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[raym]

Now that the search bug is fixed, YouTube is getting a serious workout in my household. YouTube from the couch... awesome!   Based on the extensive usage this feature has received already, I have a couple of usability suggestions that would make the whole experience a lot better IMO:

1. Buffer the stream like YouTube does in a normal browser! Playback stutters especially on slower Internet speeds and there's no way to pause and force buffering like you can when using YouTube in a browser. 

2. Move "Search" to the top roller or make it more easily available. Searching is the _only_ real way to use YouTube. I don't know anyone that uses the "Top Favorites", "Top Rated" etc items and I would actually prefer to hide them if possible. Search should always be available.

3. If you cancel out of the OSK (ie search dialog) there's no way to bring it back up without exiting and re-entering YouTube. Again, Search needs to be accessible at all times.

4. After searching, your results are shown in the list as thumbs. However, these are lost after you've selected and played a single item. In other words, pick a video from your "result set", when playback stops, a) the OSK re-appears instead of showing your previous screen of results and b) when you cancel out of the OSK you loose all your videos from the previous search and have to do it all over again each time!

5)  When you pick a video, PLAY is the only playback option available on the second roller of the display panel. I'd like to see all the normal playback options as with other media types. At a minimum, please include ADD. Reason being, this would provide a way of building a playlist of YouTube videos so that they can be saved for future speedy access ("Save as Playlist" in Playing Now). Now this would be fantiastic!!!!!

6) We should be able to ff/rew (skip) pause and resume like in youtube xl.

I guess some of this stuff might apply to HULU as well but I can't comment on this as I'm outside the U.S. 

Cheers.

[datdude]

All really good requests!

I would also like to see the ability, in addition to hiding the other channels, to create my own custom channels based on searches I set.  Does YouTube allow us to search based on Name, Genre, Date created, and Length?

[datdude]

Also I would really like to see related videos in YouTube.  That is the best feature it has, and is currently not available in MC.

[Doof]

I gave both YouTube and Hulu a try but was really disappointed with the low quality video that I was seeing, especially on my hdtv. The same video looks much much better when played from a web browser. Is it just a matter of some playback filter settings I need to change? I asked about this once before but never got a response.

[JimH]

Quality should be identical.  Did you try in IE?

I think Hulu is Flash.  Right click on the video to see.

[Griff]

please include ADD. Reason being, this would provide a way of building a playlist of YouTube videos so that they can be saved for future speedy access ("Save as Playlist" in Playing Now).

Ditto

Its such a pain doing them manually

and my Grandkids love them.

http://pix01.com/Af@PWgo

[Doof]

Quality should be identical.  Did you try in IE?

I think Hulu is Flash.  Right click on the video to see.

This is what I mean...

I went to YouTube, went to the Most Watched category, and picked the first video in the list. "The Evolution of Dance". I played it in IE and then in Theater View, both full screen, and took screenshots.

On the left is IE, the right is Theater View.

You can see how blocky it looks in Theater View and how the aspect ratio is off. It appears I can fix the aspect ratio manually, but it doesn't fix the blockiness.

This is why I'm wondering if there are some specific video playback filter settings I should be using.

[Doof]

Also, I've noticed that attempting to play any of the HD clips causes MC to crash.

[raym]

This is what I mean...

Try messing with the playback method option for flash video. Options > video > flash video (flv). Maybe you're not using direct show or getting a dodgy video codec loaded instead of something like ffdshow? You can check what filters are being used (for direct show) by right clicking on the display during YouTube playback.

[raym]

Back to the topic at hand....

I'd consider items 2 and 3 in the original post to be bugs since they ultimately affect the feature's core usage.

[raym]

I'm going to add one more to the list please: PLAYER CONTROLS!  This is great in YouTube XL and would be equally beneficial in MC. A BIG problem right now for me (apart from the Search issues) is that when playback stutters due to normal and often frequent internet latency issues, there's no way of skipping back a few seconds to a) hear what you missed and b) allow the player to buffer the stream a little more. And while I'm on the topic of buffering... MC doesn't appear to buffer the stream when the video is PAUSED like it does in Internet Explorer. Can anyone confirm this?

[datdude]

It's hard to know for sure, but I think that is the case for me as well, no buffering.

[raldo]

This is why I'm wondering if there are some specific video playback filter settings I should be using.

I'm seeing exactly the same when trying to play youtube videos.

I.e. the aspect ratio is off and the view just shows the upper part of the video.

Did anyone find a solution to this?

[raym]

*BUMP*

From the top of this thread, if I was to pick the most critical things that need to be adressed in order to make this thing usable on the HTPC, they would be:

1. Buffer the stream like YouTube does in a normal browser! Playback stutters especially on slower Internet speeds and there's no way to pause and force buffering like you can when using YouTube in a browser. 

2. Move "Search" to the top roller or make it more easily available.

4. After searching, your results are shown in the list as thumbs. However, these are lost after you've selected and played a single item. In other words, pick a video from your "result set", when playback stops, a) the OSK re-appears instead of showing your previous screen of results and b) when you cancel out of the OSK you loose all your videos from the previous search and have to do it all over again each time!

6. We should be able to ff/rew (skip) pause and resume like in YouTube XL.