Discussion on Youtube Alternate Video Player | Userscripts.org

Suggestions, replied by Yansky

Yansky — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:28:20 +0000

I haven't updated this script in a while. All my scripts are released under a CC ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ )license, so feel free to use/alter my code to make your own script.

Suggestions, replied by Delvin

Delvin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:40:32 +0000

This is certainly one of the more interesting scripts. Here are a few suggestions.

To avoid problems like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn2qepWagbc# (URLs with a hash at the end) without using a bunch of splits and checks, just get the video id out of flashvars instead of using document.location.

vidID = fv.split("&video_id=")[1].split("&")[0];

Setting the ID of the embed to "movie_player" will allow YouTube (and other scripts like YouTube Enhancer ) to appropriately size it.

What is aLoader? Looks like base 64 data. Is it used for anything? If not perhaps it could be removed.

bgcolor="#ffffff" is basically useless and could be removed as well.

Make default audio level maximum?, replied by leecovuk

leecovuk — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:39:57 +0000

Hello Yansky,

The default audio level on the player seems to be a little low.
Is there any way I/we can force it up to maximum without always having to manually raise it?

Thanks a lot,
Lee
UK

new player src, replied by Yansky

Yansky — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:09:11 +0000

Sorry I was messing around with my site. The src URL should work again.

new player src, replied by markoER

markoER — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:25:38 +0000

if player doesn't work for you , change player source from:

'src="http://forboden.com/coding/flashtest/FlowPlayer.swf"

'src="http://kateclinton.com/vlog/FlowPlayerDark.swf"

and everything will be like it was before

Playlist for FlowPlayerDark, replied by Mike L

Mike L — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:23:33 +0000

This is probably very simple, or maybe not. I get rss feeds of videos from bitsontherun.com and i need to put them into a playlist like JW player does, but for FlowPlayerDark. does anyone have a script that will parse an rss feed, or atom or xml ..botr will give me thru its API whatever I need, but I cant get it to work with flowplayer. anyone have any ideas?

Tecker's HD Mod, replied by tecker

tecker — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 01:43:33 +0000

In an effort to keep things simplified I do not want to create a new version of the script. I will simply keep this thread updated with my modified version. If there are problems let me know over on the "Hack" thread. If there is a problem with the link post here.

HD Modified version (Version 1.2tm1)
(http://hockersmith.net/FirefoxHacking/YtubeAltH...)

Default sets the system to SD video. Edit the script and change the default format line and things will be switched over.

Thanks to Yansky for creating this script.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:30:18 +0000

Woah wait a tick. How did you pull that off? I could have sworn I had tried that but it didnt load. Hmmm. Maybe I didnt trigger it correctly.

[edit]
Hmmmmm... I didnt encode the string though. I was just pulling the srcWithT variable not a URIecnoded version. Good revisit. This restores the script once again to my active status. Oh and yet again you simplified the code. I honestly dont think this is going to get any simpler. (you might surprise me though.)
[/edit]

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by Yansky

Yansky — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:25:32 +0000

Try it now.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:17:50 +0000

I had stumbled upon that last night. I think that you should use this as a stop gap only. Here's why:

GM_XMLHttpRequest will actually download the full video when called the way you have it implemented (onload). The standard XMLHttpRequest could be polled in the middle to check to see when youtube passed us off and then just grab the new URL and run. GM_XMLHttpRequest does not have a reliable way of doing this. Trying to catch it mid request (onstatechange) will cause really bad script hangs and processor loads.

Currently the video will download 2 times. First time to get just the URL the second time to actually load the video into FlowPlayer. I think that we should watch the changelogs to see when this is fixed (3.1 maybe?) as I prefer the old method. Or greasemonkey could just fix the dang bug.

Your code on this version however is nicely minimal.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by Yansky

Yansky — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:05:01 +0000

@ tecker
I've updated the code for the script and I think it should work ok with the new firefox XMLHttpRequest fix.

Feel free to make a new userscript with your HD version. I personally am logged into youtube most of the time, so I almost always have "HD" enabled in my youtube settings, but I realise a lot of people don't do it that way so if you create a new userscript, I will put a link to it on this scripts page.

BTW, all my scripts are released with a CC license, so you can do just about anything you want with them. :)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:21:56 +0000

[note: Script broken in 3.0.5. Am looking for workaround.]

FOUND IT.
Mozilla disabled a function call that we need to get the string back from youtube.

http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2008/m... states that due to the XMLHttpRequest vulnerability they implemented the following workaround:
"Disable JavaScript [function] until a version containing these fixes can be installed."

Way to go fellas. Coulda let some of us who USE that function know that you were going to get rid of it. Thanks. I will see if there is a greasemonkey call that we can make to fix this.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:39:15 +0000

Interesting. Im noticing that exact same behavior as you mentioned. I will see what I can find but this may be related to an XSS bug fix and may stem from either a problem in greasemonkey or the way we are doing the script.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by desert

desert — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:11:52 +0000

Firefox update 3.0.5 breaks this nice script ? at least on my pc
still working with 3.0.4 though

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by leecovuk

leecovuk — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:05:02 +0000

Thanks Tecker, I'm trying this out.

Can I ask, can I simply replace the code exactly as suggested by Yansky in another thread, to revert the player in your revised code to the old player?

I like the way you've made/kept the default playback quality as non-HQ (I think you have anyway). My old Pentium III struggles with streaming normal Flash at the best of times, let alone high quality clips.
:)

Lee
UK

Player has changed? , replied by leecovuk

leecovuk — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:05:26 +0000

ok, thanks for that, Yansky.

Lee

Player has changed? , replied by Yansky

Yansky — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:37:37 +0000

It's an updated version. The video still buffers, it's just a bit hard to see the timeline buffer since it's grey on grey. If you want to use the old player, you can change this bit of code

'src="http://forboden.com/coding/flashtest/FlowPlayerDark.swf" id="FlowPlayer" name="FlowPlayer" bgcolor="#ffffff" '+

to this

'src="http://forboden.com/coding/flashtest/FlowPlayer.swf" id="FlowPlayer" name="FlowPlayer" bgcolor="#ffffff" '+

Work with Youtube Googler?, replied by leecovuk

leecovuk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:10:37 +0000

Hello again,
Can this possibly be made to work with the Youtube Googler script? I think it would be ideal to have that script's tabs/sidebar along with auto buffer+no auto play.
Thanks for any thoughts/efforts on this.
Lee
UK

Player has changed? , replied by leecovuk

leecovuk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:51:50 +0000

Hello Yansky or anyone else knowledgeable;
I'm seeing a brown player recently rather than the previous one with the big yellow 'play' icon on it. I'm just curious why this is.
Also, are videos still buffering whilst paused? I can't tell by looking at the brown player.
Thanks a lot,
Lee
UK

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:45:43 +0000

Fixed the caveat. Version 1.0tm4 (Tecker Mod 4) has been uploaded. See above for new version. In fixing the code I was able to clean it up a little as well and make it a little less complex.

Now the handling of the default is all interal to the script and does not require you to refresh the page. This should make back and page navigation easier.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:49:51 +0000

[edit, the code that was posted here was incomplete so I'm retracting it. See below for explanation.]

The uploaded file linked above has been HEAVILY modified. I have made a default format ability and to track when you have switched from the default to what ever else you picked.

The number of changes are enormous (Yansky if you need help understanding let me know) so I will not list them here.

I have finally reached a point where it behaves as I want it to.
Expected Behavior:

Standard Youtube Link is set to the default and played at desired level
Youtube links with a format attached (ex url&fmt=18&whoop) are played as linked
Unknown formats are honored and indicated by a message to the lower right of the player
Format switches are available to switch to other qualities.
Format can switch regardless of "&fmt=" position in the url

Caveat: Only drawback is in the default system causes a page refresh and will cause another entry in the history. This makes going back harder as the script will constantly push you back forward. To beat this you have to quickly go back 2 times to get to the linking page or the original page.
FIXED. See below.

Please test and let me know what happens. Thanks.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:26:28 +0000

Newer, more complete uploaded version

Try this link: Tecker Modified Version V1.0tm4
(http://hockersmith.net/FirefoxHacking/youtube_a...)

I just threw this up on my website. Let me know if it works for you.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by fattie

fattie — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:57:59 +0000

I can't get the code to work. My editor seems to be confused about the syntax when I put it in the corresponding spots. I don't know if you could possibly email me the .js or something?

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:10:35 +0000

Still at it.

See below for newer, more complete uploaded version

Now that the widescreen has been enabled the format 22 (HD Streams) can be hacked in. Section 1 in the header between scrWithT and pD now becomes more complex to:

var quallink = 'Switch to: <a style="text-decoration:none" href="'+document.location.toString()+'&fmt=18">High Quality</a>/
<a style="text-decoration:none" href="'+document.location.toString()+'&fmt=22">HD Quality</a>';
var qual = 'Regular';
if (document.location.toString().indexOf("fmt=18") != -1){
	qual = 'High';
	quallink = 'Switch to: <a style="text-decoration:none" href="'+document.location.toString().split("&fmt=",1) +'">Regular Quality</a>/
<a style="text-decoration:none" href="'+document.location.toString().split("&fmt=",1) +'&fmt=22">HD Quality</a>';
	srcWithT = 'http://'+document.domain+'/get_video?fmt=18&video_id='+vidID+'&t='+fv.split("&t=")[1].split("&")[0];
}
if (document.location.toString().indexOf("fmt=22") != -1){
	qual = 'HD';
	quallink = 'Switch to: <a style="text-decoration:none" href="'+document.location.toString().split("&fmt=",1) +'">Regular Quality</a>/
<a style="text-decoration:none" href="'+document.location.toString().split("&fmt=",1) +'&fmt=18">High Quality</a>';
	srcWithT = 'http://'+document.domain+'/get_video?fmt=22&video_id='+vidID+'&t='+fv.split("&t=")[1].split("&")[0];
}

This will let you switch back and forth between Standard/High/HD. And the new format 22 HD looks amazing but eats your system resources like crazy.

"Hack" for HD Streams / new widescreen layout, replied by tecker

tecker — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:04:44 +0000

Well Im back at it. These changes might reflect for me only. Please let me know if you are seeing the new formats.

See below for newer, more complete uploaded version

Youtube just changed their site in prep for the new Widescreen HD streams. There for the following addtions/changes can be made to fit the new layout better.

1) Change the width = 480 to 640 and it will stretch out flowplayer.

2) Change initialScale: \'scale\' to initialScale: \'fit\'. This will help preserve the aspect ratios. Some videos will actually take advantage of the new system provided you watch them in format 18.

3) Youtube moved the quality link out and it will appear annoyingly at times. Add the following to hide it everytime.
Add this after the var pD = line

var ytQualLink = document.getElementById('watch-video-quality-setting');

Then after the pD.innerHTML section add this

if (ytQualLink) {
   	ytQualLink.parentNode.removeChild(ytQualLink);
}