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Friday, March 18, 2011

FlashVideoReplacer Continues To Improve | Linux Journal

FlashVideoReplacer Continues To Improve

Feb 03, 2011 By Michael Reed

We covered FlashVideoReplacer, a video add-on for Firefox, last year, but the new 2.x series offers several improvements. We look at what the new version offers and ask the developer a few questions.

As for how the add-on works, I got the information straight from Caio Gonçalves aka Lovinlinux, the developer:

When you visit a video page of a supported web site, the extension catches the direct link to the video embedded in the page, then removes the flash player object and inject a new object using the direct video link. As a result, the video is played with a different plugin on the original page, without the need to download it first. In order to work, the user needs a compatible plugin or standalone player, capable of playing at least mp4, which is the most common format. However, support for other formats like flv, mov, wmv and m4v is required for some videos.

This is a boon for Linux users as flash-based video players are normally comparatively inefficient on Linux, particularly for full-screen video playback. For FlashVideoReplacer to work, the user must have a working Flash plugin and a multimedia plugin browser installed. According to a survey recently carried out the the add-on site, Gecko Media Player, an MPlayer based plugin, is the most popular choice for Linux, although other plugins do work.

At the current time, the plugin supports video from YouTube, Vimeo, MetaCafe and a few adult orientated sites. Support for other sites, including Ustreme and Blip TV, is planned for version 2.03. As before, it's possible to disable the add on for some supported sites, but there is now an option to retain the user notifications when this is done.

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http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/flashvideoreplacer-continues-improve