VLC Won't Play AV1

[Lonnie Lee Best]

VLC cannot yet play the new AV1 format (an open and royalty-free video coding format):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1

Sample videos can be download from here for testing:
https://www.elecard.com/videos

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: vlc 2.2.2-5ubuntu0.16.04.4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-33.36~16.04.1-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-33-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed Aug 29 13:54:19 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-07-19 (41 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20180228)
SourcePackage: vlc
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package vlc - 3.0.4-1

---------------
vlc (3.0.4-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * New upstream release.
    - Fix OpenGL output for single plane devices. (LP: #1774119)
    - Decode AV1 streams. (LP: #1789715)
  * debian/patches: Drop patches merged upstream.

 -- Sebastian Ramacher <email address hidden> Fri, 31 Aug 2018 19:35:02 +0200

[Behrouz (javanmardy)]

I can't still play such format with VLC 3.0.8 on Ubuntu 18.04.3.
This exact alert will come up every time.

Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "av01" (AOMedia's AV1 Video)

[Sebastian Ramacher (s-ramacher)]

VLC is only built with AV1 support in 19.04 and newer. With 18.04, you're out of luck.

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

I wouldn't say he is completely out of luck. The snap package of VLC may play AV1 on Ubuntu 18.04:
https://snapcraft.io/vlc

It's worth a try.