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10th January 2010

YOU BEND TUBE

Brian Grainger

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brianATgrainger1.freeserve.co.uk


 

There are not many Web2 facilities that I make use of but YouTube is one. Why then is it trying so very much to stop me viewing the videos? This article explains the problems I have with YouTube and how I solve them at the moment.

YouTube started as a video sharing service. Registered users can upload their videos so that the whole web world can view them. I am not into this web2 phenomena of uploading videos - a movie director I am not. However, YouTube contains much more than personal videos. My usual use of YouTube is to download clips of great things I have seen on the TV or possibly a music video. Is this piracy? I don't know - I assume in most cases the clips have been put there legitimately and that I am allowed to download them. How is one to know when there are video clips that have quite clearly been uploaded by the BBC for general viewing?

When, I started downloading clips from YouTube a few years ago I had no problems. I watched the clip then would search in the 'temporary internet files' folder and drag the associated flv (flash video) file to a place of more permanent storage. I then used an flv file viewer such as Irfanview or Media Player Classic to replay the video clips when I wanted.

This worked well until the end of 2008. Then that old bugbear raised its head. Adobe raised the version of flash video to one that was only supported by Windows XP and not my preferred choice of Windows 98. Every clip uploaded to YouTube now would use this new format and consequently would not play. Despite the fact that a video clip was not using the fancy new features of the updated flv format, users were forced to upgrade to continue using YouTube. This is the whole problem with proprietary formats, whether they come from Microsoft, Adobe or forced on you by Google, the owners of YouTube. Standardised formats such as MP4 or flac remain consistent. If the standards committee want to add new features then a new format appears and things that have no need for the new features can still be recorded in the old format. Another problem with the new flv format was that not only would it not play but when my machine attempted to play it, it would crash Internet Explorer - version 6, the last available that works with Windows 98! YouTube does not give you the choice to stop playing the clip so this was a problem.

I knew that Media Player Classic would play mp4 video clips so my approach to the problem was to look for something that would allow me to download flv files without playing them and then to find a converter to convert them to mp4 files. There are a number of programs out there on the web that will allow you to download YouTube flv files. Finding a converter, (that was no cost), was not so easy. During the search I made an interesting discovery. Apparently, it was possible to get YouTube to create mp4 files. They don't advertise the feature and I never really tried it out because I discovered a simpler solution but more of that later.

The next problem I had with YouTube was when I found it, or the supplier of its clips, decided to censor what I could watch, simply because I resided in the UK.

I am a fan of the plays of Dennis Potter, who died a few years back. During the height of his popularity he had a style where the actors would lip synch to popular songs of the 1950s or previous. 'Pennies from Heaven' is probably the most famous of these plays, since it was made into a film as well as being a TV drama. However, my immediate interest lay in a play set in the 1950s, with music to match, 'Lipstick on Your Collar'. In that era there were lots of novelty songs and two that were used in this drama were 'Lay Down Your Arms' and 'I see the Moon'. I wanted to get them so did a search. Both were on YouTube but when I tried to view them I got a message saying that because I was in the UK the clips MAY be copyright and therefore I could not view them. I was incensed. I had seen an article about how the BBC's online offering, iplayer, and the BBC's future online plans were influenced by ensuring only licence payers were able to view - so, in theory, while we in the UK can view iplayer media those outside the UK cannot. 'Lipstick on Your Collar' had been broadcast by Channel 4, which I thought also had some remit as a public broadcaster. Nevertheless, I was being restricted from viewing clips from one of its programs whereas Americans, for example, could happily view them! If they are restricted then they should be barred from viewing everywhere, not just in the UK. I later found that this strange policy may not be the fault of YouTube but Channel 4. It would also seem that it was not a copyright problem. Channel 4 would happily let me view clips and even whole episodes of 'Lipstick on Your Collar' provided I used their player, 4 On Demand! I am pretty sure Dennis Potter would have something to say about this, if he were still alive!

The third problem I have with YouTube lies in the future. For some time they have been telling me that soon my browser version will no longer be supported. This is the most insidious method of forcing people to upgrade hardware. Effectively they are saying, however well intentioned, that I must use a more bloated browser, which requires an operating system I do not want to use and must purchase new hardware to run! No thank you.

That's enough of the problems - now for the solution. Back to the problem of getting YouTube videos in mp4 format. I found there was a website, KickYouTube, which provided just this service. Instead of going to say, www.youtube.com/watch?=nnnnnn, you go to www.kickyoutube.com/watch?=nnnnn.

What happens now is that the video clip will try to play in flash format as with YouTube. This can give me a browser error, as I mentioned previously. However, crucially, I can stop the video playing and ignore the error message before using the other facility of KickYouTube.

KickYouTube allows you to create alternative formats of the video clip. You select the format required from the strip at the top of the screen, in my case MP4, and click the bright green 'Go' button. After some processing, which is indicated by a moving stripe pattern, the 'Go' button changes to a 'Download' button. The next stage is slightly confusing. The intuitive thing to do is click the 'Download' button! Wrong! If you do, you get a message saying right click and save, the standard Internet Explorer way of saving content offline. If you do this you get the standard download dialog boxes and, at the end of the process, your video clip in your required format for offline viewing. Problem 1 solved - magic!

Problem 2 is also solved by KickYouTube. The two 'Lipstick on Your Collar' clips mentioned above happily played and I could download them in MP4 format. A further clip from the same show did not play. Instead a message was displayed to say Channel 4 had restricted access to the UK- nothing about copyright is mentioned. Fine - now my browser did not crash! I could still download the clip in MP4 format - job still done!

As to Problem 3, we have to wait and see if KickYouTube solves that when YouTube restricts access to my browser. After the success with solving my other problems, I am hopeful.


 

 

 

 


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