I am having problems watching videos over a network-connection. I have Manjaro Gnome installed on my laptop and I am trying to access my Mac Mini server (Running MacOS Big Sur) over SMB Protocol to watch videos / movies (streaming) on VLC.
When I try to open a video on a network-share via smb / VLC, I get the following error message:
VLC is unable to open the MRL ‘smb://pc_name/directory/Scrubs%20-%20S03E02.avi’
What I am trying to understand:
Is a problem with the smb password / authentication (also i don’t think so) - I have set my SMB password inside VLC preferences with no improvements.
All my other devices (Apple Laptops, Windows Laptops, Phones, etc.) can access the Mac Mini server and play videos without ANY issues.
When I copy the file (also over SMB) locally to my laptop, I can then play the video in VLC with NO issues.
So this makes me think it is a SMB / connection issue to the Mac Mini Server, and ONLY with Manjaro, and no other devices, since I am able to copy and then play the files locally.
If anyone has any ideas / feedback / advice, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any help you cam provide!
I always have a lot of trouble with VLC playing files from a Samba share too. I think it is because VLC still depends on the SMB1 protocol, even though supposedly it supports SMB2/3.
What happens if you mount the share on the filesystem and also try another videoplayer?
I see the same issue with MPV player unfortunately. Also, to be clear I am using VLC on my Mac and Window Laptops, and they play the files over the network WITHOUT any issues. Only Manjaro is the one that complains.
If the same happens with mpv, could it be related to ffmpeg not being compiled with libsmbclient? See here for similar: MPV can’t play files over samba share. As muvvenby mentions, are you able to mount your network share and then play from the mounted directory?
When selecting MPV, and trying to play the movie, nothing happens. No file is loaded I’m assuming due to an error. So, that’s the issue…when I mount my network share, and play from it (with VLC), I get that error. When I copy the movie locally to my Desktop for example, and then try playing it, it plays fine with NO issues (with VLC and MPV).
So even though the directory is mounted (fstab, systemd?) and is browsable, the files will still not play? How are you playing the files - dragging and dropping onto mpv, or command line?
If using the command line directly to the network share (e.g. mpv smb://path-to-network-file), do you see the following in your terminal (or anything?):
[ffmpeg] Protocol not found. Make sure ffmpeg/Libav is compiled with networking support
And using the command line to your mount (e.g. mpv /mounted-directory/file) is there no output at all, with it also failing to play silently?
So to be honest, I’m not sure how things are being mounted. I am doing it through the GUI (Gnome Files) and I am able to see my server and mount and navigate files remotely through it. Not using the command line for mounting / unmounting at this point. I am attempting to play the files just by double clicking on them through the Gnome Files utility.
So for some reason, it looks like mpv is not detecting the file format properly. The line that reads: [demux] Trying demuxers for level=normal.
is then followed by: [lavf] No format found
This should read something like: [lavf] Found 'avi' ...
I don’t know why this might be happening. Did you install mpv and vlc using either pamac or pacman, or did you use another method? You could try forcing the format to see if the file at least then plays. I would also recommend using either systemd mount units (see Systemd mount any device and Systemd mount unit samples) or fstab (/etc/fstab) for permanent network share mounts.
So, I think you are chasing down the wrong problem. This is NOT an issue with the media players, VLC / MPV as far as I understand. If I copy the exact same file (thru Gnome File Utility) and paste the movie locally in my downloads folder, it plays with no issues as you can see below (with either MPV or VLC):
I believe the actual issue to solve is around the SMB connection and why the video is unable to be played in a streaming fashion over my network. Again, to be clear I can play all my movies on my other machines (Windows Laptops, MacOS Laptops, Phones, etc.), and especially on the Windows and MacOS laptops, I am using VLC to play my movies with no issues.
So, SMB / Networking type issue is what is preventing the videos from playing correctly is what my gut says.Thoughts?
Thanks again for all of your time and help, it is greatly appreciated!
Yes I agree that the problem is likely with the smb share, hence my recommendation to mount using systemd mount units or fstab. You could mount using the terminal, which will not persist after reboot as well: sudo mount -t cifs -o user=user-id-for-access //remote-share-location /local-mount-point (user= needed if no public sharing, password will be prompted - can omit if not needed)
I have no idea why the file format being incorrectly determined would happen with mounting using your file manager though. If you force the file type, you can then check whether interpretation of the file type is the route cause of the issue issue with the mount as you have it, or whether there is something more to it. This would maybe help track down why it doesn’t work the way you have it set up currently. Best of luck!
I think the option for forcing the format is --demuxer-lavf-format=, so e.g. entering mpv --demuxer-lavf-format=avi might get the video playing with your current setup.
If the manual mount works, then you know that the problem is with the file manager mount; if forcing the format works with your current setup, then it specifically is a problem with that being read from your current smb shares. I would again recommend sticking with the systemd or fstab option for mounting the shares in the longer term - less likely to run into performance issues or bugs in my experience. Hope you get it working .
I also have the same problem with VLC and Manjaro and I have not been able to solve it since I am new to Linux. But, I recently installed Garuda and interestingly the VLC has no problems. So what does Garuda have that Manjaro doesn’t?
PS I’m sorry for my English, my mother tongue is Spanish.
So, after the last comment from @hugola, I decided before I do any type of mounting, what if I created 2 live Manjaro USB’s one with Manjaro Gnome and one with Manjaro KDE, and try to play the video over my SMB share:
Manjaro-Gnome using Gnome Videos App:
Same behavior as my original post, but with a different error that is catered to the Gnome Videos application.
@Yochanan - I don’t know if it’s possible to somehow get the Manjaro KDE Team to talk to the Manjaro Gnome Team, but this definitely works on a live USB (aka OOTB) on KDE and not Gnome. Not sure if this is a deeper issue that should be investigated, but I wanted to bring it up so everyone has all the pertinent details and information.
I will try the other suggestions of mounting and forcing the .AVI file-type, but I just wanted to see what the results were with Gnome vs. KDE with no custom configurations and a ‘vanilla’ Live USB experience.
Trying to do this, and I get the following output:
sudo mount -t cifs -o user=aahmad smb://asifs-mac-mini.local/asifs%20hd /mnt/
Mounting cifs URL not implemented yet. Attempt to mount smb://asifs-mac-mini.local/asifs%20hd
When I then CD into this /mnt directory, I do not see the mount there. Not sure if I am executing this correctly?
sudo mount -t cifs -o user=aahmad //asifs-mac-mini.local/asifs%20hd /mnt/
Password for aahmad@//asifs-mac-mini.local/asifs%20hd:
mount error(22): Invalid argument
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs) and kernel log messages (dmesg)
In your log, can you see what the invalid argument was? journalctl -b | grep CIFS should show entries with “CIFS” from your current boot, for example. It may possibly be the lack of version specified (vers=), but your log should show what the issue is.
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