Separate files may be a little less space-efficient but I wouldn’t imagine there would be much difference.
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That is what I thought.
Still needs to be confirmed.
If they want to stick with vlc as a default media player, the previous by default included capabilities of it should now also be included.
… so the user experience is just the same …
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Agreed. Maybe the reason for the split is that some parts of VLC are needed as dependencies (at least for Plasma) and this is one way to avoid installing the whole lot by default?
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I don’t know the reasoning behind the split.
I don’t care either … 
I don’t use vlc anyway …
But if the consensus is to keep it - have it have the same capabilities as before.
Include the necessary, now split off to separate plugins.
My opinion.
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Manjaro Team member requested a reference list
Previous comments suggested reinstating support for optical media
vlc-plugin-bluray (34.5 kB)
vlc-plugin-dvd (39.1 kB)
Recent previous topics reported no Matroska support
VLC Fails to identify audio and subtitles
VLC old 2022 bug regression, .mkv subtitles throw error is back
that could have been resolved minimally:
$ pamac install vlc-plugin-matroska
To install (3):
libebml 1.4.5-1 (Required By: vlc-plugin-matroska) extra 71.4 kB
libmatroska 1.7.1-2 (Required By: vlc-plugin-matroska) extra 133.1 kB
vlc-plugin-matroska 3.0.21-28 extra 187.6 kB
Total download size: 392.1 kB
Total installed size: 1.5 MB
but both users accepted a less minimal “unenlightened” suggestion:
$ pamac install vlc-plugins-all
To install (72):
Total download size: 27.8 MB
Total installed size: 124.5 MB
Manjaro team should also consider vlc-plugin-srt (15.7kB) for subtitle support
Please see
And if you neither like the vanilla look nor the official skins and themes pkgs in the repos try the beautiful papirus-smplayer-theme-git from the AUR
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No need. The smplayer-themes package has included the Papirus theme for several years.
I removed theme and skins since it seemed too much to chose from, then installed the single theme which I immediately liked, must have missed that.
Original post also suggested .mp4 support
vlc-plugin-x264 (94.1 kB)
vlc-plugin-x265 (14.2 kB)
Since it has been split - one could foresee that some would cry bloat if this solution is selected.
Not much data so far to suggest split packages increases overall size significantly to constitute “bloat”
If users prefer a monolithic version of VLC with all features:
I’ve decided to keep this as a monolithic package because split packaging is prone to failure and very slow to process ~84 subpackages.
If users prefer a different media player, Manjaro Hello Applications can install Kodi, mpv, Parole, SM Player or Totem
If I understand the situation correctly, one of the reasons for the split might have been that VLC is also used as a backend now, for other applications (I haven’t felt the need to research that too much).
I recall there were comments/complaints a few months ago about “having to keep VLC installed” because of this.
In the case where VLC isn’t wanted, but is still needed, the “split” makes sense. I only noticed this in passing, but someone else might have more information.
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Indeed.
I remember how some complained that VLC is a hard dependency with Plasma.
And very quickly there was an individual replacement for this dependency in AUR.
I am guessing this was the - at least partial - reasoning behind the upstream split - apparently I am not alone with that thought
The idea of VLC splits was to actually remove VLC from Plasma. VLC is a Qt5 app and Plasma aims for Qt6.
– Providing VLC as media player (#191) · Issues · Profiles & Settings / iso-profiles · GitLab
Before the split, and as my personal choice (using Plasma), was to remove VLC using
pacman -Rdd vlc.I installed SMPlayer instead - I have had no side effects - but then - my use case is likely to be completely different from the average user.
– Providing VLC as media player (#191) · Issues · Profiles & Settings / iso-profiles · GitLab
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