All the videos - have 'em all! October 3, 2013 1:55 PM   Subscribe

In response to threads like this in which there are a lot of videos to watch, I wrote a Chrome extension that plays all the YouTube videos linked on a page, one after another in one player.

It's handy for playing a bunch of videos from a music thread while you work, without you having to stop every few minutes to switch back to the page, find the next link, and click it.

If you're curious or want to change stuff about it, here's the source. Please let me know if you try it and run into any bugs.
posted by ignignokt to MetaFilter-Related at 1:55 PM (31 comments total) 46 users marked this as a favorite

i actually asked metafilter about this once upon a time!
posted by nadawi at 1:58 PM on October 3, 2013


Question, if one of the links is to a Youtube playlist, will it just play the first one, or will the whole playlist get loaded in the queue?
posted by deezil at 1:58 PM on October 3, 2013


Hey! This is a really clever neat thing!
posted by Blasdelb at 2:07 PM on October 3, 2013


This is great, thanks! It's also brought me back to Chrome, which I kind of forgot about after we got into a fight about it re-opening closed tabs.

I'm using it right now in the recent "songs featuring slide and steel pedal guitar" question.
posted by Room 641-A at 2:22 PM on October 3, 2013


Yeah, this is a very nice thing, I'm using it in the sad bastard music thread at the moment, and really enjoying it. Thanks!
posted by Ned G at 2:36 PM on October 3, 2013


Add "Play All"?

It can:
ºAccess your data on all websites
ºAccess your tabs and browsing activity


Must it?
posted by Toekneesan at 2:42 PM on October 3, 2013


Awesome! Thanks for making it and sharing it!
posted by stellaluna at 2:46 PM on October 3, 2013


This is sweet. Thanks!
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:58 PM on October 3, 2013


CHROME?!?!

Sigha.
posted by nevercalm at 3:26 PM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]


This is really cool. Would it be possible to have the player open in a separate tab?
posted by roll truck roll at 3:40 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]


Wait - you mean, there are people in the world who notice an issue and...actually bother to create a solution instead of just saying "tsk" (like me)?
No. Way.

Thanks, Mister. This is cool and you are too.
posted by billiebee at 3:51 PM on October 3, 2013


Glad you like it, guys!

Question, if one of the links is to a Youtube playlist, will it just play the first one, or will the whole playlist get loaded in the queue?

I think it'll just pass over playlists. deezil, do you have an example of a page with a playlist I can try it on?

º Access your data on all websites
º Access your tabs and browsing activity

Must it?


Toekneesan, this what it tells Chrome it needs:
"permissions": [
    "tabs",
    "http://*/*",
    "https://*/*"
  ],
It needs 'tabs' and access to web pages in order to insert the player into a page when the PlayAll button is hit. It does not phone home.

If you want, and are OK with dealing with code, you can grab your own copy from Github and make sure. You could also potentially change "http://*/*" to something like "http://*metafilter.com/*" to limit its ability to act to MetaFilter.

This is really cool. Would it be possible to have the player open in a separate tab?

Potentially, but given the amount of stuff I've got going on, I can't honestly say I'd be able to do that any time soon. I would like to make it so that it's a little easier to interact with the page itself at some point, though.
posted by ignignokt at 4:02 PM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]


SO MUCH 80S VIDEO THREADS FOREVER WOOP WOOP

Ignignokt, you are now my favorite Mefite, or at least in the top five percent.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:18 PM on October 3, 2013 [8 favorites]


Bless you for this.
posted by The Whelk at 4:25 PM on October 3, 2013


you are now my favorite Mefite

what if bulbasaur signs up though, what then
posted by elizardbits at 4:45 PM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]


I love you.
posted by sacrifix at 5:07 PM on October 3, 2013


This is almost decadent in its convenience. Thank you!
posted by invitapriore at 5:50 PM on October 3, 2013


If I use this to read that "Tell me about more 80s videos like Total Eclipse of the Heart" thread, I may be stuck here for 3 days.

Whatever you do, don't use this app to read the mega-collection of "Whose Line Is It Anyway" clips.

I am, however, about to download it to indulge in a feast of Great Big Sea....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:16 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]


ignignokt, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that answer. I haven't tonight, but I will very soon test this, and learn a crapload. How gracious and generous. Dude...

Now, here's a tougher challenge. This is the first page I tried it on. Why doesn't it work? Is it the "Share" shortened urls I used to construct the page, (which I was under the impression are more archival) or is it that playlist issue? That first link is to a playlist.
posted by Toekneesan at 6:19 PM on October 3, 2013


No problem, Toekneesan, and very nice catch! It is indeed the youtu.be URLs, which I didn't consider.

I've fixed it and pushed an update to the Chrome Web Store. It says it should appear within an hour. Chrome automatically updates extensions periodically, but you can also force an update.
posted by ignignokt at 7:49 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]


Ooh, this is awesome! I wish I'd had this two days ago. ;)

I may be biased because it's my thread, but the AskMe thread that inspired this has turned into a repository of some very unusual and very catchy music. From the 50s jazz of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross to the hip hip artist Busdriver who was apparently inspired by them, Nigerian Juju and Apala music (forgive me if that's not the right way to refer to them), some incredibly satisfying campy metal and awesome-fast bluegrass and the loveliest song by a legendary Tuvan throat singer that I've ever heard. And that only barely scratches the surface: as I mentioned in-thread, I've essentially stopped listening to music that's not from that thread for the time being, because the sheer range and awesomeness of what's been posted covers most of my music needs at any given point in time.

I'm running about a day behind the thread at this point, but the recently-linked Linsey Pollak is worth an FPP of his own. Dude makes funky music by playing clarinets he made out of a garden hose and a feather duster. That is the most awesome thing I've ever seen.
posted by Rory Marinich at 6:04 AM on October 4, 2013


Holy cow. I LOVE this. Thanks!!!!
posted by zarq at 7:17 AM on October 4, 2013


Thanks for writing this. It seems like the bizarre chrome-linux bug where it played videos at something like 2/3 speed has gone away too, so I can even actually use it at work! Yay for new things to listen to while I work..

Anyhow, unlogged in, the banner ad shows on top of the video window. But of course you can scroll past that, so eh.
posted by nat at 7:22 AM on October 4, 2013


I was wishing for exactly this while reading exactly that thread. Thank you!
posted by yarrow at 10:06 AM on October 4, 2013


YOU FUCKING ROCK IGNIGNOKT! YOU FUCKING ROCK!!!!!
posted by not_on_display at 10:36 AM on October 4, 2013


And today this brilliant post seems tailor made for this excellent extension. And perhaps we can add a "videoplaylist" tag to stuff like this, so I can find more of these kinds of posts.
posted by salishsea at 12:13 PM on October 4, 2013


Whoa, you guys are master appreciators! Feels good man, as they say.

Thanks, kalessin! But don't worry about it. That is an awesome use for the extension that never occurred to me.

nat, that doesn't seem to happen for me. I am on a Mac, though. Might not be anything I can do about it, but can you point to the specific page where you see this?

Rory, I'm still only halfway through that thread and am still getting amazed! amaze
posted by ignignokt at 1:01 PM on October 4, 2013


Just discovered this and I LOVE IT. Thanks so much!
posted by Groovymomma at 9:11 AM on October 6, 2013


ignignokt: I was using it on Rory's thread. Which I am much less than halfway through on and still pretty amazed.

Also, it doesn't happen for me on Chrome on my windows machine at home. I"ll have you know I not only logged out, I also disabled adblock, just for you.

I can try again on the linux machine at work tomorrow; fi there's specific info I should be looking for let me know.
posted by nat at 12:48 PM on October 6, 2013


Really appreciated! I think if it turns out that it gets in front of the ad on Windows but doesn't make it on Linux, I'll have to let that one go and assume the Linux branch of Chrome will catch up someday.

That said, one possibility is that they're actually different ads. If it happens with every single ad on Linux, probably not, then. The main thing I'm interested in is not ads being in front necessarily, but possibly a whole class of html elements that block the player.
posted by ignignokt at 9:41 AM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


can I give metafilter gold?
Cause this is exactly the kinda thing that should earn it!

*high 5*
posted by DigDoug at 4:44 AM on October 8, 2013


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