VLC crashes playing network stream

[clemenzina]

Just updated to 3.0.12 Vetinari - it crashes within moments of starting to play a network stream - first, the picture is rather fuzzy, then it reports "stopped working". I've tried a couple of YouTube URLs.

Can I roll back to the previous version? Sorry to ask without doing a search but am extremely busy with current events.

[Lotesdelere]

Yes, you can always roll back to the previous version.
Reset the preferences first:
https://wiki.videolan.org/VSG:ResetPrefs

[Hitchhiker]

Previous versions download site in case you need it: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/

[clemenzina]

Thank you both

Resetting Preferences didn't work, despite using both methods, so I uninstalled and reinstalled 3.0.11, which seems to be working as it should, whew!

Previous versions download site in case you need it: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/

Very thoughtful of you, Hitchhiker - I find that I've got versions going back to 2.0.4 in my VLC "ProgramSetups" folder, time for another clearout, methinks

[Lotesdelere]

It would be nice to know which network stream is making VLC to crash.
If it's only with Youtube videos then read this:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=152113
and that:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 08#p500208
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 26#p483226

[clemenzina]

It would be nice to know which network stream is making VLC to crash.
If it's only with Youtube videos then read this:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=152113
and that:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 08#p500208
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 26#p483226

.

I have nothing whatsoever to do with copyrighted material or ads, the streams I play/record are all wildlife cams.

I'm finding the first topic you recommend difficult to follow - the video spins my head, those young men flash their mice all over the place and I can't keep up.

3.0.11 solved my problem for playing live streams, including YouTube - however!

When I record live YouTube streams, only the sound will play back.

This does not apply to non-YouTube streams (m3u8), they're OK.

I don't want to mess with my installation unless absolutely necessary, as I have to shut down ongoing work in order to do so.

Would a fresh install of nightly 4.0 solve the problem without having delve into the innards and replace files in my existing version?

(This is a terrible problem for anyone who has hitherto relied on VLC for monitoring live wildlife webcams. We've done it for years but only lately has VLC failed. I get the impression that YouTube changes its workings, and third-party developers have to run very fast to keep up with the changes.)

[Hitchhiker]

I have nothing whatsoever to do with copyrighted material or ads, the streams I play/record are all wildlife cams.

I'm finding the first topic you recommend difficult to follow - the video spins my head, those young men flash their mice all over the place and I can't keep up.

3.0.11 solved my problem for playing live streams, including YouTube - however!

When I record live YouTube streams, only the sound will play back.

This does not apply to non-YouTube streams (m3u8), they're OK.

I don't want to mess with my installation unless absolutely necessary, as I have to shut down ongoing work in order to do so.

Would a fresh install of nightly 4.0 solve the problem without having delve into the innards and replace files in my existing version?

(This is a terrible problem for anyone who has hitherto relied on VLC for monitoring live wildlife webcams. We've done it for years but only lately has VLC failed. I get the impression that YouTube changes its workings, and third-party developers have to run very fast to keep up with the changes.)

The simple answer to that is not to record them, but rather download the videos to your own machine.

To do that all you need to do is to hit Ctrl + J while the video is playing to open Codec Information and then at the bottom in the Location field copy that long string of text. So place the cursor in that field and hit Ctrl + A to highlight (or right click ---> Select All) and then right click Copy.

Next, open Firefox or whatever browser you use and paste the string you just copied into the URL bar and hit Enter. This will load just that particular video on youtube's servers rather than on the youtube site. Next, click File ---> Save Page As. The video will save (download) as videoplayback.mp4. Rename it to whatever you like and then repeat the exercise for subsequent videos.

You might have noticed that youtube is using a "consent" requirement now to block playback so to work around that problem replace the youtube.luac file. See instructions here on how to do that: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 26#p483226 (The post dates from December 2018 but the link is up to date).

[clemenzina]

I'd have to use a separate browser to download videos as you suggest, as no more tabs can be tolerated. Playing the video in Edge and hitting Ctrl+J brings up edge://downloads/all.

If you meant "while the video is playing in VLC"... I now find that no YouTube live streams will play in 3.0.11, which I thought had solved the problem of play failure in 3.0.12. So I'm going to have to create a day with nothing in it, in order to clear head and work out how to attain a functional VLC, and I can't do that so I'll have to find an alternative.

I don't see a "block of text in the center" on GitHub, but there is a 633-line "doc" with preamble which I'm not sure should be included or not, I've had great trouble selecting text to copy and I can't see a way of uploading here what I've got as a text doc for you to check for me.

I appreciate your help, Hitchhiker, but I'm going to have to call it a day, it's been one thing after another