VLC as external player

[SG_01]

Problem Description: I am getting the following error when attempting to use VLC as an external player for Subsonic:

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Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'https://<server:port redacted>/stream?player=6&suffix=.mkv'. Check the log for details.


Upon further inspection the message log produces the following:

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gnutls error: TLS handshake error: The Diffie-Hellman prime sent by the server is not acceptable (not long enough).
main error: TLS client session handshake error
access_http error: cannot establish HTTP/TLS session
access_mms error: invalid HTTP reply '
'
main error: open of `https://<server:port redacted>/stream?player=6&suffix=.mkv' failed: (null)


Troubleshooting steps: Windows Media player seems to correctly stream files, but in this case I wanted to use the extended functionality of VLC to try some things. Turns out none of the streams are working on VLC due to above error. I have tried to make VLC stream from the non-secured port, but that just seems to redirect to the secured one. I don't really want to leave the server totally unsecured either. Would think this would be fixable by changing an option somewhere, but could not find one anywhere.
Playback Application and version: VLC Media Player v1.1.11
Subsonic Version: 4.6 (build 2585) – December 6, 2011
Server Version: jetty-6.1.x, java 1.6.0_18, Linux (78.4 MB / 189.5 MB)
Hardware Platform: Server: Fedora Core FC13. Client: Windows 7 Ultimate.
Java Memory Limit: 512
Problem Filename: Any (even ones that work correctly in Windows Media Player or the Web interface)
Output from ffmpeg -i: Should be none needed, but if you really need a sample I can get you one.
Last ten log file lines:

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[1/2/12 1:43:00 AM CET]    INFO   DownloadController   Downloading 'some movie.mkv' to Player 8 [admin]
[1/2/12 1:49:34 AM CET]    INFO   TranscodingDao   Created transcoding mkv video
[1/2/12 1:53:44 AM CET]    INFO   PlayerDao   Created player 9.
[1/2/12 1:53:44 AM CET]    INFO   DownloadController   Got range: Range[39878656,9223372036854775807]
[1/2/12 1:53:44 AM CET]    INFO   DownloadController   Starting to download 'some movie.mkv' to Player 9 [admin]
[1/2/12 1:53:44 AM CET]    INFO   DownloadController   Downloading 'some movie.mkv' to Player 9 [admin]
[1/2/12 1:53:50 AM CET]    INFO   PlayerDao   Created player 10.
[1/2/12 1:53:50 AM CET]    INFO   DownloadController   Starting to download 'some movie.mkv' to Player 10 [admin]
[1/2/12 1:53:50 AM CET]    INFO   DownloadController   Downloading 'some movie.mkv' to Player 10 [admin]
[1/2/12 1:54:35 AM CET]    INFO   PlayerDao   Created player 11.


Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

Thanks,

- SG

[BKKKPewsey]

I don't think VLC can handle https streams.
Have you tried setting up the alternative non-ssl port (settings\advanced) ?

[SG_01]

Hrmm, well it might be able to handle https streams, but on my regular webserver it complains about the certificate not being signed by a known CA, not giving an option to ignore that error.

I just tried your suggestion, however subsonic just seems to redirect the stream to SSL anyway (if I use the http port there), or not work at all (if I specify a non-used port):

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[<user>@<server> tmp]# wget "http://<server:http>/stream?player=6&pathUtf8Hex=<>&suffix=.mp3"
--2012-01-02 13:02:18--  http://<server:http>/stream?player=6&pathUtf8Hex=<>&suffix=.mp3
Resolving <server>... 127.0.0.1, <internal ip>
Connecting to <server>|127.0.0.1|:<http>... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://<server:https>/stream?player=6&pathUtf8Hex=<>&suffix=.mp3


Log:

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[1/2/12 1:01:30 PM CET]    WARN   NetworkService   Failed to delete port mapping.
[1/2/12 1:01:35 PM CET]    INFO   VersionService   Resolved latest Subsonic final version to: 4.6
[1/2/12 1:01:35 PM CET]    INFO   VersionService   Resolved latest Subsonic beta version to: 4.6.beta2
[1/2/12 1:01:36 PM CET]    WARN   JaudiotaggerParser   Error when parsing tags in <wave file 1>
[1/2/12 1:01:37 PM CET]    WARN   JaudiotaggerParser   Failed to find cover art tag in <wave file 2>
[1/2/12 1:01:39 PM CET]    INFO   M3UController   Using non-SSL port <http port> in m3u playlist.
[1/2/12 1:06:27 PM CET]    INFO   PodcastService   Starting scheduled Podcast refresh.
[1/2/12 1:06:27 PM CET]    INFO   PodcastService   Completed scheduled Podcast refresh.
[1/2/12 1:08:26 PM CET]    INFO   PlaylistInputStream   admin listening to "mp3/Code Monkey.mp3"


[BKKKPewsey]

I would suggest that you have a look on the vlc forums where this is a known issue.
There are some "fixes" available for some os platforms - something about importing the ssl cert into vlc

[SG_01]

Right, but that won't help me unless I get that DH prime to be large enough to be accepted by VLC. That said, if http access was working this wouldn't be a problem in the first place

[makre]

Have anybody tried new VLC 2.0.0
After I upgrade from 1.1.11 to 2.0.0 in my Windows7 machine I've been able to listen playlists through my self signed https server.

But when I made fresh installation of VLC to another machine it still not work and I'm not able to say what's the difference ?

[makre]

VLC 2.0.0 seems to work nice now over https connection.
If you have self signed certificate you only need to import your own CA to "Trusted Root Certificates" and then VLC works like charm as an external player

[httpsandvlc]

is there any tutorial available, i want to use https for the auth only and vlc as external player on mac osx and linux. my hostbox is linux. i searched the forums and i cannot find a good guide. i think what i want to do is create a self signed ssl cert, add it to my subsonic installation on my server and import it as trusted root cert on the clients.

[manwithaplan]

VLC 2.0.0 seems to work nice now over https connection.
If you have self signed certificate you only need to import your own CA to "Trusted Root Certificates" and then VLC works like charm as an external player

makre, I'm having this problem with Windows 7 as well. Tell me exactly where you placed your CA certificate on Windows to get VLC to work as external player, please. I will then do a full tutorial on getting VLC to work with https streaming, as I see many posts both on the VLC forums and here and elsewhere where folks like me are struggling with this issue. I have experience with certs, but let me know where exactly you placed the CA chain. BTW, this problem also affects Mac OSX as a client, and Linux. I have users that are struggling on Ubuntu or Mint trying to get VLC working as well, so I envision my write-up to include as many platforms as I can get my hands on.

Just FYI, my site does not use a self-signed cert, I have a full paid for real cert on my SS server. The issue as others have noted, is that VLC does not trust the cert. Fixing this is key.

Thanks very much, I think we're getting close here, but your information could help a ton.

[httpsandvlc]

i have the same problem on osx, from some other posts i gathered this log files, maybe those can help, and i would really appreciate the tutorial, please include how to import your own cert to subsonic if you can. anyway here are some logfiles which could provide hints:

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gnutls debug: added x509 credentials (/home/myname/.vlc/ssl/certs/server.crt)
gnutls debug: added x509 credentials (/usr/share/vlc/ca-certificates.crt)

and windows:

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main debug: looking for tls client module: 1 candidate
gnutls debug: GnuTLS v2.6.3 initialized
gnutls debug: added x509 credentials (C:\Documents and Settings\xxx\Application Data\vlc/ssl/certs\xxx.crt)
gnutls warning: cannot add x509 credentials (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt): No such file or directory