In article <XnsAE3B875BC6CF037B93@144.76.35.252>, Pamela
<pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com> wrote:

> Downloading audio or multimedia files with Get-iplayer is a bit too
> fiddly for me

I wrote a simple ROX app that lets me simply type in the pid or drop a text
file listing pids. It then chuggs though getting the items. Easy. Usually
let it run though a list of 'items from yesterday' as I make breakfast. One
advantage is that because this is before 9am the data isn't added to my
monthly total. So I can get far more than my 'capped amount'. Also tends to
come faster.

> and the controls for skipping through such a file in VLC
> (skip forward or back and goto) aren't that much better compared to the
> BBC Sounds App.

They seem fine to me.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

In article <XnsAE3C6D32254E737B93@144.76.35.252>, Pamela
<pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com> wrote:

> I can see I should use VLC more. I have had VLC for over a decade but
> use it mainly to play "awkward" videos my ther video players can't
> handle. I Its interface is less friendly than all my other players and,
> for that reason, I tend not to use it.

It is worth spending some time investigating the setup and interface of VLC
if you play a lot of videos.

If you find some files 'awkward' then investigate the usefulness of ffmpeg
and ffplay. Harder to use than VLC but very powerful and flexible.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

In article <XnsAE3BE84BCE05C37B93@144.76.35.252>, Pamela
<pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com> wrote:

> On my PC multimedia player (Gom) I can skip fowards in three
> user-defined steps such as 15 secs, 2 minutes, 10 minutes with a single
> key depression, which is very useful. Backwards too. Very useful for
> short and long videos.

Perhaps worth pointing out that VLC lets the user reconfigure the effects
of keypresses, etc.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

In article <XnsAE3B875BC6CF037B93@144.76.35.252>, Pamela
<pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the Audio Factory link. I hadn't realised you were HiFi News
> aristocracy! The AF seems for input feeds although it involves some
> rationalisation of output stream types. You also mentioned a "content
> delivery network" service which is probably what I am asking about.
> Playing BBC radio through Sounds has remarkably little latency and the
> listener can then skip about the programme with little buffering delay.
> It's works rather well.

That's a result of providers of AV streams using some form of 'CDN'.

In effect they put copies of the files people are asking form onto many
machines disributed around the net. Then when you ask for something they
arrange it gets sent to you from the 'most convenient' machine in you
specific case at the time.

> So I'm impressed a CDN can handle so much traffic and in near real-time.
> If 100 listeners all started the same audio programme and then each
> skipped to a different part of it, there could be 100 times the traffic
> unless there is some clever caching going on in the network and,
> depending of the exact situation, even that may not reduce total
> traffic much. There must be some interesting network balancing going on.

Yes. :-) FWIW The BBC have run their own small CDN and also employed two
different commercial ones that are bigger. If you use get-iplayer it can be
told to fetch from a specific CDN or exclude one. That has occasionally
been useful in the past when providers or the net have had problems.

The result tends to be like the old comment about swans. On the surface
they seem to glide across the pond effortlessly. But under the water they
are paddling furiously to get though the weeds! :-)

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 10:44:03, Pamela
<pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com> wrote (my responses usually follow
points raised):
[]
>>>>>for me and the controls for skipping through such a file in VLC
>>>>>(skip forward or back and goto) aren't that much better compared to
>>>>>the BBC Sounds App.
[]
>> For VLC (I have 3.0.11):
>> Very short backwards/forwards jump: Shift+Left/Right
>> Short: Alt+Left/Right
>> Medium: Ctrl+Left/Right
>> Long: Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right
>>
>> as well as Left/Right on their own (which repeat if you hold them
>> down).
>>
>> The distances jumped are settable - mine are set to (I think the
>> defaults):
>> Very short 3
>> Short 10
>> Medium 60
>> Long 300 (seconds I presume)
>
>I have VLC version 3.0.16 and was referring to the three entries in the

(I turned off updating as the version or two after '11, on W7-32 anyway,
was broken in that the metadata editing function [e. g. accessed via
Ctrl-I] stopped working [it seemed to work but any change didn't get
stored]. I haven't tried a recent version to see if they've fixed that:
if anyone knows it has, please share.)

>"Playback" menu. I tried what you posted and the skips work. Thank you
>very much for taking the trouble.

you're welcome. I don't think I found them for a while - well, I think I
found left and right (I tend to use the keyboard more than a lot of
people do), but it didn't occur to me to try them with modifiers until,
I think, I happened to see them in one of the configuration pages. (The
option to _change_ the jump size is under the "Advanced" button.)
>
>I can see I should use VLC more. I have had VLC for over a decade but
>use it mainly to play "awkward" videos my ther video players can't
>handle. I Its interface is less friendly than all my other players and,
>for that reason, I tend not to use it.
>
I suspect the interface of any player comes with familiarity; I find
that of most of the others I have less intuitive, simply because )I
suspect) I use VLC as my default, rather than it being easier or the
others harder. My usual one for files VLC won't play is IrfanView (which
started out as mainly for - and I still use it mainly for - dealing with
still images, but can now do many audio and video formats, though with
fewer controls [unless I just haven't found them!] than VLC).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"... all your hard work in the hands of twelve people too stupid to get off jury
duty." CSI, 200x

On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 11:11:23, Jim Lesurf <noise@audiomisc.co.uk>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
[]
>It is worth spending some time investigating the setup and interface of VLC
>if you play a lot of videos.

(Yes, I've changed the button bar in mine. I would agree with Pamela or
anyone else that _that_ aspect of VLC - _changing_ the control bar - is
very far from intuitive, to the extent that I'd say it was buggy.)
>
>If you find some files 'awkward' then investigate the usefulness of ffmpeg
>and ffplay. Harder to use than VLC but very powerful and flexible.
>
>Jim
>
(Paul, in the Windows groups, is an expert on ffmpeg [and much else].)
If you search your system for files with ffmpeg in their name, its
amazing how many utilities are actually GUI wrappers for ffmpeg! (I. e.,
they generate the switches it needs.) On my system, at least the
following are ffmpeg-based or contain it: K-Lite Codec Pack;
Best_Video_Converter; Any Video Converter plugins; KMPlayer; Bigasoft
Video Downloader; Pazera Audio Extractor; get_iplayer; downloadhelper;
ClipGrab; Deshaker; and Skype.

(I hadn't come across ffplay, but on checking, I find at least three of
the above - Bigasoft, Pazera, and downloadhelper - use it. Is it to do
with flash?)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"... all your hard work in the hands of twelve people too stupid to get off
jury
duty." CSI, 200x

In article <dpW3dTjxYmBiFwbk@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> Me too; I find youtube-dl (and now yt-dlp) much easier. [Unfortunate
> name: people assume they're only for YouTube. I've very rarely found a
> webpage with a video on it that it won't fetch, regardless of site.]

I'd be interested in more info about that. Couple of examples?

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

In article <XT9VjN7fV6BiFw4z@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 11:11:23, Jim Lesurf <noise@audiomisc.co.uk>

> >If you find some files 'awkward' then investigate the usefulness of
> >ffmpeg and ffplay. Harder to use than VLC but very powerful and
> >flexible.
> >
> >Jim
> >
> (Paul, in the Windows groups, is an expert on ffmpeg [and much else].)
> If you search your system for files with ffmpeg in their name, its
> amazing how many utilities are actually GUI wrappers for ffmpeg!

Yes. :-) I used Linux and RISC OS, not 'doze, but it is similar there in
that ffmpeg tends to lurk in various corners of other parts of the software
or 'OS'.

(re ffplay)

> (I hadn't come across ffplay, but on checking, I find at least three of
> the above - Bigasoft, Pazera, and downloadhelper - use it. Is it to do
> with flash?)

No. (shudder!) It is a simple 'play the file' utility that is a part of the
ffmpeg 'family' of programs. It can be used to see if you can play a file
which may not work with some other programs, or to check it in some way.

Similarly there is ffprobe which will list the details of a file. e.g. I
use it to read chapter mark locations in a file before using a simple
ffmpeg based program to snip it. Or more often to generate a series of
'start here' files I can then simply click on the start VLC playing from
that place. Again, I wrote a ROX app to help make this simpler. I like ROX
on Linux as it gives me a good user interface in terms of filer actions.

FWIW I tend to get the 'current' ffmpeg family and put them in user space
as a better alternative to the versions (sometimes renamed) that come with
a Linux distro.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 13:21:43, Jim Lesurf <noise@audiomisc.co.uk>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
>In article <XT9VjN7fV6BiFw4z@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
><G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>> On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 11:11:23, Jim Lesurf <noise@audiomisc.co.uk>
[]
>> (I hadn't come across ffplay, but on checking, I find at least three of
>> the above - Bigasoft, Pazera, and downloadhelper - use it. Is it to do
>> with flash?)
>
>No. (shudder!) It is a simple 'play the file' utility that is a part of the

(I didn't think it was, but when I searched for ffplay, I found I had
something from 2009 called SwiffPlayerSetup15.exe, which I vaguely think
I remember was a Flash player. Might not be.)

>ffmpeg 'family' of programs. It can be used to see if you can play a file
>which may not work with some other programs, or to check it in some way.
>
>Similarly there is ffprobe which will list the details of a file. e.g. I

At first I thought you meant like gspot (which I recently searched for,
but explained with amusement to the lady I was helping that a lot of the
hits were unrelated - only to discover she didn't know about that sort
of G-spot!). But ...

>use it to read chapter mark locations in a file before using a simple

... suggests it isn't. (gspot, if you don't know, is a utility that tells
you things like what CoDecs were used to make a file, and probably lots
of other such things.)

>ffmpeg based program to snip it. Or more often to generate a series of
>'start here' files I can then simply click on the start VLC playing from
>that place. Again, I wrote a ROX app to help make this simpler. I like ROX
>on Linux as it gives me a good user interface in terms of filer actions.

(On checking, I find I have ffprobe too - not quite so many, but it's
there as part of Pazera and downloadhelper.)
>
>FWIW I tend to get the 'current' ffmpeg family and put them in user space
>as a better alternative to the versions (sometimes renamed) that come with
>a Linux distro.
>
>Jim
>
I'd like to just have one common copy - it'd be tidier - but (a) I don't
know if the versions that came with the various utilities (wrappers for
it) that I use are compatible with each other, and (b) I don't know if
those utilities would _find_ it if I just put it in system32 or similar.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Veni Vidi Visa [I came, I saw, I did a little shopping] - Mik from S+AS Limited
(mik@saslimited.demon.co.uk), 1998

On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 11:23:16, Jim Lesurf <noise@audiomisc.co.uk>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
>In article <dpW3dTjxYmBiFwbk@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
><G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>> Me too; I find youtube-dl (and now yt-dlp) much easier. [Unfortunate
>> name: people assume they're only for YouTube. I've very rarely found a
>> webpage with a video on it that it won't fetch, regardless of site.]
>
>I'd be interested in more info about that. Couple of examples?
>
>Jim
>
The old youtube-dl - which apparently does work on Unix/Linux - is at
http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/; yt-dlp is at
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp (scroll down a bit to get to the
"friendly" bit; like all github pages, the top of the page is straight
into technical bits).

If you mean examples of where it/they work on other than youTube URLs -
I've found most BBC programme pages, and also IIRR ones with "vimeo" in
the URL. If you like ffmpeg, you'll like these two; I usually just run
them by typing "yt-dlp URL", but if you type (IIRR) "yt-dlp --help"
you'll find it has oodles of possible parameters.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The thing about smut is it harms no one and it's rarely cruel. Besides, it's a
gleeful rejection of the dreary and the "correct".
- Alison Graham, RT 2014/10/25-31

Yes I heard this, maybe the term should have been up to, since not all of
the stuff will be new.
What about the world services Science in Action though, is that the same,
they often seem more on the ball. How may others will be done, In Touch is
already seeming to be about a month behind the podcasts from the likes of
RNIB connect, and in my view anything purporting to have any kind of up to
date news should be up to date, not put together in a couple of months.
Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Java Jive" <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:su6h6r$oa6$1@dont-email.me...
> On 11/02/2022 10:33, Jim Lesurf wrote:
>>
>> In article <qNidnYfGI4smNp7_nZ2dnUU7-d3NnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, Max
>> Demian
>> <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>>
>> I need to listen again in case I misheard. However this morning I was
>> listening to the version of a recent "Inside Science" that I'd fetched
>> with
>> get-iplayer. Used the pid from the relevant day's radio schedule page.
>> This
>> often gets an extended version, presumably as podcast. This time the
>> programme seemed to start with statement that in future Inside Science
>> would appear via 'Sounds' *28 days before being broadcast*.
>
> Yes, you heard correctly, crazy if you ask me, as you say, it'll be like
> listening to the news from a month ago.
>
> --
>
> Fake news kills!
>
> I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
> www.macfh.co.uk

In article <e8on4gBJ37BiFwrs@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> The old youtube-dl - which apparently does work on Unix/Linux - is at
> http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/; yt-dlp is at
> https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp (scroll down a bit to get to the
> "friendly" bit; like all github pages, the top of the page is straight
> into technical bits).

Yes, I've used the 'original' for some time, and now the dlp version. I was
asking about...

> If you mean examples of where it/they work on other than youTube URLs -
> I've found most BBC programme pages, and also IIRR ones with "vimeo" in
> the URL. If you like ffmpeg, you'll like these two; I usually just run
> them by typing "yt-dlp URL", but if you type (IIRR) "yt-dlp --help"
> you'll find it has oodles of possible parameters.

IIRR?

I was wondering about videos on various sites/locations more generally.
e.g. I'm currently interested in ones about the James Webb Space Telescope,
but try to avoid YT itself if I can.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

In article <Ts3kMjA0q7BiFwLh@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> I'd like to just have one common copy - it'd be tidier - but (a) I don't
> know if the versions that came with the various utilities (wrappers for
> it) that I use are compatible with each other, and (b) I don't know if
> those utilities would _find_ it if I just put it in system32 or similar.

Other programs may assume a specific version. So I tend to have a 'system'
version which installed-from-the-disro-repos uses, plus my up to date
versio that is sometimes more flexible in my user space which I then write
simple ROX apps to automate using via a click or a drag-and-drop.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 18:12:10, Jim Lesurf <noise@audiomisc.co.uk>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
>In article <e8on4gBJ37BiFwrs@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
><G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>> The old youtube-dl - which apparently does work on Unix/Linux - is at
>> http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/; yt-dlp is at
>> https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp (scroll down a bit to get to the
>> "friendly" bit; like all github pages, the top of the page is straight
>> into technical bits).
>
>Yes, I've used the 'original' for some time, and now the dlp version. I was
>asking about...
>
>> If you mean examples of where it/they work on other than youTube URLs -
>> I've found most BBC programme pages, and also IIRR ones with "vimeo" in
>> the URL. If you like ffmpeg, you'll like these two; I usually just run
>> them by typing "yt-dlp URL", but if you type (IIRR) "yt-dlp --help"
>> you'll find it has oodles of possible parameters.
>
>IIRR?

Sorry - "if I remember/recall rightly". Maybe not as common as I
thought, though I think does predate texting.
>
>I was wondering about videos on various sites/locations more generally.
>e.g. I'm currently interested in ones about the James Webb Space Telescope,
>but try to avoid YT itself if I can.
>
>Jim
>
If you find any web page with a video (of the telescope or anything
else) somewhere on it, just try throwing the URL of the webpage at
yt-dlp; IME, there's a fair chance it will download the video.
Especially if you help it along with a parameter or two, but usually
even without.

(In My Experience.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

.... and how lovely, warm, funny, and just all-round Victoria Woodish she was.
- Richard Osman on Victoria Wood, RT 2017/4/8-14

On 13/02/2022 23:15, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

>> IIRR?
>
> Sorry - "if I remember/recall rightly". Maybe not as common as I
> thought, though I think does predate texting.

Most use IIRC - If I Remember. Recall Correctly....

Also IME, both of which have been in use since the days of dial up
bulletin boards.

HTH, HAND.... (1)

--
Tciao for Now!

John.
(1) Hope this helps/ Happy to help. Have a nice day.

In article <e8on4gBJ37BiFwrs@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
> If you mean examples of where it/they work on other than youTube URLs -
> I've found most BBC programme pages, and also IIRR ones with "vimeo" in
> the URL. If you like ffmpeg, you'll like these two; I usually just run
> them by typing "yt-dlp URL", but if you type (IIRR) "yt-dlp --help"
> you'll find it has oodles of possible parameters.

Thanks for the info! :-) I had a go and, yes, yt-dlp let me fetch the
video from here OK.

https://renegadeinc.com/steve-keen-this-is-where-we-are-and-how-we-got-here/

I've written a simple ROX app for Linux that lets me drag-and-drop a file
containing the URL, and that gave me an mpeg of the video. As fetched, it
lacked timestamps so didn't play perfectly with VLC becase you couldn't
jump to an arbitrary time. But a pass though ffmpeg fixed that. :-)

Result well worth watching. :-)

I'll make more use of yt-dlp. :-))

FWIW I switched to yt-dlp when yt started throttling.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On 14:01 12 Feb 2022, J. P. Gilliver (John) said:

> On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 at 11:23:16, Jim Lesurf <noise@audiomisc.co.uk>
> wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
>>In article <dpW3dTjxYmBiFwbk@a.a>, J. P. Gilliver (John)
>><G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>>> Me too; I find youtube-dl (and now yt-dlp) much easier.
>>> [Unfortunate name: people assume they're only for YouTube. I've
>>> very rarely found a webpage with a video on it that it won't fetch,
>>> regardless of site.]
>>
>>I'd be interested in more info about that. Couple of examples?
>>
>>Jim
>>
> The old youtube-dl - which apparently does work on Unix/Linux - is at
> http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/; yt-dlp is at
> https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp (scroll down a bit to get to the
> "friendly" bit; like all github pages, the top of the page is
> straight into technical bits).
>
> If you mean examples of where it/they work on other than youTube URLs
> - I've found most BBC programme pages, and also IIRR ones with
> "vimeo" in the URL. If you like ffmpeg, you'll like these two; I
> usually just run them by typing "yt-dlp URL", but if you type (IIRR)
> "yt-dlp --help" you'll find it has oodles of possible parameters.

Google shows there are several fork versions.

Are there any with a GUI?

Do you know which is the best version for Windows?

In article <XnsAE416BE7CB9FD37B93@144.76.35.252>, Pamela
<pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com> wrote:

> Are there any with a GUI?

> Do you know which is the best version for Windows?

Can't comment on 'doze. But I wrote a simple app for the ROX filer on
Linux. That lets me drop a file containing the page URL. So useable via
drag-and-drop.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html