Play audio and video

The easiest way to play audio and video on a Raspberry Pi is to use the preinstalled VLC application;

The VLC program uses hardware acceleration and can play many popular audio and video file formats.

Graphical interface

Select the file you want to play, right-click and select "VLC Media Player"

Command Line

Note: To play audio or video from the command line, you need to enter the directory where the file is located.

Play video

• vlc <video_name>

Example: Play Test.mp4 file

vlcTest.mp4

• vlc --play-and-exit <video_name>

Example: After playing the Test.mp4 file, exit the application

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vlc --play-and-exit Test.mp4

• vlc --play-and-exit --fullscreen <video_name>

Example: Play the Test.mp4 file in full screen, exit the application after playing

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vlc --play-and-exit --fullscreen Test.mp4

• cvlc --play-and-exit <video_name>

Example: Play the Test.mp4 file without displaying the VLC graphical interface

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cvlc --play-and-exit Test.mp4

• cvlc --play-and-exit --drm-vout-display <video_name>

Replace and <video_name> content

Example: Video output via HDMI1

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cvlc --play-and-exit --drm-vout-display HDMI-A-1 Test.mp4

Get a list of all DRM devices on the Raspberry Pi: kmsprint | grep Connector

Play audio

The Raspberry Pi 5 can be used normally only when an audio device is connected.

The only difference between the play audio command and the play video command is the file name: Play Test.mp3 file

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cvlc --play-and-exit Test.mp3

• cvlc --play-and-exit -A alsa --alsa-audio-device <video_name>

Replace and <video_name> content

Example: Output audio via HDMI

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cvlc --play-and-exit -A alsa --alsa-audio-device vc4hdmi0 Test.mp3

Get the Raspberry Pi ALSA device: aplay -L | grep sysdefault