The VideoLAN Forums

VLC is unable to open youtube streams due to vlc access error: http 403 error.
sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMnYgwssAZc
In the past this was fixed by a new release of youtube.lua
There hasn't been a new youtube.lua for past 7 days (about the amount of time that youtube streams have not been working).
Is there an alternate fix?

I can confirm the yt luac file released a week ago hasn't fixed the problem.

The log file which I just created contains a link to the ongoing issue at https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/24957

It's now just a case of hanging around until the devs resolve it I'm afraid.

By the way, when linking to a video on youtube always click the SHARE button below the video and copy the link to the video from there.

Thanks for the update.
I notice you mention .luac vs .lua
I do see references to both in many places when researching.
For years I have always obtained the .lua from ...
https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/ma ... outube.lua
... and put it in ...
C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist
... because VLC already comes with the .luac file.
Is there a better method?

You need to overwrite or replace the existing luac file.

By the way, I don't have any problem streaming other yt movies such as this one: https://youtu.be/eRV2LiOOji4 It's a Korean thriller with English subs. Well recommended.

where do I get the new .luac file?
is the .lua file I mentioned above supposed to replace the existing .luac file?

where do I get the new .luac file?
is the .lua file I mentioned above supposed to replace the existing .luac file?

Yes. But it doesn't resolve the problem with the yt video you posted the link to so there's not much point in installing it at the moment.

But here's the link which explains how to create a new youtube.luac file: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 26#p483226

I have this same issue.
VLC Version 3.0.11
Using default preferences and issue persists with restarts and on newest nightly build 4.0 (25 Aug 20)

A few non-working Streams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzNuwjErYlE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFT7gjDA2uw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTxSXUzc96A

a working stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_gkpYORQLU

A stream that initially worked but then didn't after closing and then reopening and retrying almost immediately after
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pok8H_KF1FA


I've got a log file for all the above, does anyone know of an open bug report for this that I could add it to? I didn't see one.

Hi.

1.:
I found that more links with music-content do not work
than those with speech-content.

2.:
I made a playlist with potplayer and exported it as m3u.
20 entries.
Then I imported that list in vlc.
In the evening vlc expired 18 of the entries,
in the late night only 8.

3.:
I tested the link from videomax. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMnYgwssAZc )
It also did not work.
Then I used the video-link (not audio)
generated by the firefox-addon 'downloadhelper'
and it worked. (without audio of course).

solong, Frank

...does anyone know of an open bug report for this that I could add it to? I didn't see one.

https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 32#p507932

I respectfully suggest you get into the habit of reading all the previous posts in a given thread instead of asking a question which has already been answered.

Hi.

I found that more links with music-content do not work
than those with speech-content.

How crazy is that ?

I found that:

In the adressbar of my browser
I open a youtube-link.

Then I change two string-areas in the URL,
one in front and one behind the questionmark:
Instead of 'watch' I write 'get_video_info' and
instead of 'v' I write 'video_id'.

In the sample of videomax:
https://www.youtube.com/get_video_info? ... MnYgwssAZc

The browser asks me to downkoad,
I agree
and I get a file 'get_video_info'
with 71KB !

I expect smaller "getinfos"
coming with non-music-streams.

But I don't know,
I did not test it.

Frank

@JigglySackles
I think this is the related bug:
https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/24957

Hi Jiggly,

I checked the behavior of your 5 links.

Nr, your result, my result:
1, defect, work
2, defect, defect
3, defect, defect
4, work, defect
5, sometimes, work

I only measured once.

Frank

Hi.

The site
https://invidio.us
will expire in two days.

It is/was used for denying advertisement from yt.

The urls, that the site is generating
look like this:
https://invidio.us/watch?v=YMnYgwssAZc

I tested what
https://invidio.us/get_video_info?video_id=YMnYgwssAZc
would say.
(see my post from yesterday:
I changed 'watch' and 'v' to
get_video_info' and 'video_id'
here with the sample from videomax)

It doesn't say anything
and goes back to the mainpage.
YT normally gives that big info-file.

So maybe, this huge file 'get_video_info'
is mostly for supporting advertising.
Invidio.us work wihout that.

Vlc does not support invidio.us.

Maybe, its an interims-solution
to create a own site,
that uses php to workaround the huge 'getinfo'
and the lua-script now points to that new site ?

Does anybody know sites similar to invidio.us ?

Frank

Hi there

Some posts ago
I told that story with the substitute
of 'watch' and 'v' with
'get_video_info' and 'video_id'.

And second I told I would suspect,
that the lua-yt-issue
depends on the file-size
of that info-file.

Thats wrong, it does not match.

Here the measure of the 5 files from jiggly:

Nr, his result, my former result, my new result, filesize
1, defect, work, work, 123k
2, defect, defect, defect, 31k
3, defect, defect, defect, 90k
4, work, defect, defect, 141k
5, sometimes, work, work, 26k

So thats a dead end.

solong, Frank

VLC is unable to open youtube streams due to vlc access error: http 403 error.
sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMnYgwssAZc
In the past this was fixed by a new release of youtube.lua
There hasn't been a new youtube.lua for past 7 days (about the amount of time that youtube streams have not been working).
Is there an alternate fix?

A new youtube.luac file has just been released which now works to play your Carbon Based Lifeforms video. Here's a pix of it playing in vlc.



(click to enlarge)

The file which you have to create yourself using Notepad can be downloaded from here.

As always the file needs to be named youtube.luac and saved to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist
Here's a pix of it taken from my own machine running Windows 8.1

Any questions? Please don't hesitate to ask



(click to enlarge)

N.B. When creating the youtube.luac file make sure you change "Text documents" to All Files before saving otherwise you'll get a file called youtube.luac.txt which won't work.