vlc will not allow pasting a URL with spaces into the Network Stream dialog

[Kensey]

Binary package hint: vlc

The version of vlc currently distributed with Ubuntu will no longer allow a URL with spaces to be pasted into dialog boxes. This appears to be a deliberate design choice by the upstream:

http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=84607

This seems pointless and silly and Ubuntu should, if possible, code around this change by the upstream -- it breaks the ability to use VLC to view things like my local County Commission's archived meeting videos, e.g.:

mms://129.71.117.176/CountyCommArchived/2011-01-20 Audio only p1.MP3

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: vlc 1.1.4-1ubuntu1.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-24.42-generic 2.6.35.8
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Jan 24 20:56:18 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: vlc

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

I think this issue is already reported at https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/3435 but seems a bit outdated and without much activity. Please could you test if this behaviour is still occurring with the latest release included in Ubuntu Natty Narwhal or maybe provide us a valid url just for testing?

[Kensey (ubuntu-orion-com)]

Yes, this is still an issue in the version I have with Ubuntu 11.04 (1.1.9-1ubuntu1.3). The example URL from my initial report should demonstrate the issue. I think it is highly unlikely the upstream will fix it since it was his deliberate decision to break it in the first place (see forum thread link from my initial report).

Interestingly, if I replace the spaces with %20's, VLC will not play the resulting stream URL, but Clementine and Rhythmbox both do, and both convert the %20's back to spaces when displaying the stream URL.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Confirmed with vlc 2.0.1 that the url in the description (mms://129.71.117.176/CountyCommArchived/2011-01-20 Audio only p1.MP3) cannot be pasted into the Network URL entry dialog. There is also no feedback to the user that this is not permitted.

If I replace the spaces with %20 (i.e. mms://129.71.117.176/CountyCommArchived/2011-01-20%20Audio%20only%20p1.MP3) it will paste into the dialog. However the server no longer appears to exist so an error to that effect pops up when I try to play it.

I don't know how widespread of an issue this is, but seems like a patch to s/ /%20/ in whatever code is filtering the input shouldn't be infeasible. I don't know if it's an issue worth diverging from upstream on, but if someone were to code it up we could consider it. I'd want to know if there's other examples in the wild where this issue crops up with other urls.

Since it sounds like this issue is sort of a design choice upstream, I'm setting the importance to wishlist. If others can present examples where they've hit this problem with still-extant urls we can bump the priority up.

[Fabio M. Panico (fbugnon)]

I can confirm this problem still exists under VLC 2.0.8 running on Ubuntu 13.04 64-bit.

The URL I try to open is mms://stream.stj.gov.br/tv/A PESSOA QUE É JUIZ.wmv
available at http://www.nancyandrighi.stj.jus.br/webstj/gabinete/default.asp?id_gab=1

Replacing spaces with %20 also didn't help.

[Sebastian Ramacher (s-ramacher)]

Seems to be fixed in 3.0.0