12-11-2021 - PPCMC 7.2.6 - YouTube/Twitch Streaming, Downloading, File Conversion, Web Interface, & More For Panther-Leopard PPC/Intel

[alex_free]

I found out PPC Media Center had its last release last month, being officially discontinued.

Well I’m taking over development of new versions in a different direction.

Learn more at the official release page on the Garden:

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/ppc-media-center-7x-youtube-streamer-downloader-convertor

 

[z970]

Whenever trying to download a video, I get a "The application ffmpeg quit unexpectedly." window, along with this message:

Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
Referenced from: /Applications/PPC-Media-Center.app/bin/ffmpeg
Reason: Incompatible library version: ffmpeg requires version 9.0.0 or later, but libiconv.2.dylib provides version 7.0.0

YouTube-dl has been updated, and Perian is installed. Ideas?

That aside, installation is certainly much, much smoother. An absolute pleasure to use (minus the above). Great work!

 

[timidpimpin]

That's you Adam? Glad to see you're still at it, well... at least until now.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Great work However, not yet working for me (on Tiger) with these errors.

 

[alex_free]

Whenever trying to download a video, I get a "The application ffmpeg quit unexpectedly." window, along with this message:

Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
Referenced from: /Applications/PPC-Media-Center.app/bin/ffmpeg
Reason: Incompatible library version: ffmpeg requires version 9.0.0 or later, but libiconv.2.dylib provides version 7.0.0

YouTube-dl has been updated, and Perian is installed. Ideas?

That aside, installation is certainly much, much smoother. An absolute pleasure to use (minus the above). Great work!

This will be fixed in 7.01 later today, thanks for pointing this out.
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Great work However, not yet working for me (on Tiger) with these errors.

View attachment 896137

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The current release is compiled for G4 Leopard. The only way it works on Tiger is if you build it all from source.

 

[Dronecatcher]

The current release is compiled for G4 Leopard. The only way it works on Tiger is if you build it all from source.

Sorry, I read the text too quickly

 

[alex_free]

Sorry, I read the text too quickly

I do plan on making Tiger builds eventually

Whenever trying to download a video, I get a "The application ffmpeg quit unexpectedly." window, along with this message:

Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
Referenced from: /Applications/PPC-Media-Center.app/bin/ffmpeg
Reason: Incompatible library version: ffmpeg requires version 9.0.0 or later, but libiconv.2.dylib provides version 7.0.0

YouTube-dl has been updated, and Perian is installed. Ideas?

That aside, installation is certainly much, much smoother. An absolute pleasure to use (minus the above). Great work!

Download version 7.0.1, this fixes the error you pointed out. Thanks for helping me fix this.

 

[z970]

Download version 7.0.1, this fixes the error you pointed out. Thanks for helping me fix this.

Thanks, Alex. Works like an absolute dream on Leopard now, flawlessly all the way from install to download / playback.

Again, terrific job.

 

[alex_free]

Thanks, Alex. Works like an absolute dream on Leopard now, flawlessly all the way from install to download / playback.

Again, terrific job.

Thanks for the kind words. Just released 7.0.2 which can downloads videos in 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, or the best available. It also downloads the best audio available in every resolution now which makes MP3’s in the best quality possible.

 

[z970]

Thanks for the kind words. Just released 7.0.2 which can downloads videos in 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, or the best available. It also downloads the best audio available in every resolution now which makes MP3’s in the best quality possible.

Excellent work. What did it download videos / MP3s in before?

Small suggestion for 7.0.3: Maybe an option can be added for videos to be downloaded as MPEG-2, and audio be downloaded as AAC? AAC is higher quality and more compact than MP3, and PowerPCs typically have a better time with MPEG-2 over MPEG-4, especially G3s, as they were designed for them.

Also, maybe 7.0.3 can see the release of compiled binaries for G3s and G4s w/ Tiger, and perhaps even Panther if an older version of Perian is provided alongside it?

 

[Dronecatcher]

Excellent improvements! One request - can you add 144P to complete the set? Ideal for low end systems.
Have you looked into the possibility of integrating MPlayer instead of QuickTime for greater efficiency?
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Maybe an option can be added for videos to be downloaded as MPEG-2

This would introduce a video transcoding task which would extend the whole process - unbearably so on low end macs.
Also, the codecs for MPEG2 aren't available to QuickTime natively.

 

[alex_free]

Excellent work. What did it download videos / MP3s in before?

Small suggestion for 7.0.3: Maybe an option can be added for videos to be downloaded as MPEG-2, and audio be downloaded as AAC? AAC is higher quality and more compact than MP3, and PowerPCs typically have a better time with MPEG-2 over MPEG-4, especially G3s, as they were designed for them.

Also, maybe 7.0.3 can see the release of compiled binaries for G3s and G4s w/ Tiger, and perhaps even Panther if an older version of Perian is provided alongside it?

So at this point in 2020 YouTube serves videos this way:
-one single mp4 file @360p (not the highest quality audio stream available)
-multiple video only high quality streams
-multiple audio only high quality streams

YouTube used to provide single files for other resolutions such as 480p and 720p, but now they no longer do so which sucks because the only thing quicktime can handle is a single file, it can’t handle separate audio and video streams at once. So everything you stream in PPC Media Center is most likely 360p.

So in this update, all of the options that download video do so at the highest quality audio stream of m4a.

For the video stream, the highest quality mp4 stream is used for each desired resolution as long as the resolution is available for the video. For the download video best quality option, the highest quality mp4 stream is used.

These 2 streams are then combined into one MP4 file by FFMPEG.

FFMPEG then takes the file and transcodes it to a MP3 (quite fast on my 1.42ghz G4).

Tiger/Panther/G3 support is top priority for next release. I’ll need someone to test on G3 since I don’t have one but I can compile it to work.

Also planned in 7.0.3 is exactly what you’ve asked. I run Mac OS 9 on this Mac Mini G4 as well and I want to be able to convert videos to a Mac OS 9 compatible format so I can just copy them to the Mac OS 9 partition. I’ll look into mpeg2 and other low cpu usage codecs as well.

M4A support is easy and it will be even faster then the MP3 since nothing needs to be transcoded I can just have it download the highest quality m4a stream and not the video. Added to the list of things for 7.0.3.

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Excellent improvements! One request - can you add 144P to complete the set? Ideal for low end systems.
Have you looked into the possibility of integrating MPlayer instead of QuickTime for greater efficiency?
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This would introduce a video transcoding task which would extend the whole process - unbearably so on low end macs.
Also, the codecs for MPEG2 aren't available to QuickTime natively.

Sure can. 144p is added to the todo list for 7.0.3.

I’ll look into MPlayer.

The MP3 option transcodes the MP4 in FFMPEG at an acceptable speed. While other conversions may take longer I do like the idea because you could transcode files for use in Mac OS 9 with just a PPC Mac.

 

[Dronecatcher]

While other conversions may take longer I do like the idea because you could transcode files for use in Mac OS 9 with just a PPC Mac.

Believe me, in practice, video transcoding will sink the experience on all but the fastest PPCs.
For playback on OS9 if you want to convert videos separately, MPEG4/Apple Compressor is a great quality low CPU codec.

Youtube still provides 3gp files to mobile devices - these play great on low end Macs including G3s - even OS9 can be coaxed into playing them, however, youtube-dl cannot parse them anymore and the developers simply refuse to acknowledge the files are still there.

 

[alex_free]

Believe me, in practice, video transcoding will sink the experience on all but the fastest PPCs.
For playback on OS9 if you want to convert videos separately, MPEG4/Apple Compressor is a great quality low CPU codec.

Youtube still provides 3gp files to mobile devices - these play great on low end Macs including G3s - even OS9 can be coaxed into playing them, however, youtube-dl cannot parse them anymore and the developers simply refuse to acknowledge the files are still there.

How do you stream 3GP files in Mac OS 9? I was unaware that 3GP files are still available because by querying the videos using YouTube-dl I’m only seeing MP4 and WebM formats available. You know now that you mention it, maybe I can change the YouTube-dl user agent to some mobile browser that serves 3gp files and then query the formats available and see if I get a 3gp choice.

Can you explain the process to stream 3GP on OS 9 and the MP4 compressor?

I believe you on the transcoding bit. But I won’t force people to use it they can still use the alternative MP4 option.

 

[Dronecatcher]

You know now that you mention it, maybe I can change the YouTube-dl user agent to some mobile browser that serves 3gp files and then query the formats available and see if I get a 3gp choice.

I did try that last year with many user agents against youtube-dl but still couldn't coax out the 3gp files.

How to play 3gp on OS9 is covered here - it involves changing the filetype:

YouTube App For MAC OS 9?

There used to be one years ago but the author's website went offline. It wouldn't work now anyway as the files it played - FLV video, Youtube no longer provides. For all the video formats Youtube now uses, there are no codecs support in OS9 - so even if you could stream/download the videos...

forums.macrumors.com

I did a video here:

 

[alex_free]

I did try that last year with many user agents against youtube-dl but still couldn't coax out the 3gp files.

How to play 3gp on OS9 is covered here - it involves changing the filetype:

YouTube App For MAC OS 9?

There used to be one years ago but the author's website went offline. It wouldn't work now anyway as the files it played - FLV video, Youtube no longer provides. For all the video formats Youtube now uses, there are no codecs support in OS9 - so even if you could stream/download the videos...

forums.macrumors.com

I did a video here:

It appears 3gp is no longer directly available which is what I thought. Any service that provides 3gp just transcodes.

Youtube doesnt allow download of .3gp Files anymore, only .mp4 (therefore making downloading of <=240p Videos very inconvenient) · Issue #20069 · ytdl-org/youtube-dl

Please follow the guide below You will be asked some questions and requested to provide some information, please read them carefully and answer honestly Put an x into all the boxes [ ] relevant to ...

github.com

Not even Safari 3 can connect to genyoutube they updated their SSL requirement. I was aware of this method I believe I saw it on MacOS9lives. I’m sure your not getting the highest quality audio and video from genyoutube anyways. What’s the best codec for OS 9 in your opinion?

 

[pochopsp]

....
Have you looked into the possibility of integrating MPlayer instead of QuickTime for greater efficiency?
....

Some years ago I asked the original developer (Adam Albrec) the same question and he told me that the only player which would work for this kind of direct playback is QuickTime.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Some years ago I asked the original developer (Adam Albrec) the same question and he told me that the only player which would work for this kind of direct playback is QuickTime.

Yes, I think I spoke to him too and had the same explanation.
Strange though because the scripts I pieced together had youtube-dl handing over to MPlayer fine.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Any service that provides 3gp just transcodes.

Not true. Load a browser with this user agent:

NokiaN90-1/3.0545.5.1 Series60/2.8 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1

And it will direct the 3gp stream to QuickTime or RealPlayer - I wrote a script to launch MPLayer also.
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Just tested it:

 

[alex_free]

Not true. Load a browser with this user agent:

NokiaN90-1/3.0545.5.1 Series60/2.8 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1

And it will direct the 3gp stream to QuickTime or RealPlayer - I wrote a script to launch MPLayer also.
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Just tested it:

View attachment 896788

Thank you for proving me wrong! What are the YouTube-dl guys doing.

Update: Panther support coming along well (so far got OpenSSL compiled for all ppc processors on 10.3+).

 

[Dronecatcher]

What are the YouTube-dl guys doing.

It's odd - they called me a liar and refused to acknowledge the evidence, I queried them twice and they immediately closed the threads.

 

[alex_free]

It's odd - they called me a liar and refused to acknowledge the evidence, I queried them twice and they immediately closed the threads.

Yea I noticed they have a ban all people who think 3gp still exists policy but literally just did it in ten four fox. So what I’m seeing is a bug in the url extractor handling 3gp files for youtube-dl. I get a warning about can’t extract description then an error file unavailable when I use the n90 user agent. That’s kind of insane that YouTube still supports the N90. I’m looking into this more.
Edit: I cracked it! Just downloaded the 3GP url using my compiled FFMPEG. It takes very long to download the raw stream at 1x, and ffmpeg revealed this is really a simple encoded MPEG 4 stream and mono m4a stream in a 3gp.

So now I can add stream 3gp and download 3gp options in 7.0.3.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Edit: I cracked it! Just downloaded the 3GP url using my compiled FFMPEG. It takes very long to download the raw stream at 1x, and ffmpeg revealed this is really a simple encoded MPEG 4 stream and mono m4a stream in a 3gp.

That's brilliant! Yes, I've noted before you can work with that extremely long googlevideo url but it was getting it that was problematic...and yes, even when youtube-dl still supported 3gp download it was only able to do so in near realtime, not realtime per se but longer than downloading the same video as 360P or 720P.

 

[alex_free]

Excellent work. What did it download videos / MP3s in before?

Small suggestion for 7.0.3: Maybe an option can be added for videos to be downloaded as MPEG-2, and audio be downloaded as AAC? AAC is higher quality and more compact than MP3, and PowerPCs typically have a better time with MPEG-2 over MPEG-4, especially G3s, as they were designed for them.

Also, maybe 7.0.3 can see the release of compiled binaries for G3s and G4s w/ Tiger, and perhaps even Panther if an older version of Perian is provided alongside it?

Excellent work. What did it download videos / MP3s in before?

Small suggestion for 7.0.3: Maybe an option can be added for videos to be downloaded as MPEG-2, and audio be downloaded as AAC? AAC is higher quality and more compact than MP3, and PowerPCs typically have a better time with MPEG-2 over MPEG-4, especially G3s, as they were designed for them.

Also, maybe 7.0.3 can see the release of compiled binaries for G3s and G4s w/ Tiger, and perhaps even Panther if an older version of Perian is provided alongside it?

Excellent work. What did it download videos / MP3s in before?

Small suggestion for 7.0.3: Maybe an option can be added for videos to be downloaded as MPEG-2, and audio be downloaded as AAC? AAC is higher quality and more compact than MP3, and PowerPCs typically have a better time with MPEG-2 over MPEG-4, especially G3s, as they were designed for them.

Also, maybe 7.0.3 can see the release of compiled binaries for G3s and G4s w/ Tiger, and perhaps even Panther if an older version of Perian is provided alongside it?

I think I’ll have a complete compiled test build for anything that runs 10.3-10.5 soon. Can you verify it works?
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That's brilliant! Yes, I've noted before you can work with that extremely long googlevideo url but it was getting it that was problematic...and yes, even when youtube-dl still supported 3gp download it was only able to do so in near realtime, not realtime per se but longer than downloading the same video as 360P or 720P.

Can you test this build for anything that runs 10.3-10.5? I don’t have a G3 or panther to see for myself but it should work. Should finish compiling in a few hours.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Can you test this build for anything that runs 10.3-10.5? I don’t have a G3 or panther to see for myself but it should work. Should finish compiling in a few hours.

Certainly - can easily test Tiger/Leopard on my Powerbook...testing on my G3 iMac will take a bit longer as it's not set up.