First post, by blacksvk
Hello everyone. Have you ever wondered whether you can play youtube videos on MS-DOS computer? Well, according to Google: no, you can't. But I managed to put some scripts together to make it work.
How it works?
- Wget is used for downloading stuff from youtube
- Free pascal scripts are used for parsing stuff from youtube
- QuickView is used for playing videos
- Everything is controlled via batch files
Requirements:
Fast enough PC (at least pentium1).
For MS-DOS: packet driver installed
For Windows: windows network driver installed
Also check QV requirements: http://www.multimediaware.com/qv/qvdoc.htm
Installation:
- Simply extract all files to HDD. (Make sure to have enough free space for youtube videos)
- (Optional) set the video quality: By default, the youtube script will ask which video format to use. You can change config.bat to set the video quality so you won't have to enter video format every time you want to play video. First you have to figure out, what is the best video quality for your system. Just play some videos and remember itag for video format that works on your system. Then edit config.bat and change second line from "set quality=choose" to set quality=your_itag, for example: for 144p video: For 360p video:
set quality=17
set quality=18
- (Optional) replace included unreg. shareware QuickView with full version
Usage:
Before using any commands, set working directory to youtube root directory.
cd \youtube
Then you can use any of these commands:
- Watch video: watch.bat
Usage: watch videoid
Example:watch ted5HXDwuck
- Search by relevance: search.bat
Usage: search search query
Example:search ms dos mode guide
- Search by date: searchdt.bat
Usage: searchdt search query
Example:seatchdt shovelware diggers
- Get videos from channel: channel.bat
Usage: channel legacy_user_name
The legacy username is included in youtube.com/user/ url, more: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6180214?hl=en. You can figure it out like this: https://imgur.com/a/Ty0lJ
Example:channel phreakindee
You can try some example commands(written in batch files) in examples directory. Like this:
cd \youtube\examples\search
TECHTALES.bat
cd \youtube\examples\channels
PHILSLAB.BAT
cd \youtube\examples\videos
NYAN.BAT
Limitations:
- Some videos won't download (especially Vevo ones)
- DASH video formats are not available
- Some video formats with new codecs cannot be played (webm formats)
- Searching for long query may not work in older MS-DOS (because of maximum command length support)
- Only limited number of search items are displayed
- Only limited number of videos in youtube channel are displayed
FAQ:
How fast system is required?
I have tested this on my Pentium 1 system (MS-DOS 6.22) and it can play 144p videos fine and my Pentium 3 system (Windows 98SE) can play 360p videos just fine.
How to solve Out of environment space error ?
Increase environment space, see troubleshooting
Troubleshooting:
If you cannot get videos to play, try following steps:
- Make sure wget is working. go to wget directory and try to download something:
It should print "Wget works!" If it doesn't work check your network driver and internet connection
cd \youtube\wget\dos\ or cd \youtube\wget\win\
wget.exe http://sda1.eu/etc/dostube.txt
type dostube.txt
- Make sure your OS is detected correctly and enviroment variables are set.
It should print "Detected OS: DOS" or "Detected OS: WIN". You should see "quality", "detected_os" and "wget" in printed environment variables. If they are not set, try increasing environment space: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000325.htm
cd \youtube
config.bat
scripts\env.bat
set
- Open Quick view \youtube\qv\qv and try to change options (ALT+O):
Disclaimer
These scripts were made just for fun. No guarantees.
Download
In attachment