Revision of Play Videos Without Using Flash from Wed, 10/31/2012 - 07:43

What's Wrong with Adobe Flash?

Adobe Flash is used to deliver much of the video, advertisement, and browser-based game content on the internet. Unfortunately, the .swf format and Adobe's official player are proprietary. But for those who value their freedoms, there are alternatives.

Free Formats

The use of free video formats on the web is the preferred method of playing video on the web. User adoption of free formats encourages their use by websites. Secondly, because they can be supported by Free Software natively they tend to perform better.

There are two main free video formats suitable for use on the web:

• Ogg Theora, is a video codec derived from On2's VP3 codec.
• WebM, is a video codec that was freed by Google after its acquisition of On2.

Browser Support

Format	Mozilla based browsers (e.g. abrowser, GNU Icecat)	Konqueror	Epiphany
Ogg	Version 3.5 and above	Version 4.4 and above	Version 2.2.8 and above
WebM	Version 4.0 and above	Yes	Requires version of GStreamer that supports WebM

Flash Replacements

There are two actively developed free software Flash players:

• Gnash, the GNU SWF player, which is being actively developed and relies on the gstreamer and ffmpeg backends to perform. It has good compatibility up to SWF 8 and 9.
• Lightspark, a recent project that offers accelerated rendering using OpenGL shaders and good support for current Actionscript 3. It is currently not included in the Trisquel repos but can be easily obtained from a Launchpad PPA.

YouTube

YouTube is the one of the largest video sharing websites on the internet. There are multiple methods of watching videos on YouTube without depending on Adobe Flash.

HTML5 and WebM

Use of the YouTube HTML5 player and the webM format is the preferred method for watching video on the site. Google has committed its resources to converting YouTube's catalog to webM. To do this two requirements must be met.

• The user must use a browser that supports webM (e.g. abrowser or GNU IceCat version 4.0 or above).
• The user must also join the YouTube HTML 5 Beta

Videos that have been converted should play with the HTML5 player:

Gnash

The latest version of Gnash will play Flash videos on YouTube with good performance.

FlashVideoReplacer

FlashVideoReplacer is a browser (GNU IceCat or abrowser) add-on that replaces flash video on supported sites with an embedded video that uses an alternate plugin.

• The user should install the add-on from either the Trisquel add-on site or the add-on's homepage
• The user should configure their add-on settings to suit their needs.
• It is advised that the user use the "Prefer webM when available (no plugin required)" option to use the webM codec when it is available.
• After installation and configuration of the plugin you should be able to view YouTube videos without Adobe Flash Player.

Dailymotion

Dailymotion is another video sharing website. It offers an HTML5 player which supports Ogg Theora.

HTML5 and Ogg Theora

To view Ogg Theora videos in HTML5 on Dailymotion the user must:

• Enable the HTML5 player with a supported browser.
• View a trans-coded video (when available). Not all videos have been converted to Ogg Theora.

Linterna Mágica

Linterna Mágica is a Greasemonkey userscript that aims to support many websites and browsers. It replaces Flash objects, so you can watch video with a browser video plugin.

There are some patterns common between video sharing and posting sites that Linterna Mágica is using, so it supports a lot of sites. In most cases it will work without modification. Some websites even have high definition support.

Supported browsers are:

• Firefox
• Midori
• Epiphany

Supported video plugins are:

• Totem plugin
• VLC plugin
• Xine plugin

This is a short list of supported websites:

• youtube.com
• video.google.com
• dailymotion.com
• metacafe.com
• vimeo.com
• blip.tv

ViewTube

ViewTube is a Greasemonkey userscript similar to Linterna Mágica. Users who cannot get Linterna Mágica to work, or play sound should install this script instead.

Script works with Firefox based browsers (IceWeasel, IceCat etc), Epiphany and Midori.

Short list of supported websites:

• YouTube
• Dailymotion
• Vimeo
• MetaCafe
• IMDBVideos

How You Can Help

• Use free alternatives to Flash whenever possible.
• Contribute (financially or with code) to the development of free alternatives.
• Let your friends know that most of the videos and games on the web rely on a single company's proprietary standard to function, and why this is bad for an open internet.
• If you develop online games, don't use Adobe Flash, and please share your source code.