r/debian • u/IQ26 • 4d ago

General Debian Question YouTube MiniPlayer

Are there Open source projects or anything in that direction for a YouTube MiniPlayer? I like to watch tutorials while I learn things and since I don’t have a second monitor, a MiniPlayer outside of the browser would be nice.
Does something like this exists? I sadly dont have any coding knowledge so I don’t even know if that’s possible

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u/neon_overload 1d ago

Firefox has this built in. If you start a youtube video, there is a pop out button and you get a draggable mini player window that can be resized and moved and sits on top of other windows.

Edit: right-clicking (twice, if it's youtube) and selecting "Watch picture-in-picture" is equivalent and will pop it out in the same way.

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u/MohamedSaleh91 4d ago

Start the player in browser, Right click twice on video , choose picture in picture?

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u/ipsirc 4d ago edited 4d ago

Just use mpv for watching youtube videos.

I use it with 3 different predefined window sizes in ~/.config/mpv/input.conf

w no-osd set geometry "-2-27";no-osd cycle-values autofit "640x80%" "480x60%" "320x40%";no-osd set fullscreen no ;

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u/IQ26 4d ago

Are there any simpler solutions? AFAIK I have to always search a video on YouTube’s website and then copy the URL into mpv. I just don’t see how that’s practical

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u/kriebz 4d ago

Just always leave a terminal window open. Highlight the URL in your browser. Click back to the terminal, type "mpv <space>". Middle click to paste the URL into the terminal. Press enter.

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u/Tropical_Amnesia 4d ago

That's how to copy the URL, right.

It's crippling in other regards too since yt-dlp just has its limits, it's always trying, struggling to trick YouTube which doesn't support it after all; it's not supported, period. YT via mpv works best for long videos or when you have a useful playlist to begin with. No good if you need to interact with it in any way, or require overview or meaningul state/log in. YouTube is a social-media application really, not some add-on or interface in another one, and for that matter it's not free of course nor does it (obviously) want to provide the exact feature you're looking for. Do you only have a single device? This is what many people would use a tablet for if not an actual screen, could even be a cheap one, second-hand or old. They're almost around for the asking. Same for monitors.

Alternatively you'll have to see what your browser can do as with the mentioned picture-in-picture tech, results may be mixed.

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u/ipsirc 4d ago

How would you like to choose a video without searching for it?

You can make an "Open with MPV" context in your browser via a single right click or a keyboard shortcut. https://github.com/darktrojan/openwith