Docs update hardware decoding rpi 3/4/5

[Pops0n]

Please read the contributing guidelines and the AI policy before submitting a PR. Every PR must be read and submitted by a person, and PRs that appear to be unreviewed AI output will be closed without review.

Proposed change

This PR updates the Raspberry Pi installation and hardware acceleration documentation to better distinguish between Raspberry Pi 3/4 and Raspberry Pi 5 requirements.

• Distinguishes the installation and hardware acceleration requirements for Raspberry Pi 3/4 and Raspberry Pi 5.
• Adds a dedicated Raspberry Pi 5 section for H.265 (HEVC) hardware decoding configuration and Docker setup guidance.
• Documents currently known compatibility issues related to H.265 hardware decoding on some Raspberry Pi OS / kernel combinations.

The changes are based on testing performed on Raspberry Pi 5 systems running RPi Bookworm OS (kernel 6.12) and RPi Trixie OS (kernel 6.18) with Frigate 0.17.2.

Type of change

• Dependency upgrade
• Bugfix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature
• Breaking change (fix/feature causing existing functionality to break)
• Code quality improvements to existing code
• Documentation Update

Additional information

• This PR fixes or closes issue: fixes #
• This PR is related to issue:
• Link to discussion with maintainers (required for any large or "planned" features): Raspberry Pi 5 H265 HEVC Hardware Decoding Working #18431

For new features

• There is an existing feature request or discussion with community interest for this change.
  • Link:

AI disclosure

• No AI tools were used in this PR.
• AI tools were used in this PR. Details below:

AI tool(s) used (e.g., Claude, Copilot, ChatGPT, Cursor): ChatGPT

How AI was used (e.g., code generation, code review, debugging, documentation): Assisted with documentation wording, grammar, and formatting

Extent of AI involvement (e.g., generated entire implementation, assisted with specific functions, suggested fixes):

Human oversight: Describe what manual review, testing, and validation you performed on the AI-generated portions.

I manually reviewed all changes, tested the Raspberry Pi 5 configurations on Bookworm (kernel 6.12) and Trixie (kernel 6.18), and verified the documented behavior

Checklist

• The code change is tested and works locally.
• Local tests pass. Your PR cannot be merged unless tests pass
• There is no commented out code in this PR.
• I can explain every line of code in this PR if asked.
• UI changes including text have used i18n keys and have been added to the en locale.
• The code has been formatted using Ruff (ruff format frigate)

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

Updates Raspberry Pi installation and hardware-acceleration documentation to distinguish the capabilities and setup requirements of Raspberry Pi 3/4 from Raspberry Pi 5.

• Documents codec support by Raspberry Pi generation.
• Adds Raspberry Pi 5 HEVC decoding, Docker device mapping, CMA allocation, and compatibility guidance.
• Clarifies power and GPU-memory considerations during installation.

Confidence Score: 5/5

The PR appears safe to merge.

No blocking failure remains.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
docs/docs/configuration/hardware_acceleration_video.md	Adds Raspberry Pi 5 HEVC setup and compatibility guidance while removing the previously incorrect FFmpeg version assertion.
docs/docs/frigate/installation.md	Differentiates Raspberry Pi generation requirements and expands power-delivery guidance.

_{Reviews (2): Last reviewed commit: "Clarify known issues with HEVC hardware ..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[NickM-27]

I don't think it is correct regarding the RPi image

[Pops0n]

Yep, I think Greptile is wrong here.

From my tests on the Raspberry Pi image, Frigate 0.17.2 is still using FFmpeg 5 by default. The image also includes FFmpeg 7.

Hopefully, once Frigate 0.18 is released with FFmpeg 8 as the default, HEVC hardware decoding on RPi 5 with latest OS will work correctly out of the box. I am not sure it is worth trying to work around these issues further before 0.18 becomes available.

[hawkeye217]

0.18 is in beta now, and the dev branch this PR is against is for the 0.18 docs. I think it would be best to test 0.18 beta before committing anything and remove the references to 0.17.x.

[NickM-27]

No, the RPi image always uses the ffmpeg build that comes from the raspbian image. It will be the same in 0.18 as it is in 0.17

[greptile-apps]

Want your agent to iterate on Greptile's feedback? Try greploops.

[Pops0n]

No, the RPi image always uses the ffmpeg build that comes from the raspbian image. It will be the same in 0.18 as it is in 0.17

Allright, then i guess it may not be necessary to test 0.18 separately, since it will likely have the same issues.

0.18 is in beta now, and the dev branch this PR is against is for the 0.18 docs. I think it would be best to test 0.18 beta before committing anything and remove the references to 0.17.x.

Understood. I have removed the references to specific Frigate releases and kept the warning focused on the affected Raspberry Pi OS / kernel combinations instead.