Secret File: mps youtube Migrates To YouTube API v3 Gets Ubuntu Sound Menu Support

Thursday, March 2, 2017

mps youtube Migrates To YouTube API v3 Gets Ubuntu Sound Menu Support

mps-youtube 0.2.4 was released today and with this version, the app was migrated to YouTube API v3. This is an important change because the old v2 API was shut down recently so previous mps-youtube versions no longer work.

Another important change in this release is the addition of MPRIS v2 support, which means that mps-youtube can now make use of Ubuntus Sound Menu, GNOME Shell Media Player Indicator extension and so on.

mps-youtube is a command line YouTube audio player which supports both local and YouTube playlists (with built-in YouTube search).

By default, the app plays only the audio (it only downloads the audio stream, great for those with limited data plans) however, you can enable video playback from its options and in this case, mpv or mplayer is used to play the videos (other players might work, but only mpv and mplayer are officially supported).

Other mps-youtube features include downloading YouTube audio/video (including 1080p videos) - either single videos or complete YouTube playlists, transcode audio to mp3 and other formats (requires ffmpeg or avconv), optional system notifications as well as many other small but useful features.

mps-youtube 0.2.4

The latest mps-youtube 0.2.4 brings support for Data API v3, an important change because the old v2 API was shut down recently so previous mps-youtube versions no longer work.

Another important change in mps-youtube 0.2.4 is the addition of MPRIS v2 support. This allows integrating mps-youtube with the Ubuntu Sound Menu, GNOME Shell Mediaplayer Indicator extension and others.

To get this to work with the Ubuntu Sound Menu (used by default in Ubuntu w/ Unity and Xubuntu), you need to install a desktop file for mps-youtube. To speed things up, I created a desktop file for you and to install it, along with an YouTube icon, simply use the following commands (or download it from HERE and install it manually):

sudo apt-get install wget
cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/hotice/webupd8/raw/master/mps-youtube.tar.gz
tar -xvf mps-youtube.tar.gz
sudo cp /tmp/mps-youtube/youtube.png /usr/share/pixmaps/
sudo desktop-file-install /tmp/mps-youtube/mps-youtube.desktop

Then, start playing a song/video in mps-youtube and it should show up in the Ubuntu Sound Menu:

For GNOME Shell Mediaplayer Indicator extension, mps-youtube doesnt need a desktop file and it should work without any tweaks:

Besides these changes, mps-youtube 0.2.4 includes bug fixes:

Fix issue with rate-limiting in "album" command
Fix display issue with small terminal width

For how to install and configure mps-youtube, see THIS article.

Available link for download