Bye Bye YouTube?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Boolah

Needless to say, I can't really do that. So, it looks like we're YouTube-less again until tmiranda can bail us out.

I'm working on it and have a lot of the basics working. That's the good news. The (sort of) bad news is that you won't be able to actually watch anything until the open source version of Sage comes out. There is a slim possibility I can make it play videos in the current version, but no promises on that.

[Fuzzy]

There are some 'simple' limitations in the way sage pulls web content that hopefully can be fixed. It seemingly won't do https (what's stopping youtube at this point), and also doesn't send a proper useragent string (what's preventing PlayOn from working in HD).

[tmiranda]

I'm going on vacation this week and won't have internet access so I thought I'd give a quick update before I leave. I've got a lot of the functionality working now and plan to have an alpha version out by the end of next week. With the alpha you should be able to:

- Search by keyword.
- Browse popular videos.
- Browse popular by category.
- Browse channels by category.
- Define favorite channels and favorite videos.
- Browse your favorite channels and videos.
- Play videos after downloading them. (Progressive download will work once the open source version comes out.)

The menus will need to be cleaned up but functionality wise things should work. My kids are happy they can use the TV to watch their YouTube heros.

I will post a developers manifest here instead of submitting it to the plugin system mainly because I want to get a grip on the usage. YouTube monitors application traffic and only allows a certain amount before they start charging. I am using a free account I created and am not sure how fast it will hit the limit.

Tom

[tmiranda]

OK, here is something to try - if you dare This is really an alpha more than a beta. It has the following known issues:
- The layout is similar to the default Recordings menu, the videos are in the left pane and the information for the focused video is in the right pane. In this alpha the right pane is incomplete.
- After playing a video focus may or may not return to the correct place.
- All videos must be downloaded before playing.
- The menu transitions are ugly.
- It only works in Windows. Linux support is on the To Do list

To install the plugin unzip the attached manifest to the Sage install directory on your server then go to the PlugIn Manager and look for "YouTube" under the UI Mod section.

After installing the plugin stop the server and change the property youtube_download_before_playing from false to true. If the property doesn't exist you can add it. (Sorry about that, just noticed I didn't have the default set properly.)

I'll provide support in this thread.

[gdippel]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

After installing the plugin stop the server and change the property youtube_download_before_playing from false to true. (Sorry about that, just noticed I didn't have the default set properly.)

I can't find this entry in sage.properties.

[Boolah]

Just installed this and have only just played a couple of videos with it, but it seems to be working just fine. The UI is a little rough around the edges, but the core functionality seems to be working well. Great start tmiranda - thanks for your hard work!

[Boolah]

Originally Posted by gdippel

I can't find this entry in sage.properties.

I think you need to load some of the YouTube menus or try to play a video before the setting shows up in sage.properties. When I first installed the plugin without actually trying to use it, the setting was missing from sage.properties. But after trying to load a video (and getting an error in doing so), the setting showed up in sage.properties.

[gdippel]

Thanks Boolah, that did the trick. Tmiranda, great work, thanks.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Boolah

Just installed this and have only just played a couple of videos with it, but it seems to be working just fine. The UI is a little rough around the edges, but the core functionality seems to be working well. Great start tmiranda - thanks for your hard work!

The UI is VERY rough! I focused most of my efforts on learning the new YouTube v3 API and getting it to work in Java. I will now start cleaning up the UI and adding functionality.

If there is functionality you'd like to see please let me know.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by gdippel

Thanks Boolah, that did the trick. Tmiranda, great work, thanks.

I'll update my post to clarify this....

[brianrent]

Youtube videos work and downloading before watching is not a problem in my opinion but is there a way to get the movie trailers plugin to work with this? thats all i really use youtube for and it just returns no results. i did do the workaround posted a few weeks ago but dont know if something need changed back from that.
Thanks.

[brianrent]

I returned the OnlineVideoLinks.properties file back to before Boolah's fix and still no go on the movie trailers.
Any suggestions?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by brianrent

I returned the OnlineVideoLinks.properties file back to before Boolah's fix and still no go on the movie trailers.
Any suggestions?

I am not familiar with that plugin, I will take a look to see where it gets the trailer videos from. In the meantime you can try:

Browse Featured Channels -> Film and Entertainment -> MOVIECLIPS (or MOVIES Coming Soon)

You can also search for "trailers" and get a big list of videos.

Once you find the Channels that have the trailers you are looking for you can add the Channel as a Favorite.

[gdippel]

Youtube plays fine on my server/client PC but I get a playback error message after the file downloads when I attempt to play it on my HDTV through my HD300. Any suggestions?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by gdippel

Youtube plays fine on my server/client PC but I get a playback error message after the file downloads when I attempt to play it on my HDTV through my HD300. Any suggestions?

I'm not sure why it's not working. I'll ty to re-create it over the next day or two. Can you post the logfile and tell me what error message you are getting?

I have another release almost ready with more features and a cleaned up UI. I'll try to address your issue before I post it.

[gdippel]

I can't seem to find a log file. Should it be in the SageTV directory?

[tmiranda]

Yes. If you have debug logging on it will be in the same directory as the sage executable.

[gdippel]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Can you post the logfile and tell me what error message you are getting?

I've attached a jpeg of the error message when viewing via HD300. Also, I've attached what I believe to be the pertinent portion of the log file after I turned on debugging.

[tmiranda]

OK, I can reproduce that error. Thanks for the info.

[tmiranda]

Sorted it out. The next release (which I will hopefully get out later today) will NOT include the fix.