diff --git a/java/libraries/video/src/processing/video/Video.java b/java/libraries/video/src/processing/video/Video.java
index 8ecefe782..d86204c91 100644
--- a/java/libraries/video/src/processing/video/Video.java
+++ b/java/libraries/video/src/processing/video/Video.java
@@ -34,27 +34,25 @@ import java.util.List;
  * this library.
  */
 public class Video implements PConstants {
-  // Default location of the local install of gstreamer. Suggested by Charles Bourasseau. 
-  // When it is left as empty string, GSVideo will attempt to use the path from GSLibraryPath.get(),
-  // otherwise it will use it as the path to the folder where the libgstreamer.dylib and other 
-  // files are located.  
-  protected static String gstreamerPath = "";
-  
-  // Direct buffer pass enabled by default. With this mode enabled, no new buffers are created
-  // and disposed by the GC in each frame (thanks to Octavi Estape for suggesting this improvement)
-  // which should help performance in most situations.
+  // Path that the video library will use to load the GStreamer base libraries 
+  // and plugins from. They can be passed from the application using the 
+  // gstreamer.library.path and gstreamer.plugin.path system variables (see
+  // comments in initImpl() below).
+  protected static String gstreamerLibPath = "";
+  protected static String gstreamerPluginPath = "";
+ 
+  // Direct buffer pass enabled by default. With this mode enabled, no new 
+  // buffers are created and disposed by the GC in each frame (thanks to Octavi 
+  // Estape for suggesting this improvement) which should help performance in 
+  // most situations.
   protected static boolean passDirectBuffer = true; 
 
-  // OpenGL texture used as buffer sink by default, when the renderer is GL-based. This 
-  // can improve performance significantly, since the video frames are automatically
-  // copied into the texture without passing through the pixels arrays, as well as 
-  // having the color conversion into RGBA handled natively by gstreamer.
-  protected static boolean useGLBufferSink = true;  
-  
-  // Path that the video library will use to load the gstreamer native libs from.
-  // It is buit either from the system or local paths.
-  protected static String gstreamerBinPath = "";
-  protected static String gstreamerPluginsPath = "";
+  // OpenGL texture used as buffer sink by default, when the renderer is 
+  // GL-based. This can improve performance significantly, since the video 
+  // frames are automatically copied into the texture without passing through 
+  // the pixels arrays, as well as having the color conversion into RGBA handled 
+  // natively by GStreamer.
+  protected static boolean useGLBufferSink = true;    
 
   protected static boolean defaultGLibContext = false;
   
@@ -64,47 +62,55 @@ public class Video implements PConstants {
   static {
     bitsJVM = PApplet.parseInt(System.getProperty("sun.arch.data.model"));
   }  
-    
-  
-  static public void setLibPath(String path) {
-    gstreamerPath = path;
-  }
-  
-  static String pluginPath = "plugins";
-  static public void setPluginPath(String path) {
-    pluginPath = path;
-  }
   
   
-  static public void useGL(boolean gl) {
-    useGLBufferSink = gl;
-  }
-  
-  
-  static public void init() {
+  static protected void init() {
     if (INSTANCES_COUNT == 0) {
       initImpl();
     }
     INSTANCES_COUNT++;
   }
   
-  static public void restart() {
+  
+  static protected void restart() {
     removePlugins();
     Gst.deinit();
     initImpl();
   }
-    
+   
+  
   static protected void initImpl() {
-    if (PApplet.platform == LINUX) {    
-      setLinuxPath();
-    } else if (PApplet.platform == WINDOWS) {
-      setWindowsPath();
-    } else if (PApplet.platform == MACOSX) {
-      setMacOSXPath();
-    }
+    // The location of the GStreamer base libraries can be passed from the 
+    // application to the vide library via a system variable. In Eclipse, add to 
+    // "VM Arguments" in  "Run Configurations" the following line:
+    // -Dgstreamer.library.path=path    
+    String libPath = System.getProperty("gstreamer.library.path");
+    if (libPath != null) {
+      gstreamerLibPath = libPath;
+      
+      // If the GStreamer installation referred by gstreamer.library.path is not
+      // a system installation, then the path containing the plugins needs to be
+      // specified separately, otherwise the plugins will be automatically 
+      // loaded from the default location. The system property for the plugin
+      // path is "gstreamer.plugin.path"
+      String pluginPath = System.getProperty("gstreamer.plugin.path");
+      if (pluginPath != null) {
+        gstreamerPluginPath = pluginPath;
+      }
+    } else {
+      // Paths are build automatically from the curren location of the video
+      // library.
+      if (PApplet.platform == LINUX) {    
+        buildLinuxPaths();
+      } else if (PApplet.platform == WINDOWS) {
+        buildWindowsPaths();
+      } else if (PApplet.platform == MACOSX) {
+        buildMacOSXPaths();
+      }      
+    }    
 
-    if (!gstreamerBinPath.equals("")) {
-      System.setProperty("jna.library.path", gstreamerBinPath);
+    if (!gstreamerLibPath.equals("")) {
+      System.setProperty("jna.library.path", gstreamerLibPath);
     }
 
     if (PApplet.platform == WINDOWS) {
@@ -123,12 +129,12 @@ public class Video implements PConstants {
 
   
   static protected void addPlugins() {
-    if (!gstreamerPluginsPath.equals("")) {
+    if (!gstreamerPluginPath.equals("")) {
       Registry reg = Registry.getDefault();
       boolean res;
-      res = reg.scanPath(gstreamerPluginsPath);
+      res = reg.scanPath(gstreamerPluginPath);
       if (!res) {
-        System.err.println("Cannot load GStreamer plugins from " + gstreamerPluginsPath);
+        System.err.println("Cannot load GStreamer plugins from " + gstreamerPluginPath);
       }
     }       
   }
@@ -143,39 +149,29 @@ public class Video implements PConstants {
   }
   
   
-  static protected void setLinuxPath() {
-    gstreamerBinPath = "";
-    gstreamerPluginsPath = "";
+  static protected void buildLinuxPaths() {
+    gstreamerLibPath = "";
+    gstreamerPluginPath = "";
   }
 
   
-  static protected void setWindowsPath() {
-    if (gstreamerPath.equals("")) {
-      LibraryPath libPath = new LibraryPath();
-      String path = libPath.get();
-      gstreamerBinPath = buildGStreamerBinPath(path, "\\windows" + bitsJVM);
-      gstreamerPluginsPath = gstreamerBinPath + "\\plugins";
-    } else {
-      gstreamerBinPath = gstreamerPath;
-      gstreamerPluginsPath = gstreamerPath + "\\plugins";
-    }    
+  static protected void buildWindowsPaths() {
+    LibraryPath libPath = new LibraryPath();
+    String path = libPath.get();
+    gstreamerLibPath = buildGStreamerLibPath(path, "\\windows" + bitsJVM);
+    gstreamerPluginPath = gstreamerLibPath + "\\plugins";
   }
 
   
-  static protected void setMacOSXPath() {
-    if (gstreamerPath.equals("")) {
-      LibraryPath libPath = new LibraryPath();
-      String path = libPath.get();        
-      gstreamerBinPath = buildGStreamerBinPath(path, "/macosx" + bitsJVM);
-      gstreamerPluginsPath = gstreamerBinPath + "/plugins";
-    } else {
-      gstreamerBinPath = gstreamerPath;
-      gstreamerPluginsPath = gstreamerPath + "/" + pluginPath;  //"/plugins";
-    }
+  static protected void buildMacOSXPaths() {
+    LibraryPath libPath = new LibraryPath();
+    String path = libPath.get();        
+    gstreamerLibPath = buildGStreamerLibPath(path, "/macosx" + bitsJVM);
+    gstreamerPluginPath = gstreamerLibPath + "/plugins";
   }
 
   
-  static protected String buildGStreamerBinPath(String base, String os) {        
+  static protected String buildGStreamerLibPath(String base, String os) {        
     File path = new File(base + os);
     if (path.exists()) {
       return base + os; 
@@ -195,47 +191,5 @@ public class Video implements PConstants {
   static protected long secToNanoLong(float sec) {
     Float f = new Float(sec * 1E9);
     return f.longValue();
-  }
-  
-  /*
-  static protected boolean lookForGlobalGStreamer() {    
-    LibraryPath libPath = new LibraryPath();
-    String locPath = libPath.get();
-    locPath = locPath.replace("/", System.getProperty("file.separator"));
-    
-    String[] searchPaths = null;
-    if (!systemGStreamerPath.equals("")) {
-      searchPaths = new String[] {systemGStreamerPath};
-    }
-    
-    if (searchPaths == null) {
-      String lpaths = System.getProperty("java.library.path");
-      String pathsep = System.getProperty("path.separator");    
-      searchPaths = lpaths.split(pathsep);
-    }
-    
-    for (int i = 0; i < searchPaths.length; i++) {      
-      String path = searchPaths[i];
-      if ((locPath.equals("") || path.indexOf(locPath) == -1) && libgstreamerPresent(path, "libgstreamer")) {
-        systemGStreamerPath = path;
-        return true;
-      }      
-    }
-    return false;
-  }
-  
-  
-  static protected boolean libgstreamerPresent(String dir, String file) {
-    File libPath = new File(dir);
-    String[] files = libPath.list();
-    if (files != null) {
-      for (int i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
-        if (-1 < files[i].indexOf(file)) {
-          return true;
-        }
-      }
-    }
-    return false;
-  }
-  */  
+  }  
 }