Weird YouTube Changes, State of Age-Gated Videos, And PPCMC7 Becoming The Only YouTube Live Stream Method On PowerPC Macs?

[alex_free]

PPCMC 7 is now 1.5 years old, and has seen 25 updates since version 7.0.

Recently it has come to my attention that something weird is going on with using VLC and QuickTime to watch YouTube livestreams. Apparently Google changed something, I think it’s to do with the codec/format somehow although it’s still H.264 MP4 from what I can tell.

However FFPlay, with its 100% up to date dependencies and supported codecs still works perfectly!

R.I.P. VLC and QuickTime live-streaming of YouTube videos on PowerPC, and hopefully long live FFplay and it’s ability to stream them. The FFplay is just as modern if not more then any Linux distro/package manager provides currently (v4.4 is in PPCMC 7.2.5). VLC and QuickTime on even Leopard are getting up there in age, and this was inevitable at some point. And FFplay even works on Mac OS X 10.3.9!

Thanks to @B S Magnet for first bringing up this issue and providing an example live stream for me to play with, this made it incredibly easy to debug the issue. I also saw someone post on the Macintosh Garden PPCMC 7 page comments that they managed to get a live stream to work in FFplay after failing to use VLC.

They even posted a GitHub issue on YouTube-DL! Amazing, the YouTube-DL developers read a log with this in it (they were using an older PPCMC version before switching to the latest 7.2.5):

ffmpeg version 4.3.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 4.0.1 (GCC) (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)
configuration: --prefix=/Applications/PPCMC.app --enable-altivec --extra-libs=-L/Applications/PPCMC.app/lib --extra-ldflags=-L/Applications/PPCMC.app/lib --extra-cflags='-arch ppc7450 -I/Applications/PPCMC.app/include/SDL2 -D_THREAD_SAFE -I/Applications/PPCMC.app/include' --enable-libmp3lame --enable-zlib --disable-iconv --enable-openssl --enable-static --enable-sdl --enable-outdev=sdl2 --disable-htmlpages
libavutil 56. 51.100 / 56. 51.100
libavcodec 58. 91.100 / 58. 91.100
libavformat 58. 45.100 / 58. 45.100
libavdevice 58. 10.100 / 58. 10.100
libavfilter 7. 85.100 / 7. 85.100
libswscale 5. 7.100 / 5. 7.100
libswresample 3. 7.100 / 3. 7.100

QuickTime and VLC appear to still work for normal YouTube video uploads, by the way.

Now on to the next issue, it appears at least from other users of PPCMC7 that the only way to watch YouTube live streams now is with PPCMC7. TenFiveTube apparently does not work anymore for livestreams at least. This isn’t great as now there is one single point of possible failure for the entire community if PPCMC7 breaks. I love our forum’s little PowerPC Mac OS X YouTube app war. Just a reminder, PPCMC7’s AppleScript code is available and is public domain, you don’t even need to credit me in using it because the public owns the copyright (at least in the US, some countries are weird with not allowing this kind of thing). I’d love to be credited if the code helps you, but you don’t have to. Hopefully this helps other PowerPC YouTube app developers here to make YouTube livestreams work again with their software:

powerpc-media-center/PPCMC.applescript at master · alex-free/powerpc-media-center

Contribute to alex-free/powerpc-media-center development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Feel free to open a GitHub Issue on PPCMC7, message me directly on the forums/leave a post on the official MacRumors PPCMC7 thread, or a comment on the PPCMC 7.x Macintosh Garden the page about errors or feedback on PPCMC 7.

Lastly, the age gate issue. I don’t understand what’s going on with YouTube-dl not fixing this for MONTHS. This is incredibly frustrating as age gated videos require you to make a YouTube account. Which requires you to give Google your phone number. Which ends with car warranty scam calls (yes I know that my car which is older then me has an expired warranty). Age gated stuff used to be bypassed in PPCMC7, but around February or so of this year that broke and just hasn’t been fixed. I’m going to look into other YouTube-dl forks which may fix this (like YouTube-dlc, which I switched too when YouTube-dl got DMCA’d on GitHub, and then YouTube-dlc died in development, only to return recently to active development status). I will add an option to even allow any YouTube-dl hit repo to be used to make this even more future proof.

I am hoping to get a PPCMC 7 update out this month. The goal is every 2 months, every month is more ideal but things have been slightly chaotic for me.

For historical reasons, here’s the YouTube NASA livestream on Panther using VLC:

 

[Dronecatcher]

I'm falling out of love with Youtube - they recently censored one of my music videos that has been on there ten years for not being 'in line with community guidelines' - I'm also banned from making comments on videos too, no explanation and I've never said anything inflammatory on there, never even clicked a thumbs down!

And talking of censorship, the youtube-dl developers are cut from the same cloth - they've called me a liar and locked my threads when making legitimate queries.

Maybe I'm just an old man yelling at clouds

 

[alex_free]

I'm falling out of love with Youtube - they recently censored one of my music videos that has been on there ten years for not being 'in line with community guidelines' - I'm also banned from making comments on videos too, no explanation and I've never said anything inflammatory on there, never even clicked a thumbs down!

And talking of censorship, the youtube-dl developers are cut from the same cloth - they've called me a liar and locked my threads when making legitimate queries.

Maybe I'm just an old man yelling at clouds

I’m 100% certain a real human made that decision on your account and not a robot AI, that could never happen…

Your reply essentially describes how the site is today. The problem is Google has such a head start in this area that I don’t think anyone can even challenge it. How could some startup even get 5% market share in comparison to YouTube? It just doesn’t seem possible. I loved the site back in 2010, no ads, free music videos, original content. But now everyone is afraid to even cuss and they come up with words to replace the ones that would make the videos demonitized that are not even curse words, it’s insane. The golden age of YouTube is easily 2005-2016. I am happy that I was there to expierence it but sad that nothing like it will exist ever again it seems.

The backlog of videos however that still exist and some creators are still putting out content you just can’t get anywhere else, and that’s the only appeal to me now. But definitely it is in general terrible.

 

[Dronecatcher]

It's just a sewer now - politics, narratives, propaganda, censorship, 'fact checkers' - the online world has turned a corner...

 

[juanstdio]

Just about a week ago I was watching in 360p 4 live streams from youtube in my G5 using PPCMC and ffmpeg ?

 

[B S Magnet]

I’m 100% certain a real human made that decision on your account and not a robot AI, that could never happen…

Your reply essentially describes how the site is today. The problem is Google has such a head start in this area that I don’t think anyone can even challenge it. How could some startup even get 5% market share in comparison to YouTube? It just doesn’t seem possible. I loved the site back in 2010, no ads, free music videos, original content. But now everyone is afraid to even cuss and they come up with words to replace the ones that would make the videos demonitized that are not even curse words, it’s insane. The golden age of YouTube is easily 2005-2016. I am happy that I was there to expierence it but sad that nothing like it will exist ever again it seems.

The backlog of videos however that still exist and some creators are still putting out content you just can’t get anywhere else, and that’s the only appeal to me now. But definitely it is in general terrible.

I sincerely wish the U.S. had never passed the bludgeoning sledgehammer better known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. To witness instance after instance of the DMCA being wielded to disappear fair use content (under the U.S.’s 1976’s Copyright Act) and even content bearing no relationship to copyrighted intellectual property, negatively impacting users who have no relationship with the U.S. (aside from pinging the intermediary of a U.S.-based online platform), has reaped a more impoverished internet for which no amount of monetization can ever offset.

 

[Dronecatcher]

 

[z970]

@alex_free Creators publishing YouTube-exclusive content isn't because of the fact that it's YouTube. It's because they are choosing to publish content exclusive to YouTube instead of BitChute, Rumble, Brand New Tube, etc. And perhaps that is because they have vastly less incentive to do so as opposed to simply publishing on YouTube, which can provide them with far greater publicity, monetary compensation, and broader discussion.

However, YouTube is only in the juggernaut position it's in because so many people have used it exclusively for so long. For several years, YouTube had a slow start with not many users. But as people learned of it (especially after the Google buyout), they all chose to congregate there. However, we can all choose to congregate somewhere else just as well, and move videos that we've posted to YouTube to some alternative platform. This can be particularly effective if some big-name channels and personalities choose to go this route, in the process exposing alternative video websites to their viewers.

This method has worked in the past; just look at DuckDuckGo, who has grown exponentially during the past decade primarily by using grassroots marketing tactics, such as word of mouth. In 2014, they had a mere 0.12% market share in the US. Now in 2021, they've got over 2.45% market share and climbing, a whopping 42% increase from their spot just last year. And at this rate, they're on track to overtake Yahoo Search by next year, the latter sitting at 2.99% as of 2021.

I could cite similar examples, but the point is that positive change can and does happen. However, history has shown time and again that it is up to absolutely nobody else but sovereign citizens, users, viewers, creators, and developers alike to instill it. It won't happen any other way.

 

[B S Magnet]

@alex_free Creators publishing YouTube-exclusive content isn't because of the fact that it's YouTube. It's because they are choosing to publish content exclusive to YouTube instead of BitChute, Rumble, Brand New Tube, etc.

Hrm, I’ll go out on a limb to postulate how one possible motivator, aside from eyeball exposure or monetization, behind why one might elect not to post their video content on… BitChute, Rumble, or Brand New Tube is because the content predominant across all three of those platforms, coincidentally, skew overwhelmingly fascistic, conspiratorial, anti-science, and/or anti-Semitic. Plenty of people who are motivated to post video content and, simultaneously, who are disinterested to share company with honeypots of such antediluvian currents will probably explore posting to a service like YouTube or Vimeo, much as they have for several years. I mean, I can’t think of a better explanation behind why this person chose to post his content to YouTube and not to, say, Brand New Tube.

I could cite similar examples, but the point is that positive change can and does happen. However, history has shown time and again that it is up to absolutely nobody else but sovereign citizens, users, viewers, creators, and developers alike to instill it. It won't happen any other way.

Hrm. I wonder whether your remarks could be flagged and/or reported for being off-topic whilst diligently veering headlong into PRSI territory. ?

 

[z970]

Hrm, I’ll go out on a limb to postulate how one possible motivator, aside from eyeball exposure or monetization, behind why one might elect not to post their video content on… BitChute, Rumble, or Brand New Tube is because the content predominant across all three of those platforms, coincidentally, skew overwhelmingly fascistic, conspiratorial, anti-science, and/or anti-Semitic. Plenty of people who are motivated to post video content and, simultaneously, who are disinterested to share company with honeypots of such antediluvian currents will probably explore posting to a service like YouTube or Vimeo, much as they have for several years. I mean, I can’t think of a better explanation behind why this person chose to post his content to YouTube and not to, say, Brand New Tube.

I didn't cite them because of their content, I cited them because they were merely examples of accessible YouTube alternatives in a Web where that concept is realized relatively few and far between. I don't like their concentration of content centered on one topic any more than you do, but the underlying point was that YouTube was, in fact, in much the same position as they are now in its early days as well, at the time being comprised predominantly of individuals filming themselves conducting various amusing activities using low resolution camera devices. Only when adoption increased did content variety get a much-needed expansion as well, which in turn encouraged further adoption, further expanding content variety, and so on.

I don't know about you, but out of principle, I frown upon market monopolies. As it happens, so do most other people (and with good reason). It is a fact that sufficient choice of platform with equivalent content variety is a positive development, not one to scoff at.

Nice job overlooking that point, by the way.

Hrm. I wonder whether your remarks could be flagged and/or reported for being off-topic whilst diligently veering headlong into PRSI territory. ?

Yes, I have a different opinion than you. Yes, our values do not align. And yes, penalizing those who meet this criteria for no other reason besides the fact that they do is openly fascist, censorist, bigoted, hateful, and Orwellian, not to mention anti-diversity. Therefore, I wonder whether your remarks could be flagged and / or reported for being intentionally inflammatory and divisive.

I refuse to walk on your eggshells. With this type of overbearing personality around that is ready to pounce at the first sign of ideological dissent, it's truly no wonder that I wanted to leave; to be free of that.

 

[B S Magnet]

I refuse to walk on your eggshells. With this type of overbearing personality around that is ready to pounce at the first sign of ideological dissent, it's truly no wonder that I wanted to leave; to be free of that.

Well okay, then. Only one of us here has ever boasted fascistic, conspiratorial and pseudoscience links, ad nauseam, within their signature line (without sanction, no less), and it wasn’t the person who’s read Umberto Eco’s pivotal work on fascism. Similarly, in the Matrix, a parable on the language of gender as written by two trans women, only one of us is an agent. And last I checked, only one of us is trans.

My beef with YouTube lies with their over-eager enforcement of the U.S. DMCA foremost, followed a distant second by its co-ordinates within the small constellation of effective tech monopolies. Frankly, my beef is with the DMCA itself and with its extra-territorial overreach.

 

[repairedCheese]

And yes, penalizing those who meet this criteria for no other reason besides the fact that they do is openly fascist, censorist, bigoted, hateful, and Orwellian, not to mention anti-diversity.

Actually, I believe it's called the paradox of tolerance.

 

[alex_free]

My beef with YouTube lies with their over-eager enforcement of the U.S. DMCA foremost, followed a distant second by its co-ordinates within the small constellation of effective tech monopolies. Frankly, my beef is with the DMCA itself and with its extra-territorial overreach.

The fact that the DMCA does not require the hosting service to remove the content until a legal decision is reached, yet YouTube automatically deletes or redirects the most critical advertising revenue is appalling (not a lawyer but this is my understanding)…

 

[z970]

Spoiler: Collapsed to Cease Derailing Thread; Open At Your Own Risk

Only one of us here has ever boasted fascistic, conspiratorial and pseudoscience links, ad nauseam, within their signature line (without sanction, no less), and it wasn’t the person who’s read Umberto Eco’s pivotal work on fascism.

You're right, that was a bad choice. I'm sorry.

However, given that we fortunately reside in an Internet forum, which is a communication model originally designed to fulfill the free and unrestricted exchange of information, what I should have done was this:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335060/

Search Results from the VAERS Database

Search Results from the VAERS Database

Search Results from the VAERS Database

https://faculty.utrgv.edu/eleftherios.gkioulekas/zelenko/afd-paper-on-experimental-vaccines.pdf

http://stateofthenation.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Why-Not-To-Get-The-COVID-VACCINE.pdf

Inventor of mRNA Technology: Vaccine Causes Lipid Nanoparticles to Accumulate in ‘High Concentrations’ in Ovaries

On the “Dark Horse Podcast,” Dr. Robert Malone, creator of mRNA vaccine technology, said the COVID vaccine lipid nanoparticles — which tell the body to produce the spike protein — leave the injection site and accumulate in organs and tissues.

childrenshealthdefense.org

That's four verbose data sheets by two government-run sources, one compilation of data statistics and drawn conclusions by qualified medical professionals, one compilation of visual / unfiltered data statistics by a third-party, and one source of facts, industry experience, and professional conclusions by an extremely qualified and educated individual who intimately knows far more on the subject than either you or I, period.

The disconnect here is that the scientific method isn't afraid to discredit itself when new information appears - because it isn't a deity; it is an ever-changing perspective. Therefore, daring to recognize and enforce this once-revered description without prejudice indeed qualifies as truly and unapologetically 'trusting the science' ... if one is so inclined.

Regrettably, while although the links I did share offered essentially the same information, they were immediately disregarded for simply being hosted on platforms that, unfortunately, "skew overwhelmingly fascistic, conspiratorial, anti-science, and/or anti-Semitic.".

On that note, here's one more:

Cognitive dissonance - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

My bottom line on the matter: I tried. Sincerely.

And so, you won't hear a peep more out of me.

Similarly, in the Matrix, a parable on the language of gender as written by two trans women, only one of us is an agent. And last I checked, only one of us is trans.

I am aware that the creators are transgender, and that fact does not change my fondness for their skill in directing the film's conveyed concepts in any way, shape, or form. And I already suspected the second fact, but couldn't confirm. Congratulations.

Regardless, I fail to understand how the inclusion of identity politics relates to a mild discussion we were having about video-sharing websites, along with my valid complaints pertaining to our methods and quality of discourse.

But I agree with you on how current regulations surrounding the applicable use and enforcement of the infamous DMCA are somewhat lax, though. To put it lightly.

 

[B S Magnet]

Spoiler: Collapsed to Cease Derailing Thread; Open At Your Own Risk

You're right, that was a bad choice. I'm sorry.

However, given that we fortunately reside in an Internet forum, which is a communication model originally designed to fulfill the free and unrestricted exchange of information, what I should have done was this:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335060/

Search Results from the VAERS Database

Search Results from the VAERS Database

Search Results from the VAERS Database

https://faculty.utrgv.edu/eleftherios.gkioulekas/zelenko/afd-paper-on-experimental-vaccines.pdf

http://stateofthenation.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Why-Not-To-Get-The-COVID-VACCINE.pdf

Inventor of mRNA Technology: Vaccine Causes Lipid Nanoparticles to Accumulate in ‘High Concentrations’ in Ovaries

On the “Dark Horse Podcast,” Dr. Robert Malone, creator of mRNA vaccine technology, said the COVID vaccine lipid nanoparticles — which tell the body to produce the spike protein — leave the injection site and accumulate in organs and tissues.

childrenshealthdefense.org

That's four verbose data sheets by two government-run sources, one compilation of data statistics and drawn conclusions by qualified medical professionals, one compilation of visual / unfiltered data statistics by a third-party, and one source of facts, industry experience, and professional conclusions by an extremely qualified and educated individual who intimately knows far more on the subject than either you or I, period.

The disconnect here is that the scientific method isn't afraid to discredit itself when new information appears - because it isn't a deity; it is an ever-changing perspective. Therefore, daring to recognize and enforce this once-revered description without prejudice indeed qualifies as truly and unapologetically 'trusting the science' ... if one is so inclined.

Regrettably, while although the links I did share offered essentially the same information, they were immediately disregarded for simply being hosted on platforms that, unfortunately, "skew overwhelmingly fascistic, conspiratorial, anti-science, and/or anti-Semitic.".

On that note, here's one more:

Cognitive dissonance - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

My bottom line on the matter: I tried. Sincerely.

And so, you won't hear a peep more out of me.

Spoiler: A forthwith reply to your spoiler text

tl;dr.

Congratulations.

You’re over 35 years too late.

 

[alex_free]

Edit: QuickTime and VLC streaming of even normal YouTube videos is also affected and appears to be broken.

 

[Macbookprodude]

I'm falling out of love with Youtube - they recently censored one of my music videos that has been on there ten years for not being 'in line with community guidelines' - I'm also banned from making comments on videos too, no explanation and I've never said anything inflammatory on there, never even clicked a thumbs down!

And talking of censorship, the youtube-dl developers are cut from the same cloth - they've called me a liar and locked my threads when making legitimate queries.

Maybe I'm just an old man yelling at clouds

You and me both.. A topic we can sit down over tea.. You will be amazed you and I share similar p beliefs.. especially, since your country is suffering from a lot.. again, lets go to starbucks to discuss this.

 

[Macbookprodude]

I sincerely wish the U.S. had never passed the bludgeoning sledgehammer better known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. To witness instance after instance of the DMCA being wielded to disappear fair use content (under the U.S.’s 1976’s Copyright Act) and even content bearing no relationship to copyrighted intellectual property, negatively impacting users who have no relationship with the U.S. (aside from pinging the intermediary of a U.S.-based online platform), has reaped a more impoverished internet for which no amount of monetization can ever offset.

This is a PRSI topic.. I agree with you for once on the above.

 

[Macbookprodude]

Actually, I believe it's called the paradox of tolerance.

Please leave fascist out.. as I am an authoritarian fascist myself, but in a different context. Are you from America ?

 

[B S Magnet]

:strokes back of my forearm across my forehead as I look skywards at the blazing sunlight:

Wow, all this hot discourse has me just parched. Does anyone have a refreshing pitcher of ice-cold Ukrainian Punch available? I’m partial to apple flavour.