The VideoLAN Forums

Hello, first post here.

Since two weeks ago, using the most recent version of VLC, I keep running into a repeated error when attempting to open a network stream to a YouTube video. The issue only seems to arise when the video contains music, as music-less videos (as of now) stream without problem.

A few examples using some random music videos from the front page...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UprcpdwuwCg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgeKHTcufLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw

Any idea on what's causing this? It's never been a problem before for me.

I suspect this has something to do with copy protection. Since we can copy using VLC record option, YouTube may be blocking music videos which do not permit downloads.

Note that YouTube allows people to download certain videos. You can download such videos using "Video DownloadHelper" in Firefox. You can watch such videos using VLC as well. Otherwise you may not.

That's what I was thinking. Do you think there may be a way to circumvent this in the next update? I discovered the error in the first place because I was attempting to download an especially well made fan tribute video, of all things.

It's copy-right protection. There is no way to legally circumvent. You need to use alternative media players that are not blocked. E.g. Windows Media Player, etc.