[pwnna]

> Support for H.264 on Linux if the appropriate gstreamer plug-ins are installed

\o/

[lawl]

I don't think that's a good thing for the open web.

:'(

Then again I do like that I can watch more YouTube Videos in a reasonable resolution now. Most webm transcodes are just available in low quality.

[spindritf]

I just download youtube videos[1]. It has many advantages over youtube.com. Hardware acceleration is one but also no stalling when skipping ahead, no disappearing videos that you planned to watch later, no need to sign in.

Actually, youtube as a repository of material for download works much better than youtube as a streaming site.

[1] http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

[onosendai]

I second this. I've been using youtube-dl for years and it's essential for viewing video content on your terms.

A little know fact that no one seems to mention about this tool is that, the name notwithstanding, it also supports many other sites besides Youtube (use --list-extractors for a full list, currently 108!)

[arprocter]

I also found newer versions have a --buffer-size option which allows you to set a huge buffer and download at a much higher speed

[x0054]

On OSX I highly recommend YouView[1]. It streams H.264, and CPU usage during playback is 1/3 of what the browser player uses. I guess it really inconsequential unless you are on a laptop. On a laptop it's a difference in 1-1.5 hours of battery life.

[1] https://mrgeckosmedia.com/applications/info/YouView

[rcthompson]

I used YouView for a while, but I switched to Mactubes because YouView doesn't have Retina support. But I much prefer YouView's interface, and I would switch back in a moment if they released a Retina-enabled version.

[x0054]

I have a rMBP as well. You can use a little program called Retinizer[1] to convert YouView to retina compatible app. Retinizer works on almost any cocoa app, I have tried it on a bunch. All it does is set a flag in the info.plist file that tells OSX that the app is HiDPI compatible, the OS does the rest. You should also get Maximizer[2] to add full screen app option for it.

[1] http://retinizer.mikelpr.com/ [2] http://chpwn.com/apps/maximizer.html

[rcthompson]

Retinizer is nice, but it only "retinizes" the UI controls in YouView, not the actual video view, which is the part that matters.

[jsilence]

Awesome! Thank you for this hint!

[Crito]

I do the same. The one disadvantage is you lose the ability to click on overlayed links to related videos that some people often put at the end of their videos.

[erichurkman]

I could argue that being a benefit -- the overlays and other annoyances during the video playback go away, too. So do the YouTube comments.

[Crito]

I'd say it depends entirely on the video/channel. For instance, on Brady Haran channels (Periodic Videos, Sixy Symbols, Numberphile, etc) the overlays are very useful as they link to videos about tangentially related topics, followup videos on the same topic, or even other videos on the same topic featuring a different professor explaining things a different way.

[saurabh]

I use SMTube[1] for that.

http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/en/smtube

[voltagex_]

The only issue I have with youtube-dl is that there's nothing stopping Google from playing hardball and blocking youtube-dl completely.

That said, I'd love a Firefox plugin that dumps the YT url directly to youtube-dl.

[panzi]

This userscript downloads the video via the browser. I guess YouTube shouldn't be able to tell if the user downloads the video or views it with the html5 player. The script can be used with Firefox (Greasemonkey) and Chrome. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/98782 Please only use it to download videos that are under a free license or otherwise allow downloads. ;)

[anom987]

And no ads!

[zobzu]

I remember reading mozilla saying this is a battle they have lost.

If they had more marketshare, they'd have won. The open web would have won.

[spindritf]

What are the appropriate plugins and how do I find out if I have them? I have an Intel card and normally use mplayer-vaapi[1] to get hardware acceleration for decoding.

[1] https://launchpad.net/~sander-vangrieken/+archive/vaapi

[revasm]

At a minimum you'll need gstreamer1.0 and gst-plugins-ugly[1]. Perhaps gst-libav[2] would be an alternative to plugins-ugly.

OT: Check out http://mpv.io/. It's a forked mplayer2 with native support for libva:

  mpv --hwdec=vaapi --vo=vaapi

[1] http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/plugins.html

[2] http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/modules/gst-libav.html

[mhurron]

I believe it is Gstreamer 0.10.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=806917

Gstreamer 1.0 is a work in progress.

[ushi]

Yes, that's right. Works with gstreamer0.10-ugly-plugins on Arch Linux.

[padenot]

I'm not sure we have done the necessary work for vaapi to work sanely. However, software h264/aac video work just fine, here. mp3 also works on this release (same deal, you have to have the right gstreamer plugins), iirc (it certainly works on Nightly, which is what I use).

[GhotiFish]

If Google didn't buckle like a house of cards on this. I wonder where we'd be?

arg.

[acdha]

> If Google didn't buckle like a house of cards on this. I wonder where we'd be?

Content providers weren't jumping to more double their storage costs or deal with another immature toolchain so I rather suspect we'd be where we are now: Flash got an extra couple years reprieve until everyone accepts reality and implements H.264. This is particularly true since no matter WebM's merits it was going to be worse when transcoded from the H.264 almost everyone is actually uploading.

The real fight needs to be over the next generation of codecs. If H.265 has serious competition there's a lot more reason to believe things will go differently, as they did with e.g. Opus where the open solution was also better in addition to being free.

[protomyth]

I dearly wish the MPEG-LA members would just charge for the patents for hardware implementations and go royalty-free for software and content for H.265. It would still make them money and get it standard quick.

[Joeri]

If we're going to be wishing for things, why not just wish for the end of software patents? This stuff shouldn't be patent-encumbered in the first place. It could have been developed like html5, a bunch of companies with common interests agreeing on a standard without charging for it. But because this is patentable matter that was impossible from the outset. The shape of the legal system enforces the shape of the industry.

[protomyth]

Because one is more likely to happen than the other.

[yuhong]

I do wonder that if it was declared that math is not patentable simply because it is executed on a computer whether this would apply to hardware implementation too.

[pwnna]

Hopefully Daala/Opus would take off soon so we don't have to worry about these things anymore..

[shmerl]

Daala is at least 2 years away still.

[gcr]

Are you referring to this? http://xiphmont.livejournal.com/61927.html

[shmerl]

This was available already in the previous release, but disabled by default (media.gstreamer.enabled)