Recently, I encountered a strange issue on my Linux setup where VLC Media Player refused to play certain videos—specifically, vertical ones. The files were encoded with the H.264 codec, and while audio played just fine, the video failed with an error saying:
Codec not supported. VLC could not decode the format.
This happened across the board—whether I used the version from the official Arch Linux repositories or even the AppImage, which is also built from Arch packages. The issue was consistent: VLC couldn’t render the video, just audio.
Why It Happens
Turns out, VLC recently separated the main player from its codec packages. So if you’re installing just the base VLC package, you’re not getting the full set of codecs needed to play all video types—especially newer or less standard formats like vertically-oriented H.264 files.
The Solution
To fix this, all you need to do is install the VLC plugins meta package. This will ensure that VLC has all the necessary codecs and modules to decode a wide range of formats.
On Arch Linux (and derivatives like Manjaro), run:
sudo pacman -S vlc-plugins-all
If the above doesn’t work or the package name differs slightly in your repository, try:
sudo pacman -Syyu
Once the plugins are in place, VLC should be able to play those vertical H.264 videos without a hitch.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve been scratching your head over VLC suddenly refusing to play certain videos on Linux, this codec/plugin split is likely the culprit. It’s a subtle but important change that can easily trip people up—especially those used to VLC “just working” out of the box.