Raspberry Pi 4 can't play video

[bcadej]

I've tried to play .mov file in VLC. It is just a black screen. I can hear audio.
Any suggestions how to successfully play video?

video.png (96.31 KiB) Viewed 6500 times

[gkreidl]

The H264 decoder only supports resolutions up to 1920x1080.

[bcadej]

Is there any software fix?

[wren]

Try it as an mp4.
ffmpeg -i your.mov -c:v copy -c:a copy new.mp4

Even if it can't use hardware acceleration to playback larger video, it should still be able to do it in software.

[gtechn]

The Raspberry Pi 4 has two video decode blocks:

- H.264 @ 1920x1080 max
- H.265 @ 4K max

To watch your video, you will need to re-encode it. Using ffmpeg or (on a desktop) the easy-to-use Handbrake, you must re-encode your video to H.264 @ 1920x1080 (shrinking it from 4K to 1080p), or re-encoding your video into H.265, which can keep your 4K resolution at a slight quality loss (converting any file can lose quality).

Also, even though more software support is coming soon, only the LibreELEC distribution (which you can download on the main Pi website) supports the H.265@4K decode system for the time being. This will expand hopefully soon.

This is a bit of work, but the good news is that once set up, the Raspberry Pi can play 4K, 60fps, H.265 video flawlessly.

[gtechn]

Try it as an mp4.
ffmpeg -i your.mov -c:v copy -c:a copy new.mp4

Even if it can't use hardware acceleration to playback larger video, it should still be able to do it in software.

Software decoding is, except for MPEG-2 and VC1, way too slow and unwatchable on a Pi. I wouldn't recommend it. I would recommend converting to a different file format as above. There is no difference between MP4 and MOV file formats, because they are just containers for H.264 or H.265. Thus, from the Pi's perspective, this won't do anything.

[wren]

Software decoding is, except for MPEG-2 and VC1, way too slow and unwatchable on a Pi. I wouldn't recommend it. I would recommend converting to a different file format as above.

Quite possibly, but he would see more than a black screen with audio
.

There is no difference between MP4 and MOV file formats, because they are just containers for H.264 or H.265. Thus, from the Pi's perspective, this won't do anything.

The codecs are the same, but the format is different. Mpeg4 in a mov container is non standard.

http://jell.yfish.us/
You can test it out here. 3840x2160 H.264 high profile does indeed playback using MPV albeit slowly. I have no desire to download or try it in VLC.

edit: Now that I think of it, it's entirely possible that VLC is your problem. Try the video in MPV.

[jaydenGizmo]

I have been having the same problem.
Has there been any progress with this?

I am trying to use MPV to play 4k videos and they all playback choppy.

Is there a tried and true way to have RPI4 actually play 4k video?

What player to use, what codec is needed?

Thanks!

[vinvin]

From what I've seen, the raspberry pi 4 is not able to play accelerated video unless you have the experimental and unstable driver. So you have to choose between playing 720p or higher video, or have stability. Personally, with the experimental driver, I can playback some 720p video nicely, unless I'm trying full screen which results in out of memory and the kernel kills a random process.