SMplayer 14 (latest)/SMTube on Pentium III - not usable

[sindi]

I tried to install the latest Smplayer to my C400 (866MHz, 512MB, XP SP3) and it objected to half the files. I installed on top of version 8.6.

I was able to install SMplayer 14.9 to a DELL Inspiron 8100 also with XP SP3 and 512 MB, 1000MHz. Both laptops are Pentium III.
Smplayer installed this time. Smtube also installed but when I select Youtube Browser nothing loads.

I was able to play Youtube videos on both computers with Smplayer 8.6. Has the newer version dropped support for Pentium III? Would it help to replace the mplayer with the version from 8.6?

The C400 runs too slowly to play Youtube from within a browser and the 8100 would play at higher resolution without the browser in the way.

[sindi]

The 8100 has MicroXP, the C400 full XP. Both DELL, PIII, 512MB, SP3.

[rvm]

Did you get any error message when you tried to install the latest version?

Version 0.8.6 is very old and you need the latest version of smtube in order to browse youtube videos.

[sindi]

On the C400 I got error messages that I could not install most of the files and I had to skip them after which I presume I was still using version 0.8.6.

On the 8100 both programs installed but clicking on Smtube does nothing.
I also get abrupt exits from the program when I try to do things
like 'update code' or 'help'.

I can reattempt installation on the C400 and take notes if that helps.

I have one other XP computer with P4 cpu to try (and full XP).

The C400 cannot play Youtube with a browser. Even Opera uses 96% of CPU.

I have not tried to download anything from Youtube or to use mplayer.

[rvm]

Did you try to uninstall first version 0.8.6 before installing the new one?

Anyway you can try the since it doesn't require installation. If the version of mplayer included in the package doesn't work in your computer you can try to replace it with an older version.

[sindi]

Before I can update I need to exit SMplayer. Check for Updates does not
mention this. If SMPlayer is running the installer cannot access any of
the files to overwrite or remove them.

The other problem persists. Installed the latest SMPlayer and SMTube.
On the MicroXP computer clicking on Youtube Browser does nothing.
On another full XP computer (a 2001 900MHz Toshiba, XP SP3, 512MB) I get the error message "Smtube.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close"
and I am asked to report this to Microsoft. (Why Microsoft?).

Maybe smtube does not work with XP, or with Pentium III?

The 900MHz laptop acts much much faster than the 866MHz one. Maybe it is fast enough to watch Youtube in Puppy Linux with a browser at low res. With flashplayer 10.3 I can still set the resolution to 240p or 144p. Windows flashplayer no longer seems to allow anything under 360p.

The standalone linux Youtube player gtk-youtube-viewer broke when Youtube
changed in April. A browser wastes too much cpu and memory. Maybe smtube can be made compiled for puppy linux 5. The Ubuntu version most likely needs newish libraries and thus the latest Puppy Linux 6, which insists on wasting a lot more memory than I have. A standalone player frees up enough resources to watch at 360p.

SMplayer/smtube works fine in Vista on a fast computer with lots of memory.

[rvm]

SMTube works in Windows XP. However I tested it on an AMD64 with 1 GB of RAM.

Maybe you can try to compile SMTube on puppy linux 5. If the Qt libs are not too old it might work.

[sindi]

There is an Ubuntu smtube for Precise Ubuntu so I am attempting to download
Thanks for checking with XP (what is it doing on such a new computer?).

Precise Puppy but it is too large to download (it runs out of memory) at least with lynx. Maybe Opera will download it to hard drive directly. 201MB for the i486 version (Pentium III). Precise standard version needs 512MB RAM and i686 but the retro version can run in less RAM and on older hardware.

I have not tried smtube with XP on a P4 (from 2002). SMplayer used to support P3's but maybe smtube does not. The older slower computers are what really need standalone Youtube players. Not enough cpu or memory to play Youtube and run a bloated browser at the same time.

I can still download with youtube-dl if I copy over the URL from a search engine result, and play the file as it downloads, with mplayer (in linux). I used to use movgrab for the same purpose on 233MHz laptops, or a K6 laptop with an mplayer compiled to support older hardware.

[marcelo-ar]

[sindi]

Thanks for checking all those versions. On the 1GHz DELL 8100 with MicroXP I uninstalled SMplayer latest version (smtube disappeared along with it) and installed version .6944 (the default download at one sourceforge site though another site has the latest version 7014 instead) then the latest smtube again. It all works now. In smtube, view, settings, the default was 360p. While watching a video marked HD I changed to 480p and 720p and did not notice any difference in quality (not jerky and no less fuzzy).

I then found smtube for Tahr Ubuntu (the link redirects to smtube for Precise Ubuntu) and it required a few additional libraries to run in Tahr Puppy (which uses Ubuntu packages) which I found via a web search. smtube 200K, libQtGui.so.4 4MB, libQtWebkit.so.4 6MB. With everything installed (including lots more libraries than what ldd said was missing) when I type smtube:
"Segmentation fault".
I then discovered Tahr does not have mplayer just vlc.

It I type 'vlc' I get 'segmentation fault' too. I will add mplayer and figure out how to point smtube at it. Or maybe Precise has mplayer.