diff --git a/app/streaming/video/ffmpeg-renderers/eglvid.cpp b/app/streaming/video/ffmpeg-renderers/eglvid.cpp
index 464f0da0..efc7a07b 100644
--- a/app/streaming/video/ffmpeg-renderers/eglvid.cpp
+++ b/app/streaming/video/ffmpeg-renderers/eglvid.cpp
@@ -984,6 +984,17 @@ bool EGLRenderer::testRenderFrame(AVFrame* frame)
 {
     EGLImage imgs[EGL_MAX_PLANES];
 
+#ifdef HAVE_MMAL
+    // EGL rendering is so slow on the Raspberry Pi that we should basically
+    // never use it. It is suitable for 1080p 30 FPS on a good day, and much
+    // much less than that if you decide to do something crazy like stream
+    // in full-screen. It's nice that it at least works now on Bullseye, but
+    // it's so slow that we actually wish it didn't.
+    if (qgetenv("RPI_ALLOW_EGL_RENDER") != "1") {
+        return false;
+    }
+#endif
+
     // Make sure we can get working EGLImages from the backend renderer.
     // Some devices (Raspberry Pi) will happily decode into DRM formats that
     // its own GL implementation won't accept in eglCreateImage().