diff --git a/configure b/configure
index a4dd55be9f..f9e6ab89b6 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -2009,6 +2009,7 @@ HAVE_LIST="
     libdc1394_2
     makeinfo
     makeinfo_html
+    MMAL_PARAMETER_VIDEO_MAX_NUM_CALLBACKS
     perl
     pod2man
     sdl
@@ -5747,9 +5748,7 @@ enabled mmal              && { check_lib interface/mmal/mmal.h mmal_port_connect
                                     check_lib interface/mmal/mmal.h mmal_port_connect ; }
                                 check_lib interface/mmal/mmal.h mmal_port_connect ; } ||
                                die "ERROR: mmal not found"; }
-enabled mmal &&
-    (check_code cc interface/mmal/mmal.h "MMAL_PARAMETER_VIDEO_MAX_NUM_CALLBACKS" ||
-     die "ERROR: mmal firmware headers too old")
+enabled mmal && check_func_headers interface/mmal/mmal.h "MMAL_PARAMETER_VIDEO_MAX_NUM_CALLBACKS"
 
 enabled netcdf            && require_pkg_config netcdf netcdf.h nc_inq_libvers
 enabled nvenc             && { check_header nvEncodeAPI.h || die "ERROR: nvEncodeAPI.h not found."; } &&
diff --git a/libavcodec/mmaldec.c b/libavcodec/mmaldec.c
index 52232d5ed8..c85fb4e092 100644
--- a/libavcodec/mmaldec.c
+++ b/libavcodec/mmaldec.c
@@ -384,10 +384,12 @@ static av_cold int ffmmal_init_decoder(AVCodecContext *avctx)
     av_get_codec_tag_string(tmp, sizeof(tmp), format_in->encoding);
     av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_DEBUG, "Using MMAL %s encoding.\n", tmp);
 
+#if HAVE_MMAL_PARAMETER_VIDEO_MAX_NUM_CALLBACKS
     if (mmal_port_parameter_set_uint32(decoder->input[0], MMAL_PARAMETER_VIDEO_MAX_NUM_CALLBACKS,
                                        -1 - ctx->extra_decoder_buffers)) {
         av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_WARNING, "Could not set input buffering limit.\n");
     }
+#endif
 
     if ((status = mmal_port_format_commit(decoder->input[0])))
         goto fail;