I started to get this error on my Video PC Win XP SP3:
File reading failed: VLC could not open the file "C:\Profiles\user\Temp\PLUGTM~2\PLUGIN~2.ASH". (Bad file descriptor) Your input can't be opened: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'file:///C:/Profiles/user/Temp/PLUGTM~2/PLUGIN~2.ASH'. Check the log for details.
This only happens if VLC is not running when a web page requests VLC to start streaming the video. If VLC is running, the stream is opened without a problem. Looks like some sort of timing issue at the VLC startup. I could not find a solution on the web, fixing VLC is not an option, so I decided to make sure that VLC is always running. Added a shortcut to the Startup dir in Windows, it starts VLC in the minimized mode (tray icon):
"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc" --qt-start-minimized
There is a positive side-effect: the first start of a VLC stream is noticeably faster. Unfortunately, killing all instances of VLC will bring back the problem.
There is an option to start VLC as a service, but I have not tried this yet:
vlc -I ntservice --ntservice-extraintf=http --ntservice-install
Web control interface is at http://127.0.0.1:8080/
I started to get this error on my Video PC Win 7
File reading failed:
VLC could not open the file “D:\movies\bollywood\SINGHAM.SCR_urgrove.com.mkv”.
Your input can’t be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL ‘file:///D:/movies/bollywood/SINGHAM.SCR_urgrove.com.mkv’. Check the log for details.
Shravan, your error is different from the problem described in this post. Most likely the .mkv (“matroska” codec) video file you’re trying to open is somehow corrupted. If you post your log file details here, as the error message tells you, I (we) may try and help you resolve this issue. Alternatively, or as a bonus information for me to look you could analyze the video file in question with ffmpeg and give me the output. It is a command line utility, basic command which you will need to run from “DOS” (cmd) window you need would be something like this
Good Luck!
Sergei, I just tested installing vlc as a service on my same setup as yours, i.e. Winblows XP SP3 media PC. It works wonderfully, so far I’ve tested 10 videos and they all stared right away without throwing any errors. Perhaps this should be reported as a bug to VLC team.
P.S. You have to manually start it from “services” control panel
Start->Run->"services.mscor from a command line like sonet start "VLC media player"after installation unless you want to reboot.ADDENDUM:
Side effect from starting VLC as a service:
You do not get any GUI control interface nor a time progress bar all you can do is go “full-screen” by double clicking the window. Starting it with either
--ntservice-extraintf=http,qtor--ntservice-extraintf=qtdid not make any difference. However, I have discovered that keyboard shortcuts and mouse actions work just fine. I have also tried--intfand while it passes the options parser it does not install a service but instead launches VLC in a foreground as normal. I’ll play with it some more when I have time and see if it is possible to get QT interface working in “service mode”. So I guess for now we have to chose between “lesser evil”, that is some may find the absense of the GUI more annoying and some may find that closing VLC kills the background process is annoying too. There is a work around that I found for the 1st solution (well sorta, if you’re mindful about it) you can set a checkbox hereTools->Preferences->Interface->Show systray iconand then theoretically if you click the system tray icon it should minimize and maximize VLC respectively of its state. In my case I had it already checked by default and it didn’t work right away. I had to:uncheck the box, save configuration, restart VLC, check the box again, save configuration, restart VLCand then it worked “as advertised”.