version 01 - 12th June 2010

This is a guide on how to install Video DownloadHelper in Timberwolf alpha 1. This first version of the OS4.1 port of Firefox has still many problems (it's an alpha version after all), one among them is that external windows such as the Plug-in, Downloads and Options ones incorrectly render GUI elements, making it apparently impossible to use them. However, I have found some workarounds which allow to install and correctly run at least the above mentioned add-on.

Video DownloadHelper is a handy add-on that allows to download videos and mp3s from an impressive list of websites. Besides Video DownloadHelper I have also installed DownThemAll with success (although it seems to have issues with bigger archives on OS4Depot.net), and there are probably more add-ons that work.


1) Run Timberwolf, open the following page:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006/

and click on "Add to Firefox" (pic. 01).


Pic. 01


2) An empty "Software installation" window will appear, and after a couple of seconds the "Install Now" button will be available. Click on it to continue.


3) The Add-Ons window will be opened, with some nearly fully covered text being shown. The add-on is being downloaded and installed, wait until the text will not change anymore, at that time the installation procedure will be finished. Click on the white space in the middle of the window (underneath the grey area where the text is displayed) to select it, and press tab twice. A black box will appear (pic. 02), that is the place where the "Restart Firefox" button should be shown. Press Return, Timberwolf will be closed and re-opened.


Pic. 02


4) A different Add-ons window will appear, click on "Skip" to close it. Video DownloadHelper has been now installed, you'll find its button (three colored balls) right of the "Home" button.


5) The add-on's logo will become colored and will start spinning on a page where it will find at least one element which can be downloaded. To download a video from e.g. Youtube, click on the little arrow at the right of the logo, a pull down menu will appear with a selection of files. Keep the left mouse button pressed now! Choose the desired video with the up and down keyboard arrows (note: for Youtube I recommend to download in the mp4 format), after that press the right arrow and a second pull down menu should appear behind the first one, with the first "Download" item highlighted (pic. 03). Press Return to confirm it. You can now release the mouse button.


Pic. 03


6) A file requester will appear (pic. 04). Since the navigation in the filesystem might not be working (I haven't tried), just confirm the default path by pressing "Save". The download will start (pic. 05), the file wil be stored in Timberwolf/CurrentUserProfile/dwhelper/ .


Pic. 04



Pic. 05


7) Replay and enjoy your video with MPlayer!

Note: Another nice DownloadHelper's feature is on-the-fly conversion of the grabbed files, for example to extract an MP3 out of an Youtube video, provided that either FFMpeg or MEncoder are installed. Unfortunately I have not found a way to make it work. I have managed to activate the feature and to configure DownloadHelper with the correct converter path, but it seems that both MEncoder and FFMpeg cannot make the conversion and an empty mp3 file is created, then deleted.


Download Manager issues

An annoying problem of the Download Manager window is that it doesn't have a close gadget, and it remains open after Timberwolf's exit. You can fix this by either selecting "Close it when all downloads are finished" or unselecting "Show the Downloads window when downloading a file" in Tools/Options. There's no visual feedback of any click, but they are still registered, so just click once in the boxes to select/unselect them and press "Close". You can check that they have been correctly set by reopening the Preferences window.


Installing more add-ons

So far I have been unable to install another add-on if there's already one installed: the Plug-ins window seems to ask to update some installed Timberwolf components, and I have been unable to find a workaround for that. It might be possible to make it work by downloading the XPI archive of the add-on and to manually install it.


Misc

- A note about DownThemAll: all the files are by default downloaded in the Timberwolf/CurrentUserProfile/ drawer.

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AmigaOne XE - AmigaOS 4.1 - Freescale 7457 1GHz - 1GB ram

@Varthall
Btw.. do you know if mplayer for amigaos support .flv? I tried playing one of the flv files i downloaded with downloadhelper and it gave me a instant grim reaper.

@Tomas

Most of them work, although a couple of videos I have downloaded in the past are replayed with distorted video. It might happen that MPlayer crashes with certain flvs, that format is notoriously difficult to support. BTW have you checked that you have completed the download before trying to play it?

Varthall

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AmigaOne XE - AmigaOS 4.1 - Freescale 7457 1GHz - 1GB ram

@Varthall

Wow

did not expect any addon or extension to work.

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@Varthall
When I launched Timberwolf ("3.5 Beta 4") for the first time an hour ago, I was pleased to see the line in the opening window about not needing plug-ins or add-ons to view videos, and I immediately watched the two-minute trailer for some weird animated movie. I can no longer get that page; I'm half tempted to delete the current install and reinstall just to see what that was all about.

I have followed your directions for installing DownloadHelper, but not too happily, because I found it very troublesome on Gnome, often crashing Iceweasel.

@Varthall

Might also be possible to copy profile setting from a PC installation to your Timberwolf profile draw. I did this and the Downloadhelper adon was installed and active but I did not test it to see if paths etc were ok.

Edit:

It does work.downloaded a video from Youtube.

Last edited by Spectre660 on 13-Jun-2010 at 06:07 AM.

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Sam460ex : Radeon Rx550 Single slot Video Card : SIL3112 SATA card

@kilaueabart

Quote:

kilaueabart wrote: @Varthall I have followed your directions for installing DownloadHelper, but not too happily, because I found it very troublesome on Gnome, often crashing Iceweasel.

I also use Iceweasel with DownloadHelper on latest Debian (Lenny), and it is unstable on my setup too, although I don't get any crash while I use the add-on. I guess it's Iceweasel itself not very stable.

@Spectre660

Good idea, that might be a last-resort workaround for the problem installing more add-ons.

Varthall

Last edited by Varthall on 13-Jun-2010 at 02:23 PM.

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AmigaOne XE - AmigaOS 4.1 - Freescale 7457 1GHz - 1GB ram

@Varthall

Hi, thanks for this. I have found that the Download Manager can be closed by pressing "Esc" when the window is selected.
Richard.

@Varthall

Screengrab

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5429075/Timberwolf_1.png

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Sam460ex : Radeon Rx550 Single slot Video Card : SIL3112 SATA card

@Varthall

also got ReloadEvery to work this way

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Sam460ex : Radeon Rx550 Single slot Video Card : SIL3112 SATA card

@Varthall

Well done, thanks for this "how-to". Until we all get up to speed with TW, what it can do and what it can't, we will need lots of help like this.

Thanks again.

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cheers
tony

Hyperion Support Forum: http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php

@Varthall and Spectre

If you declare in this discussion that your screenshots are public domain, I can upload it on Wikipedia...

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"When the Amiga came out, everyone [at Apple] was scared as hell." (J.L. Gassée, former CEO of Apple France and chief of devs of Mac II-fx, interviewed by Amazing Computing, Nov 1996).

@Spectre660
Which method have you used, and have you perhaps managed to install it alongside DownloadHelper?

@Raffaele

No problems for me... on which wikipedia article you'd like to add them?

Varthall

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AmigaOne XE - AmigaOS 4.1 - Freescale 7457 1GHz - 1GB ram

Tried to install and all went as expected ... I also tried to install the FireFTP plugin, but without success ..

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Amiga x5000 ı o2o ı 4GB RAM ı RadeonRX580 | SBlaster Audigy Fx - AmigaOS4.1 FInal Edition

A1200 sandwich :)

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@Varthall

Great work, I followed your instructions and it works great here.

Hey Amigaworld mods, Features/Tutorials for this, How about it ?

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Glass coffins, a success?
Remains to be seen.

i'm working on a new mplayer version. hope this can help the flv playing

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@Varthall

I used the copy from a working Windows XP Firefox installation.

If you copy the whole extension subdirectory into the Amiga xxxx.default extensions directory certain extensions will work without being reinstalled.

Thus far Downloadhelper and ReloadEvery have worked this way.


Quote:

Varthall wrote: @Spectre660 Which method have you used, and have you perhaps managed to install it alongside DownloadHelper? Varthall

Last edited by Spectre660 on 14-Jun-2010 at 12:34 PM.

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Sam460ex : Radeon Rx550 Single slot Video Card : SIL3112 SATA card

@afxgroup

Ahh,again good news...

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Amiga x5000 ı o2o ı 4GB RAM ı RadeonRX580 | SBlaster Audigy Fx - AmigaOS4.1 FInal Edition

A1200 sandwich :)

Croatian Amiga portal

@afxgroup 
Will you include GUI which you show times ago on some partyes for upcoming mplayer ?:)

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@kas1e

i hope..

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