Youtube Challenge

[greengeek]

I would like to suggest a challenge -

What is the most lightweight PC (oldest and/or slowest) that can successfully view the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ns4WOq-pYE
(It is a brief dragway car crash video - nothing fancy. Should be easy to play)

NOTE : the video needs to be viewed real time - not downloaded.
NOTE 2: OK - maybe I should extend this a bit - some people apparently download the video, but play it simultaneously via a standalone player (non-browser based). I guess that qualifies too. Anything that makes it possible to view a YT video 'more or less' real time.

The reason for the challenge is that I have just discovered (what everyone else probably already knew...) that cpu speed is not the greatest determining factor in being able to handle such videos online - there are other factors too - such as what 'features' are built in to the cpu and also how the browser has been compiled.

So - do you have a low powered machine? Can it view that video realtime?

If so I am keen to hear what version of puppy you are running, what cpu and ram you have, what browser you've got - and how you've tweaked your machine to achieve this.

[starhawk]

FAIL on my WYSE thin client.

WYSE VX0-Series V90
Geode GX500 CPU (366MHz)
512 RAM + 512 Swap
AnitaOS 160114 Non-SMP (P412 based)
Rosewill RNX-N150UBE WiFi b/g/draft-n Adapter (on an 'n' network)
Seamonkey 2.12 + Flash 10.3

Used Seamonkey because I couldn't futz QtWeb into recognizing Flash 'Playback' consists of skipping roughly five seconds of frames every time I click [PLAY], and then pausing again. Probably I'm trying to exceed the CPU's capabilities -- but if I ever get a working 1gig stick of RAM, I'll try again. Even 512meg of swap causes noticeable drag.

I'm posting this as an entry, even though it's not what I'd consider successful, because technically (and ONLY technically) the video does load in a browser and attempt to play. It just doesn't do it very well

EDIT: [to include 'Net speed] my connection is a Verizon 4g LTE MiFi4620LE -- we get 4g service at 3g speeds here not going to do a speed test but suffice to say I'm in absolutely no danger of saturating the capabilities of that Rosewill network adapter... probably it's going at well under 5Mbps, mostly because the WYSE box is a wimpy POS I've seen it hit 20Mbps (not recently!) on my netbook, but that's a whole other level of computing.

[Semme]

I suppose you could rig this to have your browser hand it off..

Code: Select all

movgrab -f mp4:480x360 -o - 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ns4WOq-pYE' | mplayer -framedrop -

[NickAu]

Just a Question here.

How about internet speed be included in the results I do not care how fast your pc is, If you are on dialup for example even a 5 gazillion ghz multi million core processor with a video card that would make the computer on the star ship enterprize look old school will lag if you try playing it in real time.

[666philb]

in firefox .... install greasemonkey addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... asemonkey/

then install viewtube script http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/87011

[Semme]

Given a fast enough connection, is bloated FF really the right tool for the job? If anything, NOT a current version..

[666philb]

had a look and it also works in these other browsers .... plays the video embedded with mplayer.

viewtube script works in ..

Mozilla:
(Firefox, Seamonkey, IceWeasel, IceCat, TenFourFox etc)
-> with Greasemonkey add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/grease...
-> or with Scriptish add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/script...
Chromium:
(or based on: Chrome, Iron etc)
-> no add-on needed, save the script and drag & drop it on the extensions page
-> or with Tampermonkey add-on: http://code.google.com/p/tampermonkey/
Opera:
-> no add-on needed, just place the script in the JavaScript files directory
-> or with ViolentMonkey extension: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/...
Konqueror:
-> with KHTML-Userscript extension: http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=14...
Epiphany:
-> using the Greasemonkey extension from Epiphany extensions
Midori:
-> using “User Addons

[starhawk]

Just edited my post to discuss my 'Net speed. Not a simple question, at least for me...

[666philb]

although mplayer can have it's own set of issues on some setups ..... audio video sync problems !

my actual preferred method for playing any flash video is to use a flash downloader .... like 'flashgot' and then start playing the downloading file with vlc

i think that vlc should replace mplayer in puppy

[Semme]

Hey PhilB, nyyyce! Mucho..

[greengeek]

How about internet speed be included in the results

I think this challenge will only yield valid results for those who have an internet connection that does not choke their download speed. What I am trying to get to here is a collection of information that highlights EXACTLY what is required in a hardware sense in order to interface Youtube and grab/display the stream effectively.

I know some people have reported surprisingly good results with low powered machines, and others have reported poor results with higher speed cpus, so I really want to see the real bottlenecks quantified and overcome.

So far, from personal experience this weekend, I have discovered that one of my PCs runs puppy perfectly (Turbopup) but can't play YT videos just because its cpu lacks the 'cmov' feature (actually I'm stunned that the puppy boots ok, but it does)

I'm suspecting that there will be someone out there who has a real low speed cpu that has all the required mmx etc features, and the right browser or downloader and flash configuration to access YT ok.

And I'm hoping we can all learn some tricks along the way...

I reckon looking at the 'processor' tab in 'Hardinfo' and checking the cpu features is a good start in terms of determining if any given PC can handle a recent browser.

But of course - these results mean nothing if you are on dialup...

[cimarron]

It plays fine on my Thinkpad X24, about 12 years old, Pentium III(M) running at 733MHz (limited to keep it from overheating) with 256M RAM. I've got GuyDog on it. And Firefox 16 with Flash 11.1, and NoScript to allow just the scripts I want.

[mikeb]

the sample given is smooth enough on a pentium 3 1ghz (pc100 ram)...taking around 80% (note when the browser is downloading it its 100% since browsers seem to need lots of cpu to get files compared to other methods..actually worse with higher bandwidth)
Note using movgrab piped to mplayer takes 5-10% on the same machine.

the cpu version is solved with an older flash player as mentioned and is not a browser issue.

We normally play direct or use download you tube as mp4 addon.

As also mentioned there is not only codec overhead but with flash there has to be a YUV to RGB conversion and then its rendered with X11 ...this is what gives the terrible performance. (full screen only improves data throughput by using 3d acceleration for certain cards and does not help with the conversion at all.)

mike

[ardvark]

PLAYS BUT NOT AT AN ACCEPTABLE LEVEL

There was a bit of stuttering in the beginning and at one point towards the end.

My attempt was on my Acer Aspire R1600 using an Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz processor with 1 GB's of DDR2 memory and a NVIDIA ION graphics chipset (Nvidia 173.14.37-k3.2.44-Precise video driver.)

Google Chrome was my browser although I couldn't completely tell if it was playing using the HTML5 player or Flash Player, I'm guessing HTML5.

EDIT: PLAYS MUCH BETTER IN OPERA using Flash Player 11.2. Only one glitch in the very beginning, the rest of the video played perfectly.

Regards...

[starhawk]

If you have real Google Chrome (not Chromium) then it should have Pepperflash unless you've disabled it. If you've disabled it, you're using HTML5. If you don't know, or you haven't disabled it, Pepperflash.

Just a thought -- is Gnash or similar opensource? IIRC it is -- and if so, it can be compiled by us mere mortal Puppians One thing I've learned about compiling is that if your CPU doesn't support eg CMOV, that instruction will be replaced with equivalents. (IIRC it was technosaurus who patiently explained that to me. I'll try to find the relevant post.)

EDIT: gaah, can't find that post >,< I'll look a little harder tho.
EDIT2: found it! had the wrong thread. it's here --> http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=751946

@ardvark -- no idea what to tell you. that's very odd.

[ardvark]

If you have real Google Chrome (not Chromium) then it should have Pepperflash unless you've disabled it. If you've disabled it, you're using HTML5. If you don't know, or you haven't disabled it, Pepperflash.

Hi...

Yes, I'm using the real Chrome and I don't have flash disabled. Yet, the videos are defaulting to HTML5 even though I have not requested that on Youtube's site.

EDIT: This page might explain why...

https://productforums.google.com/forum/ ... 5-false%5D

(for some reason the url feature isn't working correctly right now. )

Regards...

[Semme]

Starhawk >> here and three below.

[Semme]

Nevermind..

[NickAu]

I have good download speed see screeshot.


But when I try and play a movie from nowvideo Its laggy as hell no matter what browser I use no matter what OS i use. Even my laptop with a quad core cpu and ati raedon grafix card and 8 gig of ram( Win7 os) is the same. I do not have problems with any other site re real time watching. Allowing the movie to buffer up first yeilds the same results. So its not dl speed.

Here is a link to a movie on nowvideo The sample movie is Basic Instinct.
http://www.nowvideo.sx/video/4f7ddc15200df


Maybe we should make it the nowvideo challange lol

[Semme]

Nah, they've got some kind of site player goin on.. not fair. rtmpdump/srv/suck anyone?