Odroid C4/HC4 | Cannot enable HW acceleration in Kodi

[aquada]

I have searched the existing open and closed issues - Yes

Required Information

-DietPi version | cat /boot/dietpi/.version

G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE=9
G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB=14
G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC=2
G_GITBRANCH='master'
G_GITOWNER='MichaIng'
G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[0]='applied'

Distro version | echo $G_DISTRO_NAME $G_RASPBIANbookworm

Kernel version | uname --allLinux DietPi 6.12.34-current-meson64 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jun 19 13:32:38 UTC 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Architecture | dpkg --print-architecturearm64

SBC model | echo $G_HW_MODEL_NAME or (EG: RPi3)Odroid HC4 (aarch64)

Power supply used | (EG: 5V 1A RAVpower)15v 4A

SD card used | (EG: SanDisk ultra)Sandisk Ultra

Additional Information (if applicable)

Software title | (EG: Nextcloud)Kodi

Was the software title installed freshly or updated/migrated?Copied .kodi from previous install

Can this issue be replicated on a fresh installation of DietPi?I have tried with a clean kodi profile and same problem ← If you sent a “dietpi-bugreport”, please paste the ID here →

Bug report ID | echo $G_HW_UUID

Steps to reproduce

Start Kodi

Check Settings > Playback > Video for HW acceleration

Expected behaviour

HW Acceleration should be an option

Actual behaviour

Playback is jittery on HD with panning scenes

HW Acc option not available

Extra details

I have been trying to resolve this after moving from Coreelec (no issues).

Testing with flatpak - smooth playback but had other problems

'this->recurse > 0' failed at ../src/pipewire/thread-loop.c:62 do_unlock()
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva error: vaGetDriverNames() failed with operation failed

Coreelec works as expected.

Installed kodi from debian-multimedia - ended up with a dependency mess and gave up, uninstalled all included kodi.

Reinstalled kodi + installing VDPAU and VA drivers-all

Not running xorg and X not installed

[MichaIng]

I am currently busy with Debian Trixie testing and polishing. But next week, after DietPi v9.16 release, I will have some time to look again into SBC-specific issues.

Will test Kodi with my Odroid N2+, which should behave somewhat similar. Though Mali-G52 vs Mali-G31. Let's see ...

[kobajagi]

I had the same issue but with jellyfin, hw acceleration is not working on HC4.

[MichaIng]

Which acceleration method did you select? Jellyfin seems to support the Rockchip RKMPP driver, which however does not exist in mainline Linux, and of course can work on Rockchip SBCs only.

[kobajagi]

I tried all that were offered at the time and none worked correctly and i recognize the same error from this issue:

libva error: vaGetDriverNames() failed with operation failed

It was couple of months ago though, I'll try a fresh install soon and provide you with up-to-date info.

Thanks for looking into it.

[MichaIng]

Okay, so I verified with Kodi 20.1 (Bookworm) on my Odroid N2+, I have no hardware acceleration setting. This is supposed to show up in Settings > Player > Video, right? I see only "Renderer method" there, which has "auto detect" as only option. Playing 1440p video leads to 200% CPU usage, 1080p video 150%, so surely not hardware acceleration used for video decoding.

I could upgrade to Debian Trixie with Kodi 21, but I don't think that will change something.

Digging a bit into it, the Amlogic SoC VPU drive is meson_vdev. That one is loaded, as well as v4l2_mem2mem stack (dependency) and panfrost. So it looks actually good. I read somewhere that the VPU supports only 1080p@30 max, so I adjusted the display resolution to that, just in case, though it seems nonsense. However, DRM/KMS works well. I do have a /dev/video0 device, but no actual codecs seem to be registererd:

root@OdroidN2:~# v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --list-formats-ext
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
        Type: Video Capture Multiplanar

        [0]: 'NM12' (Y/UV 4:2:0 (N-C))

The driver is from staging, but it is obviously enabled in our case. Checking the firmware mapping there is no "g12b" (Odroid N2 family), just "g12a", and "sm1" (Odroid C4/HC4 👍): https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/drivers/staging/media/meson/vdec/vdec.c#n967

Checking the device tree, however g12b devices actually should match the g12a handling as well, the &vdev node in the device tree (as well as the &vpu node) are both pulled in from a shared dtsi, and I see the matching compatible value on my loaded system: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/arch/arm64/boot/dts/amlogic/meson-g12-common.dtsi#n2138
However, I see nothing about actually loaded firmware or codecs or failing to do so in kernel logs, all it says is that the driver is from staging, on load.

Now I checked whether the firmware is there, but armbian-firmware does not include it, /lib/firmware/meson/vdec is not present. If its only that, I downloaded the blobs from Linux sources manually: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/meson/vdec
But no change, as if the driver somehow skips everything. Otherwise I should have seen an error that it failed to find the firmware.

/lib/firmware/meson/vdec
/lib/firmware/meson/vdec/g12a_vp9.bin
/lib/firmware/meson/vdec/g12a_hevc_mmu.bin
/lib/firmware/meson/vdec/g12a_h264.bin
/lib/firmware/meson/vdec/gxl_mpeg12.bin

Should be all that is needed: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/drivers/staging/media/meson/vdec/vdec_platform.c#n192
Actually, there one can see 4k support for H.264 and VP9 and 1080p support for MPEG1/2 codecs.

Armbian adds some HEVC patches btw:

• https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/patch/kernel/archive/meson64-6.18/general-meson-vdec-add-HEVC-decode-codec.patch
• https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/patch/kernel/archive/meson64-6.18/general-meson-vdec-add-handling-to-HEVC-decoder-.patch

But they add some more:

• https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/patch/kernel/archive/meson64-6.18/general-meson-vdec-check-if-parser-has-really-parser.patch
• https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/patch/kernel/archive/meson64-6.18/general-meson-vdec-improve-mmu-and-fbc-handling-.patch

It is at least worth to test with those patches removed. Maybe they break something since some kernel release.

And regarding libav:

libva info: VA-API version 1.17.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/dri/meson_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1

It even mentions some missing meson_drv_video.so in my case, but no Debian package ships this. I installed mesa-va-drivers, but already the file list shows that this is relevant only for Nvidia/Intel/AMD/VirtIO GPUs, not for ARM SoCs: https://packages.debian.org/trixie/arm64/mesa-va-drivers/filelist
Other "driver" (userland library) packages libav suggests are Intel only: https://packages.debian.org/trixie/libva2
meson_drv_video.so is likely some vendor blob that likely works with vendor kernel only.

So things to test/check on Odroid C4/HC4:

v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --list-formats-ext
dmesg | grep vdec

Download all blobs from https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/meson/vdec into /lib/firmware/meson/vdec, reboot, and see whether this changes something (like above commands):

mkdir -p /lib/firmware/meson/vdec
cd /lib/firmware/meson/vdec
for i in g12a_h264 g12a_hevc_mmu g12a_vp9 gxbb_h264 gxl_h263 gxl_h264 gxl_hevc gxl_hevc_mmu gxl_mjpeg gxl_mpeg12 gxl_mpeg4_5 gxl_vp9 gxm_h264 sm1_hevc_mmu sm1_vp9_mmu
do
wget "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/plain/meson/vdec/$i.bin"
done
reboot

[MichaIng]

Oh, whoops:

root@OdroidN2:~# v4l2-ctl -d /dev/video0 --list-formats-out-ext
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
        Type: Video Output Multiplanar

        [0]: 'VP90' (VP9, compressed, dyn-resolution)
                Size: Continuous 256x144 - 3840x2160
        [1]: 'HEVC' (HEVC, compressed, dyn-resolution)
                Size: Continuous 256x144 - 3840x2160
        [2]: 'H264' (H.264, compressed, dyn-resolution)
                Size: Continuous 256x144 - 3840x2160
        [3]: 'MPG1' (MPEG-1 ES, compressed)
                Size: Continuous 256x144 - 1920x1080
        [4]: 'MPG2' (MPEG-2 ES, compressed)
                Size: Continuous 256x144 - 1920x1080

I used the wrong command before. This is on Trixie now, and with all firmware downloaded. Checking again whether (re)moving the firmware changes this.

EDIT: Nope, same output without firmware blobs. I am now on Trixie, so checking with Kodi 21 again ...

EDIT2: Okay, with Kodi 21 I can enable DRM PRIME decoder, and there hardware acceleration. But even without hardware acceleration, and no matter whether EGL or direct-to-plan, it does not actually display anything when playing a video with DRM PRIME decoder. Instead, I can play snake with my cursor on the area where the video is supposed to appear. Resolution does not matter. Input was H.264 1080p, as standard as it gets. Firmware blobs there or not do not change something.

[MichaIng]

Okay, looks like this is missing: https://code.ffmpeg.org/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/pulls/20847

root@OdroidN2:~# ffmpeg -hwaccel v4l2_request -i big-buck-bunny-1080p-60fps-30sec.mp4 -f null -
ffmpeg version 7.1.3-0+deb13u1 Copyright (c) 2000-2025 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 14 (Debian 14.2.0-19)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0+deb13u1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/aarch64-linux-gnu --arch=arm64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --disable-libmfx --disable-omx --enable-gnutls --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libdav1d --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libglslang --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libharfbuzz --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-openal --enable-opencl --enable-opengl --disable-sndio --disable-libvpl --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-ladspa --enable-libbluray --enable-libcaca --enable-libdvdnav --enable-libdvdread --enable-libjack --enable-libpulse --enable-librabbitmq --enable-librist --enable-libsrt --enable-libssh --enable-libsvtav1 --enable-libx264 --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-sdl2 --enable-libplacebo --enable-librav1e --enable-pocketsphinx --enable-librsvg --enable-libjxl --enable-shared
  libavutil      59. 39.100 / 59. 39.100
  libavcodec     61. 19.101 / 61. 19.101
  libavformat    61.  7.100 / 61.  7.100
  libavdevice    61.  3.100 / 61.  3.100
  libavfilter    10.  4.100 / 10.  4.100
  libswscale      8.  3.100 /  8.  3.100
  libswresample   5.  3.100 /  5.  3.100
  libpostproc    58.  3.100 / 58.  3.100
[vist#0:0/h264 @ 0xaaaad9388210] Unrecognized hwaccel: v4l2_request.
[vist#0:0/h264 @ 0xaaaad9388210] Supported hwaccels: vdpau cuda vaapi drm opencl vulkan
Error opening input file big-buck-bunny-1080p-60fps-30sec.mp4.
Error opening input files: Invalid argument
2026-02-10 22:20:26 root@OdroidN2:~# apt purge libavformat
Error: Unable to locate package libavformat

DRM PRIME decoding depends on the V4L2 Request API, which is not part of mainline FFmpeg yet. And Kodi uses FFmpeg.

I'm installing Jellyfin now, but I guess the issue is a similar one. Let's see.

EDIT: Okay, for Jellyfin transcoding, the only hardware acceleration methods that could theoretically work are VAAPI and V4L2:

• Using VAAPI reverts to software transcoding in my case, at least form MPEG4 to H.264 format. I cannot get it to transcode H.264 to HEVC, despite "Allow encoding in HEVC format" and selecting it as preferred playback format. So H.264 videos are streamed without transcoding with 1-2% CPU usage.
• V4L2 sounds like the V4L2 Request API mentioned above. So I thought their own might include the related patches, but nope, it supports even less than Debian's builds, no VAAPI (why is it even an option in the GUI then??) and no Vulkan, but instead the Rockchip vendor RKMPP driver that is irrelevant for Amlogic SoCs: Supported hwaccels: cuda drm opencl rkmpp
  Using V4L2 makes videos crash that need to be transcoded, again, at least MPEG4 to H.264:

  Feb 10 23:02:57 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]: [23:02:57] [INF] /usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg -analyzeduration 200M -probesize 1G -f avi  -i file:"/mnt/dietpi_userdata/Video/1416529-uhd_2560_1440_30fps.avi" -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -threads 0 -map 0:0 -map -0:a -map -0:s -codec:v:0 h264_v4l2m2m -b:v 84439685 -maxrate 84439685 -bufsize 168879370 -level 51 -force_key_frames:0 "expr:gte(t,n_forced*3)" -g:v:0 90 -keyint_min:v:0 90 -vf "setparams=color_primaries=bt709:color_trc=bt709:colorspace=bt709,scale=trunc(min(max(iw\,ih*a)\,min(2560\,1440*a))/64)*64:trunc(min(max(iw/a\,ih)\,min(2560/a\,1440))/2)*2,format=yuv420p"  -copyts -avoid_negative_ts disabled -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -f hls -max_delay 5000000 -hls_time 3 -hls_segment_type mpegts -start_number 0 -hls_segment_filename "/mnt/dietpi_userdata/jellyfin/cache/transcodes/ffeff5946e8df3dcbc55df40db5f4831%d.ts" -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_list_size 0 -y "/mnt/dietpi_userdata/jellyfin/cache/transcodes/ffeff5946e8df3dcbc55df40db5f4831.m3u8"
  Feb 10 23:02:58 OdroidN2 mpp[3275]: mpp_platform: can not found match soc name: hardkernel,odroid-n2-plus amlogic,s922x amlogic,g12b
  Feb 10 23:02:58 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]: [23:02:58] [ERR] FFmpeg exited with code 234
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]: [23:02:59] [ERR] Error processing request. URL GET /videos/fa1888d4-430b-6ad9-38a1-311ed236c8ad/hls1/main/0.ts.
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]: MediaBrowser.Common.FfmpegException: FFmpeg exited with code 234
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Transcoding.TranscodeManager.StartFfMpeg(StreamState state, String outputPath, String commandLineArguments, Guid userId, TranscodingJobType transcodingJobType, CancellationTokenSource cancellationTokenSource, String workingDirectory)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Controllers.DynamicHlsController.GetDynamicSegment(StreamingRequestDto streamingRequest, Int32 segmentId)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Controllers.DynamicHlsController.GetHlsVideoSegment(Guid itemId, String playlistId, Int32 segmentId, String container, Int64 runtimeTicks, Int64 actualSegmentLengthTicks, Nullable`1 static, String params, String tag, String deviceProfileId, String playSessionId, String segmentContainer, Nullable`1 segmentLength, Nullable`1 minSegments, String mediaSourceId, String deviceId, String audioCodec, Nullable`1 enableAutoStreamCopy, Nullable`1 allowVideoStreamCopy, Nullable`1 allowAudioStreamCopy, Nullable`1 breakOnNonKeyFrames, Nullable`1 audioSampleRate, Nullable`1 maxAudioBitDepth, Nullable`1 audioBitRate, Nullable`1 audioChannels, Nullable`1 maxAudioChannels, String profile, String level, Nullable`1 framerate, Nullable`1 maxFramerate, Nullable`1 copyTimestamps, Nullable`1 startTimeTicks, Nullable`1 width, Nullable`1 height, Nullable`1 maxWidth, Nullable`1 maxHeight, Nullable`1 videoBitRate, Nullable`1 subtitleStreamIndex, Nullable`1 subtitleMethod, Nullable`1 maxRefFrames, Nullable`1 maxVideoBitDepth, Nullable`1 requireAvc, Nullable`1 deInterlace, Nullable`1 requireNonAnamorphic, Nullable`1 transcodingMaxAudioChannels, Nullable`1 cpuCoreLimit, String liveStreamId, Nullable`1 enableMpegtsM2TsMode, String videoCodec, String subtitleCodec, String transcodeReasons, Nullable`1 audioStreamIndex, Nullable`1 videoStreamIndex, Nullable`1 context, Dictionary`2 streamOptions, Boolean enableAudioVbrEncoding, Boolean alwaysBurnInSubtitleWhenTranscoding)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at lambda_method7227(Closure, Object)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ActionMethodExecutor.TaskOfActionResultExecutor.Execute(ActionContext actionContext, IActionResultTypeMapper mapper, ObjectMethodExecutor executor, Object controller, Object[] arguments)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.<InvokeActionMethodAsync>g__Awaited|12_0(ControllerActionInvoker invoker, ValueTask`1 actionResultValueTask)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.<InvokeNextActionFilterAsync>g__Awaited|10_0(ControllerActionInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Rethrow(ActionExecutedContextSealed context)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ControllerActionInvoker.<InvokeInnerFilterAsync>g__Awaited|13_0(ControllerActionInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeNextResourceFilter>g__Awaited|25_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.Rethrow(ResourceExecutedContextSealed context)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.Next(State& next, Scope& scope, Object& state, Boolean& isCompleted)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeFilterPipelineAsync>g__Awaited|20_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task lastTask, State next, Scope scope, Object state, Boolean isCompleted)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeAsync>g__Awaited|17_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task task, IDisposable scope)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Infrastructure.ResourceInvoker.<InvokeAsync>g__Awaited|17_0(ResourceInvoker invoker, Task task, IDisposable scope)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.ServerStartupMessageMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext, IServerApplicationHost serverApplicationHost, ILocalizationManager localizationManager)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.WebSocketHandlerMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext, IWebSocketManager webSocketManager)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.IPBasedAccessValidationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext, INetworkManager networkManager)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization.AuthorizationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.QueryStringDecodingMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Swashbuckle.AspNetCore.ReDoc.ReDocMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Swashbuckle.AspNetCore.SwaggerUI.SwaggerUIMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Swashbuckle.AspNetCore.Swagger.SwaggerMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext, ISwaggerProvider swaggerProvider)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.AuthenticationMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.RobotsRedirectionMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.LegacyEmbyRouteRewriteMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext httpContext)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCompression.ResponseCompressionMiddleware.InvokeCore(HttpContext context)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.ResponseTimeMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context, IServerConfigurationManager serverConfigurationManager)
  Feb 10 23:02:59 OdroidN2 jellyfin[2337]:    at Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.ExceptionMiddleware.Invoke(HttpContext context)
  

  No idea why this mpp module keeps checking for an SBC match without selecting RKMPP as hardware acceleration method. Maybe it tries some fallback or so. However, so it uses h264_v4l2m2m, not the V4L2 request API, i.e. different than Kodi.

Neither VAAPI nor V4L2 methods are mentioned in Jellyfin docs, but there, the only documented method for SBCs is RKMPP, i.e. Rockchip SoCs only: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/transcoding/hardware-acceleration/

EDIT2: Okay, it actually makes sense in case of Jellyfin: the meson-vdec is a decoder, and no encoder. So it might work to decode with hardware acceleration, but it cannot encode with hardware acceleration, which is what it tried. So it cannot be compared with Kodi, and I do not see a way to configure it so that it decodes a local H.264 video and streams it ... dunno as something simple or raw? 😄 Anyway, mainline Linux lacks a driver for hardware accelerated encoding with that SoC.