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Streaming 720P Youtube On Powerbook

Dronecatcher

Dronecatcher

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 17, 2014
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Lincolnshire, UK
Largely thanks to @B-G and his thread here I've shifted the duties to IceWeaselPPC (thanks @wicknix ) and MPlayer to stream Youtube on my 12" 1.33Ghz Powerbook running Tiger.
As we know, Tiger is pretty much out in the cold now for Youtube options with SMTube on hold and security protocols leaving Safari, TenFourKit, Camino and Omniweb behind but this is an effective solution for streaming using the Greasemonkey add-on running the Viewtube script.
All I've added to the recipe from @B-G is changing to IceWeasel running IE 8 user agent (to stop the processor hungry latest Youtube GUI), replacing the prefs.js file with my own and editing the viewtube handler script to include some hard framedrop parameters for MPlayer.
For best results, once you've clicked to play, hit cmd+m to minimise the browser - it adds over 20%CPU - minimised, MPlayer drives 360P at around 30% CPU - switching to 720P the CPU rises to between 50/80% depending on content. Going fullscreen is visually better and saves some cycles - I left it windowed in the screenshots just to show the CPU use.

EDIT: Use TonVid to search for videos, then click on the Play on Youtube button which will send you to Youtube which activates Viewtube.
The Viewtube script can be modified as per instructions by @vddrnnr to remove Youtube comments and sidebar. I've further modified script to automatically select VTP plugin choice and added instructions to viewtubehandler to automatically minimise IceWeaselPPC.

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Dronecatcher said:
Sorry, Aquavid is still unusable on my Powerbook and iBook - if you could integrate a script to automatically select 144P then it might have a chance.
Click to expand...

"Tiger is pretty much out in the cold now for Youtube options."

The subject was not your iBook, the subject was Mac OS X Tiger. And as far as YouTube clients for Tiger goes, that statement was simple misinformation.

Taking five seconds to pause the video, turn off annotations, and select a suitable resolution, all the while allowing the stream to buffer in the background, does not affect its usability. Neither does it affect its capability for audio-only use, which even without the pause and adjustment, performs without a hitch on a G3.

It's either that, or complicated setups involving addons, scripts, and user agents. Plus, that's not even to mention TFF in-browser playback, which is choppy even on a high-end G5.
 
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z970mp said:
"Tiger is pretty much out in the cold now for Youtube options."

The subject was not your iBook, the subject was Mac OS X Tiger. And as far as YouTube clients for Tiger goes, that statement was simple misinformation.

Taking five seconds to pause the video, turn off annotations, and select a suitable resolution, all the while allowing the stream to buffer in the background, does not affect its usability. Neither does it affect its capability for audio-only use, which even without the pause and adjustment, performs without a hitch on a G3.

It's either that, or complicated setups involving addons, scripts, and user agents. Plus, that's not even to mention TFF in-browser playback, which is choppy even on a high-end G5.
Click to expand...

Why on Earth do you respond like this?
It doesn't work for me - I've tried it. It locks up at 100% CPU whilst I'm trying to pause it and select a lower resolution.
No doubt it fares better on higher spec G4 desktops and G5s but they'd probably be on Leopard anyway.
And as for misinformation, I didn't list TFF as being redundant and that covers Aquavid, Aquaweb or any of the countless FoxBoxes users have created.
 
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Dronecatcher said:
Why on Earth do you respond like this?
Click to expand...

I'm trying to keep distributed information factual; the same way you have in the tons of occurrences here. Making the assertion that Tiger is in the cold for YouTube options is suggesting that Tiger has next to no ability for YouTube playback, which is not the case.

Dronecatcher said:
It doesn't work for me - I've tried it.
Click to expand...

Does the latest version respond in the same way for you?

Either way, you don't have to use it. The point is that it's available, and does what it was made to do.

Dronecatcher said:
I didn't list TFF as being redundant and that covers Aquavid, Aquaweb or any of the countless FoxBoxes users have created.
Click to expand...

I disagree... Although AquaVid is based on TFF as a FoxBox, the playback performance difference between the two applications is prominent (regardless of CPU usage), and should not necessarily be counted under the same umbrella.
 
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z970mp said:
I'm trying to keep distributed information factual; the same way you have in the tons of occurrences here. Making the assertion that Tiger is in the cold for YouTube options is suggesting that Tiger has next to no ability for YouTube playback, which is not the case.
Click to expand...

No, I stated fact - those listed browsers can no longer access youtube playback.

z970mp said:
Does the latest version respond in the same way for you?

Either way, you don't have to use it. The point is that it's available, and does what it was made to do.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've tried the latest and it's the same. And it doesn't do what it's meant to do on my portables because you promote it as something that it isn't.
If you're sure it works really well and it must be my machines at fault, why not show a video of it launching, browsing and playing on your G3 or iBook?
No, I don't have to use it - like you choose not to use mine, because of their "complicated setups."

z970mp said:
I disagree... Although AquaVid is based on TFF as a FoxBox, the playback performance difference between the two applications is prominent (regardless of CPU usage), and should not necessarily be counted under the same umbrella.
Click to expand...

It's a FoxBox - you've added a custom prefs file as I and others did three years ago when it arrived and the reason I never advised anyone to use a FoxBox in itself for Youtube playback was specifically because of it's poor performance.
 
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Hi Drone,

I'm doing something similar to you using ArcticFoxPPC by using it's hability to dinamically
change the User Agent coupled with ViewTube.
Right now the best I can get is using the Chrome v41 useragent for youtube and
a customized ViewTube script that removes some parts of the web page ( movie llist on the right and
comments bellow ).
My pages open in ArcticFox almost instantly because it also cannot play the MP4 video directly
only webm.
Can you send me your script I would like to try and include the mplayer option in my script
which would solve the MP4 playing problem.

Also using the useragent trick I can use Gmail with the new interface almost perfectly ( Chrome v43 ).

@wicknix
We need a new build of Arcticfox please ;-)

Best regards,
voidRunner
 
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vddrnnr said:
Hi Drone,

I'm doing something similar to you using ArcticFoxPPC by using it's hability to dinamically
change the User Agent coupled with ViewTube.
Right now the best I can get is using the Chrome v41 useragent for youtube and
a customized ViewTube script that removes some parts of the web page ( movie llist on the right and
comments bellow ).
My pages open in ArcticFox almost instantly because it also cannot play the MP4 video directly
only webm.
Can you send me your script I would like to try and include the mplayer option in my script
which would solve the MP4 playing problem.

Also using the useragent trick I can use Gmail with the new interface almost perfectly ( Chrome v43 ).

@wicknix
We need a new build of Arcticfox please ;-)

Best regards,
voidRunner
Click to expand...

That's interesting - I tried the scripting tactic from the TFF dev page to slim down Youtube as you've done but it didn't work for me.
Modified handler attached - note this requires MPlayer as bundled by @Lastic from his SMTube thread.
Keep us updated with how this progresses - there's still lots of options out there for folk who can script/program.
 

Attachments

  • ViewTubeHandler.zip
    21.6 KB · Views: 193
Hi Drone,

My script is working with both TFF and ArcticFox.
Are you using the TFF MP4 enabler?
This slows down page loading a lot because it does not respect the autoplay
setting of youtube, it allways tries to play the video and the ViewTube script
takes a lot longer to kickin.

Thanx for the script.

Best regards,
voidRunner
 
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vddrnnr said:
Hi Drone,

My script is working with both TFF and ArcticFox.
Are you using the TFF MP4 enabler?
This slows down page loading a lot because it does not respect the autoplay
setting of youtube, it allways tries to play the video and the ViewTube script
takes a lot longer to kickin.

Thanx for the script.

Best regards,
voidRunner
Click to expand...

Yes, I have noticed that Viewtube takes it's time.
Could you share the custom script or show the code added?
 
Hi Drone,

In the BlockVideos function
Changed the first if section to

if (elVideos.length > 0) {
for (var v = 0; v < elVideos.length; v++) {
var elVideo = elVideos[v];
elVideo.parentNode.removeChild(elVideo);
/* if (elVideo && elVideo.id != 'vtVideo' && elVideo.currentSrc) {
if (!elVideo.paused) {
elVideo.pause();
if (page.url.indexOf('youtube.com/watch') == -1) elVideo.src = "#";
elVideo.addEventListener('play', function() {
this.pause();
if (page.url.indexOf('youtube.com/watch') == -1) this.src = "#";
});
}
}*/
}
}

In the ViewTube function

- For Youtube Old

y = document.getElementById("watch7-sidebar");
if ( y != null ) {
//y.style.width="50px";
//y.parentNode.parentNode.style.width="50px";
//y.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.style.width="50px";
y.parentNode.style.background="white";
y.parentNode.parentNode.style.background="white";
//y.parentNode.parentNode.style.width="50px";
y.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.style.background="white";
//y.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.style.width="50px";
y.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.style.background="white";
//y.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.style.width="50px";
//y.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.style.background="white";
y.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.style.background="white";
y.parentNode.removeChild(y);
}
y = document.getElementsByClassName("yt-consent")[0];
if ( y != null ) {
z = y.parentNode;
w = z.parentNode;
//z.parentNode.parentNode.style.height="50px";
z.parentNode.removeChild(z);
//w.style.height="80px";
y = document.getElementById("yt-masthead-container");
y.style.height="80px";
}
y = document.getElementById("watch-discussion");
if ( y != null ) {
y.parentNode.removeChild(y);
}

- For Youtube

y = document.getElementById('secondary-inner');
y.parentNode.removeChild(y);

y = document.getElementById('comments');
if ( y != null ) {
y.parentNode.removeChild(y);
}

Best regards,
voidRunner
 
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Dronecatcher said:
Largely thanks to @B-G and his thread here I've shifted the duties to IceWeaselPPC (thanks @wicknix ) and MPlayer to stream Youtube on my 12" 1.33Ghz Powerbook running Tiger.
As we know, Tiger is pretty much out in the cold now for Youtube options with SMTube on hold and security protocols leaving Safari, TenFourKit, Camino and Omniweb behind but this is an effective solution for streaming using the Greasemonkey add-on running the Viewtube script.
All I've added to the recipe from @B-G is changing to IceWeasel running IE 8 user agent (to stop the processor hungry latest Youtube GUI), replacing the prefs.js file with my own and editing the viewtube handler script to include some hard framedrop parameters for MPlayer.
For best results, once you've clicked to play, hit cmd+m to minimise the browser - it adds over 20%CPU - minimised, MPlayer drives 360P at around 30% CPU - switching to 720P the CPU rises to between 50/80% depending on content. Going fullscreen is visually better and saves some cycles - I left it windowed in the screenshots just to show the CPU use.

View attachment 872007

View attachment 872008

View attachment 872009

View attachment 872010
Click to expand...
Very good! Does this work on a G3? 360p playback or lower? G3s could benefit from this, full quality audio and high quality streaming. Beats downloading and deleting 360p videos...
 
Appleuser201 said:
Very good! Does this work on a G3? 360p playback or lower? G3s could benefit from this, full quality audio and high quality streaming. Beats downloading and deleting 360p videos...
Click to expand...

Not as it stands because the MPlayer version used for https streams doesn't run on G3 - however, changing viewtubehandler to QuickTime should work but will be more demanding.
At the weekend I'll look into this and see whether Viewtube can go to a lower resolution.
 
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Hi Drone,

I have only one word

BRUTAL

It works from ArcticFox also.
Now I can play all videos in MP4 format :D

Best regards,
voidRunner
 
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Dronecatcher said:
Not as it stands because the MPlayer version used for https streams doesn't run on G3 - however, changing viewtubehandler to QuickTime should work but will be more demanding.
At the weekend I'll look into this and see whether Viewtube can go to a lower resolution.
Click to expand...
It's a very good thing G4s now have the option to stream 720p YouTube. I imagine with Tonvid it will be even faster. The belief used to be 360p G4 streaming, leave the HD streaming to dual processor G5s. Nope, 720p streaming... On a G4!
 
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Appleuser201 said:
It's a very good thing G4s now have the option to stream 720p YouTube. I imagine with Tonvid it will be even faster. The belief used to be 360p G4 streaming, leave the HD streaming to dual processor G5s. Nope, 720p streaming... On a G4!
Click to expand...

No, TonVid doesn't work with Viewtube - although I'd imagine the developer could easily adapt it. Although this does indeed stream 720P, there is heavy frame dropping on a Powerbook - a dual G4 would do much better. As it is, I personally prefer good quality smooth 360P to frame dropped 720P on a portable.
 
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Dronecatcher said:
No, TonVid doesn't work with Viewtube - although I'd imagine the developer could easily adapt it. Although this does indeed stream 720P, there is heavy frame dropping on a Powerbook - a dual G4 would do much better. As it is, I personally prefer good quality smooth 360P to frame dropped 720P on a portable.
Click to expand...
I imagine a dual 1.25 or 1.42 would handle 720p streaming and 1080p downloaded playback nicely. Does a single 1.67 G4 processor handle it okay at least? (Your PowerBook) too bad apple never bothered with graphics acceleration in OSX. We are relying on our G4 processors to crunch all this video while the graphics card sits by and watches the action.
 
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@vddrnnr Your additions to the script work great - all side vids removed.
Whilst I was editing the script I also made the VTP option in Viewtube appear as the default and also added code to the viewtubehandler to automatically minimise IceWeasel before MPlayer starts.
 
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