The VideoLAN Forums

I tried to play an .mp4 file and got this error message:

mp4 error: MP4 plugin discarded (no moov box)
access_file error: seeking too far
access_file error: seeking too far
access_file error: seeking too far

Do I have to install any plugins or codecs?

Nope! No plugins or codecs can be added to VLC, it's self contained. What you need to do is look at the formats in use. You see MP4 is a container and it kinda depends on what's inside. So while playing the video press ctrl i and go to the"Advanced Information" tab.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html
Supported Formats

The Advanced Information tab has nothing in the text box.

The Advanced Information tab has nothing in the text box.

While playing the video press ctrl i and go to the"Advanced Information" tab. If you don't press play nothing will appear.

The Advanced Information tab has nothing in the text box.

While playing the video press ctrl i and go to the"Advanced Information" tab. If you don't press play nothing will appear.

I pressed play and it's still blank.

Then I can only assume:

1. The file you are trying is not a media file.

2. Messages should give you some answers. Open the Messages menu before loading the file and call the file from within VLC.

In your first post you showed a part of a Messages file.

access_file error: seeking too far

Where VLC appears to be having a problem assessing the file, but you didn't post enough of the Messages file to see if this was resolved. If it's not resolved there will be nothing to play and there will be no reporting in the Advanced Information Menu because it's not a media file. The file may have an .mp4 extension, but more likely someone is yanking your chain and mine.

In a valid format within a container VLC will report what it is even if it's unsupported, so the only way for this menu to be totally blank is that the file is not a media file.