Compiling and installing `vlc` with Decklink SDK on Ubuntu 18.04 Server

INSTALLING-vlc-with-decklink-support.md

Compiling and installing vlc with Decklink support on Ubuntu 18.04 Server

Note that there are API changes in BlackMagic Design (BMD) SDK 11 onwards; so as of vlc-3.0.8, compile it with BMD SDK 10.11.4.
Also note that you need to disable UEFI Secure Boot in order to install BMD driver successfully.
Additional note: VLC may have stuttering sound when playing through DeckLink which is caused by commit 576b4da8d674d8a98dd493e9b343f1875efde047

• Download Desktop Video (driver) & Desktop Video SDK from https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/capture-and-playback
• Install Desktop Video (driver)

  tar -xf Blackmagic_Desktop_Video_Linux_*.tar.gz
  cd Blackmagic_Desktop_Video_Linux_*/deb/x86_64/
  sudo dpkg -i desktopvideo_*.deb
  sudo apt-get install -f
  BlackmagicFirmwareUpdater status
  # if prompted to update, perform an update:
  BlackmagicFirmwareUpdater update 0
  # if prompted to shutdown, reboot the device:
  sudo reboot

• Unzip Desktop Video SDK

  sudo apt install unzip
  unzip Blackmagic_DeckLink_SDK_*.zip
  mv Blackmagic\ DeckLink\ SDK\ * ~/BMD_SDK

• Download VLC source code from https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-sources.html
• Follow vlc compilation instruction at https://wiki.videolan.org/UnixCompile/
  • Enable (uncomment) deb-src for universe under bionic and bionic-updates in /etc/apt/sources.list

    sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get build-dep vlc
    

  • Install dependencies

    sudo apt install git build-essential pkg-config libtool automake autopoint gettext

  • Get vlc source code and configure it.

    mkdir -p ~/vlc_sources
    cd ~/vlc_sources
    wget http://get.videolan.org/vlc/3.0.8/vlc-3.0.8.tar.xz
    tar -xvf vlc-*.tar.xz
    cd vlc-*/
    ./configure --with-decklink-sdk=$HOME/BMD_SDK/Linux

  • Compile and install it.

    ./compile
    sudo make install

  • In order to fix the following error when running vlc:

    /usr/local/bin/vlc: error while loading shared libraries: libvlc.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    

    I had to run

    sudo ldconfig