As has also been announced in my (latest) guide to playing back (non-Mobile) YouTube videos published some weeks ago, the YouTube folks have been working on a really mobile, non-flash-based version of their services and, as promised, have indeed come up with it some days ago. Even when it only contains very few clips (in general, only the most popular ones – for example, none of the not-that-popular but old clips I’ve searched for existed in there as of today), it’s been continuously expanded, which means it might become a real repository of all “real”, Flash-based videos.
As there is a lot of plain wrong or contradicting information and a LOT of hacks out there, all just confusing Windows Mobile users, I’ve decided to publish the one and only REAL guide to this question.
The new Mobile YouTube homepage is accessible at http://m.youtube.com/ from any Web browser, desktop or mobile alike. However, in order for the playback to work, you must use a browser accessible of passing control to external applications (in this case, the HTC Streaming Media player) because, when a Watch Video link is clicked (like the one in THIS screenshot), an external application, “Streaming Media”, will be invoked. This means you won’t be able to use, for example, the otherwise excellent and highly recommended Opera Mini. (Unfortunately, this also applies to the latest version, 4.0 beta.) This restriction, on the other hand, does NOT apply to the best Windows Mobile browser on both (Pocket PC and Smartphone) platforms, Opera Mobile. That is, you aren’t forced to use the built-in, in most respects inferior Internet Explorer Mobile.
First, some bad news (in addition to the fact that, currently, the mobile version of YouTube only has few converted videos).
You’ll need the HTC Streaming Media player, which only comes with WM6 Pocket PC Professional) devices, but NOT Smartphones – that is, WM Standard devices. On the latter phones, clicking Mobile YouTube links result in Windows Media Player’s being invoked – but in vain, because, after trying to connect, it displays an error (screenshot HERE and HERE).
Fortunately, this problem can be VERY easily fixed on both WM5 Pocket PC’s and Smartphones and WM6 Smartphones.
Streaming Media is a full application, which also means it has its own icon and is directly runnable. However, you will want to prefer starting it from your Windows Mobile Web browsers by simply clicking streaming links like those of Mobile YouTube.
You will need DIRECT Internet connection, as was the case with the well-known RealOne Player for Pocket PC. If you’ve ever tried to make the latter to play back streams (or, you’ve read my related article “How Can I Listen to/Watch RealOne Streamed Content (RealAudio/RealVideo) on my Pocket PC?”), you know well enough you can only do this if you have a direct connection to the Internet: that is, in most cases, over mobile phone-based (GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSDPA etc.) connections. Should you have a non-direct connection, you will see the “Failed to find network.” error message upon trying to play back streams (screenshot HERE). Unfortunately, most Wi-Fi connections (unless they put you in a DMZ (demilitarized zone), which is pretty rare) are unlikely to work and ActiveSync connections will NEVER work.
A quick note: I’ve thoroughly tested the latter by configuring Windows XP’s Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) to forward UDP ports 1024...1044 as can be seen in HERE (20 ports were the smallest amount the client allows for as can also be seen in HERE; note that, when tested, I’ve ticked in all these checkboxes) and HERE. In vain: it just didn’t work.
If you DO have direct internet connections or would still want to give the client a try, do the following.
If you don’t have Streaming Media on your Windows Mobile handheld (because it’s WM5 only or a WM6 Smartphone and not a Pocket PC), get and install THIS file. Note that if it doesn’t exist, you can get it from HERE (make sure you unRAR the latter to get the CAB file). Also note that you can safely install the CAB file to a storage card.
Don’t listen to people that tell you to use other files – with them, you may end up having to, for example, import Registry scripts to create the necessary file / type associations so that Streaming Media can be invoked.
If you do have Streaming Media (or, have just installed it), just navigate to http://m.youtube.com/ and enjoy the videos.
Some example screenshots of showing all this in action (all taken by me on my QVGA and VGA WM5/ WM6 Pocket PC Phone Edition models and a WM5 176*220 HTC s310 (Oxygen) and a WM6 QVGA HTC s710 (Vox) Smartphones):
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(WM6 VGA Pocket PC, officially shipped with Streaming Media, over GPRS – as can be seen, GPRS is just too slow to produce a decent image)
Now, three screenshots of models with the additionally installed Streaming Media:
(WM5 QVGA Pocket PC over EDGE – decent playback)
(WM5 176*220 Smartphone over EDGE – decent playback)
(WM6 QVGA Smartphone over EDGE – decent playback)
Cool, eh? Nice to know even low-end Smartphones are able to play back these kinds of stuff, isn’t it?
Note that, in order to install the player on application locked MS Smartphones, you will need to unlock them. See my other, related articles on doing this – for example, THIS.
What should you do if you get the "Failed to find network." error message?
Unfortunately, not much, but this also depends on your particular network settings.
If you're on a Wi-Fi network and you do have administrator rights to reconfigure the router(s), you can configure them to allow your mobile device to be in the DMZ - or, at least, configure UDP port forwarding (note that the latter didn't work in my tests as has also been mentioned above - this means DMZ may be the ONLY solution). Otherwise, if you use public Wi-Fi networks, you can't do anything.
If you're using a wireless (for example GSM) network, which doesn't support direct access, you can't do anything either. Your only choice is switching to another mobile phone network, which does. (About half of them do.)
Finally, don't forget that, even if you can't play Mobile YouTube videos, nothing is lost, except for the advantages of the 3GP streaming compared to the alternative methods:
Direct Flash video playback (with Opera Mobile) takes a LOT of CPU time and may have stuttering playback even on the fastest, 624 MHz Windows Mobile devices, let alone slower ones
Indirect video playback has an additional step requiring manual work including, at least, copying and pasting the URL of the given video clip. If they also employ transcoding (all solutions EXCEPT for the TCPMP-based playback, but the latter can't be used on MS Smartphones), the resulting video will be, in general, of lower quality and higher size than the original Flash video, which you don't necessarily want.
That is, you can still play regular YouTube videos. Either, as has just been explained, directly (with Opera Mobile 8.65- forget all the other browsers, particularly the latest, Flash-enabled, Technical Preview released in June of Netfront 3.4 - see my review of the browser for the why's), half-directly via (direct download, unfortunately, only works on PPC's and not Smartphones) or indirectly, using an online conversion service. I've elaborated on all these three alternatives in my past articles - make sure you check them out, should you need to rely on the "traditional" way of playback.
Additional info (you will NOT need to read them; the above tutorial should suffice. I only give you these URL’s so that you can see how much easier my tutorial is than trying to find out what to do when following community threads with millions of contradicting and/or misleading and/or outdated posts and hacks):
Probably the best, related XDA-Dev thread
youtube mobile problem
A PPCT thread on the problem
So here's where I am. I've got the HTC Streaming Media thing it launches when I click watch video. Im on T-Mobile USA over my edge connection and it says failed to find network, then closes. Any ideas? my rom is xda mobile 6
jaychym said:
So here's where I am. I've got the HTC Streaming Media thing it launches when I click watch video. Im on T-Mobile USA over my edge connection and it says failed to find network, then closes. Any ideas? my rom is xda mobile 6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This means you don't have a direct IP. Nothing can be done - you'll need to use the alternate methods of playback.
I stream YouTube with Wifi all the time... not sure if you are saying it doesnt work with Wifi.. cuz it does.
Madcap180 said:
I stream YouTube with Wifi all the time... not sure if you are saying it doesnt work with Wifi.. cuz it does.
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Click to collapse
Your particular Wii-Fi networks put your devide into a demilitarized zone and/or do UDP port forwarding; this is why it works. In usual Wi-Fi networks not using any of these tricks, it doesn't necessarily work.
Menneisyys said:
Your particular Wii-Fi networks put your devide into a demilitarized zone and/or do UDP port forwarding; this is why it works. In usual Wi-Fi networks not using any of these tricks, it doesn't necessarily work.
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Click to collapse
My wifi works just fine as the above poster, im wondering is the device using uPnP since this is supported on the three wifi access points i have tested??
ahhh.. I see... Soon enough I will stop being cheap and actually utilize the 3g capability of my Hermes.. lol
Does anybody know, if it works with O2 Germany? Does O2 Germany give a direvt IP to the Phone (HTC P3600)? I have always Network connecting error.
PS.: Direct streams via mms:// an with WMP works!
didn't work with my blackjack wm5 cell
Tried this and all I got was it can't run the program, can't find the exe file.. so I don't think it works with my cellphone.
Just installed the StreamingPlayer to my PPC-6700. Upon executing the program, I get the error...
"The file 'StreamingPlayer' cannot be opened. Either it is not signed with a trusted certificate, or one of its components cannot be found. You might need to reinstall or restore this file"
Tried reinstalling it a few times, and even changing from 'device' to 'storage card' and get the same results.. any suggestions?
Not working on 8525 with WM5
I downloaded and installed the HTC Streaming Media Player (RvBCrS_HTC_Streaming_Media.cab) just fine on my 8525 with WM5. But when I tried to watch a video from m.youtube.com it connects and buffers until it gets to about 97% then hangs a bit then goes back to the previous screen. I haven't seen anyone else with this problem. I've tried removing and reinstalling the Streaming Media Player and installing it to main memory and the storage card but am stuck here no matter what. Any ideas?
mdifilm said:
Tried this and all I got was it can't run the program, can't find the exe file.. so I don't think it works with my cellphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What phone model do you have? Is it a Windows Mobile one?
leevick said:
I downloaded and installed the HTC Streaming Media Player (RvBCrS_HTC_Streaming_Media.cab) just fine on my 8525 with WM5. But when I tried to watch a video from m.youtube.com it connects and buffers until it gets to about 97% then hangs a bit then goes back to the previous screen. I haven't seen anyone else with this problem. I've tried removing and reinstalling the Streaming Media Player and installing it to main memory and the storage card but am stuck here no matter what. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try playing with the buffering params - for example, lowering them from 7s to, say, 3s?
moooo said:
Does anybody know, if it works with O2 Germany? Does O2 Germany give a direvt IP to the Phone (HTC P3600)? I have always Network connecting error.
PS.: Direct streams via mms:// an with WMP works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, this kind of RTSP connections need a directly visible IP (or, port forwarding), which isn't supportred by many GSM operators. This is why RealOne Player refuses to work too.
Krayziepop said:
Just installed the StreamingPlayer to my PPC-6700. Upon executing the program, I get the error...
"The file 'StreamingPlayer' cannot be opened. Either it is not signed with a trusted certificate, or one of its components cannot be found. You might need to reinstall or restore this file"
Tried reinstalling it a few times, and even changing from 'device' to 'storage card' and get the same results.. any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm getting the same problem on my 8125 with WM5. Any answers to this one?
mrchicken said:
I'm getting the same problem on my 8125 with WM5. Any answers to this one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, I'm starting to think this just doesn't work on all WM5 devices. I've double checked that the cab file installed the aforementioned files and registry additions, and it seems like it has. So there is still some missing component.
Is there any good method that can be used to identify if we are not directly connected to the internet?
Menneisyys said:
Did you try playing with the buffering params - for example, lowering them from 7s to, say, 3s?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, tried that too. All it did was buffer up to the high 90% faster, then the same delay and return to the previous screen. It's so weird that I seem to be the only one having this problem. FWIW I have upgraded the ROM on this HTC to the latest version (but not to WM6 since that's not out yet. Grrr.)
leevick said:
Yup, tried that too. All it did was buffer up to the high 90% faster, then the same delay and return to the previous screen. It's so weird that I seem to be the only one having this problem. FWIW I have upgraded the ROM on this HTC to the latest version (but not to WM6 since that's not out yet. Grrr.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not only you - see http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1187991
Menneisyys said:
Not only you - see http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1187991
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I had looked there but not seen anyone with the same problem when I posted. Now I feel better and worse at the same time - better, because it's not just me, but worse because there's not yet a known solution. Bummer! I hate to fail after coming so far!
I suppose I could use an unofficial WM6 ROM for this phone, but I'd rather not. Guess I'll have to wait. Patience is a virtue. Good things come to those who wait. A stitch in time saves nine... <sigh>
Another GREAT way to play YouTube, Google Video & Veoh Videos for both WM platforms!!
It was just a few days ago that I’ve reported on the latest developments of playing back YouTube (and similar) videos on both Windows Mobile platforms.
Developing for Windows Mobile is so blazingly fast that immediately after publishing my article, a brand new and even better solution has been released, which doesn’t require any manual intervention to search and play videos any more.
There is an excellent tutorial, along with the two CAB files you need, HERE (related thread HERE). Please follow this tutorial on setting up the new player. Note that, in order to play back videos on a touchscreen-less MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) platform, you’ll need THIS TCPMP CAB file (instead of the one linked in the tutorial) – while the other CAB file, FlashVideoBundle.CAB, can be installed on Smartphones as well.
After installing, just go to, say, YouTube and click any video on, say, the main homepage. The video playback will (almost) immediately start, after switching to TCPMP.
Compared to the MobyTube-based solution explained in my previous tutorial,
The pros:
when you click a link in the REAL YouTube (and the other video repositories), you will be taken straight to TCPMP playing back the clip. No MobyTube searching / copy-pasting is necessary!
Smartphone compliance!
The cons:
not compatible with alternative browsers like Opera Mobile or NetFront; with them, stick to the MobyTube solution explained in my previous tutorial. Note that it’s compatible with all PIE plug-ins (tested with PIEPlus and MultiIE; the latter on both (Pocket PC’s and Smartphones) platforms)
no pre-WM5 compliance
All in all, GO GET IT! You’ll LOVE it!
not compatible with opera you say? is there a way at all to make it compatible or would this be too hard?
also would it be possible you could post FlashVideoBundle.CAB here to avoid registeration at that site?
mikeeey said:
not compatible with opera you say? is there a way at all to make it compatible or would this be too hard?
also would it be possible you could post FlashVideoBundle.CAB here to avoid registeration at that site?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nvm i couldnt wait so i downloaded it and here it is:
cool works well on the excalibur. Shame theres no skip forward or back though, just a weird speed control thing.
thanks
works great on hermes. pretty good. thanks
on my tornado i get an error: could not open url! i have a edge connection, and i use a orange proxy. i think cause this is the problem, in tcmp i don't have were to set my proxy connection.
the first error was on video.google.com. the seccond error: video not avaible.(may have been removed) i get it on mobtube, youtube.
Works on my Ameo , absolutely briliiantly - Really surpassed my expectaions of how youtube would ever be on a mobie !
OK ,so I am going Via Skweezer AND using a good HSDPA connection - but even so , the videos appear to load QUICKER than they do on my PC (mac actually) with a 6mb connection !
I suspect the performance would be not as good on a vanilla 3G connection - but that is hardly the hardware / softwares fault
Thank you very much ! only last week , a friend tried to impress me by showing me "youtube" on his n95 , which was really a pixelated , postage stamp sized picture , over a pre selected 10 or so videos - I can't wait to see his face when I show him this !
Works perfectly on my Trinity, am going to try and sort it on my Alpine (WM2003SE), will report back.
any help for me?
Still testing here. I have TCPMP embedded in ROM so I had to edit the CAB's default install directory to \Windows.
Google Video works while docked. Can't test YouTube yet because it's blocked here!
djp3k05 said:
on my tornado i get an error: could not open url! i have a edge connection, and i use a orange proxy. i think cause this is the problem, in tcmp i don't have were to set my proxy connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same problem here.
when cradled - works perfectly.
when connecting via 3g gprs and a proxy - doesn't work.
anyone else having this?
could someone without a proxy try to use his gprs connection to see if it works?
works great! thanks for the info!
Great piece of code .... works on my HTC P3300.
shlomki said:
same problem here.
when cradled - works perfectly.
when connecting via 3g gprs and a proxy - doesn't work.
anyone else having this?
could someone without a proxy try to use his gprs connection to see if it works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no proxy with my 3G connection, works great. But the files are quite large, around 20MB for 10 mins video, watch out.
im on edge going through proxy, doesnt work. just says video not available, may have been removed.
Just tested on wifi and it worked like a charm
Doesnt work through proxy which my GPRS connection uses, what a disappointment...
hopefully someone will fix this.
this is fantastic thank you!
Hi there!
Could this also work on http://m.youtube.com ? Would be nice!
Thank you for your time
highmighty said:
Hi there!
Could this also work on http://m.youtube.com ? Would be nice!
Thank you for your time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=313961
Hi all, has anybody got the installer for VLC windows mobile?
I had it installed on my wizard and it worked great, but have recently switched to the HTC Panda, and upon searching for vlc mobile, i have found that development on it has stopped and the download links are gone o.0
If anyone has a link or a copy of this then it would be greatly appreciated, I do have all of the fiels for VLC i believe on a memory card, however just runnig that doesnt work, i figure due to the codecs or something
well then, after that i just found it with ease, i feel kinda stoopid now
anyhow, found it on the sourceforge
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vlcpocketpc/
works great for playing all types of media
I use VLC player on my computer and I love it. TCMP makes a version for your computer as well.
Goldy said:
well then, after that i just found it with ease, i feel kinda stoopid now
anyhow, found it on the sourceforge
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vlcpocketpc/
works great for playing all types of media
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Always follow my articles - I've mentioned this title in my Radio Streaming Bible.
In general, I don't recommend it at all - CorePlayer / TCPMP are far better / more optimized. It's very rarely that you'll find the WM version of VLC better.
well ...tcpmp for ppc = vlc for pc
i use it and its fantastic.
uses less memory and plays video without jerks even if ripped at 1.5 mbps (on a magician)