Minitube

[horusfalcon]

Hi, Gang,

I was just reading an article in the July 2011 issue of Linux Journal about minitube.  Minitube is supposed to be a non-flash player for YouTube videos.  I don't personally have problems with YouTube, but I've see where some folks are less than amused by Flash's performance on some videos, so I thought I'd ask if anyone has played with this.

Googling for their website, I found:

http://flavio.tordini.org/minitube

which indicates that it does not duplicate the original YouTube interface, is light on resources, and generally better.  Oh, and it's available on the three major platforms on the planet (Windows, Mac, and Linux).

I'm willing to download and install the binary for Linux and experiment with it - part of my job as a tester.  If what I see at their site is true, this could be a game changer for Linux users fond of YouTube.

I'll let you know what I find out.

{UPDATE:  This runs right out of the box!  I extracted it to a folder in my /home and just ran it from there, no problemo.  Handles video up to 1080p with no drag on my little p!$$-ant intel video card, and has excellent sound quality.  I haven't tried to download any videos yet, but this is very promising for those who want an alternative to YouTube.  As I play with it more, I'll post back...}

Later On,
D

[muungwana]

I think the best way to play flash based videos on youtube or any other website on firefox is through an add-on called "flashvideoreplacer".

The plug-in will allow you to play flash based videos within the browser using mplayer plugin or as a stand alone player of your choice. It works great

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashvideoreplacer/

[horusfalcon]

I think the best way to play flash based videos on youtube or any other website on firefox is through an add-on called "flashvideoreplacer".

The plug-in will allow you to play flash based videos within the browser using mplayer plugin or as a stand alone player of your choice. It works great

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashvideoreplacer/

That's what I love about Linux - there are choices available in case you don't like how things are by default.  I'll have to look a flashvideoreplacer for the wife's machine.  Thanks for letting me know about it.

Minitube is one more tool available to users (of Macs and of Windows boxen, too, by the way) that just provides another way to do a specific task.  Isn't choice a wonderful thing?

Later On,
D

[Just17]

Interesting app ......  have used it for a few hours .....  still need to investigate some options ....  but I like it! 

[horusfalcon]

Hi, Gang,

I'm back after fiddling around with this beastie some more.  (EDIT:  I've only played with it in KDE 4 on a fully updated system.)

Two things:

• I've had no luck getting the playlist to cycle through as advertised - it only moves to the next clip when selected by mouse click.
• The configuration file for this application is in ~home/.config/Flavio Tordini if anyone gets to looking for it.

Other than that, it does seem to play YouTube vids flawlessly, and has the facility to open the YouTube page in Firefox for the current video clip when asked.  Look under the Video menu for this and a few more options that might be interesting.

Pressing the Download button results in a copy of the video in .MP4 format being saved to ~home/Videos, which seems logical enough.  Videos downloaded play well in Xine (my player of choice), and should play well in other players, too.

Thanks again, muungwana, for the nudge toward flashvideoreplacer.  The wife hasn't let me install it on her machine yet, but it does look promising.  Always good to have more than one string for my bow, it is.

Later On,
D

[Just17]

I've had no luck getting the playlist to cycle through as advertised - it only moves to the next clip when selected by mouse click.

No problem with that here .......  but I wish it was selectable as a lot of the time I do not want this facility.

Selecting 1080 for the best video ensures it grabs the best it can get which makes full screen viewing nice.

Excellent app so far .....