I used puppy in the past but stopped due to it not working for some reason at some point which I forgot was the reason.

Have been using bunsenlabs livecds for years but now I have run into issues with that as on this new machine there are errors when running vlc/mpv stating that the hwcodecs cannot run and then fallback onto a software video codec which causes the videos to take up 100% cpu constantly and makes the videos unwatchable.

I tried updating bunsen but ran out of space partway through even though I am using nearly all my memory I can spare for the vm. Also that is less than ideal to have to reupdate every time I want to run a live cd to test a video.

After years hiatus with puppy I tried firing up the latest version of that and came up with the exact same issues.

Since both of these are point release they are against the idea of updating and so if something doesn't work you are 'stuck'. Maybe not totally the philosphy of bunsen but certain people on the puppy forums were chastising a user for asking how to upgrade their system saying 'that is not how puppy works'. Fine if your system works perfectly when you load it but if it doesn't then you are out of luck.

Anything else to suggest which might suit the bill?

I guess as I am not too limited by the iso size I could just try one of the bigger fully featured distros and see if they will work out of the tin.

A do only have 64gb total so I suppose I am limited and besides a minimalist distro with DE that does the job for running video would be preferable.

If I have to update the systems to get the video to work properly though, can I have the amnesiac quality of a livecd, each time I load the vm rolling back to a fresh set point, whilst still being able to upgrade the system if compatibility issues arise?

Void - antiX - Devuan Live - MX - many others too - probably Tiny Core Plus would also fit the bill.

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AntiX search result headline "proudly anti-fascistic". Lol why shoehorn politics into a completely none political medium?

"My toothpaste is proudly anti-fascistic".

How to handle if I want to install extra programs/update? I suspect the video is not likely to work correctly unless the live iso release for a distro just happens to have been released within the last few weeks. Video playback works fine on my host arch install and as we know that is bleeding edge so must be some outdated packages that must be updated to make video work. So not sure how I would achieve that for a live iso? Having to install/update every time I boot would be a nuisance.

Maybe if I can't find one I should instead make the vm in libvirt, update to how I want, snapshot it then reload snapshot each time. Forgot how that works precisely but from memory seems like it might be the better plan if I am unable to find a working live iso.

Oh nice! After trialing a few devuan seems to be working for video playback. It has parole player installed which is the first I have heard of that player but doing the job!

AntiX can be easily remastered with any extra/updated programs you want....politics aside...

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What does remastered mean plz?

My first impression of Devuan is good. Had been recommended this as a slower release, minimalist replacement to arch.

Issues. VM, live media. I have to assume you are not booting to a real optical media just some iso.

The way most live media works is to make basically two storage areas. One is usually a compressed virtual file system and it adds to a ram based virtual filesystem to make it seem live. You could take any of the images and re-create them with whatever programs you wish. Some distro's have creators for that.
Second is to add it to live. If you save state then it will remain. You can't easily update them like kernel.

The vm part. I'd kind of wonder why not install to it? Some ways exist to wipe each session back to the saved state.

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Remastering a distro means creating a new .iso from the one you started with, with the programs that you want in it.

https://download.tuxfamily.org/antix.../remaster.html

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Ok, I spoke too soon as it as the issue persists. I think it is .mkv files which are worst.

Haven't been able to see if updating the system will fix it since it runs out of space in ram before it is able to finish.

you don't need a full featured regularly updated livecd to just run videos in a vm for testing
but a player, which can play your videos. And it mainly depends on the codecs, nothing more.

Of course, just to run, no. To play smoothly yes, which is what I want.

Which codecs though? I already knew and tried that but haven't found ones that make a difference. Which packages would it be for debian based distros which is what most of the ones I have been trying are based on?

I tried libav something, forgot the exact name, and also installing mpv player, which has ffmpeg as a requirement, the latter which seems to pull in a lot of codecs with it. None I tried make a difference so far.

I know it is a codec issue because vlc says that in the terminal output and it has to fallback on a software rendering but I don't know what codec/s will fix it.

What is an all in one like the windows codec pack I used to install of old back in the windows days?

It is quite simple, you can either play a video or not. If not, you can analyze it with a simple tool (like properties in file managers or vlc) and it will tell you the codec used.
And next you can try to find a lib for that codec.

Well from the vlc output it isn't codecs that are the problem. It says in the output that the codecs are installed but they could not be used with the hardware so it falls back to software mode. I made a new thread on the topic which I posted my hardware.