Playing Youtube Videos
Some folks might think I am late to the game, others might like this little tidbit of usability.
With each release, Firefox developers push toward HTML5 to replace Flash. A good idea except for one provision. There is no “Ask to Activate” option with HTML5. With releases since 44.0, playing videos from youtube expects users to pull down their pants and bend over. The media.autoplay.enabled option must be enabled and each related video has one or more *.googlevideo.com URLs that must be allowed when using NoScript. Yes, NoScript could be configured to allow *.googlevideo.com.
Since I started using SMPlayer as a TV capture card interface, I also have been using the app to play youtube videos. When I run across a video link in Firefox, usually referenced in articles, I copy the link, open SMPlayer, and select the File->URL menu option. The copied link appears automatically in the SMPlayer dialog.
There is a privacy caveat: in SMPlayer storing cookies is enabled by default and must be disabled manually in the smtube2.ini file.
SMPlayer plays the video and can be configured to select a maximum resolution. The latter is helpful for people on bandwidth caps, like me.
Or use VLC the same way.
No idiotic JavaScript. No cookies. No autoplay.
I need to find a way to have a context menu link in Firefox to open directly in SMPlayer.
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: General
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