Hi, so if I understand it correctly (I’m fairly new to Linux) the inability to create thumbnail previews for MP4 HEVC H.265 encoded video files is a Linux thing in general due to H.265 not being free, right?
Even the version of VLC offered through standard Fedora repository can’t play them, but the Flatpak version plays them. So, I’m wondering if there is some software that can add the H.265 preview functionality to Dolphin? Thanks!
That would be ffmpeg support for the codec that can’t be shipped by default in Fedora because of patents (free implementation exists).
Fedora forum would be more adequate here Unable to play H.265 Video - Fedora Discussion
Thanks a lot. Yeah, I can’t always tell what’s “Plasma problem” and what’s “Fedora problem” or general “Linux problem”. The Linux landscape can be very confusing for a new user 
I looked at that discussion, I can already play H.265 videos without problems by downloading the Flatpak version of VLC, and that was the topic of that thread. I’m only missing thumbs in Dolphin.
Adding Flatpak repo is now very easy in Fedora 41, it’s basically a GUI option in Discover that can be ticked, no need for complex command line installs as described in that discussion. Then Flatpak repository is integrated in Discover. Easy peasy 
I also have all the ffmpeg and gstreamer codecs installed already and I can’t find anything specifically related to H.265 in the non free Fedora repo.
Oh well, I expected that switching to Linux will require some compromises and missing thumb previews for one type of video file (H.264 works fine) is not a big deal. I was just wondering if there may be a simple fix.
Thanks again for looking up that discussion 
For me on a Debian based system it was the package ffmpegthumbs that needed to be installed to get the thumbnails. I had missed it when doing my minimal install, I would think if you can get it installed somehow with the h265 enabled on the Fedora you would have them too. Fedora always cripples their multimedia codecs installed as you have found out.
Yup, ffmpegthumbs (ffmpegthumbs-24.12.0-1.fc41.x86_64) is also installed and enabled in Dolphin.
Well then you would need to download the source track down where they disabled the x265 support then recompile and install to get it back. Do they still ship that thing (Fedora) not able to play mp3 files as well? They used to do that or was that when it was still called Red Hat.
Maybe it was Red Hat back in the day? Fedora is not Red Hat, it’s a fork, but different people behind it AFAIK. I picked Fedora because it’s way ahead of Debian and Mint, it comes with the latest Plasma 6.2.5, Kernel 6.12 OOB and the NVIDIA 565 drivers are simply available from a repo. My RTX 3080 works with no hiccups, no tinkering needed to get it to work.
Debian still makes it a pain to install the latest NVIDA drivers and comes with old Plasma and many outdated parts and my hardware is fairly recent. I use Debian for my servers, it’s rock solid as a server OS, but it was a complete failure for me as a desktop OS. Even Mint feels like a dinosaur now to me. So Fedora comes at the cost of some stability and quirks, mostly related to Wayland, but I much prefer it over Debian as a desktop OS.
All my videos and music, including MP3s, play fine. The only hiccup was that the version of VLC from RPM repo wouldn’t play these H.265 videos. All I needed to do was to install the Flatpak version. Fedora+KDE is literally the best combo for me and I have gone through literally 20+ distros since last summer.
My only “problem” is the lack of thumbnail previews for H.265, it’s absolutely a “first world problem” 
OT, but Fedora is sponsored by Red Hat, and upstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Many of the contributors to Fedora also work for Red Hat.
Yeah, I said “AFAIK” as I wasn’t sure.
Come to ArchLinux everything works great by default
CachyOS, EndeavourOS, ManjaroLinux are some good distros for newcomers that are based on ArchLinux
Cachy will give ou more optimized packages
Manjaro will give you updates after 2 weeks of it being released for Arch
Endeavour is middle gorund between above two
And all 3 will install all codecs by default (maybe few of them would ask on setup/first-boot)
Are these stable though or they require constant tinkering to keep up with the updates? Arch is scary to beginners and the community has that air of superiority complex that I found to be very off-putting.
I tried Manjaro and Endeavor and I didn’t like something about them, I don’t remember what it was, it was like last summer, before I decided I liked Plasma. Perhaps I should give them a try again.
I’m on Fedora now and everything mostly works. Any issues I have are likely related to Wayland and NVIDIA and I doubt I’d be better off on Arch. I already run the latest 565 NVIDIA open source drivers, latest Plasma ad Wayland.
Are you using ffmpeg-free? If so,
sudo dnf swap ffmpeg-free ffmpeg --allowerasing
to swap to rpmfusion version. You can follow this guide for more detailed steps: https://github.com/devangshekhawat/Fedora-41-Post-Install-Guide
For what it’s worth, RPMFusion has their own official “How To…” guides on their site, so you can see the recommended steps for installing and activating their versions of each capability: Howto - RPM Fusion
I bring this up mostly because over on the Fedora Discussion forums, I’ve seen a lot of folks get into sticky situations by following guides written with good intentions, but without all the context that the RPMFusion folks themselves have.
Not just Fedora. It’s all too common. This is one major difficulties I have been facing too. People write guides completely forgetting that there may be a ton of prerequisites that they take for granted but new user has no idea.
Person: It’s easy, just runs “this simple command”
Me: Doesn’t work…
Person: Oh, yeah, did you also do this before "this simple command: wall of text follows…
Me: 
Manjaro Linux has been stable for me till now , because they sit on proved working updates and test the newer packages if in 2 weeks it has no bugs it is pushed as stable update to normal users