Introduction

Multimedia can be quite challenging on Banana Pi, and a lot of people are frustrated because of advanced low-level problems regarding hardware-accelerated video playback. Therefore, this chapter deals with multimedia-related problems. The two audio outputs (analog and HDMI) are configured. We will discuss and solve the hardware acceleration problem by compiling the important Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix (VDPAU) library. Using the previously mentioned components, we are going to configure the video players MPlayer (and its GUI frontend SMPlayer) and VLC. Furthermore, we are going to build Kodi (previously, XBMC) and work around the acceleration problem by using SMPlayer as an external player. Also, we want to introduce the reader to the IR interface, which we are going to configure using the LIRC.