Raspi and YouTube

[emeyeraway]

When I tried to view a YouTube video on using a RGB LED set-up, I got the message: "Missing Plugin". I found this on the forum: sudo apt-get install browser-plugin-gnash
I did that, and followed it with sudo apt-get install icedtea-plugin
Then I rebooted my Raspi. The bottom line is that the "Missing Plugin" message disappeared, but the video still won't run properly! The "Run" symbol in the middle of the screen never goes away, blocking out the center, and there's no sound, though it appears that the video is running.

Any ideas for me to try?

[fruitoftheloom]

When I tried to view a YouTube video on using a RGB LED set-up, I got the message: "Missing Plugin". I found this on the forum: sudo apt-get install browser-plugin-gnash
I did that, and followed it with sudo apt-get install icedtea-plugin
Then I rebooted my Raspi. The bottom line is that the "Missing Plugin" message disappeared, but the video still won't run properly! The "Run" symbol in the middle of the screen never goes away, blocking out the center, and there's no sound, though it appears that the video is running.

Any ideas for me to try?

Youtube defaults to HTML5 Video, Flash is not natively supported, gnash is obsolete and no longer developed, easy way with an installation of Raspbian Wheezy Operating System is kweb

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=40860

This question gets asked and answered at least once a week

[DougieLawson]

http://www.youtube.com/html5

Switch on HTML5 and forget that Gnash ever existed.

[emeyeraway]

I switched on HTML5, but it didn't solve the problem.

The kweb option appears pretty daunting for a beginner...

[Joe Schmoe]

As has been noted, this question gets asked at least once a week.

And, with good reason, since the Pi *is* a good platform for playing YouTube vids. In fact, I think it is the best platform of all. The only problem is that it doesn't work out-of-the-box. One way or another, you have to hack a bit to get it to work.

First, note that it will never work directly/natively the way you're used to doing it on a Windows PC - that is, natively in a browser.

That said, there are basically 3 alternatives:

1. Use Open ELEC (instead of Raspbian). This actually works pretty well, at least when you are connected via Ethernet. You have to hack around a bit to get used to the Open ELEC way of doing things, and you have to figure out how to install and run the YouTube app. However, I will say that, for various reasons that I will not enumerate here, I've actually had better luck playing YouTube under Raspbian than under Open ELEC.
   
   Note, BTW, that there is also OSMC, but I couldn't figure that mess out to save my life. Best avoided.
2. Use kweb/minimalkioskbrowser, whatever that is. As you say, setting it up looks complex and daunting, and, as a result, I've never bothered.
3. Implement a method of your own design and coding to automagically feed YouTube searches and URLs to the magic combination of youtube-dl and omxplayer. This is great, and is the highly recommended method, but you will have do some design and coding on your own. It's what I did...

As you can see, all 3 cases involve some hacking. But the reward is worth it!

[fruitoftheloom]

I switched on HTML5, but it didn't solve the problem.

The kweb option appears pretty daunting for a beginner...

The RPi is primarily for Learning, not as an out of the box Windows PC replacement.

[av8r1]

Any ideas for me to try?

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install midori

It works. It's not perfect, I suspect there's no hardware acceleration since the CPU usage reads high and the frame rate chugs a bit, but youtube works correctly out of the box and I haven't managed to crash the browser yet.

[betruk]

That works for me too, thank you for the method.

[Joe Schmoe]

That [*] works for me too, thank you for the method.

Interesting. I may have to try it again. I know it didn't used to work, back when midori was packaged in Raspbian - with the original Pis. Maybe it works now, because of the increased CPU power.

[*] Using the green liquor browser to view YouTube vids.

[emeyeraway]

Thanks for the help!

But though the midori suggestion allows me to at least see the periphery of a YouTube video, still there's no sound, and the red rectangle with the white triangle in it never goes away.

On another matter, I had downloaded many MB of stuff suggested on Raspi Forum in an attempt to get YouTube to work. Since they didn't help, I'd like to erase all that to free up the space. But I haven't been able to find those programs. Where can I go for help here?

[fruitoftheloom]

In Raspbian install Synaptic the apt-get GUI

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install synaptic

http://www.nongnu.org/synaptic/action.html

[pluggy]

The RPi is primarily for Learning, not as an out of the box Windows PC replacement.

+1
It does pretty well for what it costs, but theres a reason it costs what it does and it isn't anything to do with conspiracy theories or the Foundations desire to sell something for less than it costs to make.

[emeyeraway]

Synaptic didn't work either... Still no YouTube on my RasPi.

[Joe Schmoe]

Synaptic didn't work either... Still no YouTube on my RasPi.

I think the implication was that Synaptic would help you uninstall the stuff you installed that you now (quite sensibly) want to get rid of. You asked something like "I've installed all this cr*p and now I don't know what all is installed - how can I figure out what/where it is?".

This is a problem with following advice posted on forums. When it doesn't work, you end up with a system of unknown pedigree. From here on in, whenever anything goes wrong, you're going to be wondering if that weird install of <whatever> is the reason. This has happened to me a few times, so I know of what I speak.

And the only recourse is a full OS-re-install.

P.S. I.e., the idea *wasn't* that installing Synaptic would help you with your real, overall, goal, which is to play YouTube vids on your Pi. For that, you are going to have to go back and re-read and re-parse my original posting on this thread...

[emeyeraway]

Because I tried so many things, I'm not sure which helped, but now I can see and hear YouTube videos on my RasPi. However, there is one annoying residual problem: The arrow in the middle of the screen never goes away!

Any ideas how to get rid of it?

[emeyeraway]

I have tried all the suggestions so far, without success. I thought that maybe I had downloaded something that was interfering with the proper running of YouTube, so I got an almost-new SD card, and tried to watch a YouTube video using it. But the same problem persists: The arrow that starts the video never goes away, and the bottom line of the video (which shows time elapsed) isn't there.

Does anyone know if this is a fixable problem?

[Joe Schmoe]

Since you mentioned "the arrow", I assume (that is, am guessing) that you are talking about launching the video from within a browser.

I've already explained (several times) that it cannot, will not, and never will work "natively" from within a browser (like you are used to doing on your Windows PC).

[gkreidl]

I have tried all the suggestions so far, without success. I thought that maybe I had downloaded something that was interfering with the proper running of YouTube, so I got an almost-new SD card, and tried to watch a YouTube video using it. But the same problem persists: The arrow that starts the video never goes away, and the bottom line of the video (which shows time elapsed) isn't there.

Does anyone know if this is a fixable problem?

It's a bug in the current version of epiphany (due to changes in the youtube API). Someone has published a workaround here in the forum (some changes to a javascript file). I don't suppose the bug will be fixed on Wheezy as they are currently working on the Jessie version.

kweb3 doesn't have that problem. And kweb(3) can also (optionally) play the video in a separate omxplayerGUI window in much better quality and without any lagging.

[emeyeraway]

OK, so now I have Minimal Kiosk Browser. When I double click on it,
there is a YouTube option, which, when I click on that, goes to YouTube.
However, when I choose a video to watch, the black rectangular screen
appears, but the little circling icon next to "Loading" just keeps
circling, and the video never appears. Nor does the triangular "start"
icon.

I enabled cookies and Javascript in the process of trying to get
it to work. What am I missing?

[gkreidl]

OK, so now I have Minimal Kiosk Browser. When I double click on it,
there is a YouTube option, which, when I click on that, goes to YouTube.
However, when I choose a video to watch, the black rectangular screen
appears, but the little circling icon next to "Loading" just keeps
circling, and the video never appears. Nor does the triangular "start"
icon.

I enabled cookies and Javascript in the process of trying to get
it to work. What am I missing?

Only kweb3 can play videos inside the browser; it appears as "Minimal Kiosk Browser (GKT+3)" in the programs menu.

[emeyeraway]

"kweb3" is at the top of the screen when I go to YouTube through Minimal Kiosk Browser (GTK3), but YouTube videos never finish loading. There must be something dead simple that you are assuming I know, but I don't.

[gkreidl]

"kweb3" is at the top of the screen when I go to YouTube through Minimal Kiosk Browser (GTK3), but YouTube videos never finish loading. There must be something dead simple that you are assuming I know, but I don't.

It's the other way round: I've got no idea, why it doesn't work for you.

BTW, I still prefer the kweb's old method of watching youtube. You need a working version of yoitube-dl for that. The easiest way to get one is running;
ginstall-ytdl
from a terminal. Never update this with "youtube-dl -U"; use
update-ytdl
instead.

Then go to a youtube video page with Javascript disabled (youtube loads faster this way and it doesn't try to start the video inside the browser) and press the play button: resolution and quality are much better when playing it this way with omxplayerGUI. And it will also skip the ads.
This will work with kweb and kweb3.

[emeyeraway]

I have to disagree with you. It was *I* who missed something dead simple: Clicking on the PLAY button! I get BEAUTIFUL YouTube videos now. But there's no audio. I tried going into settings, and I changed the volume setting from 0 to 4, but that didn't do any good.

I'm hoping there's another dead simple fix for the audio problem...is there?

BTW, thanks for your patience.

[fruitoftheloom]

I have to disagree with you. It was *I* who missed something dead simple: Clicking on the PLAY button! I get BEAUTIFUL YouTube videos now. But there's no audio. I tried going into settings, and I changed the volume setting from 0 to 4, but that didn't do any good.

I'm hoping there's another dead simple fix for the audio problem...is there?

BTW, thanks for your patience.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... -config.md

[emeyeraway]

I tried that already. The fact is, when I run a Scratch program, the sound works just fine (through the audio jack connected to a stereo set). Why shouldn't it work for YouTube videos?