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cipricus
Asked: 2024-01-25 16:34:50 +0800 CST

VLC and MPV cannot play video files from samba share

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With a Freebox Pop server (see NOTE at the end: this is not limited to the Freebox server, but all samba shares are affected). It has an USB entry where I have put an external 2 GB drive containing mostly videos that I can thus access and play very well with an Android TV device (or with the phone etc).

But, to my surprise, on a rather old laptop running Kubuntu 22.04, while Dolphin can access that drive and make changes to it, video files cannot be played by the video players I normally use - VLC and MPV.

Photos are instantly opened by Gwenview.

PDFs are opened in Okular but the file is first copied on the computer it seems.

MPV gives this error:

mpv 'smb://freebox-server.local/Volume 2000Go/FILME/IT_2/---a-voir/A.Mezzanotte.Va.La.Ronda.Del.Piacere.1975.mkv' 
[ffmpeg] Protocol not found. Make sure ffmpeg/Libav is compiled with networking support.
Failed to open smb://freebox-server.local/Volume 2000Go/FILME/IT_2/---a-voir/A.Mezzanotte.Va.La.Ronda.Del.Piacere.1975.mkv.

Exiting... (Errors when loading file)

That might be ffmpeg-specific, but VLC is also unable to play:

vlc 'smb://freebox-server.local/Volume 2000Go/FILME/Les Felins_a.en-fr.mkv' 
VLC media player 3.0.16 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2)
[00005558f566b640] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[00007fbf3c0016f0] smb stream error: read failed (Broken pipe)
[00007fbf3c0016f0] smb stream error: read failed (Broken pipe)
[00007fbf3c04dc30] mkv demux error: cannot find any cluster or chapter, damaged file ?
[00007fbf3c0016f0] smb stream error: read failed (Broken pipe)
[00007fbf3c04dc30] mjpeg demux error: cannot peek
uint DBusMenuExporterDBus::GetLayout(int, int, const QStringList&, DBusMenuLayoutItem&): Condition failed: menu
uint DBusMenuExporterDBus::GetLayout(int, int, const QStringList&, DBusMenuLayoutItem&): Condition failed: menu

The snap version of VLC gives this:

env BAMF_DESKTOP_FILE_HINT=/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/vlc_vlc.desktop /snap/bin/vlc
VLC media player 3.0.19 Vetinari (revision 3.0.19-0-g32b50de2a2)
[000055698c544b10] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Qt: Session management error: Could not open network socket
[000055698c5db150] main playlist: playlist is empty
Sending netbios packet to 192.168.1.255
uint DBusMenuExporterDBus::GetLayout(int, int, const QStringList&, DBusMenuLayoutItem&): Condition failed: menu
netbios_ns_resolve, wrong query type received
uint DBusMenuExporterDBus::GetLayout(int, int, const QStringList&, DBusMenuLayoutItem&): Condition failed: menu
uint DBusMenuExporterDBus::GetLayout(int, int, const QStringList&, DBusMenuLayoutItem&): Condition failed: menu

And then, with -v argument:

env BAMF_DESKTOP_FILE_HINT=/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/vlc_vlc.desktop /snap/bin/vlc -v 'smb://freebox-server.local/Volume 2000Go/FILME/Les Felins_a.en-fr.mkv' 
VLC media player 3.0.19 Vetinari (revision 3.0.19-0-g32b50de2a2)
[000055792cde9b10] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Qt: Session management error: Could not open network socket
Sending netbios packet to 192.168.1.255
netbios_ns_resolve, wrong query type received
uint DBusMenuExporterDBus::GetLayout(int, int, const QStringList&, DBusMenuLayoutItem&): Condition failed: menu
uint DBusMenuExporterDBus::GetLayout(int, int, const QStringList&, DBusMenuLayoutItem&): Condition failed: menu

Kaffeine:

kaffeine 'smb://freebox-server.local/Volume 2000Go/FILME/Les Felins_a.en-fr.mkv' 
25-01-24 09:15:20.516 [Warning ] QCommandLineParser: already having an option named "h"
25-01-24 09:15:20.516 [Warning ] QCommandLineParser: already having an option named "help-all"
25-01-24 09:15:20.516 [Warning ] QCommandLineParser: already having an option named "v"
25-01-24 09:15:20.850 [Info    ] kaffeine.dvb: Using built-in dvb device manager
[00007fef1c001650] smb stream error: read failed (Broken pipe)
[00007fef1c001650] smb stream error: read failed (Broken pipe)
[00007fef1c050650] mkv demux error: cannot find any cluster or chapter, damaged file ?
[00007fef1c001650] smb stream error: read failed (Broken pipe)
[00007fef1c050650] mjpeg demux error: cannot peek
[000056398694af50] main input error: Your input can't be opened
[000056398694af50] main input error: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'smb://freebox-server.local/Volume%202000Go/FILME/Les%20Felins_a.en-fr.mkv'. Check the log for details.

Trying with Gwenview:

kf.kio.widgets: Failed to check which JobView API is supported "The name org.kde.kuiserver was not provided by any .service files"

Kodi allows the Freebox share location to be added, and then starts playing video (although sometimes it freezes).

I was also pleasantly surprised to see how old Xine plays very easily those videos (instantly!).

But other players also work, like Totem (Gnome's 'Videos') and Glide, installed as flatpak.

Testing in a live session of Ubuntu 22.04 (Gnome) the same problems are present with MPV and VLC - while the file manager (Nautilus) can access those files and the Gnome video player ('Videos', that's Totem I guess) can play the videos (after installing the needed codecs).

Are these problems related or should I treat them separately (MPV from VLC)?

NOTES AND UPDATES:

  • kio-fuse is installed
  • this is not limited (after more testing) to the Freeebox samba share, but to other samba shares too: for testing purposes I have created a samba share on my Android phone, and videos on the phone have the same problem with MPV and VLC on Kubuntu 22.04
  • sharing the 'Movies' Android phone folder on FTP with Solid File Explorer, they can be played by VLC and MPV on this Kubuntu 22.04
  • Beside Kodi, also SMPLayer, although using mpv as backend, can play fine the samba shared videos!
  • Other mpv-based players, like Haruna and QMPlay2, don't work
22.04

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I've solved it with the all players in the same way.

    The solution I've got it from here, the cause is discussed here and here linking to here. I don't really understand it, but - quoting:

    The issue appears to be a combination of:

    • Using dolphin as the file browser to reach network shares

    • Dolphin only providing the smb:// url to mpv when you click on the file in question

    • mpv deferring to ffmpeg for smb support to access file

    Some comments blame Dolphin but I've seen this in Gnome with Nautilus too.

    The solution is to remove the variable smb (one of the comments also recommends removing ftp and ftps) from the line X-KDE-Protocols= of the .desktop launcher of MPV (copy it from usr/share/applications to ~/.local/share/applications and edit it there).

    (This seems to be just a workaround - to make the players go around the buggy area, rather than a way of solving it.)

    And I've discovered that the same change fixes it for VLC too. Kaffeine and Haruna were also fixed by adding that line (without smb etc), which was absent by default in their respective .desktop files..

    • 2