The VideoLAN Forums

Hi all, There's a Youtube video that I cannot play on my laptop using VLC. I've installed the latest youtube.luac file (5 february I think) but this specific video doen't play. All other videos I've tried are working fine.

The offending video URL is: https://youtu.be/tXKbhTavGtA

Can anyone try it and report if it's working? Any clue about what's happening?

Thank you.

Works for me with VLC 3.0.17.4 + the latest youtube.lua from here:
https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/ma ... outube.lua

Thank you for answering.

I had version 3.0.16 and the Look for updates menu item kept saying it was the current version. Anyway, I've uninstalled VLC, downloaded V 3.0.17.4 and the youtube.lua file (I've copied the text and paste into a text file that I've called youtube.luac in the lua/playlist directory), but the video still doesn't show up. It just shows the video cover photo for a fraction of a second and immediatly goes to a black screen with the VLC logo in the center.

I can play other videos with no problem.

The name youtube.luac for this file is correct, isn't it?
Also, it's a 43 KB text file , while the rest of luac files in this directory are some kind of non-text files that go from only 2 KB to 6 KB in size.

Should I check something in the configuration of VLC? Or what else can be causing this problem?

It doesn't work for me either (3.0.17.4) - and here's another one that doesn't work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY9jC0-MCvc
And yeah, the Update menu is broken for VLC.
And yes, youtube.luac is the correct name.
One thing a few of us have discovered (which they don't tell you), is that you can't just rename the existing youtube.luac file to something like youtube-backup.luac - you have to move it completely out of that directory. Then put in the totally new youtube.luac file.
But some videos such as these still won't play.
Seems like youtube is just constantly changing things to try and break downloaders, and VLC keeps changing things to keep up. But sometimes they don't fix things very quick - especially if they think "it works for me".

Thank you, I'll keep waiting for new versions of the lua file, hopefully there will be an update someday that corrects this problems.

Since my last reply, I've tried to play the video a couple of times more. Not having changed anything on my computer, that tries were unsuccessful, of course.

I do not know why, but I then tried a third time. Can you believe it? This time it worked! I didn't change anyting in VLC nor in my computer, I have no clue why it worked, and now it works all the time.

It doesn't work for me either (3.0.17.4) - and here's another one that doesn't work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY9jC0-MCvc

The reason vlc can't play that video is because you have to sign in to confirm your age. There's no way that vlc can circumvent that restriction.

The first video which the OP was having problems playing didn't work in 3.0.16, but the update to 3.0.17.4 fixed it for me.

It doesn't work for me either (3.0.17.4) - and here's another one that doesn't work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY9jC0-MCvc

The reason vlc can't play that video is because you have to sign in to confirm your age. There's no way that vlc can circumvent that restriction.

The first video which the OP was having problems playing didn't work in 3.0.16, but the update to 3.0.17.4 fixed it for me.

The age confirmation thing makes sense.
Maybe VLC can find a way to get past that too, one day?
The original video works for me too, now. Weird.

Don't hold your breath...