5 ms·

PiP is a cool feature but I've recently found another way to "stream" video from the web which is now pretty much my default: For a lot of sites you can either

PiP is a cool feature but I've recently found another way to "stream" video from the web which is now pretty much my default: For a lot of sites you can either curl or youtube-dl the video to a file and thanks to the way encodings and container formats work you can just play the file back using your favorite media player while the download is still in progress. You can't seek past the download head unfortunately but the playback you get is much more pleasant (and for some reason also faster?) than say, on YouTube.

tartoran 6y ago
I use it directly from VLC when I need to boost up the sound a few db beyond the original threshold
- t0astbread 6y ago
  Wait, VLC has a youtube-dl integration?
  - pfundstein 6y ago
    No.. VLC can play most streaming formats & protocols from network sources. Open VLC, press Ctrl+N and paste the URL.
  - thaumasiotes 6y ago
    mpv does, if that's what you're looking for.
    - t0astbread 6y ago
      Oh that's nice! I was actually already using mpv for playback but I never noticed this feature. The only disadvantage this has over my stitched together setup is that I don't get to keep the video afterwards but it fixes a lot of pain points.
      - thaumasiotes 6y ago
        I mean, if you want to keep the video afterwards, you can just download it and then play it. Which also has the advantage that playback will always be smooth. That's almost always true of playing directly from a youtube URL, but I have had occasional issues. Most notably that leaving a straight-from-youtube video paused long enough will get it into a state you can't resume from.
        t0astbread 6y ago
        Yeah, that's one of my biggest peeves with the YT player as well. I often watch talks or similar kinds of (long) videos in the bg some of which I might wish to keep that's why I like being able to download and view at the same time. But downloading a second time during quite hours is probably also fine.

tartoran 6y ago

I use it directly from VLC when I need to boost up the sound a few db beyond the original threshold

t0astbread 6y ago
Wait, VLC has a youtube-dl integration?
- pfundstein 6y ago
  No.. VLC can play most streaming formats & protocols from network sources. Open VLC, press Ctrl+N and paste the URL.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  mpv does, if that's what you're looking for.
  - t0astbread 6y ago
    Oh that's nice! I was actually already using mpv for playback but I never noticed this feature. The only disadvantage this has over my stitched together setup is that I don't get to keep the video afterwards but it fixes a lot of pain points.
    - thaumasiotes 6y ago
      I mean, if you want to keep the video afterwards, you can just download it and then play it. Which also has the advantage that playback will always be smooth. That's almost always true of playing directly from a youtube URL, but I have had occasional issues. Most notably that leaving a straight-from-youtube video paused long enough will get it into a state you can't resume from.
      - t0astbread 6y ago
        Yeah, that's one of my biggest peeves with the YT player as well. I often watch talks or similar kinds of (long) videos in the bg some of which I might wish to keep that's why I like being able to download and view at the same time. But downloading a second time during quite hours is probably also fine.