May 28, 2026
Smoother video on Raspberry Pi 4, and uploads are checked against what your board can decode
If you show video on a Raspberry Pi 4, it plays more smoothly from Anthias 2026.05.1. On every board, check your video files: a video your board can't decode is now refused when you add it, including H.264 on a Raspberry Pi 5, and you convert it on your own computer with a command Anthias gives you.
From this release, video on a Raspberry Pi 4, a Raspberry Pi 5, x86 and generic arm64 boards plays inside the viewer itself, instead of in a separate mpv player that shared the screen with it. In the project's own testing, a 1080p60 H.264 video on a Raspberry Pi 4 went from dropping most of its frames to dropping none. The Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 keep using VLC.
On a Raspberry Pi 4 the viewer now runs at 1920x1080, also on a 4K display, so web pages and images show at 1080p there too.
Uploads are checked, not re-encoded
Anthias 2026.05.0 re-encoded a video on the device when its codec wasn't one the board played directly, which could keep a small board busy for a long time. Anthias 2026.05.1 never re-encodes anything. When you add a video, it reads the codec and accepts the file only if your board can decode it:
| Board | Codecs accepted |
|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 | H.264 |
| Raspberry Pi 4 | H.264 and HEVC |
| Raspberry Pi 5 | HEVC |
| x86 | H.264 and HEVC |
The Raspberry Pi 5 has no H.264 decoder Anthias can use, which is why it takes HEVC only. For 4K on a Raspberry Pi 4, the project's board notes recommend HEVC, since 4K H.264 is more than that board's decoder keeps up with. Other 64-bit ARM boards are covered in the generic arm64 entry.
A video that doesn't pass shows a "Failed" label in the content list. Click it and the "Processing failed" dialog says which codec was refused and which ones your board supports. It also shows an ffmpeg command with your file name filled in, and a "Copy command" button, so you can re-encode the file on your own computer and upload the result.
The check applies to uploads in the web interface and through the API, and to videos Anthias downloads, from YouTube or from a URL posted to the API.
If this affects you: on a Raspberry Pi 5, an H.264 video, which Anthias 2026.05.0 played as it was, is now refused. On every board, a video in a codec outside the table (VP9 or MPEG-4, for example), which 2026.05.0 re-encoded for you, is now refused, and so is HEVC on a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3. Re-encode those files to a codec in the table before you upload them. On a Raspberry Pi 5, Anthias 2026.07.0 accepts H.264 again.