If you are using the friendlyelec image, can you really say "mpv is vanilla from Debian"? I am really asking, because I haven't used friendlyelec in a long time, and I don't remember if they have their own DEB repository. Can you identify the ffmpeg version and compilation options? Same with mpv. Run $ ffmpeg with no options, and it will print out the version and the libraries that were activated. $ apt list ffmpeg $ apt list mpv $ mpv --version $ cat /etc/issue $ uname -a I do remember that friendlyelec has some extra video abilities, because they maintain their own patches with bleeding edge code, while the official ffmpeg and mpv maintainers are still checking whether to accept the pull requests. Is it even possible to run "armbianmonitor -u" in friendlyelec? Do you see "v4l2-request" or "va-api" (or "vaapi") anywhere in the mpv log? is your gnome desktop running under X11 or Wayland? (last time I used friendlyelec with Kodi, the graphic server was gbm, and there was no desktop, only Kodi). If you run $ mpv --vo=gpu -v my.mp4 , mpv will print a more verbose log, with more details of how its running.

@Nick_Sl @bickns — the headless build is up (146 MB, pure Debian 13, mainline 6.18.38, SSH from first boot): https://github.com/ut-slayer/orangepi-4a-mainline/releases/tag/v0.2 If either of you gives it a spin, I'd love a short report — what works, what doesn't. No rush and no obligation; even "booted, nothing broke" is useful. @Nick_Sl — you offered to test, so I'm taking you up on it 🙂. Most useful gaps right now: NVMe / M.2 SSD, suspend, and the GPIO header (eMMC and the 4 GB variant were just confirmed by another tester). @bickns — if the board ever leaves the drawer: the analog codec driver works, but mic capture is the one bit I couldn't bench-test (no onboard mic here). With your outdoor-audio project, you'd be the only one who could close that gap. Zero pressure either way. And if you don't mind, I'll add you to the thanks in the repo — testers get named there (JamesCL is already in for confirming the eMMC and the 4 GB variant). Also, early days and no promises: the VPU (hardware video decode) is something I've now started digging into. Thanks both.

That sounds good. I'm not using the jack for mic or output but should be able to check the DSP when things are more tied down with this outdoor-audio project. Will let you know and thanks again on a great job with this board!!

Software complexity is extreme ... And only x86 I would assume, so there is very little of interests for us. It is enough that packages are assembled at different time, so they will have different (bugs &) fixes. Either Ubuntu will get this bug or xtradebs will be fixed. Soon both wil be fixed or both broken .... unless bug is down to the OS level. Where snap will win with its, presumbly, stabilized OS container.

On prebuild images we test video acceeleration within Chromium and it works. Both kernels, Ubuntu Noble / Resolute Gnome, same good or bad on all boards. Others userspace combo might not work and other/all video players we don't even try to cover. Our job is done, when at least one method works OOB. It was integrated. This is not needed anymore. For overlay, I don't know. I think its still needed and it that case, its certanly present. On kernel, where this is needed.