Unable to download Youtube videos - 'videoplayback' entry spams download list

[renst...@gmail.com]

Hello,

I posted about this problem briefly before, but I was using an older version of the program (5.3.1) and an older version of Firefox (37). I've now updated to VDLH 5.4.1 and Firefox 39 and the problem still exists. I also do have the paid converter license if it makes a difference. This problem seems to happen with every youtube video, and I am NOT using the Flash plugin, I am using the native HTML5 player.


Upon loading a Youtube video (for this example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz11isdJzB8), a 'videoplayback' entry spams the download list starting from the bottom of the list (PICTURE 1) and pushes out the Adaptive and Non-Adaptive download options until they become invisible (PICTURE 2). As you can see in picture 1, the first adaptive entry is immediately pushed out of the download list before I even have a chance to download it, and picture 2 shows that it takes a full 27 seconds before the download list is completely wiped out.

In a different video (for this example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NkkE7ESiaY), PICTURE 3 shows that the first three adaptive entries are immediately pushed out of the download list, and PICTURE 4 shows that it takes 16 seconds before the download list is completely spammed. This obviously makes it impossible to use the Video Downloader Extension at all. Sometimes when I refresh the video page, I will get the same problem except the 'videoplayback' entries continually spam the 'Orphan' download category instead (PICTURE 5), leaving the main download list untouched. Since the adaptive and non-adaptive download entries don't get pushed out, I can download without a problem here. But this scenario is rare and almost never happens. Sometimes when I refresh the video page, the 'videoplayback' entries appear at the top of the main download list with the adaptive and non-adaptive entries at the bottom, so the adaptive entries aren't immediately pushed out of the download list which gives me more time to select the download that I want, but in a short amount of time new 'videoplayback' entries begin appearing at the bottom of the list (PICTURE 6) until the adaptive and non-adaptive entries become invisible.

What is going on?

[mig]

Thanks for the detailed explanations.

It looks like in your case, the video currently being played is chunked into small pieces, which is uncommon on YouTube. I have no doubt we would be able to find a workaround, at the minimum filter out those chunks, but i have not been able to reproduce that behavior. In my case (using HTML5 player too), the video comes in a single big file. Any idea is welcome to reproduce the issue.

There is something you can try: open VDH Settings > "Behavior", "Advanced" checked. Change the "Ignore below size" to something like "1000000". Doing so, the small chunks should be ignored by VDH and should not pollute your detection list. Does it work for you ?

[renst...@gmail.com]

I set the 'ignore hits below size' setting to 1000000 but the behavior has not changed.

[mig]

Damned.

Could you try creating a new Firefox user profile, install only VDH on this profile and try again ? This might help understanding why you are getting fragmented videos from YouTube.

[renst...@gmail.com]

After creating a dozen new Firefox profiles and changing settings one by one, I have found that this problem occurs when the 'Smart Names->By default' drop down menu is selected to either 'Get name from document header/URL' or 'Use obfuscated name'. The download list spam goes away only when 'Get name from page title' or 'Get name from page content' is selected. Please confirm this on your end.

[mig]

I tried https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NkkE7ESiaY (Youtube HTML5 player) with smartname default set to "Get name from document header/URL" and get a single "videoplayback" entry, which is normal.

Same with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz11isdJzB8

Can anyone do some tests and give feedback here ?

[Martijn T]

I have just tested this with VDH 5.4.2 and when I select 'Get name from document header/URL' I still get a lot of videoplayback entries. They appear onto the list of hits so fast, it's impossible to click the format I want. By the time I get to the VDH menu the (mp4) format I would like to download has scrolled out of view already.

When I set the smart name option to 'Get name from page title' the problem disappears.

This is a problem I've been having for a long time, but I never got into fixing it.

How can I get you the info you need to fix this?

[mig]

This is probably not a good idea to use the generic smart namer feature on YouTube since we get the video title from specific meta-information.

This being said, you raised a good point and we could verify there is indeed a problem. We are investigating.

[marti...@gmail.com]

I don't have any objections to a different approach if it prevents the list of hits from scrolling fast :-) The reason I have the Smart names setting set to 'Get name from document header/URL' is that it's useful on a couple of other sites I download from. But switching between different settings takes a couple of clicks every time.

[mig]

YouTube and Dailymotion should not use the default smartnaming method. If they do, this is a bug in VDH. I have added that topic for investigation and fix. Thanks.

[marti...@gmail.com]

Thanks for fixing this in the last version of VDH!

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