be absolutely certain the upgrade caused these problems but it seems very likely.

[tvjon]

Strange, I don't see 3.0.6.

[Gadgetguy]

yes, but have you clicked the reload button in synaptic to update the repository?

[tvjon]

Good point, not today

However, I do have the relevant 15 .deb files if there's a URL you can provide to put them if you like?

[gkreidl]

You might also find them in "/var/cache/apt/archives" or download them from http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/v/vlc/

[ShiftPlusOne]

The repo management software we use (reprepro) doesn't allow two versions of the same package to be available in a single release, but old deb files don't get deleted. So, downgrading isn't quite trivial, but still possible if you download the relevant files and use dpkg to install them.

To address and earlier point about bumping the epoch, there are a few reasons why we don't do that. One reason is to cover my behind. If tomorrow an exploit is published which allows vlc to steal your credit card number, the security update is a higher priority than hardware acceleration. The second reason is that if we ever stop supporting our version of vlc, it would be preferable for the debian version to take over. Otherwise we would be committing to supporting vlc forever. Overall a day or two of hw acceleration not being available is preferable to your system being compromised.

[gkreidl]

The repo management software we use (reprepro) doesn't allow two versions of the same package to be available in a single release, but old deb files don't get deleted. So, downgrading isn't quite trivial, but still possible if you download the relevant files and use dpkg to install them.

To address and earlier point about bumping the epoch, there are a few reasons why we don't do that. One reason is to cover my behind. If tomorrow an exploit is published which allows vlc to steal your credit card number, the security update is a higher priority than hardware acceleration. The second reason is that if we ever stop supporting our version of vlc, it would be preferable for the debian version to take over. Otherwise we would be committing to supporting vlc forever. Overall a day or two of hw acceleration not being available is preferable to your system being compromised.

The real problem now seems to be that VLC 3.0.6 seems to be full of new bugs.

[Gadgetguy]

You might also find them in "/var/cache/apt/archives" or download them from http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/v/vlc/

Thanks, I have uninstalled vlc 3.06 and reinstalled vlc 3.03. All the problems with loading iptv channels referred to in my earlier post have disappeared! Also the tunein radio plugin for vlc now works again!. The cpu utilisation while playing a live iptv stream is about the same for both vlc 3.03 and vlc 3.06 ie while low eg 2 or 3 % but every few seconds it spikes to about 15%..I tested vlc 3.03 with youtube playlists. It doesn't seem to work.While vlc works great with youtube it seems to balk at certain videos especially certain music videos ( drm?) or if the youtube video returns a vp8 or vp9 format. I have noticed when vlc can't play a video for some such reason- it then has to be closed and reopened to work again. if used as a designated media player for smtube youtube browser which has its own internal youtube code it will play those problem youtube videos without a hitch.

I use bleachbit system cleaner( It seems to work well for me as long as it is configured properly) and regularly clean out my /var/cache/apt/archives so that option was not available. I was looking for the 3.03 files in the

http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/stretch/main repository

as I thought the debian repository would contain the non mmal accelerated vlc. It was a real pain reinstalling all the downloaded vlc 3.03 file via gdebi because unless installed in the proper sequence gdebi would install 3.06 versions to meet dependency requirements.. Perhaps there is an easier version to reinstall these downloaded files as a batch I have once again locked vlc to the 3.03 version via synaptic. Wake me up when all these problems have been resolved!

[gkreidl]

You might also find them in "/var/cache/apt/archives" or download them from http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/v/vlc/

Thanks, I have uninstalled vlc 3.06 and reinstalled vlc 3.03. All the problems with loading iptv channels referred to in my earlier post have disappeared! Also the tunein radio plugin for vlc now works again!. The cpu utilisation while playing a live iptv stream is about the same for both vlc 3.03 and vlc 3.06 ie while low eg 2 or 3 % but every few seconds it spikes to about 15%..I tested vlc 3.03 with youtube playlists. It doesn't seem to work.While vlc works great with youtube it seems to balk at certain videos especially certain music videos ( drm?) or if the youtube video returns a vp8 or vp9 format. I have noticed when vlc can't play a video for some such reason- it then has to be closed and reopened to work again. if used as a designated media player for smtube youtube browser which has its own internal youtube code it will play those problem youtube videos without a hitch.

I use bleachbit system cleaner( It seems to work well for me as long as it is configured properly) and regularly clean out my /var/cache/apt/archives so that option was not available. I was looking for the 3.03 files in the

http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/stretch/main repository

as I thought the debian repository would contain the non mmal accelerated vlc. It was a real pain reinstalling all the downloaded vlc 3.03 file via gdebi because unless installed in the proper sequence gdebi would install 3.06 versions to meet dependency requirements.. Perhaps there is an easier version to reinstall these downloaded files as a batch I have once again locked vlc to the 3.03 version via synaptic. Wake me up when all these problems have been resolved!

A simpler solution for re-installation: download all .deb files into a new directory. CD into this directory and run
sudo dpkg -i *

[calanor]

I uninstalled vlc 3.06 and reinstalled vlc 3.03 but I continue with problems.

Similar other users I ned to play at fullscreen TVIP rtp or udp streams. With h264 VLC plays correctly all streams even full HD 1080p streams, but when I play a DVB mpg2 streams is not able to reproduce more than 5 fps. I do not have a mpg2 license for rpi but it is assumed that 3B+ should be able to do it by software. For mpg2 streams I have tested with x11/xdg vout with the same result. In all cases the CPU does not exceed 40%.

Finally, I compiled vlc from git sources https://github.com/RPi-Distro/vlc with config that has proposed 6by9 with worse results. It is not able to play any stream (tested all vout).

omxplayer plays perfectly h264 but it tells me "have a nice day" when I try it with mpg2 streams (normal when not having the licence).
And the most curious is that Kodi reproduces all streams h264 and mpg2 without problems with total smoothness without cpu stress (<30%).

But I need a player like vlc that can play any video in kiosk mode (fullscreen at beginning) from the command line without seeing any interface. I do not know if the video-player part of kodi exists separately.


Thanks

[gkreidl]

I uninstalled vlc 3.06 and reinstalled vlc 3.03 but I continue with problems.

Similar other users I ned to play at fullscreen TVIP rtp or udp streams. With h264 VLC plays correctly all streams even full HD 1080p streams, but when I play a DVB mpg2 streams is not able to reproduce more than 5 fps. I do not have a mpg2 license for rpi but it is assumed that 3B+ should be able to do it by software. For mpg2 streams I have tested with x11/xdg vout with the same result. In all cases the CPU does not exceed 40%.

Finally, I compiled vlc from git sources https://github.com/RPi-Distro/vlc with config that has proposed 6by9 with worse results. It is not able to play any stream (tested all vout).

omxplayer plays perfectly h264 but it tells me "have a nice day" when I try it with mpg2 streams (normal when not having the licence).
And the most curious is that Kodi reproduces all streams h264 and mpg2 without problems with total smoothness without cpu stress (<30%).

But I need a player like vlc that can play any video in kiosk mode (fullscreen at beginning) from the command line without seeing any interface. I do not know if the video-player part of kodi exists separately.


Thanks

Get the codec license and both omxplayer and VLC will do what you are asking for.

[calanor]

Get the codec license and both omxplayer and VLC will do what you are asking for.

Totally agree. It's the first thing I thought.
But I need a solution "out of the box" for a software distribution without the need to buy a license. RPI B3 + should be able to play mpg2 ntsc or pal resolution without problems.

[khanh]

Hi,

Ive been using omxplayer without any issue.
I heard they implemented vlc with ha so I gave it a shot.

Its absolutely not working :
Im using 3.0.6-0+rpt1+deb9u1 and it feels like watching a 3 fps video

[6by9]

Ive been using omxplayer without any issue.
I heard they implemented vlc with ha so I gave it a shot.

Its absolutely not working :
Im using 3.0.6-0+rpt1+deb9u1 and it feels like watching a 3 fps video

I've just tested with a fresh install and update of Raspbian Stretch with vlc 3.0.6-0+rpt1+deb9u1. Works fine playing back 1080P Big Buck Bunny on a 3B+.
It does appear to need gpu_mem to be increased to 80MB to get fullscreen to work, but rendering to a window is fine.

If you've got issues then you'll have to give a load more information. First question is what do you have Tools/Preferences/Video/Output set to? It should be "MMAL x11 splitter for Raspberry Pi", although Automatic should select that anyway on a Pi.

For the sake of completeness I've also tested on a 2B, and that is also fine. Yes you will struggle on a Pi0 or 1 as the ARM core just isn't up to it. omxplayer is the only real option on a 0 or 1.

[cjan]

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