VLC plugin fails for decrypted recordings with User Access Control

[MymsMan]

For a long time I have been unable to use the Play button in the webif to play recordings via the VLC plugin. Symptoms being a black VLC window with traffic cone but no respsonse to any play button.

Up until now I haven't been sufficiently motivated to investigate deeper other than cursory searching of the forum which revealed some similar complaints but as far as I could tell no definitive cause and cure. On the comparatively rare occasions when I have wanted to watch something on PC I have used the main VLC player.

Having realised I could use the Play button to watch encrypted videos but not those that had been decrypted I was prompted to dig a bit deeper.

Play passes the DLNA URL of the recording to VLC for encrypted recordings but use the file path for all decrypted recordings and that was failing for me. However when I deleted my webif User access control id & password I was able to use Play to watch decrypted files.
Googling led me to what appear to be some long standing bugs in the VLC plugin with accessing password protected recordings https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/257695 & https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/3166

Since after 6+ years a VLC fix would not seem imminent I would suggest a minor change in the logic of play.jim to always use the DLNA URL if available (it works for both encrypted and decrypted files) and only use the file path when the file is not yet indexed. This would minimize the problem for UAC users to the small window before the file is indexed whilst users who don't use access control would continue to be able to watch unindexed recordings.

lassign [$ts dlnaloc] url
if {$url eq ""} {
    if {![$ts flag "ODEncrypted"]} {
        set url $rfile
    } else {
        puts "Media is encrypted and not yet indexed by the DLNA Server."
        exit
    }
}

PS For some reason the plugin appears to perform better than the main VLC program with fewer annoying buffering delays so I am glad I have got plugin access working again

 

[af123]

Thanks - will be fixed in next version. Fix exactly as you suggested.

 

[Starbase]

Unfortunately my Chrome Web Browser reports that VLC, which uses NPAPI plug-ins will no longer work on Chrome version 42 and higher as they are changing to PPAPI plug-ins. Hopefully VLC will address this issue? At present you can temporary enable NPAPI plug-ins as below:-

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/6213033

How to temporarily enable NPAPI plug-ins
If you must use a NPAPI plug-in, there’s a temporary workaround that will work until Chrome version 45 is released later in 2015:

1. Open Chrome.
2. In the address bar at the top of the screen, type chrome://flags/#enable-npapi
3. In the window that opens, click the link that says Enable under the Enable NPAPI flag.
4. In the bottom-left corner of the page, click the Relaunch Now button.

After the release of Chrome version 45, you’ll need to use an alternative web browser to load content that requires a NPAPI plug-in.

 

[Starbase]

Well, Chrome have now pulled the plug on VLC, what is the recommended browser that will still work with VLC?
Also is it feasible to make the "Play" button link to any other media players, such as "Videostream" for Chromecast?

 

[Basjoe]

Is a solution on the horizon for Chrome users, that will allow "Play" to be used again ?