VLC plugin gets confused on HTTP 401

I password-protected a directory on my website and enabled directory browsing.

Loaded Firefox (6.0.1/win7) and loaded the directory. Firefox asked for my un/pw and then showed me a list of files.

when i clicked on one of the files, the Firefox screen turned gray (black on 1.1.9) but nothing else appeared to happen.

i loaded up tcpdump on the server and saw:

client -> server HTTP GET /subdir/file1.avi HTTP/1.1
server -> client HTTP R port=49405 
server -> client HTTP HTTP/1.1 200 OK
server -> client HTTP (body)
server -> client HTTP (body)
client -> server HTTP C port=49405 
server -> client HTTP (body)
server -> client HTTP (body)
server -> client HTTP (body)
client -> server HTTP C port=49405 
client -> server HTTP C port=49408 
client -> server HTTP C port=49405 
server -> client HTTP (body)
server -> client HTTP (body)
server -> client HTTP (body)
server -> client HTTP (body)
server -> client HTTP R port=49408 
client -> server HTTP C port=49408 
client -> server HTTP GET /subdir/file1.avi HTTP/1.1
server -> client HTTP R port=49408 
client -> server HTTP User-Agent: vlc/1.1.11
server -> client HTTP R port=49408 
server -> client HTTP HTTP/1.1 401 Authorization Required
client -> server HTTP C port=49408 
client -> server HTTP C port=49409 
server -> client HTTP R port=49409 
client -> server HTTP C port=49409 
client -> server HTTP GET /subdir/file1.avi HTTP/1.0
server -> client HTTP R port=49409 
client -> server HTTP Accept: */*
server -> client HTTP R port=49409 
server -> client HTTP HTTP/1.1 401 Authorization Required

and then the request finished.

it appears the plugin needs the intelligence to deal with 401 - either pop up a window, or perhaps ask Firefox, or just error.