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I've tried everything according to instructions in posts and web articles but just can't get VLC to record a YouTube stream. OK, got the record button, it goes blue suggesting something should happen but I can't find any recordings. Noted that no VLC folder is created anywhere. Tried setting a record directory via Tools/Preferences/Video/Input....etc. but no joy.

Can anybody tell me what I'm doing wrong please?

Thanks PSD

I'm having the exact same issue. I have the record directory set, but when I hit record on the stream I'm watching? Nothing is written in it.

Here's the info that hopefully helps us troubleshoot this. I am on Win7 64 bit but running VLC 3.1.2 32 bit at the moment. The output directory I've set is C:\Record. Given the message output, I suspect the error is because the filename it tries to write to is longer than windows supports—specifically, the URL portion of the filename is extremely long. (The file I am trying to stream and record is a YouTube video.) Perhaps some option can be added to use just the domain or somehow cut the length of it down to something valid if it is indeed the issue. Anyway, here is the message log:

Before going any further, note that Youtube regularly updates something on his side and that breaks the functionality in VLC. It happened again a few weeks ago. The file has been updated in the source of VLC but won't be distributed before the next release. But you could download the new version manually. Just follow the instructions here (https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 75#p408182) and try again. Then tell here if your problem is solved or if it is more complex than that.

Thanks for that. Too complicated for me to follow quickly so I'll just have to wait for new release. Sorry I can't feedback now.

If you want something easier to install, you can also install a nightly build of VLC from here: http://nightlies.videolan.org. But note it is theoretically less stable, since it is not a release (although there should be no problem for simple tasks).

Also note that I was not suggesting something too complicated. If you want a simpler explanation:
- go to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist (or C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist if you have the 32 bits version) and delete the file youtube.luac present in that folder
- go to this address: http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git;a=tr ... st;hb=HEAD and download the file named youtube.lua (right click on it and select "save link as"); place it in the same directory as above.
And that's all, youtube should work again!

Now, as said in my previous post, it solves maybe only part of your problem. But I do not consider this as too complicated.

OK, it's not then. I just can't get that process to work or perhaps I'm stupid. Deleting the old file is obviously easy. Trying to download the file wants to saves it as an html file. Renaming it as youtube.lua does not work. Setting save as file type, to all files, rather than html, l and naming it youtube.lua says the file is downloaded successfully but it does not actually show in the directory. So what am I doing wrong?

I must admit it is my fault. On the right of youtube.lua, there are three links "blob", "history" and "raw". The link "youtube.lua" points to the same page as "blob", it is an HTML page containing the file youtube.lua along with some metadata. So if you try to save it, as I suggested it in my previous post, you will save an HTML page. The correct link is "raw". It points to the raw lua file. So reproducing the procedure I gave with the link "raw" on the right of "youtube.lua" should work.

PS : I realized that I could also give the correct link here: http://git.videolan.org/?p=vlc.git;a=bl ... ua;hb=HEAD. Note that if this file is changed again, the link will still work as it always points to the most recent version of the file.

This worked for me actually. Thank you.

Great! That has fixed it for me. Thank you very much.

One small point to help others. At first I could not find the saved file. New to Windows 7 but soon found it by selecting compatibility files in the explorer view. So you have to go find the file in the virtual directory under C\users\(user name)\Appdata\local\virtualstore\program files\videolan\vlc\lua\playlist and then move it in to the correct directory. perhaps it would have worked left where it was but I moved it anyway to be sure.

It may be a problem of rights. You tried to save it directly in "c:\program files\..." whereas you your browser did not have the rights to do so. The easiest solution is to save the file in another directory first (typically "downloads"), and then copy it in "c:\program files\...". Glad it worked for both!