YouTube Video unavailable - Playback on other websites has been disabled - Watch on YouTube

I'm not sure if I've seen this message before, but at times I've clicked on a link to watch a YouTube video and the video has not been available. I always thought it was because perhaps the video had been deleted. Today however, I realised there may be another reason.

If you get the following screen with the message: "Video unavailable. Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner. Watch on YouTube", below is why this occurs.

When people upload videos to YouTube they agree to a whole range of things. One is that the video is available to all users using the facilities YouTube provides. One facility is the ability for others to embed the video in their own web page. I've used this feature in www.PracticalDrivingTest.com.au to help people find and watch actual practical driving tests. No one is copying anything, just using the features provided by YouTube.

If a creator of a video doesn't want the video to appear in other websites that's very easy. They simply untick the box for the video which allows embedding. When they untick the embed box a website will display the above message with a link to the video on YouTube.

Kelvin Eldridge
Check out my YouTube channel

How to extract audio from mp4 file using Audacity because the video's sound is not playing under Windows 10.

Recently I had to extract only the audio from an mp4 video file. This happened because Windows 10 could play the video file but there was no audio, even though the video did contain audio. For example playing the video using VLC or even the earlier Windows Media Player played the video with audio, whilst using Windows 10 the default video player (Films & TV or Photos) would play the video but not the audio.

I wanted to produce the video with sound and whilst I have converted files in the past with the VLC Player this approach wasn't working. My next approach was to extract the sound from each video file and then create a new video using the video file plus the sound file. This approach worked and gave me the video I wanted.

To do this I used Audacity which is a program I regularly use the edit audio files. By default however Audacity cannot read an mp4 file so it is necessary to install an mp4 plugin as follows.

First close Audacity if you have Audacity open.
Visit the following web page.
64 bit FFmpeg Library Download (buanzo.org)
Under the section Windows(R) FFmpeg INSTALLER click on the link for the installer, which as at the time I downloaded the file, the file was called FFmpeg v2.2.2 INSTALLER (.EXE).
Run the file.

Now when you open Audacity you should be able to open an mp4 file and the audio track will be available.

I hope this post helps anyone who is having the same problem.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

MyAnswers: How to turn off the image that appear to the right of the search field in Windows 10.

What Microsoft and Windows developers consider to be a nice embellishment to the Windows interface I some call it annoying unnecessary window dressing. I could say crud or crap, but really it's each person's decision to decide how much value the embellishments are to them. Personally I don't want it so I wanted to turn it off.

The problem is trying to find the option to turn the feature off. You have no idea what it's called so that makes it harder to find the option. So if the images to the right of the search field in Windows 10 aren't to your liking, here's how to turn the feature off.

Right click in any spare space on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.
Select Search.
Select the ticked Show search highlights.

This now removes the tick from Show search highlights and thus disables the features.

My world is back in balance again.

You can also right click on the image to the right of the search field as well as any spare space on the taskbar. 

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Linking to or embedding a YouTube video from your website.

I've created the Speed Camera Locations site which can be found at www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au. Basically the Speed Camera Locations site aims to document the location of red light cameras and speed cameras so if people get fined they can investigate the location more easily. Many of us get fined without even realising we've done something wrong and by investigating further, we can realise what we did wrong and hopefully improve our skills and minimise the chances of getting fined again, or at least until next time at a different location.

Over the past couple of years I've filmed nearly all the red light speed cameras around Victoria and these videos can be accessed from the details page for each of the red light speed cameras. You can tell if a camera has a video as the camera icon on the map has a red lens instead of a white lens.

Whilst it is comparatively easy for me to film the videos around Melbourne and even Victoria, it's not so easy to film cameras in other states. So that people can see the red light speed cameras in other states other than Victoria, I provide links to other people's videos and start the video around 30 seconds before the speed camera. People can review the location and even watch earlier or later in the video and that let's them see all the related speed signage and road conditions.

For me this helps make my system more complete and thus useful for people reaching my site. For other YouTube creators their videos are promoted free of charge. The YouTube creator still gets the traffic to their channel, credit for their video, people can subscribe to their channel and any revenue if available. This is a standard feature of YouTube. I'm not downloading, copying any creators material, just linking to or using the embedding code provided by YouTube. Creators gain a wider audience and people get to find what they're looking for more easily. If YouTube creators aren't happy with this feature in YouTube they can easily stop others embedding their videos by turning off the option "Allow others to embed videos".

One of the best things that can happen for a YouTube creator is for a video to go viral. The ability to share a link to a video or embed a video in web page to the original video provides a mechanism for this to happen.

How then do you link to or embed to a creators YouTube video.

On every YouTube video is the option to Share. Click on the Share option and you'll see a number of services listed.

You can simply click on COPY and then paste the link into you blog post and this is how the following link was created.

https://youtu.be/ihoFHGdGmUc

You can click on email or any of the services (Blogger, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and more) and easily share the video using one of your social media accounts. The Embed option provides the following code you can add to you site, so people can watch the video from within your site but the creator still gets the full benefit of every person who watches their video.

Here is an example of the Embed code for my Please Subscribe video.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ihoFHGdGmUc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

NOTE: Keep in mind an embedded video by default starts and is muted. That's great as it doesn't affect people around you when you watch the video.

Those with a little more skill can use the Developer API to provide greater flexibility in adding the embedded video to their site.

Whilst I've not had any issue in embedding videos from others, except for the time it takes to explain what I'm doing, I've written the following benefits section to highlight possible things to think about. To me, if someone doesn't want you to link to their video it's no big deal. It's just one video. Both of you end up with a small potential loss but you haven't lost anything if you've never had it. To me it's polite to ask.

Benefits of linking for other YouTube creators

• Wider audience, greater views.
• All credit, views, watch hours, income goes to creator.
• Others promoting your videos and thus your channel at no additional cost or effort.

Benefit of embedding videos from other YouTube creators

• The embedded code does not show comments. If people want to read or add comments they need to click on the option to show in YouTube.
• Embedded videos can be zoomed, something you can't do in YouTube. This is using the browser to zoom the screen not zoom into the video where there's potentially more data.
• You get to use material from others at no monetary cost which may benefit your site.

Why you may not want to link to a creator's videos.

In general I'm happy to link to someone else's video if it helps in some way. There may be some reasons not to.

• My views clash with the creators views and may cause conflict in the future.
• The creator doesn't actively monitor comments and thus directing people to their videos may impact my audience.

Why a creator may not want to you link to or embed a their videos.

First a creator can't really stop anyone sharing a link to their video. If they're not happy all they can do is restrict the audience or delete the video. In terms of embedding a creator can turn off embedding on a video by video basis.

• A creator may not agree with your views which may cause conflict.
• A creator ends up with more views, a larger audience and that's not their desire.

Finally I'd like to thank the YouTube creators who have been happy for me to embed their videos for the Speed Camera Locations site.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Migrating from Samsung Galaxy A20 to iPhone 12

Not to long ago I migrated a Samsung Galaxy A20 to an iPhone 12 and thought I'd share some observations.

I always find what is just as interesting are the changes that don't work. This post aims to record those changes and the things that didn't quite go as expected.

1. Migrating contacts initially didn't appear to work. Once the Gmail was set up the contacts appeared.

2. Calls coming in didn't come up with people's name. The problem was the telephone numbers needed the country code as part of the number. Once this was done the names appeared.

3. Favourites in contacts on the Samsung come up at the top of the contacts but you need to know on the iPhone Favourites are accessed by hitting the Favourites button which is a star.

4. The home button on the iPhone is a bar at the bottom and you need to slide it up.

5. To see open applications slide up from the bottom and then hold, then release and previously open apps are shown. There doesn't appear to be a simple way to close all previously opened applications.

6. The keyboard on the iPhone requires clicking on the ABC button to show punctuation which takes extra steps. Entering a double space helps with entering the full stop.

I think the biggest issue om the user's point of view really was the iPhone 12 didn't recognise the contact's mobile phone number. Family and friends numbers weren't recognised.

One issue that caused minor annoyance is the iPhone hotspot setting. On Android devices once the hotspot is set up it generally stays on until you turn it off. With iPhones if you don't access the hotspot for 90 seconds the hotspot turns off and there's no way to change this setting. For example if you have an iPad and it's connected to the iPhone hotspot, if you don't use the iPad for more than 90 seconds (e.g. you get distracted or you're reading something on the screen) the iPhone hotspot turns off, you have to turn it on again and wait for the iPad to reconnect, which can be annoyingly slow.

The iPhone 12's camera is far better than the Samsung Galaxy 20 which is a huge benefit for taking good quality photos.

Overall whilst there may be some glitches and differences between Android and iOS, it is quite possible to move from one operating system to the other.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Navman MiVue 150 dashcam video has no audio.

First I have to say I've really liked Navman dashcams but lately one limitation has been causing me considerable angst. To the point that I would be unlikely to recommend Navman dashcams unless I find a suitable solution.

The problem is when you go to edit or create a video on Windows 10 using the Video Editor the sound is not available. For some videos I create I want the sound.

For example recently I was caught in a hail storm in Melbourne and I thought it would be great to share the footage with others. When I got home I went to edit the video. I use Windows 10 Video Editor. The problem is even though the sound was recorded there was no sound available to the Windows 10 Video Editor. I decided to try using DaVinci Resolve but all I got was a crackle at the start of the video and then nothing.

Now I know there's sound because I can play the video using Navman's MiVue Manager and the sound is there. But I can't trim or edit videos using the MiVue Manager. Similarly I can watch the video with VLC and Windows Media Player but again there's no editing features I can use. 

So yes, there is sound, but not that I can easily access.

Some have suggested installing K-Lite in case there's a missing codec but this did not fix the issue. On one computer where the audio didn't work with Windows Media Player, installing K-Lite codecs did enable the audio to work but not with Windows 10 Video Editor.

Even though the audio does work with Navman's MiVue Manager I don't consider this to be good enough for my needs and would thus not recommend a Navman dashcam until an easier solution is found.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Creating a link to help people subscribe to your YouTube channel.

If you're building a YouTube channel you'll notice one of the hardest things is to build your subscriber base. If you don't have 1,000 subscribers you can't earn income from your efforts. You also need 4,000 hours of viewing time over the past 12 months which is itself can be hard to achieve, but I'm finding getting subscribers is more difficult.

I recently read about creating an auto-subscribe link which frankly concerned me. I want subscribers but I don't want people who are unhappy they've been auto-subscribed. Luckily the auto-subscribe is a misnomer. The link doesn't auto-subscribe, it does however provide a convenient link people can click on to subscribe to your YouTube channel. Even then, people are still presented with a dialogue to confirm they wish to subscribe.

The link for my channel using the user on YouTube is the following:

https://www.youtube.com/user/kelvineldridge?sub_confirmation=1

The link for my channel on YouTube is the following:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ZoZm8eDlDkxXz8YOkWukg?sub_confirmation=1

You can find your channel link as follows and then just add ?sub_confirmation=1 to the end of the link.

Open YouTube
Click on the icon for you at the right near the top but inside the current windows. Not the icon just under the X for close for the current window.
Select Your Channel

The link you require can be copied from the address bar area.

If you prefer to use the user name as the channel link (this may only be available for older channels) you can find the link as follow.

Open YouTube
Click on the icon for you at the right near the top but inside the current windows. Not the icon just under the X for close for the current window.
Select Your Channel
Click Customise Channel
Click View Channel

The link you require can now be copied from the address bar area.

Once you create the complete URL (link) which includes your channel link followed by ?sub_confirmation=1 you can copy and paste the link wherever you need to share it. For example I've shared the link in this post and can easily refer people to the post. I could send the link to family and friends via email or an SMS message. Others may wish to share using their social media account.

I hope you find this useful.

Kelvin

Update: 4/2/2022
The auto subscribe link is a desktop only feature. It does not work for mobile users. Mobile users need to click on the subscribe button when they get to the YouTube channel.