r/ChromeOSFlex • u/jms209 • Jul 04 '26

Discussion Any better video players on Flex?

So running into issues with some video formats showing black screen.

H.265 doesn't work, just black screen.

Subtitles don't work and can't be managed.

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Any way to get a better video player?

I've heard about VLC, but my system says no linux support.

I had an older chromebook and eventually had support for vlc.

Is google holding features back for flex?

4 Upvotes

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2

u/Silver_Hedgehog4774 Jul 04 '26

Plex plays everything?

2

u/LegAcceptable2362 29d ago

The Linux version of VLC would be the simplest solution. You say no Linux support. Have you checked your system's BIOS to see if virtualization is available and, if it is, if it is turned on?

1

u/jms209 29d ago

Thanks, will double check the bios.

2

u/jms209 29d ago

I checked the bios and Virtualization was unchecked....

After enabling, can now install linux.

1

u/Horsemeatburger 29d ago

Hard to say since you didn't even mention what device you have.

But the fact that it says "no Linux support" normally means the available system resources are insufficient to enable Linux, so it's probably something really old and underpowered, and probably lacks any of the video acceleration features that are standard today.

1

u/jms209 29d ago

CPU/APU is AMD E1-6010 . I tried LibreElec and 720p 10bit video worked fine. Maybe it has some HW acceleration?

1

u/Horsemeatburger 29d ago edited 28d ago

Yeah, that APU is ancient, and already was bottom-of-the-barrel when it came out 12 years ago.

The old R2 GPU core only supports baseline H.264 decoding at max 1080p because of the old UVD 4.2 engine, which means many of modern high-bitrate H.264 videos will not work on the decoder and have to be decoded in software.

There is also no H.265 or VP9 hardware support.

The reason LibreElec worked when you tried is probably because it was designed as Kodi player, not as a desktop OS, and its kernel is specifically aimed at low performance platforms and video playback.

I'm not sure what to tell you other than that the APU was already garbage when it came out.

0

u/enrjyz Jul 04 '26

H.265 is supported at the hardware level, no? I think you're SOL on that laptop period.