YouTube under Windows XP - Downloaders, players and browser support

[AstroSkipper]

I also tried the youtube_search.lua script in a normal VLC 2.2.8 installation without any success. This script is unfortunately not working.

[panda_zzz]

3 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

I also tried the youtube_search.lua script in a normal VLC 2.2.8 installation without any success. This script is unfortunately not working.

Given the issues with finding yt-dlp.exe, I've added variables for the absolute path.
If USER_YTDLP_PATH is set and the file exists, it is used;
otherwise, yt-dlp.exe is searched for in the VLC directory;
hidecon.exe is taken from USER_HIDECON_PATH; otherwise, it is searched for next to the found yt-dlp.exe;
if nothing is found - fallback to yt-dlp.exe from the PATH.

As shown in the log in the screenshot, yt-dlp is taken from the specified path C:\test\yt-dlp.exe

[AstroSkipper]

@panda_zzz Your youtube_search.lua script isn't able to find yt-dlp.exe in the VLC directory under Windows XP.

[VistaLover]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

Your youtube_search.lua script isn't able to find yt-dlp.exe in the VLC directory under Windows XP.

Likewise under Vista SP2 x86, "portable" setup of VLC-3.0.24b1: 

qt debug: activating or triggering extension 'YouTube Search'
lua debug: Reactivating extension YouTube Search
lua: [yt-ext] platform=windows  ytdlp=yt-dlp.exe
lua debug: Creating dialog 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)'
qt debug: Creating a new dialog: 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)'
lua debug: Clicking 'F:\Applications\VLC Portable\VLC_3.0.24b1_Portable\VLC\lua\extensions\youtube_search.lua': 'Search'
lua: [yt-ext] cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
lua: [yt-ext] bat cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
lua debug: Clicking 'F:\Applications\VLC Portable\VLC_3.0.24b1_Portable\VLC\lua\extensions\youtube_search.lua': 'Search'
lua: [yt-ext] cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
lua: [yt-ext] bat cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
qt debug: Dialog 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)' received a closeEvent
lua debug: Deactivating 'YouTube Search'
lua debug: Deleting dialog 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)'
lua debug: Waiting for the dialog to be deleted...
qt debug: Deleting extension dialog 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)'

I can assure you that both yt-dlp.exe (32-bit) and hidecon.exe (32-bit) are sitting besides vlc.exe ...

[AstroSkipper]

9 hours ago, VistaLover said:

Likewise under Vista SP2 x86, "portable" setup of VLC-3.0.24b1: 

qt debug: activating or triggering extension 'YouTube Search'
lua debug: Reactivating extension YouTube Search
lua: [yt-ext] platform=windows  ytdlp=yt-dlp.exe
lua debug: Creating dialog 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)'
qt debug: Creating a new dialog: 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)'
lua debug: Clicking 'F:\Applications\VLC Portable\VLC_3.0.24b1_Portable\VLC\lua\extensions\youtube_search.lua': 'Search'
lua: [yt-ext] cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
lua: [yt-ext] bat cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
lua debug: Clicking 'F:\Applications\VLC Portable\VLC_3.0.24b1_Portable\VLC\lua\extensions\youtube_search.lua': 'Search'
lua: [yt-ext] cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
lua: [yt-ext] bat cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
qt debug: Dialog 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)' received a closeEvent
lua debug: Deactivating 'YouTube Search'
lua debug: Deleting dialog 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)'
lua debug: Waiting for the dialog to be deleted...
qt debug: Deleting extension dialog 'YouTube Search (yt-dlp)'

I can assure you that both yt-dlp.exe (32-bit) and hidecon.exe (32-bit) are sitting besides vlc.exe ...

Of course, you can resolve relative path issues in such Lua scripts by using hard-coded, absolute paths, but that’s not exactly the pinnacle of programming. If you copy my youtube.lua(c) script into the lua\playlists subfolder of VLC, it automatically recognises yt-dlp.exe and hidecon.exe without the user having to set any absolute paths. This is how it should work in the youtube_search.lua script as well. When looking into your log, you can clearly see that the script doesn't add any path to the yt-dlp.exe file:

lua: [yt-ext] cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8
lua: [yt-ext] bat cmd: yt-dlp.exe "ytsearch10:Adele" -J --flat-playlist --no-warnings --encoding utf-8

Of course, this only works if the BAT file or the CMD file is run from VLC’s programme folder. 

Edited Friday at 10:11 AM by AstroSkipper

[AstroSkipper]

@panda_zzz Your youtube_search.lua script is actually well written and the YouTube Search GUI is well implemented. However, it needs to be put on the workbench and everything relating to paths needs to be revised. The comments need to be significantly reduced, and the entire script needs to be streamlined. The YouTube links that are called up should be processed in exactly the same way as in the youtube.lua script.  However, your solution of accessing YouTube links via a temporary BAT file is prone to errors when it comes to file paths. 

Edited Friday at 09:29 AM by AstroSkipper

[panda_zzz]

@AstroSkipper I think I'll spend the weekend doing a thorough debugging session on Windows XP because I initially tested the extension on Windows 7. Unfortunately, I can't completely avoid using BAT files, but I'll try to optimize the process.

[AstroSkipper]

4 hours ago, panda_zzz said:

@AstroSkipper I think I'll spend the weekend doing a thorough debugging session on Windows XP because I initially tested the extension on Windows 7. Unfortunately, I can't completely avoid using BAT files, but I'll try to optimize the process.

Just an idea. You could also modify the youtube_search.lua script so that it only performs the YouTube search, but when a link is clicked, it passes it on to VLC, which then plays the YouTube link using the perfectly functioning youtube.lua script. That would streamline the script and make use of existing code. In such a case, there would be no need to reinvent the wheel.  But as initially said, it's just an alternative approach. An AIO solution is of course fine, too.  And optimisation is great, but first comes fixing as your script doesn't work at all under Windows XP. 

Edited Friday at 03:10 PM by AstroSkipper

[AstroSkipper]

On 6/19/2026 at 1:08 PM, AstroSkipper said:

Just an idea. You could also modify the youtube_search.lua script so that it only performs the YouTube search, but when a link is clicked, it passes it on to VLC, which then plays the YouTube link using the perfectly functioning youtube.lua script. That would streamline the script and make use of existing code. In such a case, there would be no need to reinvent the wheel. 

I am absolutely convinced that a YouTube Search script of this kind, which is limited solely to searching for YouTube links, would use far fewer resources and would therefore also be suitable for older hardware and older operating systems such as Windows XP. 

[VistaLover]

On 6/15/2026 at 8:15 PM, AstroSkipper said:

The last 3.0.23 version was released on 12.05.2026. The last Windows XP compatible 3.0.24 version was from 29.05.2026.

Thanks for this detailed info ; in case anyone wants to salvage/archive those builds: 

vlc-3.0.23-win32-a5b72d67

https://artifacts.videolan.org/vlc-3.0/nightly-win32/20260512-0219/

vlc-3.0.24-beta1-win32-4c608da1

https://artifacts.videolan.org/vlc-3.0/nightly-win32/20260529-0214/

It's unclear why they broke XP-compatibility in 3.0.24b1 after May 29th ; it might've been an inadvertent breakage, like they did  with VLC-3.0.21, or as part of a conscious decision to drop NT 5.x support (recent 3.0.24b1 builds continue to work under Vista SP2) ; I guess very few people (especially on "legacy" WinOSes) monitor the "nightly" artifacts, so the XP-breakage, if not remedied in the meantime, will only hit the "masses" when 3.0.24 sees a final/stable release (and there's probably still time for that  ) ...

[VistaLover]

On 6/15/2026 at 8:27 PM, AstroSkipper said:

Your observation in terms of the 3.0.8 version is interesting. I will try this version in my system the next days.

On 6/15/2026 at 10:09 PM, AstroSkipper said:

I can confirm that regarding your BBC Radio 2 Live stream

http://as-hls-ww-live.akamaized.net/pool_74208725/live/ww/bbc_radio_two/bbc_radio_two.isml/bbc_radio_two-audio=96000.m3u8

the 3.0.24 version from 29.05.2026 behaves very bad, but the 3.0.8 version perfectly. Even the 3.0.20 version is ok but the 3.0.8 version performs best.

Many thanks for your tests and confirmation  ; with some more free time on Saturday, I decided to explore how ALL stable VLC versions after 3.0.8 behave when fed the above audio HLS live stream; one can find older stable VLC releases in their "download" server: 

https://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/

FTR, v3.0.7.1 (immediately previous to 3.0.8) behaves almost identically to 3.0.8; HLS streams (at least the demuxing part) are handled by the libadaptive_plugin.dll module; here's the CPU usage history of my Core2 Duo with ONLY VLC v3.0.8 streaming BBC R2: 

libadaptive_plugin.dll versions 3.0.9.2 and 3.0.10 are actually BROKEN when it comes to handling the BBC R2 HLS stream; I can hear the audio for ca. 30-40s, but then the stream turns muted (continues to play otherwise)  ...

From v3.0.11 onwards, the BBC R2 HLS audio stream does play consistently, but at elevated CPU consumption  ; with each newer VLC release, the file size of the above DLL increases, but the CPU it uses remains constantly high; below is the CPU usage history of my Core2 Duo when ONLY VLC v3.0.23 is running, streaming BBC R2: 

I'm sure you can see the CPU spikes there  ...

On 6/15/2026 at 10:09 PM, AstroSkipper said:

When it comes to my YouTube test video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffcitRgiNDs

however, I can't see any differences in CPU usage

If you're using yt-dlp.exe without a JS runtime (quickjs is the only option under XP SP3 x86), then the default player client there is android_vr (aka ANDR-V) and the formats it returns are ALL "https", not "m3u8" (PROTO column): 

yt-dlp -F "ffcitRgiNDs"

[youtube] Extracting URL: ffcitRgiNDs
[youtube] ffcitRgiNDs: Downloading webpage
WARNING: [youtube] No supported JavaScript runtime could be found. Only deno is enabled by default; to use another runtime add  --js-runtimes RUNTIME[:PATH]  to your command/config. YouTube extraction without a JS runtime has been deprecated, and some formats may be missing. See  https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/EJS  for details on installing one
[youtube] ffcitRgiNDs: Downloading android vr player API JSON
[info] Available formats for ffcitRgiNDs:
ID  EXT   RESOLUTION FPS CH |  FILESIZE   TBR PROTO | VCODEC          VBR ACODEC      ABR ASR MORE INFO
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sb3 mhtml 48x27        0    |                 mhtml | images                                  storyboard
sb2 mhtml 80x45        1    |                 mhtml | images                                  storyboard
sb1 mhtml 160x90       1    |                 mhtml | images                                  storyboard
sb0 mhtml 320x180      1    |                 mhtml | images                                  storyboard
139 m4a   audio only      2 |   1.33MiB   49k https | audio only          mp4a.40.5   49k 22k low, m4a_dash
249 webm  audio only      2 |   1.46MiB   54k https | audio only          opus        54k 48k low, webm_dash
140 m4a   audio only      2 |   3.51MiB  129k https | audio only          mp4a.40.2  129k 44k medium, m4a_dash
251 webm  audio only      2 |   3.77MiB  139k https | audio only          opus       139k 48k medium, webm_dash
160 mp4   256x144     25    |   1.46MiB   54k https | avc1.4d400c     54k video only          144p, mp4_dash
278 webm  256x144     25    |   1.79MiB   66k https | vp9             66k video only          144p, webm_dash
394 mp4   256x144     25    |   1.41MiB   52k https | av01.0.00M.08   52k video only          144p, mp4_dash
133 mp4   426x240     25    |   3.08MiB  113k https | avc1.4d4015    113k video only          240p, mp4_dash
242 webm  426x240     25    |   2.68MiB   99k https | vp9             99k video only          240p, webm_dash
395 mp4   426x240     25    |   2.53MiB   93k https | av01.0.00M.08   93k video only          240p, mp4_dash
134 mp4   640x360     25    |   5.77MiB  213k https | avc1.4d401e    213k video only          360p, mp4_dash
18  mp4   640x360     25  2 | ≈ 9.28MiB  342k https | avc1.42001E         mp4a.40.2       44k 360p
243 webm  640x360     25    |   6.80MiB  251k https | vp9            251k video only          360p, webm_dash
396 mp4   640x360     25    |   4.58MiB  169k https | av01.0.01M.08  169k video only          360p, mp4_dash
135 mp4   854x480     25    |   9.80MiB  361k https | avc1.4d401e    361k video only          480p, mp4_dash
244 webm  854x480     25    |   9.37MiB  345k https | vp9            345k video only          480p, webm_dash
397 mp4   854x480     25    |   7.91MiB  292k https | av01.0.04M.08  292k video only          480p, mp4_dash
136 mp4   1280x720    25    |  18.56MiB  684k https | avc1.4d401f    684k video only          720p, mp4_dash
247 webm  1280x720    25    |  17.27MiB  636k https | vp9            636k video only          720p, webm_dash
398 mp4   1280x720    25    |  13.88MiB  511k https | av01.0.05M.08  511k video only          720p, mp4_dash
137 mp4   1920x1080   25    |  49.02MiB 1807k https | avc1.640028   1807k video only          1080p, mp4_dash
248 webm  1920x1080   25    |  30.88MiB 1138k https | vp9           1138k video only          1080p, webm_dash
399 mp4   1920x1080   25    |  24.70MiB  910k https | av01.0.08M.08  910k video only          1080p, mp4_dash

I have found the elevated CPU usage (in v3.0.11+) to be specific to the HLS streaming protocol ...

On 6/18/2026 at 6:14 PM, AstroSkipper said:

I use VLC 3.0.8 Portable

Wise choice; and you should probably stay there, too...

On 6/15/2026 at 8:27 PM, AstroSkipper said:

One thing is clear. The latest versions aren’t always the best on older systems.

Words of wisdom  !

Kind regards (and protect yourself from the heatwave  ... )

Edited 14 hours ago by VistaLover

[AstroSkipper]

7 hours ago, VistaLover said:

If you're using yt-dlp.exe without a JS runtime (quickjs is the only option under XP SP3 x86)

Up until now, there has been no reason to use quickjs in combination with yt-dlp.exe. I use yt-dlp.exe in many places. Primarily, of course, in ytBATCH for Windows XP, in VLC with Lua scripts, in 3D YouTube Downloader and so on. In what situations do you need quickjs? 

[AstroSkipper]

FYI, from now on, you can find links to all my YouTube projects in the third post of this thread. 

Edited 1 hour ago by AstroSkipper