Update AVPro to 3.4.1
available in future release
Haxy
There's a fix in 3.4.1 for this issue:
This is currently blocking a WIP update for VRCVideoCacher that switches YouTube playback over to use the SABR protocol.
The move to SABR is mainly to future-proof things, as YouTube keeps increasing its bot checks and the legacy streams are becoming less reliable.
There's also the possibility that YouTube could eventually remove the legacy streams entirely.
If that happens, the current playback method would stop working, making YouTube playback unavailable until a SABR-based solution is in place.
Updating AVPro to 3.4.1 would unblock that work, help keep YouTube playback working going forward, and also enable support for up to 8K YouTube playback once the VRCVideoCacher update is released.
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available in future release
リールク⁄liruk
YouTube now appears to be phasing out legacy direct MP4 streams, with availability already becoming intermittent for some videos and clients. This makes SABR support increasingly necessary to keep YouTube playback working reliably in VRChat.
Please consider updating AVPro to 3.4.1 so the SABR-based implementation can move forward.
WubTheCaptain
リールク⁄liruk While true, this doesn't change that SABR-based formats from YouTube are still video-only or audio-only. The change proposed in OP benefits mainly third-party tools, which download both streams separately and merge those formats locally with ffmpeg before restreaming it back to a video player in VRChat from a local source.
There's still little benefit for the general users of VRChat at this time, or not necessarily the benefit you're looking for.
リールク⁄liruk
WubTheCaptain Thanks for the reply. However, VRChat is currently experiencing a real issue where a wide range of YouTube videos cannot be played. If the cause is not what the original post describes, then I assume the outage must be due to some other issue.
Do you know of any post that more accurately addresses the current problem? If so, I’d be happy to go upvote it.
WubTheCaptain
リールク⁄liruk Without an affected YouTube URL, I can say: There are several scenarios and "a wide range of YouTube videos [which] cannot be played" where this is not a bug and not supported by yt-dlp, such as age-restricted videos, geo-fenced videos outside of your country, DRM-protected movies, and “Sign-in to confirm you’re not a bot” errors with YouTube as an example.
The most common YouTube issue in VRChat's yt-dlp 2026.07.04 (yt-dlp issue #17456 to be specific) is resolvable by https://feedback.vrchat.com/feature-requests/p/update-to-yt-dlp-20260819 with changes to
youtube:player_client
to disable the visionos
extractor/client in this new yt-dlp 2026.08.14 release for VRChat's purposes.A related but relatively unexplained bug report about it is https://feedback.vrchat.com/bug-reports/p/video-bug - the root cause finding and solution was posted in the early comments of that topic.
A detailed post explaining the problem is available on the VRChat Ask forums: https://ask.vrchat.com/t/video-players-completely-broken/48829/2 - I suggest reading the follow-up posts too, as more information became available after the post was made.
_
_tau_
The outage for Youtube is due to a missing yt-dlp update, which we are working on independently. This task is, indeed, entirely unrelated to YouTube or other video sources not working. It only fixes a playback issue with some very specific non-standard source URLs used by third-party applications.
リールク⁄liruk
WubTheCaptain Thank you!!!
_
_tau_
To be clear once more, because I don't want to give anyone false expectations: This will _not_ make video players more reliable or stable. It will not allow more videos to be played. It will only help support some edge cases for streamed video or third-party tools.
FanFurryTastic
Please. we need more reliable video players :(
LiluneStar
please
_
_tau_
updated the status to
tracked
I'll add a note here, since this ticket has received a lot of traction.
We updated to AVPro 3.3.6 recently, which was a bigger task than you might imagine. Compared to 2.x, which we used before, 3.x has a very different set of requirements, especially on Android. In fact, iOS still uses 2.x for now. We also have several custom safety and compatibility changes in the AVPro code on our end, which need to be migrated every time we update.
At the time of doing the 3.3.6 update, 3.4.1 was not available yet. And since we had just spent time upgrading AVPro already, doing so again wasn't really in the cards right away. But we're looking into it now.
To avoid any confusion, I want to clarify that this would also not affect Youtube playback using just VRChat, albeit we do hear you in that it fixes issues for third-party tools. These tools are not officially supported, mind you. I am unsure how much this minor version update would benefit users outside of that specific scenario.
DarkSwordsman
_tau_ From what I gather, this wouldn't even specifically just help VRCVideoCacher, but
any
instance where an fMP4 HLS/DASH stream is being used. I'm not exactly sure what most clubs use, but many music venues in VRChat rely on these segmented streams/video files to work properly.Octo Kitty
This makes no sense especially after a major rework for the ui was just released. which as far as I can tell was not requested AT ALL by the community.
PowerNæp
Octo Kitty I think you’re mixing up “I disagree with what VRChat prioritized” with “this technical explanation makes no sense.”
Those are two different arguments.
Updating AVPro isn’t like opening a .exe, clicking “Update,” and being finished. It’s a dependency integrated into VRChat, with VRChat-specific safety and compatibility modifications on top of it. Those changes have to be migrated to the new version, then tested against different platform requirements and whatever regressions the upgrade introduces.
That’s exactly what Tau is explaining above.
The UI rework and this AVPro upgrade request are about as related as putting on makeup and replacing a hip joint.
Criticize their prioritization if that’s your point, but “the community didn’t ask for the UI” doesn’t invalidate the technical explanation Tau just gave us.
peq42
over a month later and not even a message from the vrchat team.
But "Community always" guys, dont forget that! And by community they mean money.
Hunny~
Please fix this, can't believe this hasn't been done years ago
peq42
Hunny~ the vrchat team is too busy wasting time with iOS/android builds nobody wants and UI changes everyone hates
Murdoc Fluxes
please implement this
nyades
please
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