Tired of Flash? HTML5 Viewer For YouTube 372
An anonymous reader writes "Instead of spending the next 10 years trying to find a Flash implementation for Linux or OS X that doesn't drain CPU cycles like there's no tomorrow, NeoSmart Technologies has made an HTML5 viewer for YouTube videos. It loads YouTube videos in an HTML5 video container and streams (with skip/skim/pause/resume) against an MP4 resource, and an (optional) userscript file can update YouTube pages with the HTML5 viewer. The latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Safari are supported. Personally, I can't wait until the major video sites default to HTML5 and we can finally say goodbye to Flash."
ClickToFlash (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Only video sites? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I'm waiting for "HTML5VideoBlock" (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Only video sites? (Score:2, Informative)
Just if you want to actually watch those shitty websites.
If say Blizzard would make a Starcraft 2 flash site then the videos on said site would most likely be viewable from other places to so ..
Webconverger 5.7 features HTML5 video support (Score:2, Informative)
Today Webconverger released with an HTML5 video enabled build today: http://webconverger.org/blog/entry/5.7_with_Firefox_3.5/ [webconverger.org]
The plan is once HTML5 video becomes prevalent, the integrated proprietary flash player will be dropped. http://webconverger.org/adobe/ [webconverger.org]
Does this actually work? (Score:3, Informative)
I just tried it with FF 3.5.5 (on Linux), and got nothing but a non-working clone of the YouTube player. It's been the same story with YouTube's HTML5 demo [youtube.com] for some time as well.
If it's a windows-only thing, or Chrome-only, then it's not good enough to replace Flash yet.
Impressive (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I'm waiting for "HTML5VideoBlock" (Score:3, Informative)
You're correct, but NoScript doesn't block only scripts. It includes the option to block <video> content, and some other non-scripted annoyances.
Re:Only video sites? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I'm waiting for "HTML5VideoBlock" (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Only video sites? (Score:2, Informative)
What the fuck kind of Flash are you using? I'll grant that it might be a little less flaky than integrated video plugins, but it's still a total crapfest next to a local copy.
The difference is that you can't download an flv when it starts skipping or outright freezing (Which happens every day.)
Re:Only video sites? (Score:4, Informative)
He was being sarcastic
Re:Say goodbye to Flash? (Score:3, Informative)
You could try minitube [tordini.org], a native Youtube client. You don't even need to have the stupid Flash Player installed to use it, so it doesn't eat more CPU than any other video player.
Re:Does this actually work? (Score:5, Informative)
No, it doesn't work on Firefox, as an update to the blog post points out. Youtube won't supply video in a format Firefox supports (and it only supports one - Theora). I believe there is work being done to allow Firefox to use other codecs if you have them installed (as Webkit does - it works for me using Epiphany), at which point this could potentially work on Firefox.
Re:Only video sites? (Score:4, Informative)
A) The entire point of HTML and HTML5 video tags was to eliminate plugins
B) Plugins are a -bad idea- for most people, for one even if your browser gets updated your plugins might not, leading gaping security flaws in addition to this, teaching people to install plugins is bad because a plugin could very well contain malware/viruses.
C) A plugin can lead to reliance on the plugin and not spur development in the actual browser
RTFP...as it says Firefox doesn't support mp4 (Score:5, Informative)
the page itself says that firefox doesn't support mp4 videos in HTML5 due to some license restrictions.
Re:A clever solution to a stupid problem (Score:3, Informative)
Same here. I use Unplug (Firefox plugin) to download the video, and then I use VLC to watch it.
Unplug doesn't work with some of the less popular video sites, but it does work with YouTube. If somebody thinks they're being clever by letting someone other than YouTube host their video, then I probably didn't want to watch it anyway.
Re:Only video sites? (Score:2, Informative)
By design, they have to directly expose the original file, and it's trivial to download it (just like an embedded jpeg.) There exist mechanisms for doing the same thing with flv, but it's intentionally obfuscated.
View flash videos with VLC. (Score:5, Informative)
View flash videos on VLC.
Personally, I prefer to have the browser load such video in an external player that treats it like streaming media, though stability isn't my reason. I like having the full controls of the external player available and I like being able to easily resize the window that plays the video.
Then you will love this. Let the flash video load and pause it at the beginning. Then fire up the terminal and type:
vlc /tmp/Flash*
It works with at least vimeo and youtube.
Re: I would love nothing more (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Say goodbye to Flash? (Score:3, Informative)
They can also go out and spend $50 for a pair of rabbit-ears and look at an OTA (Over-the-Air) 1080 hi-def signal, and compare it to the crappy compressed signal their cable or satellite provider sends them.
They should check, as you said, to make sure the original source was also hi-def and hasn't been up-scaled. As an example, try David Letterman on CBS - it's 1080i in many areas, and it looks SO different from older canned stuff, etc.
Then there are all the people who bought HD TVs that can't do more than 720 lines, but they're "1080p compatible" - because they downsample.
And then you have the problem of LCDs suffering from uneven luminance along the vertical axis because of the way that the crystals block the backlight, with more light leaking around pixels that are below eye level.
Or the suckers who bought 120hz or 240hz LCDs - not realizing that the picture is interpolated between 60hz source frames, and HAS to be distorted. They're convinced by the in-store demo disk. They'd be much better off buying a 600hz plasma TV (it doesn't interpolate between source frames - just refreshes the screen 600x a second. The entire frame is updated in 1/600 of a second, as opposed to 1/60 (or 1/30) of a second for conventional systems).
Re:Only video sites? (Score:2, Informative)
DownloadHelper [mozilla.org] or FlashGot [mozilla.org] download flvs fine. Although of course if they're big files it takes forever.
Then again, you were probably being sarcastic. I can never tell.
Re:semi-OT: convert video2CD (Score:3, Informative)
Here's a novel idea: She could try paying for music. (A radical idea, I know.)
You can buy DRM free MP3s from Amazon.com -- Yes, it works with linux.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/help/amd.html [amazon.com]
Find what you want on youtube, then go buy it. (Isn't this what all the pro-pirates claim they do anyhow?)
If you're too poor to afford the 89 cents, you could have her dig through some indie music [digstation.com] instead.