SVP 4 Linux

Installation

SVP needs the following packages to be installed via your distro’s package manager:

lsof command line tool
libxcb-cursor0
OpenSSL >= 3.0
Proprietary video drivers with OpenCL (e.g. nvidia-opencl) and Vulkan
VAAPI and/or VDPAU drivers for your video card

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install lsof libxcb-cursor0 libva-x11

# Arch
pacman -S lsof

Install SVP from its own installer It simplifies things with pre-built modules and you'll always have most recent updates. Usage of 3rd-party SVP packages is not recommended.

The following can be installed by you, or SVP can download pre-built versions and install them locally into SVP folder. You can install or remove any of this at any time via the Maintenance tool.

Qt >= 6.8
Vapoursynth >= R60
Python 3.12 (not >=3.12, but specifically 3.12!)
mpv player built with Vapoursynth support
ffmpeg application (any version)
mkvmerge from MKVToolNix (any version)
NVIDIA TensorRT runtime

And you’ll also need a video player:

mpv is good on its own, and even better with uosc UI.
Alternative UI for mpv: SMPlayer.
VLC installed from the package manager (NOT a Snap/Flatpak version!)
Plex

# SMPlayer
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install smplayer smplayer-themes smplayer-skins

# VLC
sudo apt-get install vlc

Snap/Flatpak not supported There's no way for now to use SVP with Snap or Flatpak apps (i.e. VLC from Snap, Plex from Flatpak).

mpv configuration

Do NOT install mpv via package manager It won't work! Use provided pre-built version or build it on your own instead.

If you install pre-built mpv then the correct config file is already here.

Otherwise just add –input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpvsocket to mpv args (or config file) and SVP should find it. Alternatively you can “open” video file via SVPManager — it’ll execute mpv with the correct arguments.

As Vapoursynth processing requires a “copy-back” video decoder, you have to also include –hwdec=auto-copy.

VLC configuration

Snap/Flatpak VLC not supported SVP assumes that VLC installed into /usr/bin, /usr/lib etc. SVP won't work with VLC installed from Snap or Flathub!

SVP’s plugin for VLC replaces the built-in “postproc” filter. To be able to quickly switch them from SVP’s main menu you may need to change VLC’s plugins folder access rights:

sudo chmod 777 /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/video_filter
# OR (e.g. Ubuntu 17.04)
sudo chmod 777 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vlc/plugins/video_filter

Then “install” or “uninstall” SVP’s plugin via SVP main menu → Utilities → SVP in VLC.

If it doesn’t work then manually put the plugins path (e.g. “/usr/lib/vlc/plugins”) into main.setup.vlc.plugins property in SVP’s All settings.

Note: Hardware decoding may not be compatible with the Vapoursynth filter.

Building mpv from sources

If you for some reason don’t like pre-built mpv, you’re free to build your own.

Start with the “mpv-build” scripts. The only mandatory option is “vapoursynth=enabled”.

# install dependencies: add more if you want additional ffmpeg/mpv codecs and features
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev libfribidi-dev libharfbuzz-dev libluajit-5.1-dev libx264-dev xorg-dev libxpresent-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libfreetype-dev libfontconfig-dev libffmpeg-nvenc-dev libva-dev libdrm-dev libplacebo-dev
# you need at least one of these to enable audio output
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev

git clone https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv-build.git
cd mpv-build
./use-ffmpeg-release

# minimal install, feel free to add more options to ffmpeg_options and mpv_options
# see https://www.svp-team.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=80787#p80787
echo --enable-libx264 >> ffmpeg_options
echo --enable-libx265 >> ffmpeg_options
echo --enable-nvdec >> ffmpeg_options
echo --enable-vaapi >> ffmpeg_options
echo -Dvapoursynth=enabled >> mpv_options
echo -Dlibmpv=true >> mpv_options
./rebuild -j4
sudo ./install
cd ..

Questions & issues

Vapoursynth errors

SVP’s pre-built mpv uses pre-built Vapoursynth R72, which “just works”.

However you may want to use system-wide installation of more recent version like R80+. In this case carefully follow Vapoursynth installation instructions, including setting $VSSCRIPT_PATH and running “vapoursynth config“.

Error "unable to find mpv's pid"

SVP uses lsof utility to find which mpv instance is on the other end of the local socket, so ensure that lsof is installed.

Tray icon issues missing / not working

Possible incompatibility between the way system tray icon/menu implemented in Qt and some display managers, making tray icon completely unusable. SVP runs w/o tray icon by default on some systems, BUT it’s possible to switch to Windows behavior with -tray command line arg.

Missing GPU acceleration

For GPU acceleration support use proprietary video drivers with (probably) some additional modules:

NV cards: “nvidia-opencl” or “opencl-nvidia” package is needed for OpenCL to work. Check with utils/clinfo.
AMD cards: may need additional driver component for GPU acceleration — search for “image support”.

Wrong screen refresh rate detected

Unlike the Windows version, SVP 4 Linux doesn’t measure actual screen refresh rate, but uses OS provided value instead. For 59.xxx Hz screens this value is often rounded to “59.0”, so you’ll get sub-optimal FRC rate. To avoid this use fixed “Movie x2.5” target rate.