On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 16:10:30 +0100, Kees Nuyt wrote:

> Even if you are not logged in in YouTube, you can still use the
> "Add to queue" chice in the 3-vertical-dots-menu on right side
> of a video entry in YouTube search results or video listing.
> Worth a try, I would say.

Thank you for that virtual playlist idea as I had given up on Firefox,
using instead VLC for a few days and then last night I tested the QMPlay2
youtube player which was suggested on the Windows newsgroup yesterday.

https://github.com/zaps166/QMPlay2?tab=readme-ov-file#youtube
"You can change the default audio and video quality of YouTube contents.
Click on the "Settings" icon on the left of the search bar,
change the order of audio and/or video quality priorities
and apply changes. If the chosen quality can't be found on YouTube
content, QMPlay2 will try using the next entry on the quality list."

Both work to play a locally stored text playlist where QMPlay2 downloads &
plays in queue from the respective youtube URLs while VLC streams youtube.

In testing the virtual youtube queue you described, the three dots do
appear (and disappear) when you hover over displayed search results.

You get two options for the virtual queue (Add to queue) and (Share).

It starts off as a corner window popup but it can be resized to the whole
screen inside of the browser, and it indeed does stream the virtually
stored playlist which I assume is saved on the users Firefox cache.

In fullscreen mode, the virtual playlist shows up at the top right.
It's easy to see each video in the playlist as it shows up in thumbnail.

You can change the order of streaming if you wish by sliding a selected
video up or down within that virtual youtube playlist streaming queue.

That's the easiest way yet to create an organize a playlist.
Where does Firefox store it so that it can be copied to the laptop?

I tried "view source" and I found where the videos were listed but the code
is horrendously long so I can't paste it and have it still be meaningful.

Now to find where Firefox is storing that queue so it can be copied.
(Firefox 3bars -> More Tools -> Page Source) is hard to figure out.

(Firefox 3bars -> More Tools -> Task Manager) shows the virtual queue in
the top of the process manager but it doesn't allow copying to another PC.

When I put Firefox into debug mode to try to find where it stores the
virtual playlist, it seems to use "ytd-playlist-panel-video-renderer"
a lot but at this point I'm just guessing how to find where it's stored.

Where is the virtual playlist stored on my local machine?
Is it only in memory?

Using <news:kvd8mcF8k5hU8@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote:

>> https://i.postimg.cc/FsxBfRY0/firefox-parent-PID.gif
>>
>> This means it's not a good candidate for script control particularly.
>
> And if you launch a second instance of firefox, it won't create a second
> parent firefox for the new window, it'll just add a new child to the
> original parent, but after a few seconds that child dies, while the
> window remains.

I noticed YTD Video Downloader 7.0.0.9 while looking for something else
https://www.ytddownloader.com/
"Download video, audio, playlists for later watch.
Convert video to MP3 and video to MP4."

"Simply paste the URL in YTD and our app will automatically save them to
your hard drive."

"Download the entire video playlist with YTD Video Downloader. Download
videos from any playlist from streaming sites and convert your video to
MP4, 3GP, MPEG and even to AVI."

Azureus Software, Inc. YTD Video Downloader Release info:
Latest Version: 7.6.1
Released: 31/08/2023
Size: 22 MB
Licence: Freemium
General Points
Download free videos from 50+ sites
Convert Most Video Formats: mp3, mp4, wmv, flv, mov, 3gp, avi
Watch free videos later on other devices: iPad, iPhone, iPod, Samsung
Galaxy, HTC, Kindle Fire, Blackberry and many others
Integrated video player to watch your videos right away
Free video downloader
YTD video converter
Super easy to use and fast
System Requirements for YTD Video Converter
Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11
Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher

https://www.ytddownloader.com/download.html
https://cdn.ytddownloader.com/stub.php?ytdd
Name: YTDSetup.exe
Size: 25144720 bytes (23 MiB)
SHA256: 29DC8C40C301D3E3F09054BC35177A751EB4FD57803BF8EBBCB6120F426F14C8

https://www.ytddownloader.com/faq.html

The free version has limited capabilities. For more details regarding the
differences between YTD Basic and YTD Premium, please visit the following
link: https://www.ytddownloader.com/buy_now.php.

It has a restricted installer that only installs to the C drive though.
As a test, I downloaded this video but I couldn't understand a thing.
https://youtu.be/2fCNL5CXzEg

david wrote:

>I noticed YTD Video Downloader 7.0.0.9 while looking for something else
>https://www.ytddownloader.com/

Looking at the specs of this I am quite sure that this is a pirated
version of the open source programme yt-dlp: https://github.com/yt-dlp/
Why pirated: They are using an open source programme for their own
graphical user interface without ever mentioning the open source
whereabouts, which is mandatory. Do not waste money on their "pro"
version. I have yt-dlp installed on my Linux machine here and it's
working like a charm from the command line.

-jw-

--

And now for something completely different...

Using <news:rp8ipi9bgvdohrn7fitbnapmkmntr7poe0@joergwalther.my-fqdn.de>,
Joerg Walther wrote:

>>I noticed YTD Video Downloader 7.0.0.9 while looking for something else
>>https://www.ytddownloader.com/
>
> Looking at the specs of this I am quite sure that this is a pirated
> version of the open source programme yt-dlp: https://github.com/yt-dlp/
> Why pirated: They are using an open source programme for their own
> graphical user interface without ever mentioning the open source
> whereabouts, which is mandatory. Do not waste money on their "pro"
> version. I have yt-dlp installed on my Linux machine here and it's
> working like a charm from the command line.

Thanks for looking at that free youtube downloader GUI as I also noticed
some sneaky stuff in that I couldn't find a comparison of free vs pro.

No matter how much I was re-directed to their FAQ, it didn't even tell me.
All it said was the free version was 'restricted' (whatever that means).

So even if it isn't a ripoff of the yt-dlp (which, let's remember, ClipGrab
also uses yt-dlp under the covers in its GUI too), it seems suspicious.

Other sneaky things were it phoned home after the installation (I had the
Ethernet pulled out so the browser came up empty of course).
https://www.ytddownloader.com/thankyou.html?&isn=###&lang=1033&oldVer=&newVer=7.6.3.3&kt=YTDD&pv=0

And it had a brain dead installer that didn't even ask where to put it in
addition to the fact it doesn't tell you how the versions differ in use.

I think the only advantage it might have over Clipgrab is if it downloads
an entire playlist (either as a single URL or a list of separate URLs).

I don't know if ClipGrab does multiple youtube video URLs at once?
https://clipgrab.org/faqs/howto-download-youtube-video

From what it says above, I think ClipGrab is limited to a single video.