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Mactubes in 2017 or alternatives
- Thread starter tibilon
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Using PPC Media Center is most efficient but requires more clicks to get to your video than is ideal.
For ease of use, after testing Safari/Webkit, I've found the optimal solution to be Omniweb 5.11.2 using a mobile device user agent - with this you can browse quickly around Youtube from a mobile device perspective (with few or no ads) and click and play for instant playback.
The mobile device user agent I use is:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch)
As you can see from the screen shot, playback uses between 60-70% CPU on my 933 Mhz Quicksilver.
For ease of use, after testing Safari/Webkit, I've found the optimal solution to be Omniweb 5.11.2 using a mobile device user agent - with this you can browse quickly around Youtube from a mobile device perspective (with few or no ads) and click and play for instant playback.
The mobile device user agent I use is:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch)
As you can see from the screen shot, playback uses between 60-70% CPU on my 933 Mhz Quicksilver.
Sadly, Youtube changed their API and Mactubes didn't change with it. It would mean re-writing nearly the whole thing as far as I know.
See my thread here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/realplayer-vs-quicktime.1980864/
TFFB was capable initially whilst it was still possible to stream 3gp files from Youtube - but that feature has been blocked. TFFB back then was more processor intensive but it was more up to date than Omniweb.
EDIT: I can confirm TFFB doesn't work with the method for Omniweb - it calls for Quicktime Enabler to play the video file but even when that's installed in TFF, the foxbox doesn't allow extensions/plugins.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/realplayer-vs-quicktime.1980864/
TFFB was capable initially whilst it was still possible to stream 3gp files from Youtube - but that feature has been blocked. TFFB back then was more processor intensive but it was more up to date than Omniweb.
EDIT: I can confirm TFFB doesn't work with the method for Omniweb - it calls for Quicktime Enabler to play the video file but even when that's installed in TFF, the foxbox doesn't allow extensions/plugins.
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Listen to Dronecatcher, no one has done more research on this topic. Google constantly changes stuff so you will need to check back here often and see what if any the new workarounds are.
My lazy ass solution to this issue was to buy a Chromebook, it handles anything youtube related I throw at it. My Powermacs now are nostalgia, old software and legacy devices. I predict soon there will be nothing but PowerPC media center, which is a very nice front end for youtube-dl. Mactubes and Youview sure were great while they lasted, a golden era not to be repeated.
If you have something powerful (multi core G4, G5) than tonvid.com can also work, unfortunately its nothing but web based HTML 5 video, but it does get you around annoying ads. This was the open source workaround to Google's changing the APIs that killed mactubes. On Linux it has a related separate player, smtube (www.smtube.org), which allows you to choose video playback options like mplayer or vlc or whatever. On Winblows you have to use smplayer, a qt based mplayer frontend. If you have programming skills and would like to port it to Mac OS X PPC, I know about twenty people who would love you long time for that.
My lazy ass solution to this issue was to buy a Chromebook, it handles anything youtube related I throw at it. My Powermacs now are nostalgia, old software and legacy devices. I predict soon there will be nothing but PowerPC media center, which is a very nice front end for youtube-dl. Mactubes and Youview sure were great while they lasted, a golden era not to be repeated.
If you have something powerful (multi core G4, G5) than tonvid.com can also work, unfortunately its nothing but web based HTML 5 video, but it does get you around annoying ads. This was the open source workaround to Google's changing the APIs that killed mactubes. On Linux it has a related separate player, smtube (www.smtube.org), which allows you to choose video playback options like mplayer or vlc or whatever. On Winblows you have to use smplayer, a qt based mplayer frontend. If you have programming skills and would like to port it to Mac OS X PPC, I know about twenty people who would love you long time for that.
I'm finding that I am not having any issues on my DC 2.3 G5 watching HD video (720p) on on Youtube when using Demeter. Even when I have a bunch of other apps open (including T4Fx).
Demeter also has the feature whereby you can change the user agent so I gave it one with an Intel Mac running OS X 10.10 and Chrome 51. I didn't have to do that before watching YT videos (it was using the default) though.
Demeter also has the feature whereby you can change the user agent so I gave it one with an Intel Mac running OS X 10.10 and Chrome 51. I didn't have to do that before watching YT videos (it was using the default) though.
Totally - Dual G5s have no problem on Youtube, though I do favour Flash over HTML5. The Quad chews through 1080P Youtube without breaking a sweat.
I just tried it on my MBA and wow... if it works when I try it on the G5 ill be shocked. Thanks for the tip!
I've downloaded OmniWeb 5.11.2, but when I tried to open YouTube, the site blocked me to access it. How do you setup like the one you have with the mobile device user agent?
Mine is Powerbook G4 1.5GHZ w/ 2GB RAM
Lately for YouTube viewing I used the WebKit with HTML5.
Firstly, you must be at the mobile Youtube page not the desktop one:
https://m.youtube.com/
Initially, it might throw you back to the normal page but you can change it back after setting the site preferences.
From the menu click Omniweb/Show Site Preferences then enter the details as below:
You can then make sure https://m.youtube.com/ is back in the address bar and all should work.
I set it as my home page so it goes there everytime. Another thing to consider is the browser size, making it larger uses more resources, so I bring the window to around 300 pixels width.
You'll find you can browse and search the mobile version much quicker than the desktop version and so far, I've found no preloading ads apart from on Vevo videos.
[doublepost=1485684881][/doublepost]
Has anyone else had any success with Youview? Trying it again, I tried over 10 videos and it couldn't load any - by itself and with the Quicktime option.
Got it working with Smtube , been struggling for the past 2 hours but I did it.
Summary :
I used the mplayer from Macports that was already installed, I don't know wether it would work with an old MPlayer OS X 10.5.8 version.
Prerequisites :
-QT4
-mplayer ?
To my understanding you need QT4 => mplayer => smplayer => smtube but I'm going to restart from scratch
( restore from backup 2 hours of no fun, start with clean install and only install smtube ) to check the dependencies.
I first followed this post but no changes had to be made to any config files so I didn't follow his steps:
http://web.archive.org/web/20150323032049/http://blog.zyxar.com/2008/25
First I downloaded the source of smplayer here :
http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/downloads
Went into the /src directory , and typed make , about a half hour later on battery (PB G4 12" 1.5Ghz) compilation was completed.
I copied the smplayer.app from the /src directory to /Applications.
Then downloaded the source for smtube from here :
http://www.smtube.org/en/index
In it's root folder did make, about 15 minutes later compilation completed and in /src I found smtube.app which I copied to /Applications.
I tried to get this working with the Macports mplayer but then realized hmm why not Coreplayer
Open smtube , Preferences, Players , + sign to add a player , make sure that "This player supports video sites" is UNCHECKED. Otherwise it will feed the youtube.com?=watch type URL which none of the players understand.
And tadaah, smtube feeds the stream to Coreplayer , 720p
After doing a clean restore , I'm going to install only smtube and Coreplayer to see if it works, I think you can do this without mplayer,smplayer but just need Qt4 for the GUI
Summary :
I used the mplayer from Macports that was already installed, I don't know wether it would work with an old MPlayer OS X 10.5.8 version.
Prerequisites :
-QT4
-mplayer ?
To my understanding you need QT4 => mplayer => smplayer => smtube but I'm going to restart from scratch
( restore from backup 2 hours of no fun, start with clean install and only install smtube ) to check the dependencies.
I first followed this post but no changes had to be made to any config files so I didn't follow his steps:
http://web.archive.org/web/20150323032049/http://blog.zyxar.com/2008/25
First I downloaded the source of smplayer here :
http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/downloads
Went into the /src directory , and typed make , about a half hour later on battery (PB G4 12" 1.5Ghz) compilation was completed.
I copied the smplayer.app from the /src directory to /Applications.
Then downloaded the source for smtube from here :
http://www.smtube.org/en/index
In it's root folder did make, about 15 minutes later compilation completed and in /src I found smtube.app which I copied to /Applications.
I tried to get this working with the Macports mplayer but then realized hmm why not Coreplayer
Open smtube , Preferences, Players , + sign to add a player , make sure that "This player supports video sites" is UNCHECKED. Otherwise it will feed the youtube.com?=watch type URL which none of the players understand.
And tadaah, smtube feeds the stream to Coreplayer , 720p
After doing a clean restore , I'm going to install only smtube and Coreplayer to see if it works, I think you can do this without mplayer,smplayer but just need Qt4 for the GUI
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Got it working with Smtube , been struggling for the past 2 hours but I did it.
Summary :
I used the mplayer from Macports that was already installed, I don't know wether it would work with an old MPlayer OS X 10.5.8 version.
Prerequisites :
-QT4
-mplayer ?
To my understanding you need QT4 => mplayer => smplayer => smtube but I'm going to restart from scratch
( restore from backup 2 hours of no fun, start with clean install and only install smtube ) to check the dependencies.
I first followed this post but no changes had to be made to any config files so I didn't follow his steps:
http://web.archive.org/web/20150323032049/http://blog.zyxar.com/2008/25
First I downloaded the source of smplayer here :
http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/downloads
Went into the /src directory , and typed make , about a half hour later on battery (PB G4 12" 1.5Ghz) compilation was completed.
I copied the smplayer.app from the /src directory to /Applications.
Then downloaded the source for smtube from here :
http://www.smtube.org/en/index
In it's root folder did make, about 15 minutes later compilation completed and in /src I found smtube.app which I copied to /Applications.
I tried to get this working with the Macports mplayer but then realized hmm why not Coreplayer
Open smtube , Preferences, Players , + sign to add a player , make sure that "This player supports video sites" is UNCHECKED. Otherwise it will feed the youtube.com?=watch type URL which none of the players understand.
View attachment 686102
And tadaah, smtube feeds the stream to Coreplayer , 720p
View attachment 686101
After doing a clean restore , I'm going to install only smtube and Coreplayer to see if it works, I think you can do this without mplayer,smplayer but just need Qt4 for the GUI
Amazing!!!! Let us know how it works after your clean restore.. People have tried a lot of times to make YouTube videos playing directly in core player!
Excellent work!
I'm not brave/patient enough to tangle with all the compiling requirements yet though...
No luck so far except using Macports which installed Qt 4 with mplayer and then I could do a make in the extracted source-dir of smtube and it works.
Steps taken on a clean Leopard install to avoid using Macports.
make keeps failing.
Anybody else with a non Macports install wants to have a try ?
Steps taken on a clean Leopard install to avoid using Macports.
- Installed Leopard 10.5.8 and all updates
- Installed gcc , make from xcode311_9m2517_developerdvd
- Installed Qt 4.6 from ftp://ftp.qt.nokia.com/qt/source/qt-mac-opensource-4.6.4.dmg
- Installed Coreplayer
- Installed smtube source
make keeps failing.
Anybody else with a non Macports install wants to have a try ?
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I'm going to start a new thread to stop posting here
=> SMtube alternative for Youview/Mactubes
=> SMtube alternative for Youview/Mactubes
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