Re: [Pan-users] OT: Youtube/minitube Was: Trying to use 'new' Pan

[Duncan]

Maurice Batey posted on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:31:16 +0100 as excerpted:

> On Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:24:27 +0000, Duncan wrote:
> 
>> minitube's absolutely AMAZING

I was going to post its homepage link and forgot...

http://flavio.tordini.org/minitube

>   I see that Mageia-2 has Minitube 1.7.1 in its library.
> 
>   Is that a reasonably up-to-date version?

It's worth mentioning that there's a link to a 32-bit x86 binary build on 
the web site as well as setup instructions, tho he says it might be 
outdated and encourages people on Linux to use their distro's version if 
possible.

I'm running minitube 2.0 here (gentoo).  1.9 is in the gentoo repo as 
well, listed as stable while 2.0 is ~arch (testing).  That's for both x86 
and amd64.

Looking at (gentoo's) changelog, the initial minitube in gentoo was 
0.2.1 , added in June, 2009.  It hit 1.0 in May, 2010, 1.7 was added in 
January, 2012, 1.7.1 in March, 2012, and 1.8 in July, 2012.  1.7.1 was 
stabilized in April, 2012 (thus had the routine 30 days in ~arch before 
going stable), and was removed in August, 2012.

So 1.7.1 was available on gentoo as ~arch in March of last year, 
stabilized in April, and removed in August.  Five months in the tree.

Meanwhile, looking at the changelog, the major version bumps are from 0.9 
to 1.0 and from 1.9 to 2.0, so it appears that versioning is simple 
decimal (not 1.9 to 1.10 and not 1.3 to 2.0) such that the 1.9 to 2.0 
jump is no more significant than (say) the 1.1 to 1.2 jump.

So 1.7.1 is three minor version bumps behind gentoo ~arch current 2.0, 
two minor version bumps behind gentoo stable 1.9, and is just over a year 
outdated, at this point.  Whether you call that "reasonably up-to-date" 
is your call, but it's not from "the dark ages". =:^)

The one big caveat is that youtube does update its layout from time to 
time, breaking apps until they update to the new layout.  Will 1.7.1 
still work with youtube's current layout, or is it broken with current 
youtube?  If it works, you're probably good to go.

Looking at the site, however, it appears that 1.9 (released back in 
September, 2012) *WAS* such a "youtube changed" update, so unfortunately, 
1.7.1 may well not work so well.  All I can say is try it and see.

Actually, I now see that the site explicitly states that versions before 
1.8 no longer work, so you're probably up a creek without a paddle for 
1.7.1, tho you can try it.

But there's a link on-site to OpenSuSE user-created RPMs that might 
work...

There's also rpmfind, which has 2.0 for rpmfusion/fedora, and 1.9 for 
mageai cauldron and mandriva cooker.  Years ago before I switched to 
gentoo, I ran Mandrake (8 and 9 era), and would often update to (then red 
hat rawhide, now fedora) rpms off of rpmfind, pulling in additional 
updated libraries as necessary to do so.  So I'm guessing that will work, 
tho it has been years (nearing a decade) since I did it.

http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=minitube


One minor bug I did notice with older versions, however, is that at least 
here, they'd "stick" on a single video and wouldn't advance properly.  
Also, simply hitting the thumbnail for a new video wouldn't always play 
it.  But dragging the thumbnail from the preview stack to the play window 
worked consistently, as would the keyboard "next" functionality, so 
dragging is what I was in the habit of doing.  2.0 has those bugs fixed; 
both auto-advance and simply clicking a thumbnail work, now.  =:^)  But 
dragging now tends to multi-select several thumbnails instead of letting 
me drag just one to the play area, so I had to break my habit of doing it 
that way. =:^(  With the older versions you may need to do the drag or 
keyboard advance thing, as I did.

Actually, after checking the website, I see that bug was fixed in 2.0 and 
that it only occurred with the phonon-vlc backend, which is what I'm 
using here on kde.  It was apparently not an issue with the more common 
gstreamer backend, much more likely what the mageia build uses, so you 
may not see the issue after all.

>>  The only problem is that you need to supply it a search term to start
>>  with.
> 
>    Could you give an example of that, please?


Sure! =:^)  Here's some examples from my "recent keywords" searches, 
directly out of minitube.  The minitube search has good autocomplete 
(apparently google based, so it's quite good, particularly with currently 
trending searches) as well, helping to get the spelling right and 
providing additional ideas for searches after you enter just a few 
characters:

brown eyed girls

(a kpop group heavily mentioned in reaction videos, etc, for the next one)

psy gentleman

(new psy video, his last video set a youtube record, being the first 
video to a billion hits, now registering 1.5 billion plus, according to a 
comment in one of the gentlemen reaction videos)

barren cross

(this one's a "Jesus metal" group)

ace of base

(the 90s group)

kenya

(I spent 6 years there as a missionary kid back in the 70s, entered just 
to see what popped up)

mountain snow

(just to see what popped up, hoping to get some nice scenic stuff but the 
first hits were news reports on an amusement park in Georgia)

afromask

(this is a performance dance duo, mime-style dancing to azonto... a dance 
I found on youtube as well, originally west-african, but apparently 
especially popular in britain... once I chanced across azonto I searched 
on it too but the azonto search has dropped off the recent list)

major payne

(the movie, a friend recommended I look it up.  This one's a great 
example of the autocomplete as well -- I'd have never gotten "payne", 
without it, as the friend's recommendation was verbal, so I'd have simply 
entered "pain" otherwise, tho I'd have surely found the movie eventually 
due to mis-spelled youtube uploads.)

belinda carlisle

(the performer)


That's all on the "recent keywords" listing, which is what I use most of 
the time.  Before that (so from memory) I has searched on a bunch of old 
80s groups/performers, including laura brannigan (one of my favorites, 
now gone... I still marvel at her voice, she could *SING*!), nina (99 red 
balloons one-hit-wonder), stryper (80s "Jesus hair metal" group), petra 
(80s "Jesus power rock" group, apparently now back together...), scooter 
(german techno group I actually discovered from youtube and shoutcast)...

I use the channels search MUCH less frequently so haven't even filled its 
recent list, but there's three entries:

shaytards

(popular youtube one-a-day vlogger, great family fare!  I select and 
watch it)

RylieKogalniceaunu

(no clue from memory, except that it might be related to...)

bandytoaster

(this one's the original "irish dancing girl" video channel.  Youtube 
original phenomenon from some years ago, now.  She danced to a slowed 
down version of something or other, then bandytoaster sped it back up to 
normal speed, creating something of a youtube sensation as she appeared 
to be doing all these crazy and near-impossible at normal speed dance 
moves.  There's several in the series along with many responses, but 
bandytoaster only did a few of them.  It became popular enough to draw 
the attention of a jeans company, who sponsored her on a photoshoot in 
Paris for a series of jeans ads that AFAIK (I don't watch TV to know) 
probably played mostly or entirely in Europe.  That launched a bit of a 
modeling career, tho I don't know if she just did/does it on the side or 
if she did/does it full time.  This one and related along is worth a few 
hours on youtube!)


That had prompted another keyword search, now long dropped off "recent", 
"irish dancing girl".  However, most of the hits on that weren't for the 
slowed-down-to-dance, sped-back-up-to-upload, thing, but rather, on the 
whole Irish style dancing thing as popularized by riverdance.  So one day 
I spent several hours watching irish dancing, learning about the sequined 
dresses and bouncy-hair wigs, the whole hands at the side thing, the soft 
ballet style then hard tap-dance style shoes, etc.

Then there's the "electric violin" search I did back some time ago 
(violins have always been one of my favorite instruments, I like the 
sound, and when I chanced across the electric version on youtube, I 
naturally had to search it...).

"sarah scratch"  This girl and her brother are just kids, I believe 
Japanese, whose father is a dance club DJ.  I guess they hung out with 
dad during daytime practice before the club opened, and got to practice 
on pro equipment.  I guess she was about 8 or 9, her brother 6 or so, 
when I first discovered them on youtube.  They'd be in their teens now, 
but to watch what she could do before she was even ten... amazing.  (The 
brother, besides being younger, didn't appear to be quite as into it, and 
probably didn't practice as much, so was decent to good for his age, but 
not as impressive as she was.)

"Surely" many more I've forgotten...

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman