Trailers not playing using MPC-HC

Posted January 27, 2024Jan 27

I get an "file cannot be rendered" error when using trailers preshow with MPC-HC

Here is a copy of the error

2024-01-27 12:02:15.773 T:13028    info <general>: [- PreShow Experience -]: Experience: Playing next item: VIDEO: 'https://imdb-video.media-imdb.com/vi3262564121/1434659529640-260ouz-1703955825629.mp4?Expires=1706464653&Signature=AoY0ClQqMwc-2tSYu7U-ku5WtuA0JlTnX9QbpLc889vBgTU43TEGis3WKdK-QIVSsyjET-M6bp6KefbofUOlUtql-jLewMPmJc7h4jkYh6zoIzkfqOo0e-W8-FQZ2f5f7pcGEp7gP1C~rlc8CJ3QqAUZ676NbYJT9cWKSPJ3Qb1o5Lqt~kOdWzyD3IPMhpO00KUYr0vHi84K90bN8-6yaw3Pp7L6VXwMc5OFy77klPsMk5Dwkwb3j1nqGGlsLlbY4tPZUOPmJzrmqixN8bW7CdsFnxYgzg816Hjkoe1Hs4BFWmiT14YtLKX5o~fn~5~ZQsMY5n4dzptX6FhB2~dS-w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIFLZBVQZ24NQH3KA'
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:32772   error <general>: PCRE: nothing to repeat. Compilation failed at offset 0 in expression '*'
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:32772    info <general>: ExternalPlayer Filename: C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\MPC-HC64\mpc-hc64.exe
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:32772 warning <general>: ExternalPlayer: invalid value for warpcursor: none
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:32772    info <general>: ExternalPlayer Tweaks: hideconsole (false), hidexbmc (false), islauncher (false), warpcursor (none)
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:32772    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::OpenFile: https://imdb-video.media-imdb.com/vi3262564121/1434659529640-260ouz-1703955825629.mp4?Expires=1706464653&Signature=AoY0ClQqMwc-2tSYu7U-ku5WtuA0JlTnX9QbpLc889vBgTU43TEGis3WKdK-QIVSsyjET-M6bp6KefbofUOlUtql-jLewMPmJc7h4jkYh6zoIzkfqOo0e-W8-FQZ2f5f7pcGEp7gP1C~rlc8CJ3QqAUZ676NbYJT9cWKSPJ3Qb1o5Lqt~kOdWzyD3IPMhpO00KUYr0vHi84K90bN8-6yaw3Pp7L6VXwMc5OFy77klPsMk5Dwkwb3j1nqGGlsLlbY4tPZUOPmJzrmqixN8bW7CdsFnxYgzg816Hjkoe1Hs4BFWmiT14YtLKX5o~fn~5~ZQsMY5n4dzptX6FhB2~dS-w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIFLZBVQZ24NQH3KA|User-Agent=Mozilla/5.0 (compatible, MSIE 11, Windows NT 6.3; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::Process: Player : C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\MPC-HC64\mpc-hc64.exe
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::Process: File   : https://imdb-video.media-imdb.com/vi3262564121/1434659529640-260ouz-1703955825629.mp4?Expires=1706464653&Signature=AoY0ClQqMwc-2tSYu7U-ku5WtuA0JlTnX9QbpLc889vBgTU43TEGis3WKdK-QIVSsyjET-M6bp6KefbofUOlUtql-jLewMPmJc7h4jkYh6zoIzkfqOo0e-W8-FQZ2f5f7pcGEp7gP1C~rlc8CJ3QqAUZ676NbYJT9cWKSPJ3Qb1o5Lqt~kOdWzyD3IPMhpO00KUYr0vHi84K90bN8-6yaw3Pp7L6VXwMc5OFy77klPsMk5Dwkwb3j1nqGGlsLlbY4tPZUOPmJzrmqixN8bW7CdsFnxYgzg816Hjkoe1Hs4BFWmiT14YtLKX5o~fn~5~ZQsMY5n4dzptX6FhB2~dS-w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIFLZBVQZ24NQH3KA|User-Agent=Mozilla/5.0 (compatible, MSIE 11, Windows NT 6.3; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::Process: Content: 
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::Process: Args   : "{1}" /fullscreen /close
2024-01-27 12:02:16.185 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::Process: Start
2024-01-27 12:02:16.236 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::ExecuteAppW32: C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\MPC-HC64\mpc-hc64.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\MPC-HC64\mpc-hc64.exe" "https://imdb-video.media-imdb.com/vi3262564121/1434659529640-260ouz-1703955825629.mp4?Expires=1706464653&Signature=AoY0ClQqMwc-2tSYu7U-ku5WtuA0JlTnX9QbpLc889vBgTU43TEGis3WKdK-QIVSsyjET-M6bp6KefbofUOlUtql-jLewMPmJc7h4jkYh6zoIzkfqOo0e-W8-FQZ2f5f7pcGEp7gP1C~rlc8CJ3QqAUZ676NbYJT9cWKSPJ3Qb1o5Lqt~kOdWzyD3IPMhpO00KUYr0vHi84K90bN8-6yaw3Pp7L6VXwMc5OFy77klPsMk5Dwkwb3j1nqGGlsLlbY4tPZUOPmJzrmqixN8bW7CdsFnxYgzg816Hjkoe1Hs4BFWmiT14YtLKX5o~fn~5~ZQsMY5n4dzptX6FhB2~dS-w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIFLZBVQZ24NQH3KA|User-Agent=Mozilla/5.0 (compatible, MSIE 11, Windows NT 6.3; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko" /fullscreen /close
2024-01-27 12:02:16.285 T:13028    info <general>: [- PreShow Experience -]: Experience: PLAYBACK STARTED
2024-01-27 12:02:16.341 T:13028    info <general>: [- PreShow Experience -]: Experience: VIDEO HAS GONE FULLSCREEN
2024-01-27 12:04:08.123 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::ExecuteAppW32: WAIT_OBJECT_0
2024-01-27 12:04:08.123 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::Process: Stop
2024-01-27 12:04:08.123 T:14376    info <general>: CExternalPlayer::Process: Showing Kodi window

I have determined that if you launch the file without the user-agent query string, it launches correctly.

So if I manually run the following command from CMD, it does not work

C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\MPC-HC64\mpc-hc64.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\MPC-HC64\mpc-hc64.exe" "https://imdb-video.media-imdb.com/vi3262564121/1434659529640-260ouz-1703955825629.mp4?Expires=1706464653&Signature=AoY0ClQqMwc-2tSYu7U-ku5WtuA0JlTnX9QbpLc889vBgTU43TEGis3WKdK-QIVSsyjET-M6bp6KefbofUOlUtql-jLewMPmJc7h4jkYh6zoIzkfqOo0e-W8-FQZ2f5f7pcGEp7gP1C~rlc8CJ3QqAUZ676NbYJT9cWKSPJ3Qb1o5Lqt~kOdWzyD3IPMhpO00KUYr0vHi84K90bN8-6yaw3Pp7L6VXwMc5OFy77klPsMk5Dwkwb3j1nqGGlsLlbY4tPZUOPmJzrmqixN8bW7CdsFnxYgzg816Hjkoe1Hs4BFWmiT14YtLKX5o~fn~5~ZQsMY5n4dzptX6FhB2~dS-w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIFLZBVQZ24NQH3KA|User-Agent=Mozilla/5.0 (compatible, MSIE 11, Windows NT 6.3; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko" /fullscreen /close

but if I run

C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\MPC-HC64\mpc-hc64.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\MPC-HC64\mpc-hc64.exe" "https://imdb-video.media-imdb.com/vi3262564121/1434659529640-260ouz-1703955825629.mp4?Expires=1706464653&Signature=AoY0ClQqMwc-2tSYu7U-ku5WtuA0JlTnX9QbpLc889vBgTU43TEGis3WKdK-QIVSsyjET-M6bp6KefbofUOlUtql-jLewMPmJc7h4jkYh6zoIzkfqOo0e-W8-FQZ2f5f7pcGEp7gP1C~rlc8CJ3QqAUZ676NbYJT9cWKSPJ3Qb1o5Lqt~kOdWzyD3IPMhpO00KUYr0vHi84K90bN8-6yaw3Pp7L6VXwMc5OFy77klPsMk5Dwkwb3j1nqGGlsLlbY4tPZUOPmJzrmqixN8bW7CdsFnxYgzg816Hjkoe1Hs4BFWmiT14YtLKX5o~fn~5~ZQsMY5n4dzptX6FhB2~dS-w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIFLZBVQZ24NQH3KA" /fullscreen /close

it plays just fine

January 27, 2024Jan 27

Author

Was able to confirm this by removing the reference to path in experience.py on line 914

January 28, 2024Jan 28

Administrator

Thank you for pointing this out. I'll test it out on other media and if nothing breaks I'll update the code.

January 30, 2024Jan 30

Thank you for putting this together, my wife finally said, after putting our home theater together and showing off the preshow experience, that she "see's the vision now". This project helped me piece everything together for the true theater experience at home.