playflash (mediaplayer instead slow player in your browser)

Message

#1 Post by MU » Thu 02 Oct 2008, 13:55

Flash movies embedded in webpages often are very slow, as these players do not support hardware accelleration.
So you might prefer, to see them in your mediaplayer.

This is a very small script, that is placed in /root/Startup/ and (/root/autostart for Muppy).

You must restart X or click on it to activate it.

It scans /tmp/ every 5 seconds for a Flash* file.
If it is detected, your mediaplayer is run with this file.

Default player is mplayer, if that is not available, gxine is used.
You can edit the script to set another defaultplayer.

To test it:
visit:
http://www.golem.de/0809/62664.html

Click on the embedded Video to start it.
Click on the stop-icon, to stop it.
Now it will be buffered, but it is not shown in the slow player.
Wait 5 seconds, and your mediaplayer should start and show it.

Mark

mikeb · #2 Post by **mikeb** » Thu 02 Oct 2008, 16:51

Hmm good old trick is that one....I wonder perhaps you could add function to give a 'save as' option too...seems like a popular request...and as a script would remain very lightweight.

mike

magerlab · #3 Post by **magerlab** » Fri 03 Oct 2008, 18:25

thak you Mark!
i also see that i can see that video is in /temp

will 5 sec interval affect cpu of old machines?

#4 Post by MU » Sat 04 Oct 2008, 09:49

no, 5 seconds should be ok.
To check it, type in a console:
top

That displays the running programs sorted by cpu-usage.

---------------------
A save-option could be done, it could be a good exercise for people who want to learn writing tools with bash and Xdialog.
I'm too busy at moment to write it on my own.

Mark

#5 Post by **Flash** » Mon 27 Oct 2008, 02:17

I installed the .pet, then discovered that if I pause a youtube video while it is playing, it will continue to load into /tmp and the Flash file in /tmp will play in gxine when I click it. It seems that I have to either delete it from /tmp or move it somewhere else before the next one will save in /tmp.

John Doe · #6 Post by **John Doe** » Mon 27 Oct 2008, 04:44

regarding 5 seconds: perhaps 5 seconds isn't enough time to buffer on slower server streams and/or client connections...

this is a cool idea MU but a couple thoughts regarding potential problems that will arise.

1-not every flash file that lands in /tmp is desired media. there are menus, ads and other "site parts" written in flash. these will launch also.

2-even if there is only one flash object on the page that is desired media, it will most likely also auto play in the browser flash plug-in. with both playing, it would overload an older machine (900mhz, like I'm on) for sure.

my thoughts on a "perfect solution" for the problem you are trying to solve.

a custom moz plugin that displays a standard gui with three options:

1-save as
2-play
3-display

internally the plugin would function as follows:

1 - ask for location and output the binary stream there

2 - dump binary stream as unique file name to /tmp and launch 'defaultmediaplayer' with said unique file name.

3 - unload itself and load flash player plugin for display (good for site menus or sites in 100% flash). I don't even know if this is possible, just saying how it could be easily accomplished.

in closing...
UP YOURS ADOBE!!!! I'm sick of your crappy plugin!!

technosaurus · #7 Post by **technosaurus** » Mon 27 Oct 2008, 05:20

...or maybe couple this with the Flashblock plugin for some real speed?

mikeb · #8 Post by **mikeb** » Mon 27 Oct 2008, 14:54

Flash has to be loaded as it is this that downloads the flv not the browser directly....usually as a randomly named file..so blocking flashplayer won't work.

This will continue until it is complete or the page is navigated away from.

Perhaps a better way to detect would be to locate the file in temp that is steadily growing... (unless mu is already doing that)...

I will have a play with this

mike

edit..alternative approach
http://bashscripts.org/viewtopic.php?t=210

mikeb · #9 Post by **mikeb** » Mon 27 Oct 2008, 17:39

Ok that link is a little out of date....
here and updated version...given the you tube url it downloads the flv and plays it with a media player...flash player not needed....something to chew on

mike

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

wget -c -S -O tmp.flv `curl -s $1 | grep swfArgs | awk '{print $7 "get_video?video_id=" $11 "&t=" $19}' | tr -d '",'` &

vlc tmp.flv

technosaurus · #10 Post by **technosaurus** » Mon 27 Oct 2008, 20:22

@mikeb vlc --> gxine (in the posted code) for default puppy?

@all - This might be a perfect addition to FirePup

mikeb · #11 Post by **mikeb** » Mon 27 Oct 2008, 21:53

Just a serving suggestion.....a dialog could be added.....vlc can be gmplayer/gxine etc.

By the way it seems that if &fmt=18 is added to the url then the original video is downloaded.

mike
edit
hmm...seems like www.youtube.com rejects curl but uk.youtube.com works

I used dfa=`echo $dfa | sed 's/www/uk/'` where dfa = address to work round this.

mikeb · #12 Post by **mikeb** » Wed 29 Oct 2008, 16:40

Ok..still with the topic i hope...

I made a simple script to test loading/playing vids from youtube .
Also does straight downloads too....plus the 'you tube(s)' button tries to download the original movie...usually mp4 format ....there is the option to play the download with default player.

Now combining this with a browser rather than copying and pasting links would be neat step.

have fun

mike

not happy with sleep being used to buffer the start but works for test.

Edit :- Ok seems you tube have added an ad into the url string so here's an updated version. By the way I am using the uk url rather than us as www returns nothing wuth curl (?!!)

E2001 · #13 Post by **E2001** » Sat 13 Dec 2008, 18:26

I'm not trying to to rain on anyone's parade, but...

If you use firefox as your browser, there are many plugins that allow you to download embedded media. I use one called: Video DownloadHelper. It can extract pretty much anything. Not automatic, tho.

Sorry if I missed the point.

stifiling · #14 Post by **stifiling** » Wed 16 Sep 2009, 20:14

does this still work? was able to get it to go before, now it's not on 4.1.3

swiatmar · #15 Post by **swiatmar** » Sun 25 Oct 2009, 00:43

Hi!!

I don't really know why, but it doesn't work on my computer. I have installed this pet and somehow nothing is happening. I am running puppy 4.2
regards
mar

swiatmar · #16 Post by **swiatmar** » Sun 25 Oct 2009, 11:17

ok

everything is fine now- it is working

regards mar

stifiling · #17 Post by **stifiling** » Mon 26 Oct 2009, 09:29

what did you do to get it to work? went back to flash 9? that's the solution that's working for me. do you have it working w/flash 10??

mikeb · #18 Post by **mikeb** » Mon 26 Oct 2009, 13:12

what did you do to get it to work? went back to flash 9? that's the solution that's working for me. do you have it working w/flash 10??

we since with some sites they seem to be using a new option of streaming media to ram rather than disk so that would most likely be the reason.....just means more use of internet bandwidth really

mike

swiatmar · #19 Post by **swiatmar** » Wed 28 Oct 2009, 15:03

yes-it works on my puppy with flash 10. But I'm using xine instead of mplayer. Somehow mplayer doesn't work.

stifiling · #20 Post by **stifiling** » Sat 28 Nov 2009, 03:48

I've got this back working so nicely that i had to share. using flash 10.

I'm using the seamonkey 2.0 browser, and installed the greasemonkey add on from:
http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/modifiedmisc ... easemonkey

also this youtube userscript which adds "&fmt=18" automatically to the end of each youtube url. what that does is download the file to your /tmp folder as mp4, rather then flv and it can now be opened in VLC. got the youtube userscript from:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/29881

this in my opinion is the best way to do youtube. it's not cumbersome like those downloaders...nor do you have to experience the choppiness that we're all too familiar with.

i couldn't get it to work in xine, gxine, or mplayer.

playflash.pet + seamonkey/firefox + greasemonkey add on + youtube userscript + VLC = clear, easy, and fast youtube viewing.

maybe not too easy, but for people using linux....definitely not hard.

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playflash (mediaplayer instead slow player in your browser)

playflash (mediaplayer instead slow player in your browser)