Solution for watching video clips in web pages without flash - Linterna Mágica
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Dear free software users,
I am glad that finally I am making this announcement.
Since April I am working on a userscript for the Greasemonkey [1][2]
extension that makes it possible to watch video clips on variety of web
sites without Gnash/Swfdec plugin. After one rewrite from the ground up
and several partial design changes, it is finally starting to look like
a program.
Anton Katsarov [4] was a great help, by making the visual design of the
program and the website, a lot of testing and ideas. I will try to keep
the rest of this message as short as possible, because there is more
information at the project web site. [3]
The script searches web pages for flash objects and examines them for
links to video clips. After all the information is extracted it
replaces them with an tag, that can be played by vlc, totem,
xine or gecko-mediaplayer plugin for the browser (at the same place they
should show up on the page).
The script relays heavily on regular expressions, patterns and a lot of
similarities between sites. This way it works with sites that I do not
even know they existed. It is programmed in such a way that
site-specific things are limited.
It is possible to use the script with or without Swfdec/Gnash
installed. When there is no plugin installed at all, the JavaScript code
provided by the page is parsed as data. This is needed because most of
the web sites use some library that do not create flash objects when
there is no plugin installed.
For the moment there are more then 30 web sites that are known to
work. With few exceptions they are not strictly programed to work. Here
is a short list of working sites:
* vimeo.com
* youtube.com
* video.google.com
* dailymotion.com
* blip.tv
* metacafe.com
The script uses pure JavaScript (no Greasemonkey API), so it works with
Epiphany (the browser I use), free software versions of Firefox and
Midori. Probably with anything that can execute userscripts.
Userscripts are good in that they can work in a lot of browsers, but
have their limitations (especially without the Greasemonkey API). The
script itself is getting bigger (156KB; this includes embedded images),
it is not very configurable and have some limitations. Because of all
that I am investigating a migration to browser extensions. As far as I
know only Epiphany and Firefox can have extensions written in
JavaScript. The idea is to have a core, and browser specific (extension
registration; configurations) stuff around it. Ideas how to move to and
support browser extensions and keep (most of) the current JavaScript
code are appreciated.
You will not find the script in userscripts.org, because I have some
doubts about it.
The script is named "Linterna Mágica" (and no I do not speak Spanish).
Of course it is free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU
GPL version 3 or later.
So if you are interested, visit the web site, [3] download, install and
enjoy what you are watching.
You don't need a glint,
the magic lantern is ignited!
P.S. If someone is interested in more technical details, just ask.
Regards,
Ivaylo Valkov
[1] http://greasespot.net
[2] http://wiki.greasespot.net/FAQ#What_does_Greasemonkey_do.3F
[3] http://e-valkov.org/linterna-magica
[4] http://katsarov.org
2010/8/31 Ivaylo Valkov <name at domain>:
> Dear free software users,
>
> I am glad that finally I am making this announcement.
>
> Since April I am working on a userscript for the Greasemonkey [1][2]
> extension that makes it possible to watch video clips on variety of web
> sites without Gnash/Swfdec plugin. After one rewrite from the ground up
> and several partial design changes, it is finally starting to look like
> a program.
>
> [1] http://greasespot.net
> [2] http://wiki.greasespot.net/FAQ#What_does_Greasemonkey_do.3F
> [3] http://e-valkov.org/linterna-magica
> [4] http://katsarov.org
Thank you for your contribution!
--
Tarball
<name at domain>
Nice!
Good to see other free alternatives to replace Adobe Flash.
There are some minor issues that i noticed, for example, with Vimeo. The text below the flash video overlaps the "javascript video". Let me show you:
http://picpaste.com/Seleccionar_001-gJvPD45C.png
Thank you.
name at domain writes:
> for example, with Vimeo. The text below the flash video overlaps the
> "javascript video". Let me show you:
That is strange. It is fine on my machine in all browsers. [1] Which
browser is this? Do you have Gnash/Swfdec installed? I bet there is some
invisible HTML element above Linterna Mágica in the white spot. The
player should be positioned upper in the page. You could send me the
console output (debug:5 in Linterna Mágica) and the HTML code above the
player, but don't use the list for that. Such issues come and go from
time to time and are very hard to detect. Some are because of site CSS
redesign, some because of the browser type and version and so on.
Are there any plans for it working with RTMP sites? That would be the thing that would bring many people I know to free software.
name at domain writes:
> Are there any plans for it working with RTMP sites?
RTMP is a big mess. And it all depends on a lot of variables. I have
some ideas, but they will require support outside the script itself. I
think the information that should be extracted to get to the RTMP stream
is mostly XML. I haven't read about RTMP much, just read log files form
tcpdump.
The script probably can extract all the information and make the
link. But it is all up to the video plugin. I think most of the free
software video players do not have RTMP support or it is in a very early
stage of development. I think there should be support for remote
XMLHttpRequest calls in all the browsers that do not use the
Greasemonkey extension, but have their own implementation. Until there
is no support for GM_xmlhttpRequest at least in Epiphany (the browser I
use) I will not use this function. I am trying to avoid browser specific
code and browser dependant functionality. Remote XMLHttpRequest calls
will be required because of the same origin policy. If migration to
browser extensions is done these calls are no longer an issue. But the
problem with video plugins and RTMP support remains. A solution might be
a browser plugin that can handle RTMP streams and pipe the downloaded
video stream to a video plugin.
These are just ideas and no experiments and reading have been done so
far. I do not know will it be technically possible and when. RTMP support is
a huge question mark, but it will be amazing if it can happen.
I have, but i have also flashblock installed. That's the problem.
I am running GNU IceCat? How do I install this? Thank GNU.
On 10.09.2010 13:13, name at domain wrote:
> I am running GNU IceCat? How do I install this? Thank GNU.
I've already asnwered that on the gNewSense-users mailing list, so
please read the thread in their archives.[1] If the information there
does not help, I'll explain in detail again.
I did some testing myself with Trisquel and GNU IceCat and it just
worked. I will soon update the website and the source archives
documentation with this information.
[1]
http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnewsense-users/2010-09/msg00002.html
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