VLC 3.3 for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV

[fkuehne]

@yoshiyike that assumption is correct. hmm. Thanks!

[yoshiyike]

@fkuehne: also testing the newest testflight vlc update i have dm'd you a log file. in regards to that file it is me logging into my SMB with no username and no password. just hitting the login button and obviously being able to view my files but when i select that one to play it freezes on the orange screen.

[dan_m]

[...] that patch is sadly for another problem where the MLST extension is supported but not treated as case-insensitve. This patch is already part of all releases of VLC iOS and tvOS since 3.2.0.

Sorry, I misread what the patch did, I must have been overexcited and though I found what the issue was.

Still something changed recently, as FTP browsing previously worked correctly on Microsoft IIS FTP. I can't say 100% vsftpd ever worked, only that it was with vsftpd that I first noticed the issue.

Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help track down this bug. Thanks.

[CoNSpiracy001]

@CoNSpiracy001: please try again with today's build 427.

I have now tested build 427. I can now log in again to the SMB shared network folder without using a username/password (just by clicking login), without the app crashing. However, this only works for me when I select the computer name (SMB) (and click login) at the local network front page (= the PC name of the shared network folder which VLC has automatically discovered). Unlike build 425 (and earlier) it no longer works to connect to server generic and then type in the IP address (192.168….) in the local network (and click login) - here VLC just displays the round working animation but nothing happens.

Also, when logged in (via clicking the computer name), I still have the video playback issues with many of my files (as described in my latest post above, this was introduced in build 425). So I have now uninstalled build 427 and am now back with build 424 (where I am using the local user account I have created on my PC to log in). This is the latest version where I don’t seem to have issues with playing any of the videos, and now that I, with the help of the guide that yoshiyike posted, have found a way to log in with a local user account (which I, unlike yoshiyike, is able to save so I don’t have to type it in each time) I am finally able to watch my videos again!

so here is the process that i go through. i open vlc, select my smb, enter my credentials and i am able to see all of my media files and then if i choose i may actually watch my media. here is the thing though. before 3.3.x i have never used a username and password. i always just clicked login and everything was fine. now that i have to use one, after entering my credentials i click save which i would guess make it to where i dont have to enter them every time i freshly open the app. somehow i am completely wrong about that. if i completely close the app, i have to renter my credentials every time despite logging in by selecting save. can someone let me know if i am doing something wrong?

Strange. I am following the same process, and for me it works to enter the username and password and click save - the data is there again when I close the app and restart it. The data is even there after I install a different build of the app. Maybe it will work if you on the front page of VLC (local network), instead of selecting the PC name (SMB), click on connect to server generic and then enter the PC name (or IP address but this seems to be broken in build 427) and the username and password of your “dummy” local user account and click save there?

[Venomouse]

Thanks @fkuehne

@Venomouse: does this depend on the file size? Does it fail for the big files and work for the small?

I have a 1080p version of the failing file and it won’t play either. Doesn’t seem to be file size related.

Forgot to mention. I have a 2k video in mkv format that worked a week ago but no longer plays.

Edit

Not sure if this is new or not but when I tried seeking one of my other mkv files I was able to resume from a specific point but the playback looked like it was 1.5x speed. Usually this would be some kind of buffering effect and go away but no luck.

[yoshiyike]

@CoNSpiracy001:

i honestly had never used the server generic before but i did as you suggested. went there and added my credentials and it has seemed to have saved them now. i have tried many times by completely closing out the app and reopening just to select my SMB and my credentials are already there. so thank you for that little bit of information.

[pmsk]

VLC for iOS 3.3.4 (426)
iOS 15.4.1
iPhone 8

m3u:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0, Chill-Out
http://radiorecord.hostingradio.ru/chil96.aacp
#EXTINF:0, Megamix
http://radiorecord.hostingradio.ru/mix96.aacp
#EXTINF:0, Big Hits
http://radiorecord.hostingradio.ru/bighits96.aacp
#EXTINF:0, Remix
http://radiorecord.hostingradio.ru/rmx96.aacp
#EXTINF:0, Uplifting

Connected to the car mmedia via BT

1. The back button oftenly doesn't work as expected for stations>#1 (looks like I try to switch back on the first station in the list - keep playing the same station). Both - in VLC and from steering wheel control. Should open playlist to switch to previous station.
2. When I switch off the car, playing stops. After, when I start the car, iPhone connects to BT, and restart playing. But VLC play few seconds buffered from the last played station, and switching to the next station. But I expect, that I'll keep listening last played station.

[fkuehne]

Hello,

Tonight's 428 beta build of 3.3.5 should fix the "large files don't play on SMB" and the "anonymous login to SMB2 servers fails" problems.

@pmsk: I did a ticket based on your report: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... ssues/1341

@dan_m: thanks for the following regarding that Microsoft server. We are working on that but do not have a fix yet.

[jdc5294]

iPhone Xs
iOS 15.4.1
VLC for iOS 3.3.4 (426)

Started having this problem with the most recent update. Accessing a drive on my computer set up as SMB. When I click Connect, my phone just immediately goes back to the home screen. The app doesn't quit, still running in background.

[Proxii]

how do i lock video orientation so it's always landscape

[fkuehne]

@jdc5294: this is fixed in today's update to version 3.3.5.

@Proxil: there is a lock button to enforce landscape. However, you need to re-set it for every video you play.

[Venomouse]

@fkuehne

Awesome work. Can confirm my issues with playback have been resolved in the update.

[CoNSpiracy001]

After a bit of testing I can confirm that v3.3.5 (build 429) indeed seems to fix both the anonymous login and video playback issues I experienced with previous builds. Thank you, fkuehne.

[m0ng]

Since today (26th)/latest update am unable to play any files from my NAS (WD Ex2) to AppleTV… have tried pretty much everything inc reinstalling. Note that iPad, Mac, iPhone work as normal. (Other ‘similar’ apps on Apple TV are working - I downloaded one just to check.

Running version 3.3.5 (429)

[fkuehne]

@m0ng: Can you give more details about the type of file sharing service your NAS uses and what exactly happens when you try to play a media?

@Venomouse / @CoNSspiracy001: Thanks a lot for confirming the fixes. Great to hear that!

[m0ng]

@m0ng: Can you give more details about the type of file sharing service your NAS uses and what exactly happens when you try to play a media?

@Venomouse / @CoNSspiracy001: Thanks a lot for confirming the fixes. Great to hear that!

Apologies for not being specific.

I use then auto discovery (upnp?) and I can see it uses SMB - this is over a wired connection between the Apple TV - router - NAS?

File types im having trouble with = everything/anything (I’ve tested .mkv, .mp4, .avi - all of which worked without problem only a day or 2 ago).

The problem: I try to play a given file, it seems to try to start to play the file (that is the screen flicks as if the file is caching), then it just goes back to showing the file(s) list without any specific error message.

Have rebooted everything, tried plying the same files from iPad and Mac (both fine) and as said, other app (infuse) is playing the same stuff on the Apple TV with no problem (only installed infuse to test).

[ThunderbirdsFan]

The new version: 3.3.5(429) seems to have fixed the SMB server playback issues I was experiencing. I've checked a number of different files and they're all working now.
Many thanks! I know how hard it is to keep stuff working consistently on Apple platforms.

[Fauntrychop]

To this day the ftp navigation still doesn’t work on Apple TV and iPad. I’m not rushing anyone, just notifying I know it’s a lot of work, and I truly appreciate the effort!

[kraftyman]

Hi guys, just to let you know that I managed to make DNLA work here.
I was able to see album artwork when entering a FLAC folder with embedded art in FLAC files.
Although it loads SLOW, very slow and some files don't load the artwork at all.
I tested this with ridiculously small art files 200 px / 13 kb and also with 1500 px / 1MB art embedded. - Same pattern.
One weird thing is that what does not have embedded art, the "M4A" icon shows up - but it is not any AAC or ALAC file.

Another very weird thing that I managed to see artwork displayed the in SMB mode, I got to see ONE file displaying album art through SMB.
The rest of that album did not show any art.

After so much testing, I can see that Apple TV4K + iTunes is not fully gapless all the time -- as if you'd position the song in any duration and would still render gapless playback.
For example, start a song (ALAC or MP3), jump through it and place it by 20 seconds to the end.
Passing to the next song, there will be a gap. (Taking here that your album is continous mix).

However, Apple TV4K + iTunes does manage very well to go gapless when proper time is given for the file to load and buffer entirely.

In VLC, I noticed that the gap times can vary depending on the size of the file or the compression.
For instance, APE (Extreme) files have larger gaps. FLAC have quick gaps. MP3 can have a larger gap than FLACs.

For the time being, I'm sticking with ALAC and iTunes, BUT...
I really hope to see VLC going gapless with music -- and that I can see some album art when playing the song.

PS: My LAN is real 1Gbps on all wired devices and I use 5GHz on ATV4K (around 300-400 Mbps).

Cheers.

[SubJunk]

These recent versions are great, thank you for all the hard work.

I am reporting a regression in the last couple of versions, where no identifying headers like User-Agent are being passed. This breaks functionality for some media servers that rely on that string to identify the app.

It used to send this kind of format "User-Agent: VLC-TV/102.1 CFNetwork/758.2.8 Darwin/15.0.0" so we could match "VLC-TV".

We are now getting "User-agent=Darwin/21.5.0, UPnP/1.0, Portable SDK for UPnP devices/1.6.19" which is too generic to match.

[e105789543292]

I figured out a fix for AppleTV 4K A1842 (32 GB) tvOS 15.5.1, with VLC 3.3.7 (432) failed playback over local network with Samba NAS file shares. In the VLC app, navigate to: Settings / Generic / Prefer SMB 1, and set to "Off". Close the VLC app by clicking the "TV" (top-right) button on the remote twice, swipe right to the VLC app, then swipe up to close it. Re-open VLC. Fixed.

I have been using VLC on AppleTV for the past couple of years without any issues. I setup a Network Attached Storage (NAA) file share to play videos on the local network, using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Linux Samba (smbd). I noticed the VLC app started failing to playback about three weeks ago, and had some time this week to look into it. I logged into my Ubuntu server, looked at the Service Logs, and noticed the message "Bad SMB2 signature for message" for SMBv2 mode, which is odd since I configured the NAS to run using SMBv3, to allow for opening files larger than 4 GB, and the optimized transfer speeds. Then I looked through the VLC settings to see if there was an option to force SMBv3, noticed the "Prefer SMB 1" option, disabled it, and everything works. Here are the commands I ran to diagnose the problem:

$ lsb_release -a

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal

$ sudo smbstatus

Samba version 4.13.17-Ubuntu
PID Username Group Machine Protocol Version Encryption Signing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10916 vlc vlc 192.168.1.12 (ipv4:192.168.1.12:50047) SMB3_11 - partial(AES-128-CMAC)
9752 nobody nogroup 192.168.1.22 (ipv4:192.168.1.22:1329) SMB3_11 - -

Service pid Machine Connected at Encryption Signing
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video 10916 192.168.1.12 Thu May 26 11:57:03 PM 2022 EDT - -
video 9752 192.168.1.22 Thu May 26 09:11:29 PM 2022 EDT - -

$ tail -n 25 /var/log/samba/log.smbd

...

$ tail -n 25 /var/log/samba/log.

[2022/05/26 21:01:17.491800, 0] ../../libcli/smb/smb2_signing.c:307(smb2_signing_check_pdu)
Bad SMB2 signature for message

[fkuehne]

@SubJunk: Why do you need to match VLC for a UPnP media server? Indeed we switched the UPnP stacks so VLC no longer identifies itself.

[SubJunk]

@SubJunk: Why do you need to match VLC for a UPnP media server? Indeed we switched the UPnP stacks so VLC no longer identifies itself.

Thanks for your reply 2 main reasons for me.
1) Even when everything is perfect in UPnP so there are in theory no configs needed, there are still quirks to implementations, and our media server allows changing behaviour based on those quirks via manual configuration. For example, some devices advertise support for file types or seeking modes that are different to the ones they actually support, so when we can manually identify them it allows our users to discover the real capability. We have a very long list of overrides for different renderers for that reason, as do other media servers.
2) The opposite to #1 is that just like renderers have bugs and shortcomings, so does our media server. There are some parts of UPnP that we handle incorrectly - and some things that used to be correct have changed in newer specs, and while we are getting better at it over time, if users can do manual overrides for their renderers, it helps them get the most from the server.

[Thymoglobule]

@Thymoglobule: Is this with locally stored content? Is it organized as a playlist or shown as part of a group?

Hi, sorry for answering so late. It was local content that I had downloaded using the OneDrive connector. It was not a playlist, just a video I played from the "video" tab.

Anyway, I downloaded the last version today and the problem is solved. Thank you for your work

[ittoks]

I have accidentally added photos to VLC thru iTunes, how can I remove them when I don't see them? they are visible only on itunes and there you don't have delete button.