A brand new way to play YouTube clips on your Windows Mobile device!

[Menneisyys]

Anyone into watching YouTube videos knows it has always been pretty problematic to play YouTube videos on Windows Mobile. This has also been explained in my related article Playing Flash Video (FLV) files on the Pocket PC - is it possible? (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=playing_flash_video_flv_files_on_the_poc&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1).

The built-in PIE / IEM, because of the very bad JavaScript support, has always been unable to play them back and it was only lately that Opera Mobile (as of the first beta of 8.65) and NetFront (as of TP 3.4 007 released early June, 2007 (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=web_browsing_news_new_version_of_opera_m&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)) received YouTube support.

These solutions are really sub-par, particularly that of NetFront, which has a comparatively slow Flash plug-in.

This means, so far, the best way to watch YouTube videos was relying on external, Web-based convertor services listed in my earlier all-in-one article on playing back YouTube videos (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=playing_flash_video_flv_files_on_the_poc&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1). These convertor services, unfortunately, need a lot of additional work and, in general, result in files that are (much) larger and/or of (much) lower quality than the original YouTube videos.

TCPMP Plugin for Flash Video on PPC (http://sourceforge.net/projects/tcpmpflvplugin/) for the rescue! It provides a VERY fast (MUCH faster than even Opera Mobile’s playback, let alone the far inferior YouTube support in the latest NetFront beta) and, what is more, conversion-less (meaning no additional bandwidth / quality loss because of the conversion) solution. What is more, it’s FREE, as is TCPMP itself, and runs on both Pocket PC’s and, with some restrictions, touch screen-less Smartphones.

In the following, I explain how it should be used.

1. download the latest (currently: 0.3) version from HERE (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=196939&package_id=232906) and, of course, TCPMP (http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/) (either the PPC (tcpmp.pocketpc.0.72RC1.cab (http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/tcpmp.pocketpc.0.72RC1.cab)) or the Smartphone (tcpmp.smartphone.0.72RC1.cab (http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/tcpmp.smartphone.0.72RC1.cab)) version).

Extract all the files from the tcpmpflvplugin ZIP file, (currently) tcpmpflvplugin-v0.3.zip, player and, after installing TCPMP, copy the two .plg files in the home of TCPMP (\Storage Card\Program Files\TCPMP when installed on the only storage card under WM5+ etc.).

Copy YouTubeDownload.exe anywhere on your handheld; for example, \Windows\Start Menu\Programs (it’s very small so you can even store it in the main storage)

2. in order to see a video, fire up a Web browser and go to YouTube. When you are on a page you’d like to see the video of, in the address bar, highlight the last part of the URL (the one after the ?v=) as can be seen in HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVPlayerPluginURLselect1.bmp.png). Copy this to the clipboard by tap-and-holding the selection and selecting Copy in the menu:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVPlayerPluginURLselect2.bmp.png

Here, I’ve copied the ‘x4arSJCWwpk’ parameter of the URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4arSJCWwpk .

3. Now, fire up YouTubeDownload.exe, (after selecting the right target directory) tap-and-hold the “Video ID:” field and select Paste in the drop-down context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVPlayerPluginURLselect3.bmp.png). Now, click Start. The video will be downloaded to the target directory:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVDownloadInProg.bmp.png

Note that the downloader utility is incompatible with the MS Smartphone (WM6 Standard) operating system. First, it doesn’t support focus transfer with D-pad / the Tab key (it’s been written for WM2003) – it’s only with a cursor emulator like SPHelper hat you can traverse the focus as can be seen HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVPlaySP1.bmp.png). However, it won’t be of help as the app won’t be able to connect to YouTube as can be seen in HERE (http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVPlaySP2.bmp.png) (tested this on my HTC Vox / s710 several times). I really hope the author of YouTubeDownload.exe will soon fix this problem so that Smartphone users can also download any YouTube clips. Until then, you’ll need to rely on files downloaded in other ways.

Also note that version 0.2 is the only version to offer a desktop-based (x86) downloader tool (as opposed to what the developer states). It, however, wasn’t able to download anything on my desktop when I’ve tried. That is, you’ll need to download directly onto your Pocket PC.

4. Then, fire up TCPMP and select the given file (File / Open File):

http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVPlayTCPMP1.bmp.png

Now, it’ll be played back:

http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVPlayTCPMP2.bmp.png

(same on the MS Smartphone operating system (http://www.winmobiletech.com/062007FlashTCPMP/FLVPlaySP3.bmp.png))

It’s very important that you can NOT invoke directly video playback from any Windows Mobile Web browsers – you will ALWAYS need to manually download the videos, manually switch to TCPMP and manually load it for playback.

It’s also worth knowing that the plug-in does NOT work with CorePlayer, the commercial descendant of TCPMP.

Related talk

Note that these threads are FULL of misinformation. It’s worth checking them out but don’t necessarily believe what you read in there.

MoDaCo (http://www.modaco.com/youtube-videos-t254283.html)
PPCT (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55402)
XDA-Dev (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=308837)

[ben2684]

My TCPMP player will not play the downloaded file when i go to open it ,it does not have the tcpmp symbol on the paper what do i do . If does not see flv files, what do i do ?

[banannq]

very nice.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=309428
and have you noticed that youtube player2.swf has changed and all the software we used to download clips refuse to work now?

[Menneisyys]

My TCPMP player will not play the downloaded file when i go to open it ,it does not have the tcpmp symbol on the paper what do i do . If does not see flv files, what do i do ?

did you install the two plg files,a dn did you restart TCPMP?

[donsaxena]

i get failed to contact errors sometimes and sometimes it works....actually rarely it works. any suggestions. all other connections work push, rss, xm, sirius, etc.

[Menneisyys]

i get failed to contact errors sometimes and sometimes it works....actually rarely it works. any suggestions. all other connections work push, rss, xm, sirius, etc.

I think you need to live with that

[jaeguyoon]

working nicely for me!!!


thanks for the great tool!

[pthomson]

What is your average download time. I am downloading a 10795KB video and it's taking over ten minutes.

[Menneisyys]

What is your average download time. I am downloading a 10795KB video and it's taking over ten minutes.

With me, it's much faster (over a 100 Mbps connection - haven't tested it over phone connections).

[nateshuntsvegas]

i get failed to contact errors sometimes and sometimes it works....actually rarely it works. any suggestions. all other connections work push, rss, xm, sirius, etc.

yeah you need to get off the 3.5 and get elf's rom no problems on my end good work on the thread menneisyys

[banannq]

I don't know about you guys, but included tool for downloading clips from youtube (desktop one) refused to work recently giving me error (invalid returned link). The ppc one works fine. i assume that since a week or so youtube page has been changed. i took a look at how does youtube work and after a while i put together a simple tool for downloading clips myself (desktop windows). i tried it since yesterday and i think it works fine. if any of you wants to share comment on it, please do so...

all you need to do is copy the link to youtube video page in question and paste it into the first edit box in my app
(http://youtube.com/watch?v=EBr0dsfLYcU) for example
then after you press start, it downloads a page, then after the while it finds a direct link to a flv file and starts to download it into a dir from which it was run. you can also copy the link for different use (i don't know, maybye someone needs it)

i hope someone will find it usefull.

[donsaxena]

yeah you need to get off the 3.5 and get elf's rom no problems on my end good work on the thread menneisyys

yeah its not a problem in the rom i put elf on my friends good and stable but after benchmark 3.5 wins.

[Menneisyys]

I don't know about you guys, but included tool for downloading clips from youtube (desktop one) refused to work recently giving me error (invalid returned link). The ppc one works fine. i assume that since a week or so youtube page has been changed. i took a look at how does youtube work and after a while i put together a simple tool for downloading clips myself (desktop windows). i tried it since yesterday and i think it works fine. if any of you wants to share comment on it, please do so...

all you need to do is copy the link to youtube video page in question and paste it into the first edit box in my app
(http://youtube.com/watch?v=EBr0dsfLYcU) for example
then after you press start, it downloads a page, then after the while it finds a direct link to a flv file and starts to download it into a dir from which it was run. you can also copy the link for different use (i don't know, maybye someone needs it)

i hope someone will find it usefull.

Great! I'll post an update to my article, linking in your post!

[ekhanh101]

i can hear the audio from the FLV file but i don't get video?

I copied the
flvsplitter.plg
flvffmpeg.plg

to the windows directory where all the other .plg are

What else do i need?

help!

[banannq]

@Menneisyys: great, i love to hear this.

@ekhanh101:

if you've read the first post in this post, at least, you would notice this part:

1. download the latest (currently: 0.3) version from HERE and, of course, TCPMP (either the PPC (tcpmp.pocketpc.0.72RC1.cab) or the Smartphone (tcpmp.smartphone.0.72RC1.cab) version).

Extract all the files from the tcpmpflvplugin ZIP file, (currently) tcpmpflvplugin-v0.3.zip, player and, after installing TCPMP,

===========================================
||<b>copy the two .plg files in the home of TCPMP</b>||
===========================================

(\Storage Card\Program Files\TCPMP when installed on the only storage card under WM5+ etc.).

[ekhanh101]

the "home" of the player is part of the cooked rom.
so the player is in wondows.
putting the .plg in the windows dir make it work for the audio at least,

if i took out the .plgs then it doesn't play at all.
ALL the other .plg files are located in the \windows directory also.

i don't have a TCPMP directory. i tried making one just incase but that doesn't work.

Like i said, you can hear the audio. just no video.

[ekhanh101]

also, here's another way to download flvs from youtube:

http://downthisvideo.com/?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqTaqVi9J8k

just put the full url after the ?

still haven't figure out how to get the video to show up yet on TCPMP... i have 0.72RC1 it plays AVIs and the audio from the FLV is perfect... sigh...

[banannq]

also, here's another way to download flvs from youtube:

http://downthisvideo.com/?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqTaqVi9J8k

just put the full url after the ?

still haven't figure out how to get the video to show up yet on TCPMP... i have 0.72RC1 it plays AVIs and the audio from the FLV is perfect... sigh...

i am sorry then, i should have thought u ment something like this, i just didn't. have no idea, maybe your tcpmp is in wrong version? no clue from me....

about youtube downloaders - there's plenty of this kind of sites online, its enough to google for it (http://www.google.pl/search?source=ig&hl=pl&q=youtube+download&btnG=Szukaj+w+Google&lr=)
there are also at least few firefox plugins (https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/search?q=youtube+download&status=4)
the problem is i don't like to use another site to do it, and i don't like any of these working plugins (the only one i liked refused to work recently)
thats why i preffered this small utility from tcpmp plugin, and since it doesn't work for me anymore neither, i decided to code my own ;]

[forcedv]

The 2 FLV plugins (from the latest release 0.3) will not install on TCPMP 0.72 smartphone version.

Could someone confirm if the plugin works for TCPMP 0.72 smartphone and if so, which version of the plugin did you use ?

[forcedv]

oops, forgot to mention...WM2003 (SPV C550).

If WM2003 is not supported, why not and will it be soon ?

[forcedv]

anyone ? Seems strange that WM2003 smartphone isn't supported ?

[forcedv]

Any luck with WM2003SE support ?

[zookolo]

Thanks, works great.

[knighthawks97]

Is this still working (YouTubeDownload.exe)?

I did this last week was able to download and watch several videos. It worked like a charm.

This week I try and stays on "Preparing to download...", then I get the error pop-up "Fail to send request!" I'm doing everything the same that I did last week, it's just not downloding now.

Anybody else have problems?

[turbodude]

I have noticed this doesn;t work on teh Mogul :(

[hendrixus]

I saw this (http://solsie.com/myoutubeplayer-free-j2me-based-app-for-youtube-streaming/) player at Solsie's. I haven't installed it yet.

http://marlonj.darkgreenmedia.com/site/data/gallery/1/images/sketchbook/myoutubeplayer.png

[TorxT3D]

i installed it along with intent .1023
and no matter which network connection i choose, its timing out or doesnt come back with any results.

wm5 aku3.5, ppc6700

EDIT: its working on "WAP network", not many results, doesnt play what i selected throws a null error or javalangruntimeexception or something

[hendrixus]

Right. I have insta;;ed it on my WM2k3 QTEK9090 and until now I only see "searching" So it doesn't work very well.

[Menneisyys]

Update: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1408408

[R$HANK]

I have mobytube working with tcpmp, except it always says I need to install the plugin and change settings which I have done.

[trator]

Where can I get youtubedownload.exe for WM6??

[madddawg08]

nevermind figured it out

[123sweat]

hmm

I am having the same problem only audio that is.

I get a popup saying something about a video codec()

Any advice, i really would like to watch some .flv on my HTC 3600

must i configure TCPMP a certain way??

I have
TCPMP 0.72RC1 with the 2 .plg files

regards

[hayaticik]

gorget downloading and stuff..with this solution i found you can watch you tube and more just like hor you would on your pc..click on video and tcpmp will pop...no downloading..
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showpost.php?p=1319431&postcount=1

[sallie66]

Am new to all this but am on a mission to view YouTube on my XDA Exec mainly due to IPhone smugness - installed and unzipped but just get 'is not a valid Pocket PC application' message. How do you get round this?

[ga41]

You guys should check this site. http://ytpocket.com/

Just follow the instructions and use that site to search instead of searching the normal YouTube site. The results are the same as the normal YouTube site and then you just click on the thumbnail you want in the results.

The player it mentions is just a plugin for TCPMP but unlike the way mentioned in this thread it simply streams the video straight away without you having to use downloaders to download it on your device. I had it running in 5min and i can confirm that it does work. Nice and simple!

Plus the site is mobile friendly and you can do the whole thing from your device as i did today.

Enjoy

[Wooley]

Copy YouTubeDownload.exe anywhere on your handheld; for example, \Windows\Start Menu\Programs (it’s very small so you can even store it in the main storage)

Where can I get the youtubedownload.exe for WM6??

EDIT Found it on page 2,

EDIT not a PPC app !!!!

[callme_james]

I have TCPMP version .72RC1 on my AT&T 8525, however I am no longer able to view youtube after upgrading to WM6 (official version from the HTC website). The youtube page freezes after only loading half way and I have to restart my phone to get it working again. I have tried reloading TCPMP, does anyone know what the reason for this may be? The only other change I made to my phone is that I addad BryhtFlash. Any thoughts?

Thanks for any help.
James

[radatia]

Hi - I'm also having some minor difficulty with this. I have followed instructions - and can watch videos streaming directly from youtube absolutely fine.

However, I cannot watch flv files downloaded from youtube / anywhere else.

TCPMP fires up, but just doesn't do anything when I hit play. Is there a setting that would be different for local files and streaming files?

Thanks.

[grafik2]

im having a similar problem as the most recent few posters have.

running WM6 I was finally able to have tcpmp see .flv's in my directorys, so I know im on the right track. however similarly when I hit play it just skips the end with no video and if I play around w settings I get the video codec() error...I thought I had the most updated codecs is there any way to tell what I have or what I need?

also I have the setting set for ATI imageon but there is an option for ATI imageon decoder. what settings do I want to use to view these since I can finally open them!?
thanks guys

[koalauk]

Am new to all this but am on a mission to view YouTube on my XDA Exec mainly due to IPhone smugness - installed and unzipped but just get 'is not a valid Pocket PC application' message. How do you get round this?

Not compatible with 2003 ??? could be the problem?

[hendrixus]

Not compatible with 2003 ??? could be the problem?

XDA EXEC(HTC Universal) runs WM5