Anybody here using SMPlayer? For a few weeks now I am unable to watch youtube videos. A fresh profile does not help.

I suspect the built-in youtube-dl code. I can use the most recent version of youtube-dl to fetch the video and then SMPlayer plays the downloaded video.

Not yet looking for alternatives. Just want to know if others can play youtube videos with SMPlayer. The SMPlayer logs have not helped me, but I might be missing something obvious.

Thanks.

Slackware 64-bit 14.2, SMPlayer 19.5, MPlayer 1.2.1-5.3.0, youtube-dl 2019.09.01, mpv 0.26

Never tried using SMplayer for this previously (usually watch youtube videos in the browser) but couldn't resist investigate. Picked a youtube URL (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGVQLHvwOY), opened SMPlayer, Open > URL > OK, and the video started and ran just fine here.
Slackware64v-current, SMPlayer 19.5.0, MPlayer-20190717-9.1.0, youtube-dl-2019.09.01, no mpv package.
Different mplayer version (mine is from the official -current repo). Could that be the reason? Maybe you could try building a new mplayer from the latest source file version (1.4)?

I looked into this again today. I am utterly clueless. I tried rebuilding libass and mplayer, tried newer versions, installed a newer version of mpv. If I start with a fresh smplayer profile, sometimes I can play yt videos, but then I can't play anything from the TV capture card. smplayer seems to default to mpv if installed, and that seems to play yt videos but not the capture card. mplayer will play from the capture card but won't play yt videos.

I don't know. Just classic WTF.

upnort, everything I'm using is the same version as yours and it works. I can stream Youtube videos. You did install smtube, didn't you?

The only annoying thing is when it brings up the search option it forces me to use "Tonvid.com", which is crap. I can't search in it, only select videos. Mind you, I got a chance to watch the new Bille Ellish video. Looks like Satanism is making a comeback.

I never install smtube, and videos are ok here.

I'm not sure this is related, but you should grab a newer youtube-dl version.

https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/22367

Thank you for the replies. This has me baffled.

I have smtube installed but rarely use. Typically I use smplayer when wanting to view a video from a web page link

I had youtube-dl 2019-09-01 installed but updated to 2019-09-12.

I restored all previous packages. I removed the mpv package to avoid any confusion with the backend smplayer should use.

I see this in the smplayer log:

Sometimes I also see this, but I think the message might be a red herring:

I could be missing something obvious, but smplayer simply no longer downloads. I can download manually and smplayer plays the local video with no hiccups.

Edit: I tried directly streaming a yt video with mpv. I see the same breakage. Just won't download. Yet youtube-dl works fine and mpv uses youtube-dl.

I am not tagging this thread as solved, but I am making progress. I built an mpv 0.29 package with additional options:

--enable-tv --enable-dvdread --enable-dvdnav --enable-cdda --enable-dvbin --jobs=4

Now opening YT videos from a web page link in smplayer work. There is a longish delay before the video starts but bearable.

With the extra build options smplayer handles the TV capture cards too. Same longish delay though.

I am unable to get smplayer to work with mplayer as a backend. Using mplayer works with the capture cards but not YT videos. The next step is building a newer version of mplayer.

Tagging as solved. SMPlayer updated to 19.10.2, mpv to 0.29.1, and mplayer to 20191014.

smplayer play youtube videos here perfectly, no need smtube, no need mplayer rebuilds ...no need mpv , smplayer can view without helps.

You do realize its a mplayer/mpv frontend? It won't play any videos without them.

MPlayer is needed, of course, but not mpv.

They said it doesn't need a rebuild of mplayer and it doesn't require mpv. But I wasn't aware that mplayer now has the ability to play youtube videos. I thought that was just an mpv feature (but I don't really use it either way, so I've never had need to test it).

my box is 14.2 x64

smplayer and youtube-dl from SBo , no need nothing more special than this, the thread starts as "cant play youtube videos on SMPLAYER" , and i only share my exp , nothing strange here using only SBo packages.

Im not sure if youtube-dl is needed , smplayer open ..url .. paste youtube url ... and go.

SMtube is a useful SMPlayer plug-in.

https://www.smtube.org/