3

I am wanted to play YouTube videos through VLC Player, so I launched VLC Player and did "Open Location from clipboard", but when trying to get it to play this video I just get this error:

Your input can't be opened: VLC is unable to open the MRL
'https://r3---sn-aigllnz7.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?initcwndbps=1542500&ip=82.68.87.54&key=yt6&mm=31&mn=sn-aigllnz7&gcr=gb&mv=m&id=o-AH9ajBwPvx0EAxQ6L2DcUcI_TSBAnjN7Hh6VIBGzdF7r&ms=au&source=youtube&lmt=1431931684487017&dur=250.009&sver=3&mime=video%2Fmp4&fexp=9408710%2C9414764%2C9416126%2C9416985%2C9417655%2C9417683%2C9418203%2C9419837%2C9420453%2C9421252%2C9421710%2C9422436%2C9422596%2C9422618%2C9422990%2C9423299%2C9423392%2C9423510%2C9423662%2C9423665%2C9423791%2C9424192&itag=22&upn=Pf3jNimMyMo&nh=IgpwcjAyLmxocjE0KgkxMjcuMC4wLjE&pl=22&requiressl=yes&mt=1447701954&ipbits=0&ratebypass=yes&sparams=dur%2Cgcr%2Cid%2Cinitcwndbps%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Clmt%2Cmime%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cnh%2Cpl%2Cratebypass%2Crequiressl%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpire&expire=1447723621&signature=33FD8D2110F931A28926207650A21F4FD60DBFEC6.DA4C9EC72BA62AF043526206B5113CCCF840630B'.
Check the log for details.

And this output in Terminal:

VLC media player 2.2.1 Terry Pratchett (Weatherwax) (revision 2.2.1-0-ga425c42)
[00000000022ab148] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[00007f287c031138] lua demux error: Couldn't process youtube video URL, please check for updates to this script
[0000000002393d88] core playlist: stopping playback
[00007f287c000bf8] http access error: error: HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
[00007f287c000bf8] http access error: error: HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
[00007f2880006288] core input error: open of `https://r3---sn-aigllnz7.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?initcwndbps=1542500&ip=82.68.87.54&key=yt6&mm=31&mn=sn-aigllnz7&gcr=gb&mv=m&id=o-AH9ajBwPvx0EAxQ6L2DcUcI_TSBAnjN7Hh6VIBGzdF7r&ms=au&source=youtube&lmt=1431931684487017&dur=250.009&sver=3&mime=video%2Fmp4&fexp=9408710%2C9414764%2C9416126%2C9416985%2C9417655%2C9417683%2C9418203%2C9419837%2C9420453%2C9421252%2C9421710%2C9422436%2C9422596%2C9422618%2C9422990%2C9423299%2C9423392%2C9423510%2C9423662%2C9423665%2C9423791%2C9424192&itag=22&upn=Pf3jNimMyMo&nh=IgpwcjAyLmxocjE0KgkxMjcuMC4wLjE&pl=22&requiressl=yes&mt=1447701954&ipbits=0&ratebypass=yes&sparams=dur%2Cgcr%2Cid%2Cinitcwndbps%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Clmt%2Cmime%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cnh%2Cpl%2Cratebypass%2Crequiressl%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpire&expire=1447723621&signature=33FD8D2110F931A28926207650A21F4FD60DBFEC6.DA4C9EC72BA62AF043526206B5113CCCF840630B' failed

So how do I play YouTube videos in VLC Player? Or don’t I? I mean, I know you can download YouTube videos using it, so why not play them?


OS Information:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 15.10
Release:    15.10
Codename:   wily
Flavour: GNOME
GNOME Version: 3.18

Package Information:

vlc:
  Installed: 2.2.1-3
  Candidate: 2.2.1-3
  Version table:
 *** 2.2.1-3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
1
  • The mass appearance of 403 forbidden might be a separate issue from the general inability to play, i.e. this question might not be a duplicate. Mar 18, 2016 at 9:16

2 Answers 2

2

Well, I'm not sure how you got that URL in your question, but just copying the Youtube URL for the video (eg https://youtu.be/VoeCcCQuJrM) either from the URL bar or from the share box:

enter image description here

worked just fine for me in VLC 2.2.0 Weatherwax.

You should be able to just copy either URL and paste it into VLC via Media -> Open Network Stream. I believe by default it streams 720p.

If that doesn't work, then try updating the Lua script for Youtube parsing, as mentioned in this answer here.

3
  • Nope, I still get the same error, though I am able to play other videos on the web, just not YouTube ones.
    – user364819
    Nov 16, 2015 at 21:25
  • 1
    Well, the bit about changing the YouTube parser here seems to work.
    – user364819
    Nov 16, 2015 at 21:57
  • I have the latest version of player. And it chooses something like 360p when videos are FullHD!
    – user25
    Feb 12, 2019 at 19:08
1

Try installing livestreamer, works fine for me, plus you can select the quality of the video you're watching.

If you're on Ubuntu you can download it by typing :

apt-get install livestreamer

This program also works with Twitch, Youtube, Dailymotion.

You can use the program by typing :

livestreamer [url of your video] [quality preset]

If you want to know what the quality presets of the link you want to watch are available you can type the command without [quality preset] at the end and it'll show you the different quality presets available.

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  • Please provide installation and usage instructions.
    – user364819
    Nov 16, 2015 at 21:26
  • Edited my answer with the instructions, good luck.
    – ETi
    Nov 16, 2015 at 21:36
  • I tried that but I just got this error message: [cli][info] Found matching plugin youtube for URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTEYUFgLveY error: This plugin does not support protected videos, try youtube-dl instead
    – user364819
    Nov 16, 2015 at 21:47
  • Hmmm, seems like the video is protected, have you tried another one ?
    – ETi
    Nov 16, 2015 at 21:48