[SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

jronald · 2025-07-09 01:56:02

vlc can't play h264 after `yay -Syu`, before the updates there is no problem.

logs

$ vlc
VLC media player 3.0.21 Vetinari (revision 3.0.21-0-gdd8bfdbabe8)
[0000563436358520] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
QFont::fromString: Invalid description 'Noto Sans CJK SC DemiLight,10,-1,5,400,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1'
QFont::fromString: Invalid description 'Noto Sans CJK SC DemiLight,10,-1,5,400,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1'
QFont::fromString: Invalid description 'Noto Sans CJK SC DemiLight,10,-1,5,400,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1'
[00005634363cb890] main playlist: playlist is empty
[00007f6fa8013380] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa8012d00] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8013380] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa8012d00] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8013380] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa8012d00] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8013380] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa8012d00] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8013380] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa8012d00] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8013380] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa8012d00] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8013380] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa8012d00] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8013380] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa8012d00] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa80091a0] main scale error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8012d00] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa80128b0] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8012d00] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa80128b0] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8012d00] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa80128b0] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8012d00] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa80128b0] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8012d00] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa80128b0] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8012d00] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa80128b0] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8012d00] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa80128b0] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa8012d00] chain filter error: Too high level of recursion (3)
[00007f6fa80128b0] main filter error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa80091a0] main scale error: Failed to create video converter
[00007f6fa4c03710] dav1d decoder error: Decoder feed error -1!
[00007f6fa4c04440] main decoder error: Codec `h264' (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)) is not supported.

Last edited by jronald (2025-07-09 04:11:07)

Scimmia · 2025-07-09 02:02:08

And you have the appropriate plugin (optional dep) installed?

jronald · 2025-07-09 02:14:16

Scimmia wrote:

And you have the appropriate plugin (optional dep) installed?

Just after `yay -Syu`, vlc doesn't play h264 anymore.
I think it's not about plugins.

Last edited by jronald (2025-07-09 03:30:05)

acidrain · 2025-07-09 03:31:30

EDIT: I fixed it by installing vlc-plugin-ffmpeg

I'm having the same issue. I noticed the new split with plugins so I thought I was missing some. I installed the x264 plugin, but I'm still getting the same error:

VLC media player 3.0.21 Vetinari (revision 3.0.21-0-gdd8bfdbabe8)
[000055c1d46155b0] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Warning: Ignoring XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland on Gnome. Use QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland to run on Wayland anyway.
[00007f180cc03d70] main decoder error: Codec `h264' (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)) is not supported.

This is the list of plugins I currently have installed:

vlc-plugin-a52dec 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-alsa 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-dav1d 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-dbus 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-dbus-screensaver 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-faad2 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-flac 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-gnutls 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-inflate 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-journal 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-jpeg 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-lua 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-mpeg2 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-mpg123 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-opus 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-png 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-pulse 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-shout 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-speex 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-tag 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-theora 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-twolame 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-vorbis 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-vpx 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-x264 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-x265 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugin-xml 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugins-base 3.0.21-26
vlc-plugins-video-output 3.0.21-26

Last edited by acidrain (2025-07-09 03:39:12)

jronald · 2025-07-09 04:10:50

acidrain wrote:

EDIT: I fixed it by installing vlc-plugin-ffmpeg
I'm having the same issue. I noticed the new split with plugins so I thought I was missing some. I installed the x264 plugin, but I'm still getting the same error:
VLC media player 3.0.21 Vetinari (revision 3.0.21-0-gdd8bfdbabe8)
[000055c1d46155b0] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Warning: Ignoring XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland on Gnome. Use QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland to run on Wayland anyway.
[00007f180cc03d70] main decoder error: Codec `h264' (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)) is not supported.

I've also sovled it by `yay -S vlc-plugin-ffmpeg`.
Thanks very much.

WorMzy · 2025-07-09 07:46:54

Mod note: moving to multimedia and games.

Deref · 2025-07-09 08:32:58

why is this not on the rss feed? update breaks a lot of vlc features and you need to manually install a new package

The WiFi Nerds · 2025-07-09 08:46:22

Thanks @acidrain, I ran into this same issue updating with paru.

I'll note for other users that vlc-plugins-all in Extra repository will also install the missing vlc-plugin-ffmpeg (plus perhaps others you may need and are missing).

I imagine many users will face this issue, would be nice to have it in the feed as it's the second relatively major unexpected issue of this type in last few weeks (although I recognize this isn't a system issue itself but an application issue). Perhaps I wouldn't have experienced this had I ran pacman update first and that's why it's not in rss.

Edit: Adding additional metadata to help folks searching the issue find this answer
VLC could not decode the format "mpgv" (MPEG-1/2 Video)
Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "h264" (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10))
Codec not supported:

Last edited by The WiFi Nerds (2025-07-09 08:51:18)

WorMzy · 2025-07-09 09:34:19

Pacman (and presumably paru, yay, and any other AUR helpers that wrap pacman) told you about the new dependencies when you updated.

pacman wrote:

New optional dependencies for vlc
    vlc-gui-ncurses: for ncurses TUI
    vlc-gui-skins2: for Skins2 GUI
    vlc-plugin-aalib: for ASCII art video output support
    vlc-plugin-aom: for AOM AV1 codec support
    vlc-plugin-archive: for archive stream extractor support
    vlc-plugin-aribb24: for ARIB STD-24 codec and demux support
    vlc-plugin-aribb25: for ARIB STD-25 stream filter support
    vlc-plugin-ass: for SSA/ASS subtitle codec support
    vlc-plugin-avahi: for mDNS/DNS-SD services discovery support
    vlc-plugin-bluray: for Blu-ray access support
    vlc-plugin-caca: for color ASCII art video output support
    vlc-plugin-cddb: for CDDB access support
    vlc-plugin-chromecast: for Chromecast stream out support
    vlc-plugin-dca: for DTS Coherent Acoustics codec support
    vlc-plugin-dvb: for DVB access, mux and demux support
    vlc-plugin-dvd: for DVD access support
    vlc-plugin-ffmpeg: for FFMPEG based access, codec, demux, packetizer, VDPAU, video chroma and video filter support
    vlc-plugin-firewire: for FireWire device access support
    vlc-plugin-fluidsynth: for FluidSynth codec support
    vlc-plugin-freetype: for Freetype2 text renderer support
    vlc-plugin-gme: for Game Music Emulation demux support
    vlc-plugin-gstreamer: for GStreamer codec support
    vlc-plugin-jack: for JACK access and audio output support
    vlc-plugin-kate: for kate karaoke codec support
    vlc-plugin-kwallet: for kwallet keystore support
    vlc-plugin-libsecret: for libsecret keystore support
    vlc-plugin-lirc: for infrared remote control support
    vlc-plugin-live555: for RTP/RTSP stream access support
    vlc-plugin-mad: for MPEG Audio Decoder audio filter support
    vlc-plugin-matroska: for Matroska demux support
    vlc-plugin-mdns: for mDNS services discovery support
    vlc-plugin-modplug: for MOD demux support
    vlc-plugin-mpeg2: for MPEG2 codec support
    vlc-plugin-mtp: for MTP device access and discovery support
    vlc-plugin-musepack: for MusePack demux support
    vlc-plugin-nfs: for NFS access support
    vlc-plugin-notify: for notify support
    vlc-plugin-ogg: for OGG mux and demux support
    vlc-plugin-quicksync: for Intel QuickSync H264/H262 codec support
    vlc-plugin-samplerate: for samplerate audio filter support
    vlc-plugin-sdl: for SDL codec support
    vlc-plugin-sftp: for SFTP access support
    vlc-plugin-smb: for SMB access support
    vlc-plugin-soxr: for SoX Resampler audio filter support
    vlc-plugin-srt: for subtitle support
    vlc-plugin-svg: for SVG codec and text renderer support
    vlc-plugin-udev: for ALSA services discovery support using udev
    vlc-plugin-upnp: for UPnP services discovery support
    vlc-plugin-x264: for H264/AVC encoding support
    vlc-plugin-x265: for H265/HEVC encoding support
    vlc-plugin-zvbi: for VBI access (also over V4L2) and codec support
    vlc-plugins-all: for all plugins
    vlc-plugins-extra: for extra plugins
    vlc-plugins-visualization: for visualization plugins

acidrain · 2025-07-09 13:05:05

@WorMzy, I did see the message, but I wrongly assumed that I needed vlc-plugin-x264: for H264/AVC encoding support to enable H264 - MPEG-4 AVC, when I actually needed vlc-plugin-ffmpeg: for FFMPEG based access, codec, demux, packetizer, VDPAU, video chroma and video filter support

V1del · 2025-07-09 16:18:21

"encoding" is a term for creating files in that format, codec or decoder are what's usually used for playback. You could technically have the gstreamer packages and vlc-plugin-gstreamer instead for the codec coverage, but for most purposes people likely want ffmpeg anyway.

zebulon · 2025-07-09 18:20:39

For many users with no special needs, then you should install

vlc-plugins-all

or

vlc-plugins-extra

. This could be announced on the RSS feed.

V1del · 2025-07-09 18:37:25

You're expected to read and evaluate new optional dependencies from previously combined packages, this is standard pacman/update procedure, there's not going to be a feed for this.

littlek3000 · 2025-07-10 16:00:48

Not to be that guy, but expecting someone to read through multiple pages of pacman logs just to find if any one of the hundred packages being upgraded has new optional dependencies out of nowhere, is actually unreasonable. I'm looking through my pacman logs right now, and there's nothing about new vlc dependencies. I see my vlc update from last night when everything broke, I even see all the vlc plugins I already had being updated, I see my install of the new vlc plugins from this morning after I woke up, but nowhere is there anything for new dependencies.

Scimmia · 2025-07-10 16:04:23

It's not in the log, pacman told you when you ran it. If you think it's unreasonable to actually read what's happening during an update, Arch is a bad choice.

SmilingTexan · 2025-07-11 18:40:44

Shouldn't something like this be in the logs? Sometimes the pacman text scrolls by a bit fast and I don't think to go back and read it (because, usually everything works). How do I read about this if it's not recorded in the logs, then?

V1del · 2025-07-14 14:23:31

by reading the output, new opt dependencies, especially as big as the vlc split will have been, create a very distinct and disjoint disruption in the "normal" terminal output of "downloading stuff". That said I agree this might be worth pushing to the logs as well, but such a feature request is off topic here and better handled on the pacman gitlab.

the_remora · 2025-07-19 17:51:23

Why was this change made? I have never had to do more than a 'pacman -S vlc' its one of the reasons vlc has always been my go to.

WorMzy · 2025-07-19 17:53:26

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … -/issues/6

thelonius · 2025-08-29 11:58:09

WorMzy wrote:

Pacman (and presumably paru, yay, and any other AUR helpers that wrap pacman) told you about the new dependencies when you updated.
...

It didn't tell us that the x264 plugin depends on the ffmpeg plugin (which by the way obviously even the packagers weren't aware of). So your "your fault" answer feels a bit hard to swallow for me. - Just mentioning.

seth · 2025-08-29 13:12:08

It didn't tell us that the x264 plugin depends on the ffmpeg plugin

No, doesn't. Which x264 plugin? The encoding one? Still doesn't. And how's that relevant?
ffmpeg or more specifically libav is simply the https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eierlegende_Wollmilchsau (there's sadly no English version of that) of "video playback stuff", the ffmpg package description and wiki article mentions that - but the plugin description could maybe stress that "when in doubt, you probably want this".

which by the way obviously even the packagers weren't aware of

Aha. Mmhmm… sure.
Do you *believe* they therefore put x264 into the build dependencies of https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … in-ffmpeg/ for no reasons and just by happenstance and sheer dumb luck?
Or do you *think* it's more likely they falsely implied the role of ffmpeg to be common knowledge and therefore simply didn't stress that in the package description?

Just mentioning.

I'll grant everyone that the VLC constellation w/ relying on ffmpeg for h264 playback but having a dedicated x264 based plugin for h264 encoding is kinda weird and confusing (and that's not the only "surprising" implementation detail), but it is what it is.
Some plugin descriptions have been tweaked before so if you want to help out making things less confusing for others after you ran into such confusion, feel free to suggest adjustments at https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … c/-/issues

avasam · 2025-09-11 23:20:29

fixed for me by installing vlc-plugins-all

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … ugins-all/

Last edited by avasam (2025-09-11 23:21:40)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-07-09 01:56:02

[SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#2 2025-07-09 02:02:08

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#3 2025-07-09 02:14:16

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#4 2025-07-09 03:31:30

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#5 2025-07-09 04:10:50

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#6 2025-07-09 07:46:54

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#7 2025-07-09 08:32:58

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#8 2025-07-09 08:46:22

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#9 2025-07-09 09:34:19

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#10 2025-07-09 13:05:05

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#11 2025-07-09 16:18:21

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#12 2025-07-09 18:20:39

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#13 2025-07-09 18:37:25

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#14 2025-07-10 16:00:48

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#15 2025-07-10 16:04:23

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#16 2025-07-11 18:40:44

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#17 2025-07-14 14:23:31

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#18 2025-07-19 17:51:23

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#19 2025-07-19 17:53:26

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#20 2025-08-29 11:58:09

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#21 2025-08-29 13:12:08

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

#22 2025-09-11 23:20:29

Re: [SOLVED] vlc can't play h264

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