Simpler way to play Flash vids in SMPlayer?

[brittney24]

Been reading about playing flash vids in SMP & that you can stream them if enter the "real" URL of the video (generally not shown on Youtube).
That there are Fx addons or stand alone apps that can find the real URL, then enter those into SMP.

That's fine for playing 1 or 2 music videos, but a cumbersome process if playing a lot (or just to play a few sec, to see if you like it, then stop vid). Plus, it's ONE more addon in Fx.

Is there a simpler way to steamline the process, even if it takes a good bit of setting up? But doesn't require use of a 3rd prgm or browser addon?

Thanks.

[rvm]

In recent versions smplayer can find the real url of youtube videos.

[brittney24]

Thanks, but could you please explain? I've tried multiple ways & searched the web till my fingers are raw.

How exactly do you get SMP to play flash (or other format) content in SMP? For me, in Windows - Vista. A sticky of a general tutorial would be nice.

Do you have to d/l the content entirely to HDD 1st, before able to play?
I've tried using SMP - Enter URL, or drag & drop the (apparent) URL of the youtube video. That enters the name of videos in SMP file name / path bar, above the toolbar - but none will play.
Thanks.

[rvm]

You need the latest version (0.8.3). Select Open --> URL and type a youtube url (like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0) and it plays. There's even a youtube browser included (Options --> Youtube browser), which allows to search, play and download youtube videos.

The code for this was taken from umplayer. It loads the youtube page and finds out the real url from there, which is passed to mplayer.

[brittney24]

OK, I was still on a v0.8.2 dev build.

Yes, it works just copying the "displayed" URL from Youtube into the URL box in SMP. But... I'm assuming it's not caching as much data ahead, like flash player does?
Only tried couple so far, but believe result will be same. I found in SMP, a music video like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRwE0alVGlU would stall badly, at several spots. More toward the middle to near end (around 5:00 min). Where flash player (that I'm trying to get away from), caches plenty of data. With my connection, flash's cached data stays well ahead of play, the entire time.

Then I tried setting the cache for streams, under Performance > Cache to 10,000 KB instead of 1000 & it seemed to fix the freezing / stuttering, at least for that video.
Does that sound like what the problem was? Since I have 8 GB RAM (little used) & a fast processor, using only ~ 3% of CPU, I figured it must be an issue w/ SMP not caching enough.

That took a few sec to fill the cache - not too bad; so question is, what's a safe value to put in for streaming cache?
I know part depends on quality of the vid. I doubt a youtube quality setting that's higher in SMP, than the actual vid would affect anything. So I doubt the default SMP - youtube quality setting of 720p, when actual quality was LESS, would necessitate higher cache value (vs lowering SMP quality to the same a vid quality. If a video was actually 720 or 1080p, I'm not sure what SMP's streaming cache needs to be.

I have a 3 mebibit connection. Using a traffic monitor, noticed during Justin's song - in SMP - d/l rate would jump to 2.5 - 2.7 mbits/s, then drop off, repeatedly. Same when played it in Flash. That's not a problem if caching ahead, but if SMP's default cache amount for steams, audio, TV aren't high enough (or maybe there's another pref I need to alter), it's gonna freeze during higher data parts of videos.

[brittney24]

It plays flash content off Youtube, OK - after I increased the streaming cache. Some other content from other sites, it still stutters. Could be a problem w/ the site's server slowing down. Not enough time to tell, yet.

One thought - shouldn't the address that is already in the URL box, when click the menu item, already be highlighted, or as soon as you click the box, it high lights existing URL, so you can just click & paste? Like all other search / address boxes? Now, you have to manually select the existing URL, delete it, then paste new URL.

You can set the # of URLs to store in prefs to 0, & no previous URL shows up, but that's kinda beside the point.

[Sourcefan]

Hello rvm and brittney24,

Installed SMPlayer-0.8.3.rev-5170 today.
This version has a more convenient way to copy YouTube videos from a browser to SMPlayer.
Once the URL of a (YouTube) video has been copied from the browser address-bar,
the only thing needed to play the video with SMPlayer is to click the “open-URL” icon and,
the new URL already shows up in the URL menu.
Click “OK” and the video plays in SMPlayer.

Thanks for the upgrade rvm.

Sourcefan.

[brittney24]

Thanks Sourcefan, but that doesn't seem to work for me. May be some other prefs settings of mine?
I don't know the exact build of my 0.8.3 - portable (don't find that anywhere). Maybe that doesn't work in portable SMP?

But when SMP is open, I have a vid focused in Fx window & URL is displayed in Fx. I R click URL box & Copy.
Click on SMP Open URL icon or do it from menu, & nothing's copied "automatically." Yes, I can R click in SMP's URL box & paste, but it doesn't work as you describe (which would be nice).

Do you mean, once a give URL has been manually copied into SMP - ONCE - that it automatically show up in drop list (assuming one has URLs - Max Items set > 0).

Under Interface / Privacy, I have everything unchecked, except have '1' entered for URLs to remember.

[Sourcefan]

Hello brittney24,

Sorry, it seems my previous post wasn't clear enough to you.

This new feature can only be found on SMPlayer-0.8.3.rev-5170 (and later).
SMPlayer-0.8.3.rev-5170 is a development version of SMPlayer.
Unfortunately the development versions are mostly installers, rarely portable versions. The development versions can be found at Sourceforge-Net;


SMPlayers version can be found from the Menu:
Help > About SMPlayer.
If it is reading: Version SMPlayer 0.8.3 (portable) it is likely a stable 0.8.3 release.
Mine is reading: Version: 0.8.3+SVN-r5170 (32-bit).

Sourcefan.

[brittney24]

Thanks for the clarification. They will get the portable version of the current dev build out before long.