Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Eathray]

Hi All,

(Title edited per request)

So I've been fixing up an old junker that performs very well for it's decrepit age, but of course, I dare not take this old geezer anywhere near YouTube for fear of a heart-attack that might lite this ancient processor ablaze...

That is until I discovered this very useful Firefox plug-in, created by lovinglinux (Ubuntu guy). Here's the link:

Edit, No longer at the Mozilla site, but still available at Softpedia:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Internet-Applications-Addons/Mozilla-Extensions/FlashVideoReplacer.shtml

'Flash Video Replacer' is the name. It took me all of 3 minutes to set up and I kept asking myself, "Where's the hard part?" It never came.

I strolled over to YouTube, clicked a video I am familiar with, and boom, Gxine launched, grabbed all the info, and for the first time in a decade, this old-timer played a video without a single stutter.

I've had very little success making old-timers stream well. This add-on works, so I thought I'd share. Here's the specs for grandpa:

HP Pavillion 6535
Original 466 (upgraded to 600) Mhz
512 ram, massive swap
TurboPup, Akita, BrowserPup, 4.3RemasterByTtuuxxx

If you've got an old junker that you've managed to make perform in every way except stream video... this may help.

Eathray

EDIT: More complete instructions per Flash's request.

There's not a lot to this... It's just a matter of installing the plug-in and fixing your settings to your machine's needs. Here's the set-up and what I did:

Rig:
HP Pavilion 6535
P2 466 Mhz, Upgraded to P3 600 Mhz
Ram, 128 Meg, Upgraded to 512 Meg
Ext3 16 Gig, Swap 4 Gig

Distro:
There are 4 versions of Puppy on this rig. The one I used for this plug-in is TurboPup Extreme V1. I used ScottJarvis' excellent Firedog 3.6.6 as my version of Firefox. Flash is 10.0.0 from the Doku site. Java is 1.6.0.22, an excellent version on datafilehost.com. Also installed on Firedog is NoScript. This plug-in works fine with NoScript, and I read also works well with Flashblock; don't know about AdBlock, but assume it's fine since these others work.

Directions:
1. Go to Mozilla add-ons site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashvideoreplacer/
2. Click install.
3. Click to restart when prompted.
4. Browser should open with box desplaying add-ons under extensions tab.
5. If browser does not re-open in normal time for your rig, restart your computer: /Menu/Shutdown/reboot. When rebooted, open browser. Go to /Tools/Add-ons/Extensions. You should see FlashVideoReplacer. Highlight by clicking.
6. Select preferences. Preferences open.
7. Replacement tab; I have Preferred Method: Embedded; play videos automatically: checked; plug-in/mime type: autodetect; fall-back player: do not use.
8. Quality Tab; default quality: low; prefer mp4 over flv: checked.
9. Downloads Tab; Download destination: /root/desktop; silent download: unchecked.
10. Sites tab; enable/disable websites; youtube: checked; vimeo: checked; metacafe: checked; other streaming websites: checked.
11. Alerts tab; enable alerts; errors: checked; video info: checked; tips: checked.
12. Select close. This is how my preferences are set. Obviously you may need to adjust for your machine.
13. Navigate to Youtube.
14. Select a video.
15. After loading, the Gxine plug-in dialogue fills the Youtube player. A moment later, Gxine opens. Select /View/Window size/ your selection (I choose 100%, about the same size as the YouTube player.

That's it on my end. It worked immediately for me on the first try. You may have to make adjustments if you're using a different Puppy, have a different version of Firefox, have a different Stand alone player, etc.

I hope this will be given a go by many out there with older machines. I'm anxious to see reports that it worked as well for others as myself.

Eathray

[RetroTechGuy]

[Eathray]

[Flash]

Since this is supposed to be a how-to, why don't you edit your first post to include in detail the steps you took to install it? Think of it as writing the recipe for your award-winning brownies.

[Eathray]

[Eathray]

Update:

I just tested the FlashVideoReplacer on 4.3RemasterByTtuuxxx. Firefox is 3.5.3... same set up.

First test crashed, but I had just replaced some plug-ins and had some windows open.

After closing windows and reopening Firefox, test was successful, three tries in a row.

Looks like this plugin works on 4.3Remaster.

Eathray

[Monsie]

Unfortunately, this plug-in appears to be incompatible with SeaMonkey even though I am running the latest version.
I have checked the useragent settings and found that SeaMonkey is running compatibility mode with Firefox by default.

If anyone knows of any work-arounds here to try this add-on for SeaMonkey, I would be most grateful.

Thanks,
Monsie

[playdayz]

Flashvideoreplacer is working for me in FF 13b. It is kind of nice--it embeds gnome-mpayler, or runs it standalone, etc. Nice clear control panel for it--you can choose how to play each video. I am going to recommend to anyone having trouble playing youtube videos.

[Keef]

Works well on 214X with Aurora 6.0a.
This is on a Armada M700 850mhz with 576mb Ram. Youtube is always choppy on this, so this will be useful.

[Monsie]

Well, I tried a few file hacks in attempt to install this add-on in SeaMonkey. Although I made some progress, the installer aborted at the last moment upon detecting that my browser was indeed SeaMonkey... So, I finally gave up --at least for now.

Instead, I decided to e-mail the developer. In the event that I get a reply, I will post an update here. For those who are interested, I have attached a copy of the e-mail message that I sent.

Given that SeaMonkey shares much code with Firefox, and, in fact, runs in compatibility mode with Firefox by default, I am hopeful that the developer will be willing and able to support SeaMonkey in a future release.

Since Adobe has chosen to abandon further flash player development for the Linux based platform, this add-on might prove to be very popular in the near future, and hence, support for other browsers would be most desirable.

Monsie

[disciple]

[nooby]

Interesting indeed.

My very naive wonder is this:

1.) Is this compatible with an installed Adobe Flash
or is it an Either Or? Either one have Adoble Flash
active and can then not use this "replacer" or one
can chose which one that are active on which file?

2. My install of Adoble Flash works for the most time
and then it suddenly stall. Usually it works again
if I shut down FF and start it up again.

So if this replacer is compatible it would come in handy
at such situations?

[Monsie]

[bigpup]

Eathray,

Thanks for informing us about this plugin.

I would suggest changing the subject of this topic so that it identifies more clearly what it is.
Newly Discovered Video Assistance for Winded Old Junkers does not really describe, this is about a plugin for Firefox, that replaces Flash Player.

[nooby]