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Why can't I play H.265 videos on Fedora 38 even though I have the codec installed

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  • Try this:

    sudo dnf update
    sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
    sudo dnf groupupdate core
    sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing
    sudo dnf groupupdate multimedia --setop="install_weak_deps=False" --exclude=PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin
    sudo dnf groupupdate sound-and-video
    
    

    You should also add the hardware accelerated codecs, by following the appropriate section depending on your hardware:
    https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/Multimedia?highlight=%28%5CbCategoryHowto%5Cb%29

    Make sure to reboot.

    If this still does not work, install Celluloid and enjoy the superiority of mpv.

    • I was actually using Celluloid before but videos were not playing until I used the commands you gave. Gnome videos is now crashing but I don't care as much since Celluloid is now working

      • Can you run GNOME Videos in the command line and copy/paste the error output when it crashes?

      • This confused the hell out of me last month. You can install two different versions off fmpeg/gstreamer on Fedora. One version of ffmpeg—the completely free, patent-unencumbered version—is available in Fedora's official repositories. This one does not include decoders for H.264 or H.265. You can still install OpenH264 from Cisco and use that to decode H.264 video, but there is no "free" way of decoding H.265 video. For that, you need to go to RPMFusion, which is not associated with Fedora. They ship the H.265 and AAC decoders, among other codecs that cannot be shipped without paying a licensing fee. RPMFusion is a third-party and they believe they can't/won't be pursued for patent infringement.

        And all of that is great, but I installed ffmpeg from RPMFusion and it still didn't work. I had to mindlessly copy commands until it did work. So you're not alone. I'm just giving you the context in case you were curious.

      • I was actually using Celluloid

        Celluloid is an MPV client and installing GStreamer codecs, as you did initially, does nothing. I didn't recognize Celluloid on the screenshot, though.

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