Youtube seems to have switched completely to "https" (SSL) URLs...?

[shenani]

Over the past few days, the frequency of non-https URLs from Youtube has been decreasing steadily.

Now it seems like there are no more "http://" URLs offered by Youtube at all.

The only workaround seems to be...

youtube-dl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[insert URL here] -o - | mplayer -

...as discussed here.

The problem with that workaround is that seeking is broken.

Is anyone else having similar problems with Youtube (and mplayer)? Have you figured out a solution?

Thanks for your help.

[phihag]

Yes, we're seeing this as well. Maybe we should offer an HTTP server to mplayer?

[shenani]

Speaking of randomly cranky software --

I'd gladly maintain a fork of mplayer that supports SSL (something like "mplayer-ssl"), but at the moment I have no idea how to add the functionality... once it exists, the only task would be to patch each new official release.

Strange that the developers of mplayer haven't bothered to figure out something like this by now. SSL support is worthwhile functionality to add, even if it means a substantial refactoring of existing code.

[shenani]

And seems like even the workaround has stopped working.

Output:

youtube-dl -f 18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AHH0bdNKyM -o - | mplayer -Warning unknown option fm at line 4
MPlayer SVN-r37257-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2014 MPlayer Team

Playing -.
Reading from stdin...
[youtube] 4AHH0bdNKyM: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 4AHH0bdNKyM: Extracting video information
[youtube] 4AHH0bdNKyM: Downloading DASH manifest
[download] Destination: -
[download] 0.0% of 4.84MiB at 426.99KiB/s ETA 00:11libavformat version 56.2.100 (internal)
Seek failed
Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
Seek failed
(repeat "Cannot seek...Seek failed for a screenful of messages")

Exiting... (End of file)

I wonder what's going on...

[jaimeMF]

The command works fine for me, maybe it's something in your configuration file (from the Warning unknown option fm at line 4 message).

If you want a fork of mplayer with ssl support you may be interested in mpv. It doesn't use a bundle copy of ffmpeg, so you just need to compile ffmpeg with ssl support and link to it.

@phihag Would that be part of the --play option?

[shenani]

MPV fails to even begin compilation. I've opened a new issue about it, but who can tell if it'll get properly sorted.

In the meantime, I have an idea:

• a standalone version of mplayer that is bundled with youtube-dl
• the player is simply patched for SSL support so that users can have a complete "Youtube Player" that doesn't require any further hassle
• the youtube-dl script can remain available for those who want to use a different player

Any issues related to mplayer would be redirected back to the developers of mplayer. The only issues that would be considered here would be related to youtube-dl. Overall, not much would change aside from offering users a complete mplayer-based solution for Youtube (and other sites') videos.

It could be quite exciting.

[shenani]

So I wasted a couple of days mucking about with mpv to no success, and now I've managed to get mplayer working again.

Edit by @phihag: Snip ranting

Now. back to the issue at hand: an mplayer workaround for streaming SSL.

The "unknown option at line 4" error still pops up, but I can play videos on my local system without any problems.

Now, for youtube streams, however, mplayer gives this output:

---

Warning unknown option fm at line 4
MPlayer SVN-r37257-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2014 MPlayer Team

Playing -.
Reading from stdin...
[youtube] uTy_wUkWpkM: Downloading webpage
[youtube] uTy_wUkWpkM: Extracting video information
[youtube] uTy_wUkWpkM: Downloading DASH manifest
[download] Destination: -
libavformat version 56.2.100 (internal)
[download] 0.1% of 829.71KiB at 74.03KiB/s ETA 00:11libavformat file format detected.
Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
Seek failed
[download] 100% of 829.71KiB in 00:03
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0xb7d5c0e0]moov atom not found
LAVF_header: av_open_input_stream() failed
Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
Seek failed
Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
(...)
Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
Seek failed

---

MPlayer never opens. Youtube-dl seems to be trying to download the file instead.

Any thoughts?

---

P.S. The format is "18" -- mp4 -- but it seems to be downloading a file in DASH format....?

[phihag]

Please remain civil and on topic. We're perfectly fine with both mplayer and mpv.

@shenani Can you share your exact command-line?

youtube-dl uTy_wUkWpkM -o - | mplayer - works great for me with youtube-dl 2014.12.16.2 and mplayer 2.0 from debian sid.

By the way, the equivalent youtube-dl uTy_wUkWpkM -o - | mpv - works great too with mpv 0.7.1.

[ghost]

mplayer 2.0

mplayer2 isn't mplayer.

[jaimeMF]

It also works with mplayer 1.1.

mplayer seems to support compiling with gnutls in the svn head: https://trac.mplayerhq.hu/ticket/2183. The freebsd port use it: http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports?view=revision&revision=372967

[shenani]

Success....!

Upgraded mplayer for SSL and am now enjoying Youtube, no more workarounds required.

Thanks, @phihag and @jaimeMF!