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a better quicktime

Monday, April 13, 2009 12:02:34 AM

, , ,

Hi !
Linux users have traditionally been plagued from deliberate lack of support from many big companies for Linux.
In the current particular case, Apple has never done QuickTime for Linux, and I'm happy they never did. People argue about QuickTime being one of the worst softwares done by Apple. But back on the matter, not having the QuickTime plugin means that webpages that actually check for it will not work. Fortunately, this situation is not THAT common.
However, it exists, for instance, Apple's movie trailers website.
So, what should Linux users do (and Windows users which do not have QuickTime installed) ?

I made a really simple script, which detects if the QuickTime plugin is installed, and if it's not, it just creates an entry on navigator.plugins with a fake QuickTime, and it works great. Note however, that if the webpage tries to manipulate the plugin with scripting, it will most likely fail, because the plugin used by the browser might not support QuickTime's scripting API..

Download here:
xerath-add-quicktime-plugin.js
You can test it on the link above.

Have fun!

EDIT: clarification - you need to have another plugin that can handle QuickTime, like the VLC plugin.

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Comments

Artur „Jurgi” JurgawkaJurgi Monday, April 13, 2009 5:37:07 AM

I se noo difference with and without this scripts. There is still "Get the latest QuickTime" link, and nothing else changes.

serious Monday, April 13, 2009 6:42:47 AM

strange. here it works. plugin that normally is associated with quicktime is the vlc-mozilla-plugin here.

João EirasxErath Monday, April 13, 2009 3:53:06 PM

Originally posted by Jurgi:

I se noo difference with and without this scripts. There is still "Get the latest QuickTime" link, and nothing else changes.


You need to have another plugin that can handle QuickTime like VLC, else, no luck.

Cyro Monday, April 13, 2009 4:18:07 PM

Does it only work with the VLC plugin ? What if I use a different one? Like totem or mplayer for example?

João EirasxErath Monday, April 13, 2009 11:43:14 PM

Originally posted by Cyro:

Does it only work with the VLC plugin ?


It doesn't matter. The script simply checks if there's a plugin that can handle video/quicktime or video/x-quicktime. totem should do it.

walterbugscout Sunday, June 21, 2009 12:22:19 PM

hi,

i like to install the script to my windows xp system, because i had only trouble with quicktime in the past.

my opera 9.64 crashes when the startrek video is loading.
vlc is installed

regards

walterbugscout Sunday, June 21, 2009 7:57:38 PM

hi,

there still were some quicktime files in my system. i deleted them by hand and installed vlc again.

now vlc is listed is plugin. the crashes are gone but i can only see "Get the latest QuickTime."

João EirasxErath Monday, June 22, 2009 12:43:03 AM

Originally posted by bugscout:

now vlc is listed is plugin. the crashes are gone but i can only see "Get the latest QuickTime."


Type this in your address bar
javascript:alert([].map.call(navigator.plugins["VLC Multimedia Plug-in"],function(e){return String(e.type);}).sort().join('\n'));
Do you see video/quicktime listed ?

walterbugscout Monday, June 22, 2009 7:34:35 AM

hi,

...video/mpeg-system video/quicktime video/x-flv...

video/quicktime is listed

João EirasxErath Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:59:01 AM

Originally posted by bugscout:

video/quicktime is listed


odd, it works just fine for me after installing the vlc plugin.
Do you see the vlc plugin in opera:plugins ?

walterbugscout Friday, June 26, 2009 8:09:50 PM

hi,

VLC Multimedia Plug-in is listed in Plugins

antti askmemoreantti79 Wednesday, August 19, 2009 11:36:31 PM

i come home from work, i wanna watch a video.
i search i found this plugin, thinkin i soon watch video, its easy right? just entertainment?
i download the packet, ups it has to be compiled, -wonder what that means. Oh i dont nothin about coding.
time gone too much for learning these, i gotta go sleep without video... sad
-i will install windows on the morning. (no coding when i wanna watch video)

antti askmemoreantti79 Wednesday, August 19, 2009 11:38:07 PM

somebody suggested me linux. but my slummish life is hard enough without linux. gotta buy dvdplayer where i can just click play sad

João EirasxErath Thursday, August 20, 2009 12:38:48 PM

antti79, this is not a plugin but a simple user script for the Opera web browser. Viewing dvds on linux is off-topic, so you need to google elsewhere for your answers. Thank you.

yeeliberto Saturday, August 29, 2009 3:15:17 AM

Thanks for the script but I cannot make it work in Debian 64 bits, what I get is the totem progress bar but no video.

And antti79, if you use something like debian or ubuntu donwload the libdvdcss from synaptic and you can watch encrypted DVDs ;D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss

Tom Strudwickstruds Thursday, November 19, 2009 10:13:36 AM

Hmm seems to be half working for me, not coming up with the you must install quicktime message anymore (this is on the apple trailers site) but it doesn't seem to be loading the video. .mov's are set to be opened with vlc plugin. The video box pops up but stays black, opera says it's recieveing data for a time but that's it. Using mandriva 2010.0, opera 10.10 beta and vlc plugin 1.0.2 if that's useful at all.

João EirasxErath Thursday, November 19, 2009 3:03:33 PM

Originally posted by struds:

The video box pops up but stays black, opera says it's recieveing data for a time but that's it.


Same thing is happening to me.
So I wget'ed the mov files, and those were just really small stubs, a few bytes big ?? So, are those like some sort of binary playlist that only Quicktime understands ?

kiviuq Friday, March 19, 2010 1:42:34 PM

I dl'ed the script but what should I do with it? Do I need something like greasemonkey? Does it auto-install? Sorry for asking I'm still a Opera noob.

João EirasxErath Saturday, March 20, 2010 2:31:02 AM

Originally posted by kiviuq:

kiviuq # 19. March 2010, 14:42
I dl'ed the script but what should I do with it? Do I need something like greasemonkey? Does it auto-install? Sorry for asking I'm still a Opera noob.


Hello and welcome.
You may follow these instructions
http://www.opera.com/docs/userjs/using/#writingscripts

kiviuq Sunday, March 21, 2010 5:16:45 PM

Thank you !!

with your help I finally found a workaround for watching apple trailers

for sake of future searches :

I copy the trailer's link in Opera and use wget or curl or mplayer to dl and watch the .mov file

f.i. if the link itself is named 'http://trailers.apple.com/movies/universal/repoman/repomen-fte1_480p.mov'

one must add the letter 'h' in front of 480p and then perform one of the following commands

curl -A 'QuickTime/7.6.2' -O 'http://trailers.apple.com/movies/universal/repoman/repomen-fte1_h480p.mov'

or

wget -U 'QuickTime/7.6.2' 'http://trailers.apple.com/movies/universal/repoman/repomen-fte1_h480p.mov'

to dl the clip


or even better to watch it directly use

mplayer -user-agent Quicktime http://trailers.apple.com/movies/universal/repoman/repomen-fte1_h480p.mov

This script works with Opera 10.10 build 4742 (under Archlinux)

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