Youtube At 20% CPU And The Return Of 3GP

[Dronecatcher]

Many moons ago, playing 3gp video files from Youtube was the only solution for low end systems - and why not? If a 250Mhz Symbian phone could do it why not a 300Mhz iBook?
Like most things with Youtube though, things changed and it appeared that they dropped the 3gp format - or at least made them inaccessible - certainly to Youtube-dl.

Then along comes yt-dlp, an alternative to youtube-dl that I've recently started using as youtube-dl's performance has dropped to a 56K dialup speed deadly crawl…but it also transpires that yt-dlp can also parse 3gp videos - I don't know whether they've always been there or Youtube has just reintroduced them?

So this is an update on my old solution for low end G3s (or G4s) - tested on my 900Mhz G3 iBook video playback uses less than 20% CPU so I expect this will even work on an entry level Clamshell quite comfortably.

Having PPCMC7 from @alex_free installed is absolutely essential for this as yt-dlp requires Python 3.6 and my script also calls FFplay.

Download the latest yt-dlp and move it to:

/Applications/PPCMC.app/bin/

In Terminal run this command to ensure it is executable:

sudo chmod a+rx /Applications/PPCMC.app/bin/yt-dlp


Download my attached script and place it anywhere and ideally make a shortcut in the dock.

I normally search for Youtube clips in my custom TenFourFoxBox, Choob but even that now is trounced performance wise by just going to https://ytprivate.com/search/ in Safari (brilliant find from @z970 ) finding your video and copying the link.

Click the 3GP shortcut and the script takes over, streaming the video through FFplay (see video)

EDIT: Also added a script for watching 360P h264 - runs around 80% CPU on my iBook

 

[TheShortTimer]

Great stuff @Dronecatcher! Thanks so much for doing this.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Great stuff @Dronecatcher! Thanks so much for doing this.

You're welcome...was great to see 3gp alive and well again/still

 

[repairedCheese]

Then along comes yt-dlp, an alternative to youtube-dl that I've recently started using as youtube-dl's performance has dropped to a 56K dialup speed deadly crawl…but it also transpires that yt-dlp can also parse 3gp videos - I don't know whether they've always been there or Youtube has just reintroduced them?

This is going to sound a little odd, but near as I can tell, youtube-dl has been choosing to act like 3gp videos haven't been there, even though they apparently never went away. I don't know how true that is, but that project has definitely been having issues in general.

Regardless, it's always nice to see another low end Youtube option!

 

[Dronecatcher]

This is going to sound a little odd, but near as I can tell, youtube-dl has been choosing to act like 3gp videos haven't been there, even though they apparently never went away. I don't know how true that is, but that project has definitely been having issues in general.

That's right. For a long while the 3gp files were still available to Symbian phones and plugins like Viewtube but the youtube-dl developers denied it and told me more than once that Youtube no longer used 3gp video - even after I gave them screenshots of the video URL!

Then any means to parse the 3gp files ended some months later - bit of a mystery that they're there again?

 

[repairedCheese]

That's right. For a long while the 3gp files were still available to Symbian phones and plugins like Viewtube but the youtube-dl developers denied it and told me more than once that Youtube no longer used 3gp video - even after I gave them screenshots of the video URL!

Then any means to parse the 3gp files ended some months later - bit of a mystery that they're there again?

I beta test another project that uses youtube-dl and things have been a little sketchy with Youtube support lately, so that tracks. Fortunately, Youtube support isn't a major part of WACUP, but with something as big as Youtube, what else can you do other than use big open source projects like these?

 

[Doq]

Youtube support isn't a major part of WACUP

Totally OT, but I didn't think I'd find someone else who knows/uses WACUP in the wild. Whoda thunk it?

 

[pukkandan]

The 3gp being listed was an accidental side-effect of the current throttling bypass that we use. I defenitely did not expect anyone to actually use that format.

We now have a better fix for the throttling issue. So the current bypass will be turned off in a future release, and with it, the 3gp format will disappear. If you want to make sure it is still listed in the future, add a

--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android,web"

to your configurations

Edit: apparently, this forum doesnt support markdown

PS: Dont @ me. I made this account just to reply here and definitely wont be looking at notifications. You know how to reach me

 

[alex_free]

Many moons ago, playing 3gp video files from Youtube was the only solution for low end systems - and why not? If a 250Mhz Symbian phone could do it why not a 300Mhz iBook?
Like most things with Youtube though, things changed and it appeared that they dropped the 3gp format - or at least made them inaccessible - certainly to Youtube-dl.

Then along comes yt-dlp, an alternative to youtube-dl that I've recently started using as youtube-dl's performance has dropped to a 56K dialup speed deadly crawl…but it also transpires that yt-dlp can also parse 3gp videos - I don't know whether they've always been there or Youtube has just reintroduced them?

So this is an update on my old solution for low end G3s (or G4s) - tested on my 900Mhz G3 iBook video playback uses less than 20% CPU so I expect this will even work on an entry level Clamshell quite comfortably.

Having PPCMC7 from @alex_free installed is absolutely essential for this as yt-dlp requires Python 3.6 and my script also calls FFplay.

Download the latest yt-dlp and move it to:

/Applications/PPCMC.app/bin/

In Terminal run this command to ensure it is executable:

sudo chmod a+rx /Applications/PPCMC.app/bin/yt-dlp


Download my attached script and place it anywhere and ideally make a shortcut in the dock.

I normally search for Youtube clips in my custom TenFourFoxBox, Choob but even that now is trounced performance wise by just going to https://ytprivate.com/search/ in Safari (brilliant find from @z970 ) finding your video and copying the link.

Click the 3GP shortcut and the script takes over, streaming the video through FFplay (see video)

EDIT: Also added a script for watching 360P h264 - runs around 80% CPU on my iBook

Give the people Python 3.6 on Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther and see what happens…

This is truely amazing. I have been meaning to switch to YouTube-dlp for soo long. Just seeing your custom software put to use is something.

A new update will change to DLP, main branch is garbage…

 

[Dronecatcher]

A new update will change to DLP, main branch is garbage…

And I'm sure yours will work faster too as my effort has to decompress yt-dlp each time whereas I know you have a mechanism for using the raw script.

Thanks again for PPCMC7 - it's been a Godsend!

 

[alenu]

What parameters should i change on your script to make it stream 480p or 720p @Dronecatcher ? Thanks!

 

[Dronecatcher]

What parameters should i change on your script to make it stream 480p or 720p @Dronecatcher ? Thanks!

I don't think it can be done - 480P and 720P have split audio and video which as far as I know FFplay can only download and mux together but not stream.

 

[mectojic]

Thank you for this excellent tool!

I'm getting a nice 19% on my 450MHz iMac DV+ using 3GP. Unfortunately 360p is not possible, but that was expected.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Thank you for this excellent tool!

I'm getting a nice 19% on my 450MHz iMac DV+ using 3GP. Unfortunately 360p is not possible, but that was expected.

Glad you're getting some use out of it.

Yes, I haven't tested this yet on my 500Mhz iMac but my old method using MPlayer used to push it to 100% CPU on 360P h264 video.

 

[alenu]

I don't think it can be done - 480P and 720P have split audio and video which as far as I know FFplay can only download and mux together but not stream.

Ok, understood, thanks! I´ll stick with PPCMC for those.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Ok, understood, thanks! I´ll stick with PPCMC for those.

Doesn't PPCMC7 only do live streams at 480P/720P - not static videos?

 

[mectojic]

Glad you're getting some use out of it.

Yes, I haven't tested this yet on my 500Mhz iMac but my old method using MPlayer used to push it to 100% CPU on 360P h264 video.

Naturally.
I would also try and test 3GP on my 300mhz Clamshell, but I can't fit PPCMC 7.2.5 onto my 3gb HD with a Tiger install, and the scripts won't work with 7.2.1.

 

[alenu]

Doesn't PPCMC7 only do live streams at 480P/720P - not static videos?

You´re right. Didn´t knew that. Old versions of PPC Media Center did gave an option to stream at 480p and 720p through Quicktime, i think?

 

[WindowsXPuser]

Naturally.
I would also try and test 3GP on my 300mhz Clamshell, but I can't fit PPCMC 7.2.5 onto my 3gb HD with a Tiger install, and the scripts won't work with 7.2.1.

Do you have any other PowerPC Macs or Intel Macs capable of running Mac OS X Snow Leopard? You could try using the web interface of PPCMC hosted from another Mac, preferably a fast Mac.

 

[alex_free]

I just bought a YoYo charger for more then I paid for my iBook G3 Clamshell in the first place (3rd party charger broke along time ago as you know).

This is amazing. I'm going to add this into PPCMC7 7.2.6, and YouTube-dlp will be the default (with other git repos as an option)!

 

[alex_free]

You´re right. Didn´t knew that. Old versions of PPC Media Center did gave an option to stream at 480p and 720p through Quicktime, i think?

Google took those from us so I removed them

As mentioned above though, live streams are the exception and most of the time have these options (which is why the 'stream YouTube live stream' option(s) exist.

 

[ervus]

Great work guys, thank you!

 

[alex_free]

Interesting, so I'm seeing what formats are available on youtube-dlp with a random music video as at least one new one (3gp) is known:

ID EXT RESOLUTION FPS | FILESIZE TBR PROTO | VCODEC VBR ACODEC ABR ASR MORE INFO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- sb2 mhtml 48x27 | mhtml | images storyboard sb1 mhtml 80x45 | mhtml | images storyboard sb0 mhtml 160x90 | mhtml | images storyboard 139 m4a | 1.33MiB 48k https | audio only mp4a.40.5 48k 22050Hz low, m4a_dash 249 webm | 1.40MiB 51k https | audio only opus 51k 48000Hz low, webm_dash 250 webm | 1.82MiB 66k https | audio only opus 66k 48000Hz low, webm_dash 140 m4a | 3.54MiB 129k https | audio only mp4a.40.2 129k 44100Hz medium, m4a_dash 251 webm | 3.57MiB 130k https | audio only opus 130k 48000Hz medium, webm_dash 17 3gp 176x144 6 | 2.09MiB 76k https | mp4v.20.3 76k mp4a.40.2 0k 22050Hz 144p 394 mp4 256x144 25 | 1.99MiB 72k https | av01.0.00M.08 72k video only 144p, mp4_dash 160 mp4 256x144 25 | 2.50MiB 91k https | avc1.4d400c 91k video only 144p, mp4_dash 278 webm 256x144 25 | 2.54MiB 93k https | vp9 93k video only 144p, webm_dash 395 mp4 426x240 25 | 4.15MiB 151k https | av01.0.00M.08 151k video only 240p, mp4_dash 133 mp4 426x240 25 | 4.57MiB 167k https | avc1.4d4015 167k video only 240p, mp4_dash 242 webm 426x240 25 | 5.50MiB 201k https | vp9 201k video only 240p, webm_dash 396 mp4 640x360 25 | 8.57MiB 313k https | av01.0.01M.08 313k video only 360p, mp4_dash 134 mp4 640x360 25 | 8.48MiB 310k https | avc1.4d401e 310k video only 360p, mp4_dash 18 mp4 640x360 25 | 19.38MiB 709k https | avc1.42001E 709k mp4a.40.2 0k 44100Hz 360p 243 webm 640x360 25 | 9.82MiB 359k https | vp9 359k video only 360p, webm_dash 397 mp4 854x480 25 | 15.24MiB 557k https | av01.0.04M.08 557k video only 480p, mp4_dash 135 mp4 854x480 25 | 12.80MiB 468k https | avc1.4d401e 468k video only 480p, mp4_dash 244 webm 854x480 25 | 16.03MiB 586k https | vp9 586k video only 480p, webm_dash 398 mp4 1280x720 25 | 30.01MiB 1098k https | av01.0.05M.08 1098k video only 720p, mp4_dash 136 mp4 1280x720 25 | 23.36MiB 854k https | avc1.4d401f 854k video only 720p, mp4_dash 22 mp4 1280x720 25 | ~73.19MiB 2618k https | avc1.64001F 2618k mp4a.40.2 0k 44100Hz 720p 247 webm 1280x720 25 | 27.94MiB 1022k https | vp9 1022k video only 720p, webm_dash 399 mp4 1920x1080 25 | 52.80MiB 1932k https | av01.0.08M.08 1932k video only 1080p, mp4_dash 137 mp4 1920x1080 25 | 84.67MiB 3098k https | avc1.640028 3098k video only 1080p, mp4_dash 248 webm 1920x1080 25 | 66.58MiB 2436k https | vp9 2436k video only 1080p, webm_dash

So there are now 3 single file audio+video formats available by using YouTube-dlp instead of YouTube-dl which only provides one single file audio+video format:

17 3gp 176x144 6 | 2.09MiB 76k https | mp4v.20.3 76k mp4a.40.2 0k 22050Hz 144p

18 mp4 640x360 25 | 19.38MiB 709k https | avc1.42001E 709k mp4a.40.2 0k 44100Hz 360p (this is used to stream youtube in PPCMC7 currently, and with YouTube-dl this was the only possible format to stream)

22 mp4 1280x720 25 | ~73.19MiB 2618k https | avc1.64001F 2618k mp4a.40.2 0k 44100Hz 720p

Format 22 is back! 720p YouTube streaming for PowerPC Media Center 7 is now possible again!

 

[Dronecatcher]

Format 22 is back! 720p YouTube streaming for PowerPC Media Center 7 is now possible again!

For some old videos f 22 remained intact over the years - good to know it's across the range again.

 

[alex_free]

For some old videos f 22 remained intact over the years - good to know it's across the range again.

Indeed.

I think it may have never gone away, but YouTube-dl could not see/use it as an available format (same with 3GP?). Videos available in HD have it available pretty much as a given in YouTube-DLP. 720p YouTube streaming is working great in QuickTime 7/FFplay using a C2D 2.0GHz GMA 950 Mac mini on Tiger. 3GP streaming/downloading also has been added.