The VideoLAN Forums

I use VLC for everything from watching films to listening to CD's and MP3's, and even online radio. It is a great program!

I noticed that as of version 1.05, it refuses to play m3u files. I went back to v1.03 on the same machine and it plays them fine.

I did a search on the forum but couldn't find a solution. Could anyone shed any light please?

it refuses to play m3u files

Open Tools -> Messages... (set Verbosity to 2) before opening a m3u file and tell us what it reports.

Thanks for the reply.

It says (sorry the list was very long):


main debug: adding item `listen.m3u' ( C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u )
qt4 debug: Adding a new MRL to recent ones: C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u
main debug: rebuilding array of current - root Playlist
main debug: rebuild done - 1 items, index -1
main debug: processing request item listen.m3u node null skip 0
main debug: resyncing on listen.m3u
main debug: listen.m3u is at 0
main debug: starting new item
main debug: creating new input thread
main debug: Creating an input for 'listen.m3u'
main debug: thread (input) created at priority 1 (../.././src/input/input.c:230)
qt4 debug: IM: Setting an input
main debug: thread started
main debug: using timeshift granularity of 50 MBytes
main debug: using timeshift path 'C:\Users\Greg\AppData\Local\Temp'
main debug: `C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u' gives access `' demux `' path `C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u'
main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u'
main debug: looking for access_demux module: 3 candidates
qt4 debug: Updating the geometry
qt4 debug: Updating the geometry
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 5.000 ms - Total 5.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 5.000 ms)
main debug: creating access '' path='C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u'
main debug: looking for access module: 5 candidates
vcd debug: trying .cue file: C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.cue
vcd debug: could not find .cue file
access_file debug: opening file `C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u'
main debug: using access module "access_file"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 5.000 ms - Total 5.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 5.000 ms)
main debug: Using AStream*Stream
main debug: pre buffering
main debug: received first data after 0 ms
main debug: pre-buffering done 343 bytes in 0s - 334960 kbytes/s
main debug: looking for stream_filter module: 2 candidates
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: looking for stream_filter module: 1 candidate
main debug: using stream_filter module "stream_filter_record"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u'
main debug: looking for demux module: 50 candidates
playlist debug: found valid M3U playlist
main debug: using demux module "playlist"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: looking for a subtitle file in C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\
main debug: `C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\listen.m3u' successfully opened
main debug: deleting item `listen.m3u'
main debug: EOF reached
main debug: removing module "playlist"
main debug: removing module "stream_filter_record"
main debug: removing module "access_file"
main debug: thread ended
main debug: no fetch required for 128kbps, relay4 (Currently 70 listeners) [shoutcast] (art currently (null))
qt4 debug: IM: Deleting the input
main debug: dead input
main debug: thread times: real 0m0.010000s, kernel 0m0.015600s, user 0m0.000000s
main debug: changing item without a request (current 0/1)
main debug: rebuilding array of current - root Playlist
main debug: rebuild done - 3 items, index -1
main debug: using item 0
main debug: starting new item
main debug: creating new input thread
main debug: Creating an input for '128kbps, relay4 (Currently 70 listeners) [shoutcast]'
qt4 debug: Updating the geometry
main debug: no fetch required for 128kbps, relay1 (Currently 73 listeners) [shoutcast] (art currently (null))
main debug: thread (input) created at priority 1 (../.././src/input/input.c:230)
main debug: thread started
main debug: using timeshift granularity of 50 MBytes
qt4 debug: Updating the geometry
main debug: using timeshift path 'C:\Users\Greg\AppData\Local\Temp'
main debug: `http://relay4.slayradio.org:8000/' gives access `http' demux `' path `relay4.slayradio.org:8000/'
main debug: creating demux: access='http' demux='' path='relay4.slayradio.org:8000/'
main debug: looking for access_demux module: 0 candidates
main debug: no access_demux module matched "http"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: creating access 'http' path='relay4.slayradio.org:8000/'
main debug: looking for access module: 2 candidates
main debug: TIMER input launching for 'listen.m3u' : 20.000 ms - Total 20.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 20.000 ms)
main debug: no fetch required for 128kbps, relay3 (Currently 86 listeners) [icecast] (art currently (null))
access_http debug: http: server='relay4.slayradio.org' port=8000 file='/
qt4 debug: IM: Setting an input
qt4 debug: Updating the geometry
qt4 debug: Updating the geometry

Could you share us one .m3u file that doesn't work?

Well, I can't get any pls or m3u files to work.

For example, any of the ones on:

http://www.themusiklounge.com/jazz/

and the one in my example:

http://www.slayradio.org/home.php
(click on 'broadband' on the top left)


They all work in v1.03 however.

TRY the nightly verson it shold work http://nightlies.videolan.org/ i just tryed it and it worked try it and let us now if it works for you

Thank you for the suggestion. I'm afraid that the 1.06 nightly build didn't work for me either. Maybe it would help if I provided some basic computer info.

Windows Vista Home Premium
Intel Core 2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz 1.87GHz
4GB RAM (although Vista only sees 3)
AVG Free Anti Virus
Commodo free Firewall

Thank you all for the help so far.

Thanks. Confirmed. Ticket opened
trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/3303

Dear people,

I have found the solution to the problem. The problem lay both with the Comodo firewall and VLC player - as I stated, there was no problem with VLC v1.03 and Comodo together, but there was a problem with Comodo combined with v1.05.

As a last resort I uninstalled Comodo and installed (the also free) Zonealarm firewall, and VLC v1.05 now happily plays all m3u and pls files.

Many thanks for all the help. I hope this also goes some way to helping others with the same or similar issues.

Update - I had to uninstall Zonealarm beacuase it kept causing the computer to freeze if left on for more than a couple of hours. Apon reinstalling Comodo Firewall and VLC v1.05, everything now works great. I do not understand what could have gone wrong, but everything really is now fine.

Thanks again.

The bug is real. But it should be fixed in 1.1.0