Raspberry Pi 2 and Pi 3 play video instead of a black screen

From Anthias 2026.06.1, video plays on a Raspberry Pi 2 or Pi 3. Before, the screen stayed black for the length of every video, while the viewer log said it was showing it:

Showing asset ... (video)

Images and web pages displayed as usual. This had been the case since the Pi 2 and Pi 3 images moved to Debian Bookworm in 2024, whatever OS version the Pi ran.

These boards now play video with GStreamer, and the Pi's video hardware does the heavy work: it decodes the H.264, then scales and converts the picture for the screen. VLC and the python-vlc package are no longer in the Pi 2 and Pi 3 image. In the project's testing on a Pi 3, this pipeline handled 1080p video at about 40 frames per second with no dropped frames, more than a 30 fps clip needs.

Uploads to these boards were already limited to H.264, the codec this hardware decodes. Video follows the "Screen rotation" setting, but rotated 1080p video plays at only 1 or 2 frames per second on these boards. Anthias 2026.07.4 speeds up 180°; 90° and 270° stay slow.