New version 2.4 just uploaded to OS4Depot! Input always welcome.
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Anyone intrested in doing some Beta testing of the next verision of CliipDown? If your intrested PM me with your email address.
Changes: Using the latest version of getvideo and MPlayer, YouTube streaming now works properly!
Now supports parallel downloads, even while playing a video or viewing files as long as you don't have "delete file" mode activated.
Added a "Save and Play with getvideo" menu item. (non-Async)
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This thread is for feedback and tips on ClipDown V2.1 which has just been released to OS4Depot. The extensive guide file should answer most questions but feel free to ask me here.
Tip1: Direct Play of newer (last 1-2 years?) YouTube videos will not play properly and cause ClipDown to appear hung. The addressing scheme for more recent YouTube videos has changed and it appeas they cannot be handled properly by "getvideo", which ClipDown uses. Be patient and eventually ClipDown will timeout and return control to the user.
Workaound: Select "Save with getvideo" from the download menu and save the file to RAM: or your harddisk. Then play with MPlayer.
I'd like to hear feedback from users on this issue. Should I modify the "Auto Select" mode for YouTube to always download the video first and then play with MPlayer to aviod this problem?
Tip2: ClipDown can be started from the command line with all options supported. Type "ClipDown -h" in the shell to view available options. This allows for usage in scripts or "spalshlauncher" (on OS4Depot) to start ClipDown on a given programs screen after you launch the program via the script.
Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated!
Edited by ktadd on 2009/8/9 0:37:49 Edited by ktadd on 2009/8/10 22:08:05 Edited by ktadd on 2009/8/12 4:11:59 Edited by ktadd on 2009/8/14 10:05:21 Edited by ktadd on 2009/8/20 6:06:17
After giving it some thought I've decided to launch the external programs as a seperate task. This means control to ClipDown is returned right away and if a video cannot be played the task just ends without hanging ClipDown. This will allow older YouTube videos to be played in auto play mode. This also has the benefit of allowing mutiple downloads to take place in parallel instead of just one at a time.
I've got a partial implementation already and it looks promising, although I'll have set a limit of one copy of MPlayer running at a time because Mplayer has problems with trying to run two instances at the same time. This also allows me to work around the problem of the latest MPlayer not exiting properly which is good because the latest MPlayer steams video much better.
I'd like some feedback. Do enough people find value in CliipDown for me to continue investing time into it?
Hi ktadd Haven't downloaded it yet but it sounds like a useful program,( especially for watching youtube Videos) I just hope its easy to use I will download it tomorrow when back on the Micro and give it a try
This Puny World will bow down to Professor Chaos Prepare for the greatest Villan you have ever seen!!
Yes, saving the video works. But getvideo has had to be updated several times due to changes at YouTube. I think mplayer doesn't follow redirections (well enough anyway).
Haven't downloaded it yet but it sounds like a useful program,( especially for watching youtube Videos) I just hope its easy to use
It's very easy to use. Just copy the URL into the clipboard and click a button. Setup is a little more difficult but I included a Readme 1st file to try and explain it, so make sure you read it. The most difficult part will be setting up getvideo. It has it's own docs to explain how to do it and it is worth it.
One note on MPlayer. Make sure you get the version outlined in the Readme 1st file. The lastest version has a bug and doesn't exit properly which causes ClipDown to hang because it never returns. I'm working on a workaround for that now. The latest version of MPlayer streams files better than the older version.
Yes, saving the video works. But getvideo has had to be updated several times due to changes at YouTube. I think mplayer doesn't follow redirections (well enough anyway).
I think the problem is that YouTube keeps changing the way they address the videos. In any case I'm going to add a save then play option to the getvideo selection as it will be easy since get video already supports it.
@ktadd Hi, well downloaded and installed, a few false starts due to "IIFOCS*" but now corrected and using it at the moment to Download youtube vids to watch later, working well
* (IIFOCS) Idiot in front of Computer Screen. ie, Me
This Puny World will bow down to Professor Chaos Prepare for the greatest Villan you have ever seen!!
ClipDown v2.2 had just been released to OS4Depot. It now runs most commands as a seperate process so you can do multipe download in parallel. This alow works around the issues with the newest version of MPlayer not returning properly. YouTube videos play great with the newet Mplayer!
Here is the full list of changes:
Version 2.2 (released) Modified to run most commands asyncronously. Allows multiple downloads while viewing and playing files with delete files disabled. Using latest version of getvideo and MPlayer, YouTube streaming works! Prevents hangs with new Mplayer not exiting properly. Added "Save then Play" with getvideo selection to Download menu. Added FILE_DOWNLOAD tooltype to start in FIle Download mode instead of Auto. Changed gadget hint so it's much smaller, less annoying. Modified Amazon mp3 site support to directly play song clips clips. (Just copy play.arrow URL to clipboard and click action button in Auto mode.) Added experimental .m3u playlist support in Auto mode. (CAUTION: Can't abort!) Added Help menu for easy access to supported video sites and file types. Modified 'Auto Select Action' so it now plays video for all the following sites: www.blip.tv www.funnyordie.com www.gametrailers.com www.guba.com www.last.fm www.megavideo.com vids.myspace.com www.scivee.tv www.tubevube.com www.youtube.com
For people having trouble getting all the programs setup to run ClipDown, here are some simplified instructions:
The simplest way is to: Put 'wget' into your 'C:' directory. Put getvideo.rexx into your 'C:' director or 'S:Arexx' directory Put 'MPlayer in the 'C:' directory. Set ClipDown's VPLAYER tooltype like this: VPLAYER="C:MPlayer"
ClipDown v2.3 has just been uploaded to OS4Depot with the following changes:
Version 2.3 (released) Fixed bug where saving with getvideo would fail if save path had spaces Added "Ask Save Location" menu item which can be toggled on/off.
Sorry for the frequent changes. I think I'm done for now unless a critical bug is discovered.
Thanks guys! It's nice to know that all the hard work is appreciated. I think OWB along with the various bookmark add-ons and ClipDown v2.3 now makes for a pretty decent browsing experience with on OS4. When gnash gets here it will be even better!
Thanks to all who have put in the hard work to get us this far!
Your tools is really cool but IMHO is a lot difficult to use expecially when you install it for the first time, the tooltype config is an hell for me not to mention the various deps with the other applications, so how about adding a proper Reaction GUI like the one written for Gnash ?
samo79 wrote: @ktadd Your tools is really cool but IMHO is a lot difficult to use expecially when you install it for the first time, the tooltype config is an hell for me
Sorry to hear it's difficult to use.
ClipDown was initially designed to just be a download assistant for OWB until it received it's own download capabilities built-in. Initially it only relied on wget being in the C: directory. I never really expected it to devepe into what is has now.
I chose to use ToolTypes and command line options for setup so it's easy to run multiple copies of ClipDown taylored for the specific program you want to use it with. (ie. different screens and options.) In this case I think it would be more of a pain to have to start the program then change the options from a preferences program each time you wanted to use it with a different programs.
I know this can be a pain for some people so I tried to provied good documentation to explain all the options.
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not to mention the various deps with the other applications,
Well, if I didn't use existing programs it would take me a very very long time to code up the capability they provide built in and ClipDown would never exist. I did think about building in the getvideo functionallity but that would also cause significant delay and with gnash on the horizon to play flash videos I'm not sure it's worth the effort. wget, getvideo and MPlayer are all significant efforts and without them ClipDown would not exist. [/quote]
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so how about adding a proper Reaction GUI like the one written for Gnash ?
Sorry, I don't think I'm going to spend the time doing that right now. Maybe if there is a lot of demand but it wouldn't eliminate the need to install the dependency programs.
If you put the dependency programs in the C: directory there should be not setup required unless you want to set different options.
Do people find Shift-Clicking on a ToolType entry to activate or deactivate it or modifying Tooltypes that difficult? I'd like to receive more input on this.
I had some problems trying to stream youtube with ClipDown. I noticed a couple of things.
You're using "run rx getvideo.rexx" ? I guess that background CLI created by run cmd has smaller stack size than what's required by MPlayer causing instability. MPlayer needs huge stack.
Do anybody know how to set default stack for all background CLI's ? (DOS prefs or Workbench prefs or something else ?)
I'm usually using a root level of a partition as download dir. I had defined a tooltype with "temp:". So ClipDown tried to download a file into "temp: /<blahblah>.flv" (notice a space char between ':' and '/') so it created a new dir with empty name and downloaded that file into it. It gave me an error message saying it can't save that file but saved it anyway (?).
Rock lobster bit me - so I'm here forever X1000 + AmigaOS 4.1 FE "Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system." - Seymour Cray
ClipDown was initially designed to just be a download assistant for OWB until it received it's own download capabilities built-in. Initially it only relied on wget being in the C: directory. I never really expected it to devepe into what is has now.
Yes I know that
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I chose to use ToolTypes and command line options for setup so it's easy to run multiple copies of ClipDown taylored for the specific program you want to use it with. (ie. different screens and options.) In this case I think it would be more of a pain to have to start the program then change the options from a preferences program each time you wanted to use it with a different programs.
Yes but aniway if one develop a simple GUI, tooltypes can remain as is and can be usefull if someone need more control over it, one choice doesn't exclude another
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Well, if I didn't use existing programs it would take me a very very long time to code up the capability they provide built in and ClipDown would never exist. I did think about building in the getvideo functionallity but that would also cause significant delay and with gnash on the horizon to play flash videos I'm not sure it's worth the effort. wget, getvideo and MPlayer are all significant efforts and without them ClipDown would not exist.
Agree
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Sorry, I don't think I'm going to spend the time doing that right now. Maybe if there is a lot of demand but it wouldn't eliminate the need to install the dependency programs.
If you put the dependency programs in the C: directory there should be not setup required unless you want to set different options.
Do people find Shift-Clicking on a ToolType entry to activate or deactivate it or modifying Tooltypes that difficult? I'd like to receive more input on this.
Ok you are right, is correct to see more feedback on that from other users, maybe I'm the only one ...
Imagine that my situation using ClipDown is the same of your avatar