H.265 (HEVC) compressed video plays only audio

[ilsawa]

During video playback with H.265 (HEVC) compression in Ubuntu Linux, only the audio is played.
How to build Nextcloud Talk with support for this codec?

[ShGKme]

I can confirm the issue on Ubuntu 25 in VMWare VM, but we haven't tested on the host yet. We'll check with the team.

According to some issues in other apps, might work with the flag:

--enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport

or

--enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport,AcceleratedVideoEncoder,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks,Vulkan,DefaultANGLEVulkan,VulkanFromANGLE

[ShGKme]

@ilsawa The team confirmed: the second option works. Could you also try?

Flatpak:

flatpak run com.nextcloud.talk --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport,AcceleratedVideoEncoder,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks,Vulkan,DefaultANGLEVulkan,VulkanFromANGLE

Binary:

./Nextcloud \Talk --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport,AcceleratedVideoEncoder,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks,Vulkan,DefaultANGLEVulkan,VulkanFromANGLE

[ilsawa]

@ShGKme
File information:

mediainfo VID_20260503_205844.mp4 | grep Format
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main@L4@Main
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity

Nextcloud Talk startup:

prime-run ./Nextcloud\ Talk --enable-features=PlatformHEVCDecoderSupport,AcceleratedVideoEncoder,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks,Vulkan,DefaultANGLEVulkan,VulkanFromANGLE
Vue Devtools extension is installed

And I only hear the sound without video.

[ShGKme]

Just to make sure, could you try a video from here as well?
https://test-videos.co.uk/bigbuckbunny/mp4-h265

Having only the audio is unexpected...
Does it work fine in Talk in the web-browser?

[ilsawa]

I downloaded the first of the suggested files: https://test-videos.co.uk/vids/bigbuckbunny/mp4/h265/1080/Big_Buck_Bunny_1080_10s_1MB.mp4

mediainfo Big_Buck_Bunny_1080_10s_1MB.mp4.mp4 | grep Format
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main@L4@Main

I sent it to my NextCloud Talk.
It won't play, and the message "Failed to download file" appears. There is no playback in the web browser either.
This video file is being played on a mobile phone in Nextcloud Talk.