.smil file support?

[abvgd]

Some web sites store media streams in .smil file format (.smil definition), it's particularly used in combination with authentication/password-protected content.

It seems that VLC Player doesn't recognize .smil files like RealPlayer, QuickTime and some other media players do. It would be quite easy however to include .smil support as the full stream address is listed after the "src" tag. Sometimes, there might also be a sequenced list of streams each with its own separate tag, in which case a playlist of streams would have to be created. Currently, I have to open the .smil files inside a text editor and copy&paste the stream address in VLC Player.

Here's an example :

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<smil> <body> <seq> <video src="rtsp://cdzhgftmesrx:cFxN2C6Y7VbC@xxx.xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx/broadcast/secure/live/stream.ram" /> </seq> </body> </smil>

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

vlc should understand part of it in fact. File a bug.

[abvgd]

I was set on reporting it as a bug, but I gave up after finally finding the actual page where the reporting is done, just to realize I would have to register yet another account and then have to validate that account on IRC, which I would have to download first, since I haven't used IRC in ages... So, I'll just spell it all out here so that the bug/issue is available for review and commenting by developers and other users (and maybe someone else will be able to report it to the bug tracker)...

This is how an unedited .smil file from the website in question looks (it's a paid subscription stream):

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<smil> <head> <meta name="author" content="www.BalkaniYUm.tv" /> <meta name="title" content="RTS"/> <meta name="copyright" content="(c)2009 www.BalkaniYUm.tv"/> </head> <body> <seq><video src="rtsp://cdzmlztmesrx:cFxN2O6J7VbC@eu1.stream.balkaniyum.tv/broadcast/secure/live/rts.ra?title=RTS" /></seq> </body> </smil>

The address to be opened in the above code is:

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rtsp://cdzmlztmesrx:cFxN2O6J7VbC@eu7.stream.balkaniyum.tv/broadcast/secure/live/rts.ra?title=RTS

When the .smil file is opened, VLC Media Player doesn't react at all, while Media Player Classic opens the .smil file automatically without any problem.

If the above address is pasted into the Open Network (Ctrl+N) window, VLC displays the following error message:

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Connection failed: VLC could not connect to "cdzmlztmesrx:0". Your input can't be opened: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'rtsp://cdzmlztmesrx:cFxN2O6J7VbC@eu7.stream.balkaniyum.tv/broadcast/secure/live/rts.ra?title=RTS'. Check the log for details.

Apparently, given the above error message, part of (or possibly the whole of) the problem seems to be the dynamically created username and password in the stream address. It seems like VLC interprets the username as the actual Internet address and the ':' separating the username and password as the port number prefix, adding a '0' possibly because no actual port number follows the ':' as it expects(?).

Removing the username/password part of the address gives this:

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Session failed: The requested RTSP session could not be established. Your input can't be opened: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'rtsp://eu7.stream.balkaniyum.tv/broadcast/secure/live/rts.ra?title=RTS'. Check the log for details.

Obviously, this shouldn't work because authentication data has been removed and as expected it doesn't work. However, now it also doesn't complain anymore about not being able to establish a connection, now it only complains about not being able to start the actual session (which, I repeat, is logical because of the removal of authentication data). So, all this strongly suggests that the problem is because of the way VLC misinterprets the "username:" part of the address field...

[VLC_help]

You don't have to download IRC client. You can use web client or ask auth in here.