Videoporama 0.8.1 Released, Now Better Than Ever! [Application To Create Video From Pictures]

Videoporama is an application you can use to create video presentations from pictures that runs on Linux and Windows. It comes with various transition effects, option to add sound to the video, many different presets and uses mplayer for previewing the slideshow before processing it. We've covered Videoporama in detail a while back so check out that post for more info: Videoporama: Create Cool Video Slideshows From Your Pictures.

Videoporama 0.8.1 was released a few days ago, adding a cool new feature that's not available in any other such Linux applications: you can now include videos too so it's not just an application to create videos from pictures anymore. You can also set the start / end position for a movie so if you only want to display a few seconds from a video in your montage, you can easily do it from the Videoporama options.

Besides the option to include a video, the new Videoporama 0.8.1 also comes with a new sound interface (multi track) so you can select a part of an audio file, adjust the output level, add fade in/out effects and so on.

There are many other improvements in Videoporama 0.8.1 like new luma transitions, the addition of a time ruller in the preview zone, various other interface tweaks and bug fixes. To see them all, try out the latest Videoporama 0.8.1.

With these features I am sure you won't miss the Face Movie feature in Picasa 3.8 anymore - yes, it involves a bit more work, but you can also achieve much more with Videoporama. I highly recommend you try out the latest Videoporama 0.8.1.

Check out this video I've created using Videoporama 0.8.1 - it starts with an Unity 2D video for 20 seconds (you can skip it if you want) and then you'll see some random images with various transision effects - the video itself doesn't make too much sense and I've only created it so you can get an idea on what you can do using the latest Videoporama 0.8.1:

There's no sound for the video because YouTube likes to delete such videos.


Download Videoporama 0.8.1: Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx | Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

For Windows / source files, see the Videoporama site for downloads.

See also: Make A Movie Out Of Photos In Ubuntu Using PhotoFilmStrip

Thanks to Roberto @ LFFL.org for the deb files!

Auteur Is A New Non-Linear Video Editor For Linux

Auteur is a new non-linear video editor for Linux. The application is currently in alpha but seems to advance pretty fast, with 6 releases in just one week (the first alpha preview release was published on 31 January 2011).

The application "focuses on what's important to an editor: cutting footage, reliably, rather than attempting fancy effects you won't use anyway" says the Auteur developer.

Auteur uses Mplayer and Mencoder so it should support most video formats out of the box and there's no need to convert the videos so you can start editing right away. Further more, the latest version 0.1a6 adds still image support so you can add images to the timeline.

The interface is what I like the most about Auteur: it looks a lot like PuddleTag and you can move various widgets anywhere you want in the main UI. Also, the application looks great in both Gnome and KDE. There's also an option to display multiple top level windows (like in GIMP) which - believe it or not -, can be great for productivity in some cases.

But like I said, Auteur is still in alpha so there is still a lot of work to be done. For instance, you cannot change the render options (the advanced options have not been implemented yet), however you can change the mencoder command line parameters. This is just an example, there are other stuff that require further work, but Auteur is pretty stable already and can easily be installed in Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora 14 and Arch Linux.

Install Auteur

To add the Ubuntu PPA and and install Auteur using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rowinggolfer/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install auteur

For Debian, Fedora 14 and Arch Linux packages (as well as source files), see the Auteur download page.

If you're a developer and want to help check out the Auteur JOIN page. You can also help by submitting bugs - this can be done on Launchpad.

Minitube 1.4 (Plays YouTube Videos Without Flash) Released, Available In The WebUpd8 PPA

Minitube is a native YouTube client for Linux (as well as Windows and Mac OS X) which you can use to watch videos without Flash Player. Further more, Minitube can also be used to download videos from YouTube.

Minitube 1.4 was released today, the new release finally bringing YouTube channels support:

Being able to watch YouTube channel in Minitube brings a whole new depth to the application. Discovering channels is easy thanks to the autocomplete popup, which suggests the most relevant channels for a given keyword.

The new version also fixes a lot of playback problems (Minitube now tries to find a fast stream and discard slow ones) and also comes with a small Linux command line feature: you can now launch an YouTube video from the command line using Minitube (you can specify a keyword or an URL).

Install Minitube 1.4 in Ubuntu form the WebUpd8 PPA

As usual, the latest Minitube 1.4 is available in the WebUpd8 PPA. Please note that I've only tested it in Maverick!

Add the PPA and install Minitube 1.4 in Ubuntu using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install minitube

Get Video Acceleration For Adobe Flash Flayer (With Stage Video) In Ubuntu [VDPAU Only]

The latest Adobe Flash Player 10.2 beta (not Flash Player Square!) uses Stage Video, a new API that enables hardware accelerated video playback across platforms (currently only works with VDPAU - so for Nvidia with proprietary graphics drivers only):

Developers will be able to take advantage of this new model to deliver improved playback quality while reducing processor usage by up to 85 percent. This enhanced performance will build on the benefits of H.264 hardware accelerated decoding introduced in Flash Player 10.1.

- via Adobe Stage Video page

Using it, the processor usage for 1080p YouTube videos dropped from ~90% to around 20-30% on my computer. It's not as good as say Mplayer with VDPAU, but it's definitely an improvement.

I've recorded a video in which you can see the CPU usage with and without Stage Video:

In my test, the latest Adobe Flash Player 10.2 beta with VDPAU hardware acceleration works well in Firefox but crashes a lot in Chromium (but that might be due to the Chromium version I'm using - 10 unstable from the Chromium daily builds PPA).

Use Adobe Flash with VDPAU Hardware Acceleration

Note: Adobe Flash Player 10.2 beta is not stable so you may experience crashes or it may not work at all for you. Use it at your own risk!

Video Acceleration (using Stage Video) for Adobe Flash Player 10.2 beta only works with VDPAU so you'll need an Nvidia graphics card; you'll also have to install the proprietary Nvidia graphics driver.


To use it on Ubuntu 32bit, all you have to do is download and install the latest Adobe Flash Player 10 beta 2 (download from here; to install Adobe Flash, extract the downloaded archive and copy the .so file to /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/ if that folder exists or /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/ - it depends on how you've installed Adobe Flash) and install libvdpau1:

sudo apt-get install libvdpau1

Ubuntu 64bit: there is no 64bit Adobe Flash Player 10.2 beta so to get hardware acceleration on 64bit you must install the 32bit Flash as well as the 32bit libvdpau. For instructions on how to do this, see THIS post @ Ubuntuforums.


YouTube has beta support for Stage Video and it currently only works for some videos (here's an example). To check if you've correctly installed Flash 10 beta 2 and VDPAU, click the Big Buck Bunny image from the Adobe Labs Stage Video page.

Thanks to WebUpd8 reader Amano for the tip!

Video: UDS Natty 11.04 - Mark Shuttleworth's Keynote

Part 1:




Part 2:




Or download both videos:

wget http://blip.tv/file/get/Popey-mark1630.flv
wget http://blip.tv/file/get/Popey-mark2472.flv

or, if you have a good internet connection, yet the download is very slow (like it is for me), use aria2:

sudo apt-get install aria2
aria2c --split=10 http://blip.tv/file/get/Popey-mark1630.flv
aria2c --split=10 http://blip.tv/file/get/Popey-mark2472.flv

And play them locally with your favourite video player.


P.s.: if you get a Windows commercial on top of the UDS-n videos, blame it on Blip.tv :)

Thanks to popey for the videos!

Video: Nautilus Elementary With ClutterFlow, Embedded Terminal In Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

For those who haven't upgraded to Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat yet or simply never tried Nautilus Elementary, I though I'd create a video showing off the new features such as ClutterFlow (well, that's not new, it was also implemented in Nautilus Elementary for Ubuntu 9.10 but it was missing in Ubuntu 10.04), Embedded Terminal (with a GUI to configure it) and so on:

For installation instructions, see the previous post (ClutterFlow and Embedded Terminal are only available in Ubuntu 10.10!): Nautilus Elementary PPA Update Brings NE-Terminal-Config, Copy/Paste For The Terminal

Use Mplayer With Hardware Acceleration In Ubuntu 10.04 And 10.10 [Nvidia]

Firstly, why should you use Mplayer with hardware accelerated video decoding? Check out this video (look at the CPU usage for the same video when played with and without vdpau) I've just recorded:

(Video available in HTML5 if you've enabled it on YouTube)

As you can see in the above video, using Mplayer without vdpau to play an HD video (H.264 - 720p used for this test), I had a 24-52% CPU usage while using Mplayer with vdpau, the CPU usage decreased to 0%! This may not be the case for everyone, but you should still see a huge improvement in playing HD videos.

In Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, you only have to install a few packages from the repositories to be able to use Mplayer with hardware acceleration - no compiling required.

To to take advantage of vdpau, you need an Nvidia graphics card which supports it (can't help you here, check your graphic card specifications and see if it supports hardware acceleration) and install the proprietary drivers.

If your Nvidia graphics card supports hardware acceleration, proceed to enabling vdpau for Mplayer in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat :

1. Firstly, install mplayer and other required packages:

sudo apt-get install mplayer libvdpau1

Then you may need to restart X (I'm not sure about this).


2. How to use:

Then, to try it out, use mplayer like this (for H264 encoded videos only):

mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffh264vdpau yourvideo.mkv

If the video doesn't use H264 encoding, don't use "-vc ffh264vdpau".

3. Optional: You can use Gnome Mplayer or Smplayer as a Mplayer front-end. Install Gnome Mplayer using the following command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-mplayer

Then to set Gnome Mplayer to use hardware acceleration, in Gnome Mplayer go to Edit > Preferences, on the first tab (Player), under "Video output" select "vdpau".

Install Smplayer:

sudo apt-get install smplayer

Then under Options > Preferences > General, on the Video tab, select "vdpau" under "Output driver".


Both Gnome Mplayer and Smplayer have an option to pass arguments to mplayer. Here, you can also add the "-vc ffh264vdpau" option.

Update: I use an Nvidia graphics card and my instructions for other graphics cards were wrong (as J. H. pointed out in a comment) so I updated the post with Nvidia graphics card instructions only as I can only test it with Nvidia. If you use a different card, sorry, I am not aware on how to do this!

OpenShot 1.2.2 (Video Editor) Released With 3D Animated Titles, DVD Export

OpenShot is a non-linear video editor for Linux (GNOME) with an amazing set of features: you can resize, trim or cut video, it comes with video transitions with real-time previews, image overlays, title templates, video encoding, digital zooming, audio mixing and editing, digital video effects and well, most of the features you can think of.

OpenShot has been teasing us with the new features for a long time now and today, the new OpenShot 1.2.2 was finally released (1.2.0 and 1.2.1 were actually skipped). This version comes with 3D animated titles powered by Blender 2.5, custom transitions, new audio and video effects, DVD export, netbook friendly theme and lots of other improvements. The OpenShot 1.2.2 release announcement is very complete so check it out for a complete list of new features and more info.

OpenShot 1.2.2 video

OpenShot 1.2 Highlights from Jonathan Thomas on Vimeo.

Install OpenShot 1.2.2 in Ubuntu

OpenShot has its own Ubuntu (Karmic, Lucid and Maverick) PPA so it's very easy to install the latest version. Open a terminal and paste the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonoomph/openshot-edge
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openshot openshot-doc

For the 3D animated titles, you'll also need Blender > 2.50. Use the installation instructions in this post: Blender 2.53 Beta (3D Graphics Application), Released [Ubuntu PPA].

Update: it seems OpenShot does not work with Blender from the above PPA for some odd reason. There is however a way to use OpenShot with Blender - see the how-to here: https://answers.launchpad.net/openshot/+faq/1299

First image and video via OpenShot.

Videoporama: Create Cool Video Slideshows From Your Pictures [Windows, Linux]

In a comment on our Make A Movie Out Of Photos In Ubuntu Using PhotoFilmStrip, someone suggested a similar application called Videoporama so I though I'd review it.

Videoporama (available for Windows and Linux) is an application you can use to create videos (or slideshows - call it what you like) from images.

It comes with a lot of nice transition effects which you can manually set or use them randomly for all the photos in your project. You can also apply text to each image (in 3 modes: overlay, background and fixed) which can then be tweaked in many ways such as color, transparency and so on. And of course, you can add a sound file to your new video too.

Besides cool transition effects, Videoporama also comes with lots of presets for the resulting video: for mobile devices (include iPod/iPhone), computer or the web - which you can save in mp4, avi, webm (latest version only!) or flash. Just like with PhotoFilmStrip, you can save your video in FULL HD.

Another cool feature is that Videoporama uses MPlayer to let you preview your slideshow before processing it.

Overall, I've found Videoporama a bit more complicated to use but it also has lots of effect you won't find in PhotoFilmStrip.

Demo

I've recorded a video (full HD) with Videoporama in action. Please note that I've done this in under one minute and didn't use most of the options available (no sound, etc.). Just a few images and text:

You can find some more professional-looking videos @ Videoporama website.

Install Videoporama in Ubuntu

Videoporama is available in the Ubuntu repositories and you can install it by searching for it in the Ubuntu Software Center or by using the following command:

sudo apt-get install videoporama

Once install, you can find Videoporama under Applications > Sound & Video.

Only Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat comes with the latest Videoporama version (which comes with WebM and MP4 support, among other features) but if you want to install this version in Ubuntu 10.04, you can download it from Guiodic's PPA (as always, many thanks to Guiodic!). Note: I haven't tested the version in this PPA so use it at your own risk!

If you're using Windows, download Videoporama from HERE.

VideoLan Movie Creator (VLMC) Daily PPA [Ubuntu 10.04 And 10.10]

Last week I've created a daily builds PPA for VLMC, the new video editor created by the VLC developers:
https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/vlmc

VLMC crashed a lot until today when I was finally able to edit a video and upload it to YouTube (but YouTube failed to convert it) through VLMC so I though this would be a good time to post about it on WebUpd8. The PPA will be updated daily from the VLMC git using a small script I've created.

Install VLMC in Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10

VideoLan Movie Creator (VLMC) comes in a PPA of its own, so don't worry about this PPA breaking stuff on your system - it won't! There are new packages uploaded daily, so VLMC might occasionally not work - this is not something I am in control of so you can report the bugs @ VLMC devs.

Before installing VLMC, please note: VideoLan Movie Creator is still very buggy for now and it doesn't have too many features for now so only use it for testing purposes! Also, I've only tested it in Ubuntu 10.10 so I don't even know if it actually works in Ubuntu 10.04.

Install VLMC:

Both Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 - add the VLMC PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/vlmc
sudo apt-get update

Important! Ubuntu 10.04: VideoLan Movie Creator only works with VLC 1.1.x so you'll need to install VLC: Install VLC 1.1.4 In Ubuntu [Via New PPA!]. This is not required for Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat as VLC 1.1.x is already in the Ubuntu official repositories.

Once you have VLC 1.1.x installed, you can install VLMC in both Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10:

sudo apt-get install vlmc

And you can then access it via Applications > Sound & Video > VideoLan Movie Creator.

Thanks to falkTX for the VLMC debianization!

Try Kazam, A New Screencasting Application For Linux

I couldn't wait to write about Kazam Screencaster which I've tried almost daily since it's pre-alpha release but unfortunately it didn't work. However, a fix for Ubuntu Lucid was released two days ago and today the Maverick bug (unable to record video - which was crucial, considering this is what Kazam is built for) was also fixed (the bug was actually in FFmpeg) so Kazam Screencaster should finally work for everybody!

Kazam is a brand new screencasting application for Linux which records both the audio and video in an .mkv format and you can either save it to your computer or directly upload it to YouTube or VideoBin (more websites are expected to be added soon).

Besides the very good video quality, Kazam also looks great! It comes with an AppIndicator and a NotifyOSD-like notification bubble - both of which display a counter when you start the recording:

What works and what doesn't

I've tested Kazam Screencaster in both Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. While most stuff works, there are still 2 bugs in Maverick only: the AppIndicator counter stays at "1" when you record a video (instead of the "1" icon changing into the recording icon) and the notification bubble text is transparent).

Other than that, Kazam still lacks in features: you cannot change the video quality, record an area of the screen or change the format (so .mkv only for now) / codec.

But Kazam is looking good already and since it's still very new, expect a lot more features soon!

Install Kazam Screencaster

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and 10.10 Maverick Meerkat can install Kazam Screencaster using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:and471/kazam-daily-builds
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade #required for Maverick
sudo apt-get install kazam

If you're not using Ubuntu, grab Kazam Screencaster from HERE (you'll need BZR to download it).

Found a bug? Report it here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kazam.

How To Fix GTK-RecordMyDesktop Videos [For Uploading To YouTube]

RecordMyDesktop is a free and open source desktop screencasting software application written for GNU/Linux. The program is separated into two parts; a command line tool that performs the tasks of capturing and encoding, and an interface that exposes the program functionality graphically. GTK-RecordMyDesktop is a front-end for RecordMyDesktop.

If you ever tried to record your desktop using GTK-RecordMyDesktop (it's probably the same using the KDE front-end but I didn't test that), you've probably noticed the video doesn't work on YouTube or it's rendered very badly. The same issue occurs when trying to open the video in a video editor.

But here is a quick fix which will make your GTK-RecordMyDesktop videos work everywhere:

1. Firstly make sure you have mencoder installed:

sudo apt-get install mencoder

2. Now you can fix your video using the following command:

mencoder out.ogv -o out.avi -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc

In the above command, replace "out.ogv" with the name of the video you've recorded using GTK-RecordMyDesktop and the "out.avi" with the name you want for your final (fixed) video. Don't change the ".avi" extension!

In case you don't want sound in your video, instead of the above command, use this one:

mencoder out.ogv -o out.avi -nosound -ovc lavc

That is all - now you can open your video in your favourite video editor such as OpenShot or Avidemux or directly upload it to YouTube.

Ubuntu Multi-Touch Videos: Evince And Inkscape

As you probably know, Ubuntu will get multi-touch support starting with Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. You can read the official announcement here.

I was away on holiday and missed the whole multi-touch announcement but I'm sure you already know everything about it by now. Anyway, here are 2 videos demonstrating the new multi-touch feature for Evince and Inkscape (the videos date back to August 18, but maybe you haven't seen them):

-Evince:





-Inkscape:

Keep in mind that the multi-touch feature is still very early in development. Even so, it already looks impressive as both Evince and Inkscape can't handle multi-touch by default yet it works great as you can see in the videos above.

Thanks to LinuxFreedomForLive for the heads up!

Google Voice And Video Chat Comes To Linux!

Google finally enabled voice and video chat for the Linux users. To use it in Ubuntu, go to this page: http://www.google.com/chat/video click on "Install" and download the deb and install it.

Voice and video chat for Linux currently supports Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions, and RPM support will be coming soon.


Update: for non-Debian based Linux distributions, try this (thanks to rmull @ reddit):

32bit:

mkdir goog; cd goog
wget http://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-talkplugin_current_i386.deb
ar vx google-talkplugin_current_i386.deb
sudo tar xvzf data.tar.gz -C /

64bit:

mkdir goog; cd goog
wget http://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-talkplugin_current_amd64.deb
ar vx google-talkplugin_current_amd64.deb
sudo tar xvzf data.tar.gz -C /

Then restart Firefox.

Thanks to Ezequiel Sapoznicoff for the tip! Also thanks to hatemonger (we got this tip sent in twice :D)

Pidgin Embedded Video And Images Now Available In An Ubuntu PPA

The Pidgin Embedded Video with with the image patch has been uploaded to the Frasten PPA (thanks to Frasten for the heads up!) so you no longer have to compile it. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, see this post.

To install Pidgin Embedded Video in Ubuntu, run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:frasten/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pidgin-embeddedvideo

Then activate the plugin from the Pidgin options.


If you don't want to add the PPA, you can also manually download the .deb file.

Pidgin Embedded Video, Now With Image Support Too

Back in November we posted a Pidgin plugin called Pidgin Embedded Video which transforms links to videos from YouTube and other video websites into videos embedded directly into the Pidgin conversation window. Today I stumbled upon a patched Pidgin Embedded Video which also displays images from links into the Pidgin conversation window. So when someone sends you a link to an image you don't have to click it as the image will be displayed directly into the Pidgin conversation window.

There are no .debs file available, but compiling it is very easy. Please note that I've only tested this in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx so I don't know if it will work on older Ubuntu versions.

Update: you can now install Pidgin Embedded video with image support from the Frasten PPA: https://launchpad.net/%7Efrasten/+archive/ppa


1. Install the dependencies required to compile it:

These are the packages required to compile Pidgin Embedded video + Image view. I assume you already have all the build packages installed (build-essentials and so on)!

a) For Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx or 10.10 Maverick Meerkat:

sudo apt-get install pidgin-dev libpurple-dev libglib2.0-dev libwebkit-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

b) For Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala or older (not tested):

sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/webkit-team/ppa/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

In the command above, replace "YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE" with your Ubuntu version (karmic, jaunty and so on).

And then:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 2D9A3C5B
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pidgin-dev libpurple-dev libglib2.0-dev libwebkit-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

2. Compile Pidgin Embedded video + Image view

cd
wget http://geekr.googlecode.com/files/pidgin-embeddedvideo-imageview.tar.gz
tar -xvf pidgin-embeddedvideo-imageview.tar.gz
cd pidgin-embeddedvideo-imageview/
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

3. That's it with the compilation. Now you'll have to enable the plugin: in Pidgin, go to Tools > Plugins and enable "Pidgin Embedded Video".

[via Linuxundich]

Minitube 1.1 Released - Upgrade To Get It Working Again

Minitube is a native YouTube client for Windows (soon), Linux and Mac OS X. With it you can watch YouTube videos in a new way: you type a keyword, Minitube gives you an endless video stream. Minitube does not require the Flash Player.

Like we told you a few days ago, YouTube changed something which broke all the applications for downloading or playing YouTube videos. This includes VLC 1.1.1, youtube-dl and of course, Minitube.

This is why a new Minitube version was released today so if you want a working Minitube, you'll have to install the latest 1.1.

Besides fixing the YouTube issue, Minitube 1.1 also comes with a toolbar restyling and fixes moving more than one video down or up in the playlist.

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, 10.04 Lucid Lynx and 10.10 Maverick Meerkat users can install Minitube 1.1 from the WebUpd8 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install minitube

Or you can manually download the Ubuntu .deb files.

Download Minitube 1.1 for other Linux distributions and Mac OS X

Upgrade youtube-dl To Get It Working Again [Download YouTube Videos Via Command Line]

YouTube keeps making changes to the website which breaks all YouTube download applications, including my favourite YouTube downloader called "youtube-dl". For this reason, we've backported the Maverick version for Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid users - and the updated version is available in the WebUpd8 PPA.

But before you install the latest youtube-dl, a little info on this amazing YouTube command line donwloader.

youtube-dl is a python script (comes in a .deb) for downloading videos from YouTube. The recent versions also support downloading videos from video.google.com, photobucket, dailymotion, and metacafe.

But it's not just fixing YouTube that's new in the latest youtube-dl. Here are some recent changes which are not in the Lucid version of youtube-dl:

• add preliminary support for Dailymotion videos
• support for WebM formats (vp8 + vorbis)
• support for youtu.be URLs
• add support for the "original" video format in YouTube
• add a --max-quality option

And a lot more.

I'm not sure, but you might have to add the Gstreamer PPA for WebM support.

To install the latest youtube-dl in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and 9.10 Karmic Koala (but I've only tested it in Lucid), run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install youtube-dl

You can also manually download the .deb files if you want.

Using youtube-dl is very easy. To download a YouTube video, use the following command:

youtube-dl YOUTUBE-URL

where YOUTUBE-URL is the exact link to the YouTube video, like this (just an example): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF14bWw1NKk

You can download all the available formats, like this:

youtube-dl --all-formats YOUTUBE-URL

For advanced options, type:

youtube-dl --help

If you're not using Ubuntu, you can grab the Python script from HERE.

How To Save WebM Videos From YouTube And Play Them In Ubuntu

Now that YouTube supports WebM (actually, since it supports HTML5), it's easier than ever to download the videos - all you have to do is look at the page source (remember to enable HTML5 for YouTube first) and search for "videoPlayer.setAvailableFormat": you should see some links and next to it, the video quality is displayed, like so:

Once you find the link for the video quality you want to download (unfortunately 1080p is not available in WebM yet), simply paste it in a new browser tab, then save it to your desktop and rename it to something .webm (whatever name you want, but append the .webm extension).

Here is a link example for a 720p video:

http://v11.lscache3.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?ip=0.0.0.0&sparams=id%2Cexpire%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Calgorithm%2Cburst%2Cfactor%2Coc%3AU0dWTFNPT19FSkNNNl9LSVND&fexp=902303%2C900036&algorithm=throttle-factor&itag=45&ipbits=0&burst=40&sver=3&expire=1277341200&key=yt1&signature=725573BEE680BE61FC7219EE7DEC403E9D9FAFDA.6A2978DB9D871FAEE833082A2D16A9A3927F09CB&factor=1.25&id=3888ed5b82778824

To be able to play the video, you need a WebM capable video player. The easiest way is to install the latest Gstreamer packages and then simply use Totem ("Movie player"):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gstreamer-developers/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

You will get an error when upgrading to the latest gstreamer packages but don't worry, it can be fixed by simply running the following command:

sudo apt-get -f install

Note: Don't worry, installing the latest Gstreamer packages from the Gstreamer dev PPA will not break the audio/video playback for any media players!

You will also need the gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad package to be able to play WebM videos:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

Now the only thing left to do is set Totem as the file association for .webm files - you have to do this manually by right clicking a .webm file and then selecting Propreties > Open With and add Totem ("Movie Player"). That's it!

How To Install Firefox 3.7 (4.0) With WebM Support In Ubuntu Linux [PPA]

WebM is a new open source project suppored by Google, Mozilla, Opera and many others which uses the VP8 video codec Google aquired from On2 as well as Vorbis audio for HTML5 videos (HTML5 uses a built-in codec so you don't need Adobe Flash for viewing videos from YouTube for instance - which results in a very low processor usage compared to Flash and so on).

Firefox 3.7 (soon to be 4.0) got WebM support yesterday. The Ubuntu Mozilla Daily PPA for Ubuntu got this new builds so you can finally install Firefox with WebM support in Ubuntu - for 32bit only for now.

Besides WebM, Firefox 3.7 (4.0) from the Mozilla Daily PPA also features the new extension manager:

Please note that Firefox 3.7 is unstable so expect to find bugs! Also, this PPA will update your Firefox 3.6 to the nightly. If you don't want this, after installing Firefox 3.7, remove the PPA!

Install Firefox 3.7 (aka 4.0) in Ubuntu using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox-3.7

Firefox too needs libvpx but for some reason, this is not available in the Ubuntu Mozilla Daily PPA. But you can install this from Chromium Daily PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libvpx0

And there you have it - Firefox 3.7 (aka 4.0) with WebM support.

To use WebM on YouTube, enable HTML5 and try some WebM videos like this one. Note: for some reason I was unable to view videos in 360p using WebM, but the videos in 720p worked great.