VLC is unable to play from FreeTube using the external player option #7071
Replies: 6 comments 4 replies
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Maybe the comments on #6838 could help out |
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HI, I am using windows 11, I have tried to follow what is -although I am having trouble with understanding it-, I do not think it had worked. I tried using a .bat file to open VLC but that also did not work, so I am out of ideas. |
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I have tried yt-dlp and intergrating that into Freetube's custom argument, but that also fell flat |
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I had the same issue opening videos in VLC from Freetube. The log shows: After trying several workarounds suggested online, I was able to get it working by installing yt-dlp and the vlc-yt-dlp plugin. I did not need to disable /vlc/lua/playlist/youtube.luac, as suggested in some online sources. |
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Can you tell me how exactly you got this to work. Can't seem to make it work. |
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I use Linux, so I'm not sure how helpful I can be. I select VLC from the dropdown. I have VLC 3.0.21 Vetinari and yt-dlp 2025.06.30-1.1 installed from my distro's repo. I installed vlc-yt-dlp by copying yt-dlp.lua into /home/USER/.local/share/vlc/lua/playlist, as described on their GitHub. In VLC, network MTU is 1400, TCP timeout is 5000, network caching is 1500ms, and file caching is 2000ms. Access modules and hardware decoding are set to automatic. Socks5 proxy is configured to use Tor. I have "ignore warnings" and "ignore default arguments" turned off in Freetube. That's it. When I click to open in external player from Freetube, VLC opens with a blank frame for a minute, then a progress bar appears, and after the video loads, it starts to play. I hope you can get it working. I haven't used Windows in so long, I don't know much about it anymore. |
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VLC has no direct processing of raw YT link, only can work 360p video as audio+video in one file. Higher resolutions require getting 2 separate video+audio streams to play together. Also, VLC has no resolution selection like on YT/FT, and relies on settings in options for preferred resolution. Lua scripts, I guess, don't work properly for higher resolutions, because YT, among others, often changes scripts, the way to acquire video+audio stream addresses. Personally, in a situation where YT is “perfecting” the scripts, and FT temporarily can't play the streams, I use a script in snippets in devtools, which passes the raw YT link copied from the video in the menu and passes it to a script in powershell, which acquires the video+audio streams from yt-dlp and opens VLC. Alternatively, I sometimes collectively download several videos with one command from yt-dlp. The current FT portable version, sends a fixed string, along with the FT exe path, and VLC can't extract the raw YT address correctly from the string, even if the lua would work in VLC 3.0+. I've tried various combinations of parameters to pass the YT link from FT to VLC with the parameters and reverting to the script, but unfortunately FT treats everything as one string of data. Some external players have a way to extract/assemble the correct YT address by identifying the video ID. But it is still better to watch in FT in many respects including more efficient CPU/GPU consumption at 50/60fps at higher playback speeds, as well as audio without "crackles" on acceleration. Although lately the CPU consumption is quite "pointy" and activates cooling more often. If you want I can paste a script for powershell where you paste the YT link next to the file name. Literally 3 lines, for 1080p resolution. Or a script that passes from FT to powershell->VLC script, without manually pasting. |
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The only external player that works for me on Windows is SMplayer. At least vlc, mpv, mpc and pot just don't work. I just paste a path to executables in ft settings and path is only latin characters without spaces. Some throwing messages some don't do nothing. There are no instructions of how to properly use those players. Maybe they are in list just for Linux distros? SMPlayer downloads something from github on first start. Maybe that step is why it's only one that works. |
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@qupear They are in the list because they worked at some point but not every external player keeps up with YouTube changes and some of them now require third-party plugins to get them to work (e.g. there is a yt-dlp plugin for VLC). As for the no instructions, that's because it will be completely different for every player, so you'll need to look up the documentation or manual or forums for that specific player to figure out how to set it up to be able to player YouTube videos. |
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inquires regarding external players migrated to #7789 |
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Good evening, I am getting this issue inside VLC, and I no idea what to do.
I have tried to go to youtube.lua, copy it, place it to VLC\lua\playlist, but it did not work.
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'https://rr5---sn-ab5l6nk6.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1742866328&ei=N7PhZ7XPOdSDkucPo-GsyQs&ip=146.70.72.168&id=o-AMa7YkPpDBwfpScDCLOitFh5NzvYEFIQtJt87DjapNFI&itag=18&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&xpc=EgVo2aDSNQ%3D%3D&met=1742844727%2C&mh=bj&mm=31%2C29&mn=sn-ab5l6nk6%2Csn-ab5sznzz&ms=au%2Crdu&mv=m&mvi=5&pl=24&rms=au%2Cau&initcwndbps=577500&bui=AccgBcPJpEyfKs7CW_fhcbL60ZRA3ViqcJ3KH_FxgvLMQ4jwFN0K9kU5bIie6GyJAqVAAHB_Tsc1xGPp&spc=_S3wKuOKvJJR8j5ljsDh3WUrbvPoUnhMXZ2WsPOfMvC1D6jWqz9nqKu4Y0uFVgSnWWrV9ca44w&vprv=1&svpuc=1&mime=video%2Fmp4&ns=Fi1TH5MiXLiRw_wCkS73Mr0Q&rqh=1&gir=yes&clen=80647046&ratebypass=yes&dur=1625.559&lmt=1742762862626189&mt=1742844321&fvip=4&fexp=51355912%2C51435733&c=WEB&sefc=1&txp=4438534&n=8ett0ZIN_2mwPuSU&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cxpc%2Cbui%2Cspc%2Cvprv%2Csvpuc%2Cmime%2Cns%2Crqh%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cratebypass%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=AJfQdSswRgIhAK7NC19bniD_G6LjCQqd4ACS3FpiM5P5FstTJ4ZgdEgVAiEAhvCNIrT8k59glQ52UyS-yMRpc31hCeDLKBF6Iz_g_Ho%3D&lsparams=met%2Cmh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Crms%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=AFVRHeAwRgIhAL6MSSMN0gRtnnrpjSWT072RX6wpURTrCQm11_BZ0Lt4AiEAtNlq4mdnRJZXmMv4lXPBMpImtjMrOrtnYUdPOTiEnWo%3D'. Check the log for details.
Is anyone else getting this issue?
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