VLC is unable to open the MRL on mapped drive

[rob_squared]

I'm using VLC .99 on XP SP3 and I have a drive (called X:) that is mapped to my Buffalo NAS. When browsing to the share through network neighborhood and double clicking on that file it will run. When double clicking when in the X: drive it gives the error: VLC is unable to open the MRL check the log for details. Event 17 and event 122 come up on the Application log when right clicking on my computer-->manage-->application viewer. I can't get more info from that because doing so crashes the management console. Is there any obvious reason why VLC might be doing this?

VLC is great, so I have a feeling I'm screwing things up on my end.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

To help you, we need messages, to completely understand what your problems is.
To fix this, please be sure before you start the playback to:

1. Open: Tools -> Messages.
2. Set Verbosity to 2
3. Start playback to reproduce your issue
4. Save text in a file or copy into clipboard
5. Then paste the full resulting log here between [​code]and[​/code] (or use Pastebin.com if it's too long)

Also don't forget to name your Operating System and provide the VLC media player version.

[VLC_help]

Tools -> Messages... from VLC. It might give you a more info.

[rob_squared]

Sorry for taking so long to respond, thanks for the information. Message is as follows from opening a file on a mapped Y drive:

access_file error: cannot open file Y:\file.avi (No such file or directory)
main error: open of `Y:\Alexandra Nice - Wet Dreams 05.avi' failed: could not create access: no suitable access module

Additional info: this opens fine when I double click on the file by going to the network path \\server\sharename or when I go to media-->open file.

[VLC_help]

Y:\file.avi

you changed the name or do you really have a file name file.avi ?
EDIT:
And have you tried VLC 1.0.0-RC4?

[butcher99]

People keep saying he is not giving you enough information. What information do you need? I have the exact same problem. linux for me that I run VLC from and the networked machine is a windows 7 machine. I can copy the file to the linux machine then play it fine, I just cannot play it from the windows machine.

The error is exactly as he stated. Thats it. There is no other information to give you. When I do a search for "unable to open MRL" on the forums I get pages and pages of hits so it is a problem for others.
I was able to play videos then for some reason all of a sudden I cannot play videos over the network.

I am using the latest version of VLC (first thing I did was update) so strike that off the list and the latest updated version of windows 7.

[VLC_help]

Open Tools -> Messages... (set Verbosity to 2) before opening the file, it will give more info.

[jlagese]

Hi I just signed up on here and was wondering about the error message VLC could not connect to "video30.cubik.com:7070".,andLC is unable to open the MRL 'rtsp://video30.cubik.com:554/ns/pre_badbehaviorFVP350kbps.rm'. Check the log for details.
I dont know why but my version of vlc player is 1.1.2 os is windows 7 vista ultimate anyone have any more information this error?

[VLC_help]

Open Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2) before playback, it will complain more when problems come up.

[friscof]

I have updated,I can play Commercial DVDs but not burned ones.It won't autorun,I open disk and get 'VLC is unable to open the MRC 'dvd://D:/'.Check the log for details.(XP Pro 64)here's the log(?)after trying twice:
qt4 warning: Input option: dvdnav-caching=300
main debug: adding item `dvd://D' ( dvd://D:\ )
main debug: rebuilding array of current - root Playlist
main debug: rebuild done - 2 items, index 0
main debug: processing request item dvd://D node null skip 0
main debug: resyncing on dvd://D
main debug: dvd://D is at 1
main debug: starting new item
main debug: creating new input thread
main debug: Creating an input for 'dvd://D'
main debug: thread (input) created at priority 1 (../.././src/input/input.c:214)
main debug: thread started
main debug: using timeshift granularity of 50 MiB
main debug: using timeshift path 'C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp'
main debug: `dvd://D:\' gives access `dvd' demux `' path `D:\'
main debug: creating demux: access='dvd' demux='' path='D:\'
main debug: looking for access_demux module: 2 candidates
qt4 debug: Adding a new MRL to recent ones: dvd://D:\
dvdnav warning: cannot open dvdnav
dvdread warning: cannot open VMG info
main debug: no access_demux module matching "dvd" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 10.000 ms - Total 10.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 10.000 ms)
main debug: creating access 'dvd' path='D:\'
main debug: looking for access module: 0 candidates
main debug: no access module matched "dvd"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main error: open of `dvd://D:\' failed: (null)
main debug: finished input
main debug: dead input
main debug: thread ended
main debug: thread times: real 0m0.015625s, kernel 0m0.000000s, user 0m0.015625s
main debug: TIMER input launching for 'dvd://D' : 11.000 ms - Total 11.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 11.000 ms)
main debug: changing item without a request (current 1/2)
main debug: nothing to play

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Did you correctly burn the DVD?

[Itanaman]

I was having the exact same problems, and found my solution, which will probably vary for everyone, as it had to do with my firewall.

I have ESET, and had it automatically configuring things. When I had connected to a network video file, it had popped up a window that i failed to read before clicking the deny button. From that point on I was unable to view any files from a network location, or internet location. I had to go into the manual firewall setting of ESET, I then deleted all VLC rules, and left the automatic setting on.

I then went back and clicked the network file, and this time read the information in the box that came up for it; after which i selected Allow, and the video played.

Now everyone's firewall is not ESET, and there will be various ways of changing the settings, so you will need to check your docuemtation for this, however, I am confident that most of you will find that you must allow VLC throgh the firewall for these files to play.

Itanaman

PS...Didnt send any information as is requested in some of these postings, as the error message was the real clue, and has nothing to do with needing that extra info, which is not easy to get to begin with. I find it interesting that someone asks for all types of extra info, and includes no instructions on how to get it.

[techspark]

^^
Dude i had the same problem..i was trying to stream a mp3 file from the internet and i was stuck with same error...your method worked...it was my antivirus that was blocking the communication between vlc and the internet...thanx a lot man ! Cheers !

[kjemmo]

Just stumbled upon the thread while searching for the MRL error.

Often the error is related to the local firewall.

I did a video on how to solve the problem here:
VLC is unable to open the mrl

[Caithleann]

Often the error is related to the local firewall

But not always. In fact I have never received a firewall error and yet that MLR message shows up almost every time I attempt to play a home made DVD. And usually the larger the DVD, the more frequently that error occurs. What gives?
Here is what I did.

I created a DVD9 with ConvertXtoDVD 4 containing 13 episodes from a very old tv series. I used default settings. The 13 source files were all FLV type videos. It took well over 5 hours to render the resulting standard DVD structure with its AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders and associated VOB, BUP and IFO files. So when I loaded the ISO in a virtual DVD ROM drive, (courtesy of PowerISO) VLC promptly gave me the message:
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///R:/'. Check the log for details.
Here are those details. Can someone tell me what is wrong here?
(I had to use DVD Decryptor to get it to work on another machine using Ulead Movie Factory... The file size increased by 2 GB. This is weird)

main debug: adding item `dvd:///R:/' ( dvd:///R:/ )
main debug: rebuilding array of current - root Playlist
main debug: rebuild done - 2 items, index 0
main debug: processing request item: dvd:///R:/, node: null, skip: 0
main debug: resyncing on dvd:///R:/
main debug: dvd:///R:/ is at 1
main debug: starting playback of the new playlist item
main debug: creating new input thread
main debug: Creating an input for 'dvd:///R:/'
main debug: Adding a new MRL to recent ones: dvd:///R:/
main debug: meta ok for (null), need to fetch art
main debug: looking for meta fetcher module: 1 candidate
main debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Users\Caithleann\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\fetcher
main debug: Trying Lua scripts in E:\Programs (x86)\Video\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\fetcher
main debug: Trying Lua playlist script E:\Programs (x86)\Video\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\fetcher\tvrage.luac
main debug: using meta fetcher module "lua"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 2.095 ms - Total 2.095 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 2.095 ms)
main debug: removing module "lua"
main debug: searching art for dvd:///R:/
main debug: looking for art finder module: 2 candidates
main debug: Trying Lua scripts in C:\Users\Caithleann\AppData\Roaming\vlc\lua\meta\art
main debug: Trying Lua scripts in E:\Programs (x86)\Video\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art
main debug: Trying Lua playlist script E:\Programs (x86)\Video\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\00_musicbrainz.luac
main debug: Trying Lua playlist script E:\Programs (x86)\Video\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\01_googleimage.luac
main debug: Trying Lua playlist script E:\Programs (x86)\Video\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\02_frenchtv.luac
main debug: Trying Lua playlist script E:\Programs (x86)\Video\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\meta\art\03_lastfm.luac
main debug: no art finder module matching "any" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 4.908 ms - Total 4.908 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 4.908 ms)
main debug: art not found for dvd:///R:/
main debug: IM: Setting an input
main debug: using timeshift granularity of 50 MiB, in path 'C:\Users\CAITHL~1\AppData\Local\Temp'
main debug: `dvd:///R:/' gives access `dvd' demux `' path `/R:/'
main debug: creating demux: access='dvd' demux='' location='/R:/' file='R:\'
main debug: looking for access_demux module: 2 candidates
main warning: cannot open DVD (R:)
main warning: cannot open VMG info
main debug: no access_demux module matching "dvd" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 43.078 ms - Total 43.078 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 43.078 ms)
main debug: creating access 'dvd' location='/R:/', path='R:\'
main debug: looking for access module: 0 candidates
main debug: no access module matched "dvd"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.132 ms - Total 0.132 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.132 ms)
main error: open of `dvd:///R:/' failed
main debug: dead input
main debug: changing item without a request (current 1/2)
main debug: nothing to play
main debug: IM: Deleting the input
main debug: TIMER input launching for 'dvd:///R:/' : 88.317 ms - Total 88.317 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 88.317 ms)

[VLC_help]

main warning: cannot open VMG info

Does it work better if you open directly the VIDEO_TS folder?

[Caithleann]

It works fine when I open the VIDEO_TS folder. But that is not how I play DVDs on my home DVD player. When VLC issues that warning, the DVD will not play in the DVD player either and in essence It is wasted. What is causing that problem?

[VLC_help]

If stand alone DVD player doesn't play the movie, the problem is either an incorrectly authored disc or bad burn quality/incompatible disc.

[vlcuser61]

I just had this problem and noticed that the MRL referred to a USB drive that was no longer connected to the system. The files had been copied to a new USB drive at a different drive letter. I fixed it by opening VLC using the icon ( so it didn't start reading any files / folders ) and toggling the "Playlist" button. If you get the error while viewing files , and you get get control of the interface by clicking close on the error dialog till the messages stop, then toggle the "Playlist" button again. I'm guessing this triggers a rescan of the files. Go into the Playlist and verify that the URI is correct. Worked great for me.