VLC

VLC media player, running natively on PlayStation 5.
A port of VLC 3.0 as a native PS5 app, with a controller-first interface.

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Features

• Plays nearly anything VLC plays: H.264, HEVC (8 and 10-bit), AV1, VP9, VC-1, MPEG-2 and more, up to 4K, with every common audio format, including TrueHD, DTS-HD and Opus.
• Hardware decoding on the PS5's video chip for H.264 and HEVC up to 4K, 10-bit HDR included.
• HDR: HDR10 and HLG go to an HDR TV as HDR, and are tone mapped with natural colours on an SDR one. Dolby Vision files play as their HDR10 base.
• Library with Home, Videos, Music, Playlists and Browse: thumbnails, Continue watching, Favourites and search.
• Playlists: make your own, add any video or song from anywhere with Options, reorder them; covers made from their videos; .m3u files on your drives play too.
• Subtitles in every script, styled ASS/SSA, size and colour, delay, plus OpenSubtitles downloads.
• 5.1 / 7.1 surround, equalizer, night mode and audio delay.
• Network: SMB shares, DLNA servers, network links (HTTP, HLS, DASH…), free TV channels and internet radio.
• Phone & PC page: open http://<ps5-ip>:8080 in any browser to send files to the PS5, download them back to your phone or PC, or add your OpenSubtitles key.
• Music mode with covers and a visualizer, a photo viewer, DVD / Blu-ray folders, and ZIP / RAR / 7z archives.
• Two looks (Classic and Modern) and 16 languages.

Install

You need a PS5 with kstuff running, plus ShadowMountPlus.

Download the latest release, then:

1. Copy the PPSA85300 folder to /data/homebrew/.
2. Start VLC from the home screen.
3. Add your media: a USB drive, /data/vlc/, or send files from your pc/phone (Options › Send files from a phone).

Optional full access. With etaHEN, OnionHEN or the Helper, VLC can lift its sandbox. This gives it all of /data and USB drives plugged in while it runs. download helper.elf

Controls

Library

Button	Action
D-Pad	Move
✕	Play / open
○	Back
△	Favourite
□	Details / delete
L1 / R1	Switch tabs
L2 / R2	Jump A–Z
R3	Search
Options	Settings, search, network link, phone…

Player

Button	Action
✕	Play / pause
← / →	Back / forward 10 s
L2 / R2	Back / forward 30 s
L1 / R1	Previous / next chapter (or file)
△	Tracks: audio, subtitles, playback, picture
□	Next frame (while paused)
L3	Screenshot
Touchpad	Show the controls · swipe to seek or change the volume
○	Back

Folders on the PS5

Path	What
/data/homebrew/PPSA85300/media/	The app's own media folder
/data/vlc/	Your media on the console (needs full access)
/mnt/usb0 … /mnt/usb7, /mnt/ext0	USB and extended storage
/data/homebrew/PPSA85300/vlc-ps5.log	Log of the last session (attach it when reporting a problem)

All VLC Features

✅ In the app.

🎞️ Video

Feature	Status
H.264, HEVC 8/10-bit, AV1, VP9, VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and every format FFmpeg knows	✅
MKV, MP4, AVI, MOV, TS, WebM, FLV, OGG…	✅
Up to 4K at 60 Hz output	✅
Auto fast decoding when a file can't keep up	✅
Fast keyframe seeking	✅
Aspect ratios (fit, fill, stretch, 16:9, 4:3, 21:9) and zoom	✅
Deinterlace (auto / yadif)	✅
Picture controls: brightness, contrast, saturation, gamma, hue	✅
Rotate, flip, sharpen	✅
360° videos (look around with the right stick)	✅
Frame-by-frame step	✅
Screenshots to PNG	✅
Hardware decoding (H.264 / HEVC)	✅
HDR → SDR tone mapping	✅
HDR10 output to the TV	✅
Hardware decoding (VP9 up to 4K)	Not yet
Upscaling up to 4K (FSR 1, Lanczos, Anime4K etc)	Not yet

🔊 Audio

Feature	Status
AAC, AC-3, E-AC-3, DTS, DTS-HD, TrueHD, FLAC, ALAC, Opus, Vorbis, MP3	✅
5.1 / 7.1 surround output	✅
Speaker test	✅
Stereo downmix for headphones	✅
Audio delay (lip sync)	✅
10-band equalizer with presets	✅
Night mode (compressor)	✅
Volume boost up to 200 %	✅
Preferred audio language	✅

💬 Subtitles

Feature	Status
SRT, ASS/SSA, embedded MKV/MP4, PGS, DVB, DVD, closed captions	✅
Every script: Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, CJK, Thai, Devanagari…	✅
Styled ASS/SSA (libass: fonts, positions, karaoke)	✅
Auto-load movie.srt next to the video	✅
Add a subtitle file while playing	✅
Subtitle delay	✅
Size, colour, background box	✅
Preferred subtitle language	✅
OpenSubtitles download (your own free API key)	✅

▶️ Playback

Feature	Status
Resume and Continue watching	✅
Seek preview while scrubbing	✅
Speed 0.25× – 4×	✅
Playlists	✅
Chapters (list, skip, marks on the seek bar)	✅
Bookmarks inside a file	✅
A–B repeat	✅
Loop, repeat list, shuffle	✅
Playlists (.m3u, .m3u8, .pls)	✅
Up next with countdown, Watch again	✅
Sleep timer	✅
Touchpad swipes (seek, volume)	✅

📚 Library & interface

Feature	Status
Home, Videos, Music, Browse tabs with thumbnails	✅
Classic and Modern looks	✅
Colour themes (Modern) + custom theme file	✅
16 languages (follows the console's language)	✅
First-run setup	✅
Favourites	✅
Search with on-screen keyboard	✅
A–Z jump in long lists	✅
File details (codec, resolution, bitrate…)	✅
Delete files and folders	✅
USB drives detected while running	✅
Music mode: covers, artist / album, plays behind the menus	✅
Audio visualizer	✅
Photo viewer with slideshow	✅
Text / .nfo viewer	✅

🌐 Network

Feature	Status
PC/Phone page: send files over Wi-Fi	✅
SMB shares (Windows, NAS) with login	✅
DLNA / UPnP media servers	✅
Network links: HTTP, HTTPS, HLS, DASH, UDP, RTP, FTP	✅
Free TV channels (iptv-org)	✅
Internet radio (radio-browser)	✅

💿 Discs & files

Feature	Status
DVD folders and ISOs with menus	✅
Blu-ray folders and ISOs (unprotected)	✅
Blu-ray Java (BD-J) menus	❌ needs Java, which the PS5 hasn't got: those discs play without menus
ZIP, RAR and 7z archives open like folders	✅

Building

On Linux (WSL2 Ubuntu works), with PS5_Vulkan built in ~/ps5/PS5_Vulkan:

mkdir -p ~/ps5/vlc-ps5/src && cd ~/ps5/vlc-ps5/src
curl -LO https://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/3.0.24/vlc-3.0.24.tar.xz
tar xf vlc-3.0.24.tar.xz && cd -               # back to this repository

TARGET=ps5 bash ps5/deps/build-deps.sh     # the libraries (FFmpeg, GnuTLS, libass…)
TARGET=ps5 bash ps5/configure-vlc.sh       # libvlc 3.0.24 with every plugin linked in
bash ps5/build-title.sh                    # dist/PPSA85300/ with a signed eboot.bin

The libraries are downloaded by build-deps.sh; the changes to VLC and FFmpeg are in patches/. bash host/build-app.sh builds a Linux version of the app for testing.

Credits

• VLC by VideoLAN and its contributors, and FFmpeg.
• Mihawk-99: PS5_Vulkan, RADV on the PS5.
• ps5-payload-dev SDK, kstuff, etaHEN, ShadowMountPlus and the PS5 scene.
• Dear ImGui, volk, stb, GnuTLS, libsmb2, libupnp, libxml2, libass, FreeType, FriBidi, HarfBuzz, libdvdnav, libbluray and libarchive.
• Fonts: Inter, Selawik, DejaVu Sans Mono and Noto.
• iptv-org, radio-browser.info and OpenSubtitles.

License

VLC for PS5 is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (see LICENSE). VLC itself is GPL-2.0-or-later / LGPL-2.1-or-later. The bundled libraries and fonts keep their own licenses.