It looks like the problem is URLDispatcher is failing trying to launch the URL from the dash when the file lives in ~/Pictures:
** (process:2555): WARNING **: Unable to dispatch url 'file:///home/phablet/Pictures/IMG_2088.MOV':GDBus.Error:com.canonical.URLDispatcher.BadURL: URL 'file:///home/phablet/Pictures/IMG_2088.MOV' is not handleable by the URL Dispatcher There are no denials in syslog. When moving the movie to ~/Videos, it's launched correctly by url dispatcher. ** Also affects: url-dispatcher (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of DX Packages, which is subscribed to url-dispatcher in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1340952 Title: media player doe not play videos indexed from outside ~/Videos Status in Media Player App: Incomplete Status in “url-dispatcher” package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: There are some mp4 videos found/indexed by mediascanner-service-2.0 from ~/Pictures. The thumbnails of those are shown in the Video scope but can not be played. If the video is moved over to ~/Videos, the videos are played just fine. mako utopic r119 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/mediaplayer-app/+bug/1340952/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dx-packages Post to : dx-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dx-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp