BB1 - Youtubes won’t load

[J Rathbone]

Hi

Youtubes won’t load to my BB1. Can Brennan please help?

Details of the most recent Youtubes I’ve tried to load (4 in total) are listed below (name, URL, date + comments / issues) together with my BB1 data details:

- BB1 connected to router signal strength -56 dBm

- Displaying date and time and IP address correctly

- Version BB1 Oct 8 2021 12:27:39 (Web Upgrade 27/2/2022)

- Capacity 29.30 Used 15.09

The Tolkien Society Has Some Weird Ideas About The Lord Of The Rings

25 Jun 2021

https://youtu.be/OxTdUudb7KM

Comments

- BB1 video displays but no sound

- BB1 video then freezes

- video thumbnail shows in web UI History pane but no green tick 

- does not appear in Browse Videos

Second attempt

- BB1 screen continues to display date and time (video does not display) 

- video thumbnail in web UI History pane instantly gets green tick!

- appears in Browse Videos but does not play when selected (screen displays “Starting”)

‘Inside Tolkien’s The Hobbit’ Documentary

3 Jun 2020

https://youtu.be/C4EzrxOFQ3Q

Comments

- BB1 video displays but no sound

- video thumbnail shows in web UI History pane but no green tick (20 minutes given)

- does not appear in Browse Videos 

A Film Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien - 1996 (Subtitles)

14 Nov 2020

https://youtu.be/EwTWzA4dWRI

Comments

- BB1 screen date and time display freezes (video does not display) 

- video thumbnail in web UI History pane instantly gets green tick!

- appears in Browse Videos but does not play when selected (screen displays “Starting”)

The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

https://youtu.be/SlYYmsTCZ4g

Comments

- BB1 video displays but no sound

- video thumbnail shows in web UI centre lower pane with green tick after 10 minutes 

- appears in Browse Videos and plays video but no sound

Cheers

Jim

[JFBUK]

Hi Jim,

-56 dBm is borderline Wi-Fi strength and certainly won't help.

My experience is that a weaker Wi-Fi connection does make the download to the Youtube cache understandably more protracted.

That should have no impact on the sound though if the file is in cache.

Does music you have locally stored on your BB1 play OK ?

All of your links play OK on my B2 . 

The 3rd one will be a relatively big file to download to cache as the video is over 100 minutes long so surprising that

the tick came up straightaway.

I would look at ways of improving the Wi-Fi signal to your BB1 if you can, at least while you are downloading to the BB1's Youtube cache.

John

[Daniel Taylor]

Improving the WiFi signal for a BB1 is not as simple or straight forward as it is for the B2.  First try moving it closer to the router.  And/Or try turning it sideways so that it sees the router from a different angle.  If neither of those work, there is a way to get a USB to Ethernet adaptor, which others here can help with.

General question to the forum:  can a WiFi dongle be used in the BB1's USB port?

[J Rathbone]

Hi - thanks for the responses



Today (28/2/2021) I repeated “testing” of four Youtube downloads, this time with the BB1 placed right next to the router for maximum signal strength. 

Good news - one YouTube successfully loaded, but the other three did not. 

There are curious anomalies with all four as detailed in the respective Comments (below).

Questions arising:

1. Why do Youtubes successfully download but audio does not play? (see results below)

2. Why do Youtubes appear to download (listed in Browse Videos) but don’t play? (see results below)

3. Why were there other curious anomalies? (see results below)

4. Are these Youtubes incompatible with BB1 (in which case I’m wasting my time trying to download them) or there is a problem with my BB1?

5. Could someone (Brennan?) test these Youtubes with a BB1 to determine the answer to point 4. above?

6. There seems (currently) to be no way of identifying Youtubes that will / will not download to BB1. Is there any way to identify which YouTubes cannot be downloaded to BB1 or must BB1 owners just accept the frustration of “trial and error”?

7. Every download app I have seen contains a download “indicator” of some sort showing download progress through to completion (progress bar, circle etc) - there is nothing on the BB1 screen or the web UI (the green tick is clearly not a reliable indicator as my testing of these 4 Youtubes clearly demonstrates). 

A download progress indicator, either on the BB1 screen or web UI, would be helpful - is this feasible? (Note: this would, of course, not help with Youtubes that download only the video but not the audio)

Incidentally, the previous point raised about the considerably length of some of these Youtubes is, I believe, not relevant for the simple reason that the longest (nearly 2 hours) was previously successfully downloaded and without issue but was of poor quality hence my wish to replace it with a superior and more recent youtube. In fact I have successfully downloaded several feature length movies including one “HD” YouTube with excellent video quality on the BB1 screen (I understand BB1 downloads at the highest possible resolution compatible with the unit).



BB1 data

BB1 connected to router - signal strength -18 dBm

BB1 screens displays date and time and IP address correctly

Version BB1 Oct 8 2021 12:27:39 (Web Upgrade 27/2/2022)

Capacity 29.30 Used 15.09

The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

3 Feb 2019

https://youtu.be/SlYYmsTCZ4g

Comments on second attempt

- BB1 screen displays video while downloading but no audio (as before)

- video thumbnail shows in web UI History with green tick after 10 minutes (as before)

- youtube appears in Browse Videos and BB1 plays the video but still no audio (as before)

The Tolkien Society Has Some Weird Ideas About The Lord Of The Rings

25 Jun 2021

https://youtu.be/OxTdUudb7KM

Comments on second attempt

- BB1 screen displays video while APPARENTLY downloading but no audio (as before)

- video thumbnail appears in web UI History pane and INSTANTLY gets green tick! (as before)

- BB1 screen video then freezes (while still apparently downloading), then resumes, then freezes etc (as before) 

- youtube appears in Browse Videos but does not play when selected, BB1 screen just displays “Starting” (as before)

A Film Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien - 1996 (Subtitles)

14 Nov 2020

https://youtu.be/EwTWzA4dWRI

Comments on second attempt

- BB1 screen date and time display freezes and video does not display on BB1 screen (as before) 

- video thumbnail appears in web UI History pane with green tick (BB1 was left for nearly 2 hours this time) 

- youtube appears in Browse Videos and DOES play together with audio (but the video is squashed up with black bars down the sides even though the video is 4:3 aspect ratio and correctly displays on Youtube - this is an issue Martin Brennan has previously acknowledged and said was an easy fix but, sadly, has not been corrected. I’m wondering if this was ever placed on the “To Do” list?)

‘Inside Tolkien’s The Hobbit’ Documentary

3 Jun 2020

https://youtu.be/C4EzrxOFQ3Q

Comments on second attempt

- BB1 screen displays video while downloading but no audio (as before)

- video thumbnail appears in web UI History pane with green tick (BB1 was left for 1 hour this time)

- youtube appears in Browse Videos and BB1 does play the video but still no audio (as before) 

Cheers

Jim

[PMB]

Hi Jim,

What computer and OS (Windows, iOS, etc) are you using to run the web UI on?

Try - close the current UI page >> go to Settings for the browser and select 'clear browsing data' - for Chrome select 'cached images and files' and for Safari 'Delete history and website data'. Open a new browser page and type the IP, from the B2, in manually, rather than using a bookmark.

Does YouTube behave any better now?

I do not have broadband at the moment so cannot test the YTs today.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[JFBUK]

Hi All,

does any owner of a BB1 know what files the BB1 stores when you enable Youtube cache ?

On the B2, 3 files for each "video" are written to the B2 HDD.

A file with no file extension containing the audio, a JPG file for the thumbnail pic, and a TXT file for the "video" name

for example

I took a look at the audio file in VLC  these are the details

I believe that the B2 software uses ffmpeg routines to extract the audio etc. from the Youtube stream.

Clearly the BB1 also needs to store video in its Youtube cache so it can play it back on its screen.

Not sure this helps with Jim's particularly problems but any differences in the cached files might aid diagnosis

Thanks

John

[J Rathbone]

Thanks for the contributions. 

I am using an iPad 6 with iOS 14.6

I will clear the cache as you suggest and try downloading again tomorrow

Cheers

Jim

[PMB]

Hi Jim,

Let us know how it goes.

Paul

Brennan Support.