Playing YouTube videos with VLC - mystery error [SOLVED]

[monkey37]

I was using VLC player to view some YouTube videos whose aspect ratio was wrong. VLC was just thing to make the adjustment. I selected "Open network stream", copied the link from the YouTube Page via right-click "Copy Shortcut", pasted the link, I fixed the aspect ratio, and it played perfectly. This was less than 12 hours ago, I successfully watched around 8 videos.

Now, later that day, the same technique doesn't work, trying it with new but similar videos. I have made no changes at all to my system. Now the video links all result in this error:

VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://v13.lscache4.c.youtube.com/video ... 2b2649f450'. Check the log for details.

VLC is working fine otherwise. Is Google/YouTube scuttling me? What the blazes is going on? Thanks for your help. I will be looking for replies tonight, but I won't be back again until Sunday. Thanks again!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

YouTube seems to have changed their page format and broke compatibility with VLC. You'll need to wait until the YouTube script is updated.

[monkey37]

Glad to know it. Thanks!

[Devilin Pixy]

Hope this will be fixed soon coz i use this option a lot to screencast music and vids
Anyone with a fix to the script or youtube.lua file that works , let me know please

[VlC_Freak]

+1

i need this fix too (if it can be fixed)
dont give up your good work

Christian F

[technodeviant]

Just started playing with VLC and integrating it into a new multimedia application when this little hitch came along. Any idea when and update will fix this issue? Need to be able to play you tube content!! Thanks!

[Outbreak Monkey]

We had the same problem, it just started this week..

Seems that YouTube have started adding an escaped unicode sequence (\u0026) in-place of the & (ampersand) character in their flash variables.

I've posted a patch in trac (http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/4608)

If you want to get your hand a little dirty, and edit the LUA script that parses the YouTube video you can:

Use notepad or a 'plain' text editor and do the following:

1. Find the "youtube.lua" script (which is in the following directory: VLC -> lua -> playlist)
2. ** Make a backup **
3. Using notepad or a text editor, open the youtube.lua file and change the following (about half way down):

Find:

Code: Select all

if not fmt or tonumber( itag ) == tonumber( fmt ) then -- do unescaping of / url = string.gsub( url, '\\/','/' ) path = url

And add the following two lines (after the string.gsub line, but before the path = url line):
-- do convert of unicode 0026 to ampersand
url = string.gsub( url, '\\u0026','&' )

It should look like this when you're done:

Code: Select all

if not fmt or tonumber( itag ) == tonumber( fmt ) then -- do unescaping of / url = string.gsub( url, '\\/','/' ) -- do convert of unicode 0026 to ampersand url = string.gsub( url, '\\u0026','&' ) path = url

Save that..

Worked for us, hope it works for you..

Cheers,
ObM.

[chaibadin]

It work.Thank you.

[VlC_Freak]

Working here too !!!!!
Many Thanks

[technodeviant]

Could someone please post a working lua file, I made the change above, and it did not make a difference. Not sure if it is the TXT editor im using or what, but I make the exact change above and the \u0026 still appears in the URL. I am using Windows7 x64. Thanks.

[Outbreak Monkey]

Here's the LUA script that I'm using:

http://outbreakmonkey.org/youtubelua.zip

Unzip it to youtube.lua in the lua directory (take a copy of your original first might be a good idea).

Cheers,
ObM.

[ronnie.bose]

Thanks a lot !!!
It works perfectly on Windows7 x64 too

[sdfsd23]

Is there anyway to modify the LUA script to allow the user to choose a resolution when playing? I don't want to be forced to download 1080p, sometimes I just want 360. The vimeo LUA allows this quite nicely.

[zlorgeblub]

Merci beaucoup !!
Thanks a lot
It works perfectly too

[Outbreak Monkey]

Just checked the trac (http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/4608), looks like it's been fixed and will be in VLC 1.1.9

- seems to be in the nightly builds too.

Thanks VLC team.

Cheers,
ObM..

[technodeviant]

So strange, I am still having probelms with my win7 x64. I used the above LUA script on an xp x86 PC, and it worked perfectly! Any thoughts on this?

[Outbreak Monkey]

Try the nightly builds? Or grab the youtube script from the nightly builds (even if you're not updating fully)

I dunno, but it seems that there's been a shift to using complied lua scripts (.luac) that are built when VLC is compiled..

Perhaps compiled scripts are used in preference to .lua scripts? Or whether the .lua is used in the newer versions at all, I don't know..

If you have both youtube.lua and youtube.luac, maybe try moving the .luac out of the directory?

Just a thought, unsure if it's the case or not.

Finally, you could try a compiled version of that LUA script:
I ran the .lua script through the lua compiler.. It's available here - http://outbreakmonkey.org/youtubelua_c.zip
--try it if you're game! It seems to work on my Mac..

Cheers,
ObM.

[Bill_MI]

After discovering /usr/lib/vlc/lua/playlist/youtube.luac was a compiled version I tried a hunch and replaced it with the not-compiled fixed-up youtube.lua file from an XP install. Works great! Apparently, it doesn't matter if it's compiled or not.

I use Parcellite (a clipboard manager) to kick off youtube URLs with resolution (fmt=XXX) selection and love it!

[AscheN]

Edited the .lua as you said and it worked I have vlc 1.1.8 on win7 32-bit Thanks mate, you rock !!

[The Dude]

Congrats everyone!

Seems like we have alot of talented people here...

The VLC team is quite lucky indeed

[Lucky7]

Hey I have the same problems with metacafe and vimeo.I used the Lua script for Youtube and it worked thanks.I hope the rest will be resolved.

[ronniegordon]

Hi - please forgive me for not being very technically minded but could someone please tell me in language suitable for simpletons like me how to get round this youtube problem? I'd be very grateful!

[Outbreak Monkey]

ronniegordon: What operating system are you using? Windows XP? Vista? Windows 7? Mac OS 10? Linux ??

[ronniegordon]

Hi Outbreak Monkey - I am using Windows 7

[sol_hotels]

Thank you very much!!! I was loosing my head over this issue. I work at an hotel. In our entrance halls, we have a terminal where people can watch a presentation video of the hotel and its premises. We use VLC for this!