Minitube
Minitube is a YouTube desktop client.
With it you can watch YouTube videos in a new way: you type a keyword, Minitube gives you an endless video stream.
Minitube is not about cloning the original YouTube web interface, it aims to create a new TV-like experience.
- Light on your computer. By consuming less CPU, Minitube preserves battery life and keeps your laptop cool. That's because Minitube does not use the Flash Player.
- High Definition. Minitube plays HD videos up to 1080p. Go fullscreen and watch them play fluidly.
- No need to use a browser. Your browser is really good at surfing the Web, but not so good at video playback. Use the right app for the job.
- Stop fiddling. Just search for something. Minitube automatically plays videos one after another. Sit back and enjoy.
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Windows
The Windows version is still not ready. Check back soon.
- Mac OS X You need at least OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
- Linux Read the setup instructions. Please consider making a donation.
- Sources GNU General Public License. The code is hosted at Gitorious.
Try Minitunes, a music player by the same author of Minitube with the same style and focus on simplicity. »
What's new?
- I’m a Qt Ambassador September 4
- Announcing Minitube 1.1 July 27
- Minitube in Debian unstable June 14
- Minitube reaches version 1.0 May 4
What a great program. I installed the Debian package, and it works perfectly.
But I do have a request. I am stuck with a wireless ISP that limits the total monthly bandwidth that we can use. For that reason, I would like to stop the video stream, except for the videos I actually want to watch. In other words, a way to turn off the automatic play.
I would like to be able to search for videos using keyword and only stream the ones I select. That way I won’t waste any bandwidth on those I do not wish to see. Would that be possible?
Thanks.
@LowOnBits Yes an AutoPlay option is planned, maybe for the next release.
Nice app. Great job dude.
works on linuxmint 9 with this install
sudo apt-get install libqt4-opengl phonon-backend-gstreamer
great job !!
works nice on gentoo.
can you add support for the other bigger video pages? like live leak or break??
sometimes it skips videos (youtube.com folder not found or something like that) but in opera they are working
very good software excellent
A greetings from Bogotá Colombia
works fine on ubuntu 10.04 on my (crappy) netbook! got many problems playing videos on youtube due to my GMA500 , but this solved ‘em all.
a login support would be great!
greetings from l’Aquila !
Hey, I got a problem… the colors of the videos are all messed up, and I suspected that my selected options in gstreamer-properties got messed up… but they didn’t, and videos in other players are working. BTW, I’m running Ubuntu 10.04 on a first gen. imac g4… so is there anything I can do? If you’re wondering what my gp settings are, it’s just the X11/etc/etc with the Nvidia Blitter…
Another thing… you guys should link Minitube to VAAPI and VDPAU so that we people who have to deal with crappy chipsets like the GMA 500, which has hardware decoding of H.264, can watch vids in HD.
Overall though, this app is awesome 
Hi,
Great program! However, when minimalizing it doesn’t go to the window list but completely diapperears. Alt+tab does show minitube. Any suggestions?
Best regards,
5oak
Never mind my previous comment, it was a user fault…
Great work! I just wish I could view my favorites from the interface.
Perfect Work ! I hate the poluted visual of youtube. You are the man Flavio !
If possible in next releases, a icon tray will be perfect ! Youtube on click of me !
Hugs from Brazil
any plans for vdpau support?
just instaled with synaptic in Kubuntu 10.04 KDE-4.4.5………works great thanks man the wife loves it.
the man page is a bit sparce ……how do you copey the URL your watching to the clip bord?? and whar is a list of keybord controls.
VINNY
OK so I forgot to upgrade to ver 1.0
copey to the clipbord works fine now ………….but the man page and kebord list is still wanting.
VINNY
Wonderful application. A configuration for anyremote would be killer !
- Is there an option to see the video in its original resolution?
- It shows 1080p button even on sources which can’t be encoded
(as 1980 TV shows)
@Gregor 1080p is the maximum resolution. The actual resolution may be lower.
i have a stupid question: how do I make it start playing? it shows me a list of videos, I click one, n othing happens. I double-click it and the pane on the right with the info in it updates. there is no start/play button/icon, only stop, pause, skip, fullscreen. right-clicking all over the place produces no start options either. nothing I’ve figured out so far makes it actually PLAY the video.
looks like a real cool app, if I could only figure out how to use it…
slight problem on the linux version it cant find the programming language c# or c++ it either cant find them or or doesnt search by relavence oher than that thanks great app
Gentoo ebuilds for phonon and minitube with the mplayer backend.
http://www.divshare.com/folder/714931-faa
Waaaaat ! typed in john coltrane on my mac , and the tune & notation came leaping at me. WISH I COULD BUY YOU A BREWERY.
Hello, nice app altogether, I also vote for the system tray icon and also disabling screen saver during playback time would also be very nice.
youtube sucks. Today they are giving me http/404 errors when using different downloaders, including minitube. Did they change the design again or they are trying to stop us from downloading videos? Anyway, google/youtube does censor videos and its becoming worse each day.
Please add support for more sites!
Clive has support for at least 10… I know this might be hard to do, especially designing the UI. But please try.
Supporting podcasts could be nice too (something like light version of miro).
Another tip: moving mouse to edges to get tools (in fullscreen) often gets me to switch desktop in some desktop environments i use. Please detect mouse far before i reach the edge (15 % part of the screen => action).
Please fix YouTube! I don’t want to go back to terrible flash!
I think that youtube has changed again the design. I had a downloader by my own that worked so good. I hope anybody can find and give us the new secuence or requirements.
Au revoir.
Please fix Minitube!!, youtube has changed again!!
why when i use it for watch video minitube says “the file or folder doesn’t exist”? isn’t it work in online? so what file or folder would be kept?
Minitube used to work but since I updated it to 1.0, no video will play. The summery will come up and a yellow-ish band across the top of the video will say (in very hard to read white) “Cannot Open Video Media Source”. Internets working, youtube works (though I still haven’t figured out how to get sound working on the actual website), and it does this to EVERY SINGLE VIDEO. It’ll skip to the next and do the same thing endlessly if I let it.
Well, I was about to complain that it isn’t working apparently because Google changed something at Youtube, but all ^ those guys did it for me. It’s a crying shame.
But anyway, one more contribution: please, if you’re going to create a systray icon, use the new spec. used in KDE/Ubuntu. Thankies.
Do you have a patch, since youtube probably changed the protocol and it doesnt work anymore?
Thank you for the great open source software, hugs from Brazil (2)
Hi I installed the latest version of minitube on Ubuntu 10.4 but when I’m trying to play any video I’ve the the error: “Fatal error: Could not open media source”. Do anyone has any idea of how to solve that? thanks.
Yup, I also got the ‘Could not open media source’ message on every video. I miss Minitube, it really works sooo much better on my PowerMac G5 than flash has ever worked! I hope we’ll see a fix soon, I’d happily donate you a roman beer to get it working again!
Thanks for the fastest search and stream application. I had some friends over, and we had a great time supplementing our conversation with instant references. Like how I was planning to replace a timing belt, the “just the tip” scene from Wedding crashers, and the “world’s most interesting man” commercials…
Hope you get it working again. I’d pay $20 for it, if it had bookmarking, stays streamlined, fast and ad free (other than the ones I search for)
Need help.
I been using minitube for quite a while and everything was working fine but since yesterday i started to get a “could not open media source” error and cannot watch any videos now.
Flavio, su YouTube da qualche giorno devono avere di nuovo modificato qualcosa.
Se si prova ad eseguire un video con MiniTube si ottiene:
Playing “”
Phonon error: “” 0
Phonon error: “The file or folder http://www.youtube.com does not exist.” 1
No longer playing:
Playing “”
Phonon error: “” 0
Phonon error: “The file or folder http://www.youtube.com does not exist.” 1
problem just started, added Gstreamer backend, was working with xine-phonon, not woring with either
, not woring with xine either
Same error here, I’ve been freaking out since there’s no IRC channel or forums, but I guess YouTube changed something, so it’s not just me.
Hope it gets fixed soon.