Programatically open VLC media player from browser

Question

I use .mkv videos on my website, but the VLC media plugin for browsers is effectively useless.

But, VLC media player has the option to open a network stream, that stream being a direct link to my video.

I can have everything I need to watch that .mkv video in VLC media player by specifying the direct HTTP link to the video.

Now, how do I start up VLC media player on someone's computer and automatically have VLC load the network link?

Do I use JavaScript, HTML? How can I make a client's computer application start from the browser?

Thanks,

Answer 1

You can't start an arbitrary application from a web page, that would be a huge security problem!

Fortunately, you can use HTML5 video tag to play it on Chrome and FireFox (without any need of extra software)