Note: This post has been superseded with a newer one. All updates will now be put at the bottom of this page 
I stumbled upon Mike Sheldon’s GreaseMonkey script that allows people to watch YouTube videos without Flash, and was excited when I found out it also works on Windows. It’s not supposed to, because it depends on mplayerplug-in, which is only available for Linux, but VLC’s multimedia plugin took care of that problem and played it for me on my Windows system!
So now I can watch YouTube videos with 30fps, and even go full-screen, with no stuttering. You might not have these problems, but because I have a 1 GHz-PC I do (it’s a sorry state of affairs when software can’t play video smoothly on a GHz-PC). This is because VLC also uses hardware overlay to display the video, rather than the slow-ass, boo lame, software rendering method that the Flash player uses.
The only problem is, there are no controls to play/pause or change the volume. Apparently it can all be done via JavaScript. I really liked the smooth video, so I decided to extend the GreaseMonkey script and build those features in.
And so it’s born, my first GreaseMonkey script!
To use, install VLC (Update 2009-01-11: version 0.9.8a, Update 2009-08-10: version 1.0.1 did not work for me, unfortunately, must look into it) and GreaseMonkey, and then download:
There are some drawbacks to this solution though; you have to wait for the whole video to load before viewing it (so much for the concept of streaming), and seeking works unreliably in my experience.
But hey, smooth video wins it for me! Enjoy!
And, in anticipation that this script will be popular, allow me to advertise about my upcoming trip.
Because this is the most googled page of my blog, allow me to advertise my iPhone app: Got an iPhone? Need a cool world clock? Get nHands Clock!
Here’s a demo of the script so you can see the effects of the script without installing it nor GreaseMonkey. Or not really, considering YouTube likes to change its video URLs so all you get is “this video is no longer valid”.
Here’s a demo of the script so you can see the effects of the script without installing it nor GreaseMonkey. Or not really, considering YouTube likes to change its video URLs so all you get is “this video is no longer valid”.
Update 2009-01-11: Well, I updated VLC to 0.9.6, and either the plugin or my script didn’t work. It worked again with 0.9.8a, although with broken controls because they changed the API. So now I fixed the API-calls in my script. I also updated the size to adjust to YouTube’s new widescreen format.
Update 2009-02-06: Well, this has become my most-visited post, as well as the #1 result in Google for “vlc youtube” (we’re number one, we’re number one!). If you gave the script a try, please leave a comment below to tell me what you think, did it work, what do you think can be improved, etc.
Update 2009-05-30: After a long wait, I’ve finally updated the script, adding the HQ button, as well as making the disk icon (hmm, I wonder what it does…) link to the HQ/HD format when they’re playing.
Update 2009-06-01: Crap, the last update didn’t really work as expected, great job testing it! (It was never possible to get the HD link to show up). It should work now.
Greets — I may be missing something, but I don’t see the actual script in that link. Just a template.
Sorry, I take that back — I was trying to install it in Firefox on Linux, and it wouldn’t display. I see it in Konqueror, so it’s present. Wondering if it could cross back to Linux.
Dave
Michael Sheldon’s FLV Player script installs (on a Debian amd64), but yours refuses with a “TypeError: Script has no properties.”
God tur til Nordkapp!
Dave
David #3: dunno what would be causing that, GreaseMonkey scripts should be cross-platform anyway. I’ll look into it.
Thanks!
You can watch streaming youtube vids in VLC or MPC, or any other player that can play FLV files. Use keepvid.com to get the download URL of the vid, but instead of pluggin that into a download manager, plug that url into VLC/MPC/etc. It’ll play as it downloads, gives you full volume & seeking controls, all the visual enhancement controls, and everything else. The drawback is that it takes several steps to accomplish. Now if someone could make a greasemonkey script to do all that with a single click, it’d be a great solution.
Drahken, the above process essentially does what you have just requested – without using an external site. [It is just a little difficult to actually carry out in practice[.
I have everything installed as you’ve asked,but it doesnt seem to work?
It’s the normal youtube player, no VLC embedded.
firefox 2.0.0.6
ixxy, did you go to YouTube, or another website with the video from YouTube inside of that website? It only works if you view the video on YouTube directly. Or it should work, anyway
Or, I guess it’s not working for the moment because YouTube has made changes to their site…
Yeah, I was only at youtube.com. Does it work for you?
I’d really appreciate it if you could update the script, if it’s not asking much =)
OK, I’ve fixed it now.. it’s a one character fix too, surprisingly. It works for me at least, ixxy can you confirm it works?
The fix can be downloaded from this post:
http://netsharc.wordpress.com/2007/09/16/youtube-via-vlc-version-2/
all 3 parts in one link
http://krunchd.com/youtube-via-vlc
I have a problem, I updated my Firefox and now, your script doesn’t work. I think I’m not the only one. Thanks for your attention.
Hi José, thanks for the info, I’m not sure if it’s YouTube or Firefox that changed, but anyway I hope I’ve fixed it for now. At least the video I tried works
I had to reinstall the Firefox 3, but the problem is solved without any reason after a lot of repetitions. Thanks for your attention, your plugin is the best of the Web, I could changer to Ubuntu because I found it !!.
This is the coolest script ever. I’ve been subjected to jerky YouTube videos for months now (since H264 became the default on it) and had to resort to letting them download to the %TEMP% folder, unlocking them and then playing them in VLC standalone. This script is a real time and convenience saver. I tip my hat to you.
Hi!
Thanks for the tip! Now I can watch videos smoothly on a old Pentium 4 computer.!
Hey,
Thanks for this script.
For me the controls are not working, and the video quality is poor (not HD or High Quality?). Anything to do about that?
Thanks!
It’s a great script. Much appreciated! The best I have ever seen. However I would like to use it to play automatically songs from playlist in youtube. Is there any solution?
I will appreciate any kind of advice!
Cheers
Script is great but it doesn’t work with HQ or HD videos.
The Script just plays normal quality videos and it looks poor.
Can you just correct the script,please.
@Kazan, what do you mean it doesn’t work, it works fine here.
I’ve just been checking this again and I’m afraid it’s the same.”n/HD” button just does nothing.No action at all. Using FFv3.5.2+the newest Greasemonkey (no “NoScript” addon and no “AdblockPlus” addon).
The rest buttons and indicators work without problems.
It was checked on three different computers and all the time is the same.
I’m not sure if you know, but if you add &fmt=18 at the end of the youtube movie url, that movie’ll be played in HQ(even if buy default this movie isn’t available in HQ). I add this to your script so every movie is played in HQ by default.It works but just partially, after 3-4s video stops.I’m not sure but I think it’s problem with VLC plugin.
I’m using the newest VLC plugin 1.0.1.0
Well, apparently I still had 0.9.8, and it worked, I upgraded to 1.0.1, and it doesn’t work anymore. Yeah, progress!
Hi, what about external sites with embedded Youtube videos?
They still use flash player. Is there a way to use vlc for
those videos too? Thanks,
hamen
nhands clock is cool.
Noob calling. Sorry to bug but I am not sure what to do at this point. I’ve downloaded VLC, which works, the vlcflashplayer.users.js script, and greasemonkey. Now I have all of these tools but I’m not sure where to put them or what to do with them.
To give you an idea of my level of understanding: I was able to download and install the adobe player only by using the terminal, so I’m not a total idiot, but I am more of a philosophy nerd than a computer nerd.
Anybody feeling generous enough to lend some help?
scott dot aaron dot shafer at gmail dot com
I’m gonna use this one for sure.
Till now I was using http://www.tubeleecher.com