HEVC playback on RPi 4

Question

Raspberry Pi 4 lists HEVC (H.265) video decoding up to 4K@60fps in the spec. I'd like to get some feedback from people who already had a chance to try it out.

Is this hardware or software encoding?
Does it support the 10-bit profiles?
Does it work in common Linux media players which can be installed from the Debian repo (like vlc or mpv), or does a special RPi-only build have to be used?
Does it require a license, similar to MPEG-2 on older RPi?

When listed in the specs it is hardware capability. Whether the software exists that can talk properly to the hardware, is another matter. — Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen, Jun 25 '19 at 10:27
@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen I'm inclined to think that too, considering that HEVC brings an RPi 3+ to its knees, and RPi 4 is not that different CPU-wise. I'd actually like to see a confirmation that it really works on RPi 4. — Dmitry Grigoryev, Jun 25 '19 at 12:21
Related: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/104939/pi-4-can-it-play-blu-ray-rips — Dmitry Grigoryev, Jan 09 '20 at 09:42

flakeshake · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-18T14:01:48.033

6

It is a hardware decoder.¹ ² No hardware encoder is present.
Yes. ²
No, as of 17-July-2019 the necessary patches are not in upstream, but exist as an downstream fork of ffmpeg. ³ LibreELEC ("Just enough OS for Kodi") uses it already.
No, the cost is included in the price already.

edited Jul 18 '19 at 14:01

answered Jul 17 '19 at 10:31

flakeshake

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Is there official ffmpeg support yet for HVEC on the rpi4? – deanresin Sep 21 '20 at 03:33

HEVC playback on RPi 4

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