Nine Years of Almost: My Raspberry Pi Love and Hate Journey

Description and use

The author explains how switching to libvlc and applying Qt WebEngine fixes enabled stable 4K/HD video playback with webviews on Raspberry Pi 4 and 5.

Problem

Raspberry Pi hardware and software limitations hindered smooth, multi‑zone digital signage playback, especially with webviews and 4K video.

Outcome

The updated garlic‑player achieves stable, smooth multi‑zone digital signage on Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, overcoming previous hardware acceleration and webview crashes.

Workflow

• 1. Replace FFmpeg/QtMultimedia with libvlc backend in garlic‑player.
• 2. Apply Qt WebEngine and WebView fixes for Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm/Trixie).
• 3. Build and run the updated garlic‑player on Pi 4/5 with a standard SD card.
• 4. Verify multi‑zone layout with video and HTML5 widgets works without crashes.
• 5. Deploy via official AppImage for ease of installation.

Evidence

garlic‑player on Linux ARM now uses libvlc as its multimedia backend instead of FFmpeg and QMultimedia.

Source

The libvlc solved the video part, the Qt fixes solved the webview part.

Source