Use freetube, a desktop frontend to invidious that you can import your sub list
Never look back
If you’re on desktop, download FreeTube. No more ads, ever. No more jittery youtube videos even though you have 300mbs down, you can download any video in app at max speeds, and its not algorithm fed. I imported my subscriptions, and now if I want to see something new I can use the not broken search function. Its like early early youtube and its wonderful!
Freetube is great but it’s also a source of endless frustration. Like if you walk away from your computer the stream times out and it won’t resume. Then it says “reload” and they never implemented a reload button so you have to navigate to something else. Except their navigation doesn’t work quite right so sometimes if you click too fast it stays on the new page after you try to go back to the one you wanted to reload. Rawr. (GitHub issues 1005, 1425, 1500, 1958, 4062, 4409, 5019, 5152, 6136, 6201)
I use youtube-local which is great, but it’s more susceptible to breakage which is why I’m currently back on freetube and very very very frustrated.
In Freetube, reload is ctrl-R on Linux and Windows, and cmd-R on Mac. I have experienced the fact that if you leave a video paused for a long time (hours) then you need to refresh. If you have history active, after refreshing the video will resume from where you left, which by the way is better then actual YouTube where it will often resume from an earlier timestamp. I have not experienced the other issues you mentioned.
Yeah I learned that when I looked up the issue number, very disappointed that it’s Ctrl+R instead of the canonical reload button for the last 30 years (F5). :(
Since you knew Ctrl+r you wouldn’t experience those issues. That’s a side effect of “reload” without a reload button.
Control r is standard reload for web browsers and other stuff too
But since F5 is and has been for 30 years the universal refresh button I never needed to learn that some software uses a different, undiscoverable key combination.
There’s no reload button directly in the UI, but if you press alt and then go to View > Reload or View > Force Reload. It’s not ideal, but it does work.
Edit: Didn’t finish reading your comment, I’ve never experienced any of those issues, especially with navigation.
With the recent major update, Freetube implemented a new player which I like much better than the old one. With the new player, all keyboard shortcuts work well, that’s great for me because my Home Theatre PC is controlled by a wireless keyboard+touchpad.
I still use yt-dlp to download because I don’t understand Freetube’s options. It’s either only audio or video
Also if you’re on Linux and you get a white screen during playback (has been an issue since 0.22) this fix works for me:
freetube --enable-features=''edit: posting a vertical pic messes up the webpage a bit. If it’s annoying tell me
That’s a side effect of YouTube messing with the streams to try to break downloaders. Obvs a dedicated downloader like ytdlp handles YouTube jerking the chain around better than a tool intended for viewing.
My understanding is you’re pretty much only gonna get those broken up streams especially for piratey content like music videos and tv shows. Ytdlp will join with ffmpeg.
Seconded. Tis a beautiful experience. And if you are currently using FreeTube, please throw a donation their way. They are putting a lot of work in to this app.
Thank you so much. Youtube hasn’t been playing videos past the 1:00 mark and idk why.
It’s a bit of a faff, but I use FreeTube to grab the URLs which I then drop into a yt-dlp command that I use to download my subscriptions to watch on Plex on my Apple TV. Works a treat, though I wish I could get Plex to display them properly.
Why not just use tubesync? There’s another one like youtube archivist or something as well. If you already have a Plex server you probably have the skills to set it up.
https://github.com/meeb/tubesync
Here’s the other that I’m aware of https://github.com/tubearchivist/tubearchivist
I found tubesync kinda needs to be run on vpn if you don’t want YouTube to ban you during the initial sync, I assume the same is true for archivist. Works fine after that first sync tho (I’m actually using as an archive since people tend to take their stuff down once they change hobbies for some reason, so I literally was archiving whole channels).
Yeah, I’m aware of both of them but have spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how to get them to work. I’m fairly new to Linux, and the instructions for both seem to assume a certain amount of expertise.
Oh, and as I type this I’ve remembered that I did manage to get one of them to work, but something to do with the way it downloads the videos means that you need to install a Plex plugin of some description because Plex won’t recognise the metadata or some shit.
So for the time being I’m happy enough to fanny about with my manual method. Between my wife and I it takes up about ten minutes every couple of days, and that’s ok.
Yeah if small quantity it’s not too bad to do your way. I use jellyfin so everything shows up ok for me, although it’s weird to see the “wrong” thumbnails.
For me I’ve got everything as a docker setup using https://docs.linuxserver.io/ They don’t have a tubesync one but I found they have good instructions for setting it up and that’s how I learned enough to do so on my own with tubesync. But there is def a curve there.
My perfect ideal would be freetube as a web server just for browsing where I could hit the dl button and fire off a download command to my server, then it shows up in jellyfin or Plex. I… Haven’t found a way to do this seamlessly yet, but I’m always on the lookout
If a million porn sites can make streaming video work, then YouTube is replaceable.
rumble, banned.video - it’s just people don’t upload stuff there
Rumble are also host to truth social and the worst of humanity.
YouTube is not replaceable because it’s the only reliable way for VOD creators to monetize their content effectively without a paywall. No other VOD platform comes close.
If creators can’t monetize their content effectively, they’re not going to upload to that platform.
Grayjay by futo just released a desktop app.
So sad YouTube died, it was such a useful service.
Use Firefox
I am already doing that, but YouTube doesn’t like uBlock Origin. The browser is not the problem.
To be clear, uBlock Origin isn’t the problem, either.
YouTube is.
On ublock origin, go to settings > filters and disable the one that says “Quick fixes”. It will work again.
I just checked github and this is already resolved, just refresh filters
Fine work as always from ublock
No issues for me using Firefox and unlock
It’s been fine for me.
What it doesn’t like is my VPN, even when it’s not using it for the browser connection (split tunneling). For some reason many sites crap out when I have that on and become unreliable.
I had the same issue until I realized I had Ghostery and privacybadger also enabled. Disabling them on YT but keeping ublock origin worked
If you digged all the crap out sure
I use Firefox on Linux Mint, none of this happens and if it does you fix it by copy pasting a code on the settings of ublock
What code? I am on Fedora+Forefox and it does happen all tge time :-/
Search for it, is a code you paste on the my filters tab of Ublock add on in Firefox
Fun fact, it seems this ban is IP based. (they’re still testing in waves with a subset of overall users)
I switched to a new IP with my VPN, and while still signed in to the same YouTube account on the same video without ever clearing my cache or cookies, the block disappeared.
Genius work from the developers over at YouTube.
I think that’s probably because ublock fixed the filters while u were doing this.
It was early yesterday, before filters had been updated, 30 seconds after a full purge and re-selecting of all relevant filter lists, done within the span of 2 minutes, so I doubt it was those.
If the garbage takes itself out, I won’t complain. YT doesn’t see how the cable companies dying is the exact same future it is racing to emulate.
I’ve landed on that page a couple of times. I’m just waiting to be blocked.
I almost never watch videos on youtube because I download them and watch them locally. The two things that I use to download them are Downie (Mac) and yt-download (cross platform). This helps me avoid ads unless they are baked into the video. I also like to grab a bunch of content all at once and then watch at my leisure.
If you use yt-dlp you can save your subscriptions in a text file and download all their latest vids on a schedule.
Easy enough ChatGPT can write you this script and you may also find examples online.
If not directly useful for you, i am also putting this down for others. Do not let a monopoly dictate what is “the normal way” to do things.
What a great idea! I love Bash scripting, so I’ll look into doing this myself for fun tomorrow.
I also like to grab a bunch of content all at once and then watch at my leisure.
If you’re tech-inclined you might like pinchflat or Tube Archivist, which can archive channels/playlists in the background with video metadata automatically, which you can then use with JellyFin.
Need to be comfortable with /c/selfhosted@lemmy.world type setups, however.
I’d vote for Pinchflat. Tube Archivist is good software but very heavy.
I run a Plex server for my movie and television library. I just watch YT videos once and delete them, mostly in the background while I do other things. But I’ll look into both tools regardless because automation is always interesting to me. Thanks for the tips!
TubeArchivist is kind of an all-in-one software for you to watch YouTube videos in so its own web interface and is pretty heavy. But PinchFlat is very lightweight and is actually designed to be used with your Plex server being the medium you watch your videos on. So I’d recommend starting with the latter, as it’s kinda built for your exact use case.
This is an interesting way to watch YouTube, and I have some questions about your system around watching the videos.
- How do you plan out downloading and watching the videos? Do you download at the time of watching, or do you just download as many videos you like when you get the chance?
- What do you do with the videos after watching?
I download when I have free time to fill / kill. I watch one genre of videos and periodically check on a number of channels that have that content. I watch each video working down the list deleting them as I consume them. In the rare case that I want to save something, I toss it in an unmanaged directory of internet content.
My Plex library is where managed content lives. Stuff from the internet doesn’t deserve that level of care (in my system of data management).
Thank you for sharing your workflow.
AdGuard pro, SponsorBlock, DeArrow, and Untrap for YouTube. I only rarely ever see a brief part of a sponsor ad, and never see YouTube’s own ads.
Untrap lets you modify nearly anything about YouTube like even removing the view count and channel avatars, among many other options.
mpv youtube-URL works just fine without even loading the crappy scripts to show a banner like that. Manage your subscriptions with a RSS feeder and you don’t need an account to follow creators.
Hasn’t happened with Bing yet.
Well I guess I’ll be mozying over to Rumble now.
20 minutes later
Turns out Jews are aliens directing the Democratic Party and Hollywood to sacrifice babies for adrenochrome. Why is the lamestream media not talking about this???
right wing: “JEWS ARE EVIL”
Also, right wing: “Jews in Israel are fighting a rightious war against evil Gazans”
🤨
Imagine being Jewish and on either side people hate you.
Right wing: Jews are behind everything
Left wing: Jews are zionists and zionists are Nazis because Israel.
I don’t think left wing people are hating on Jewish people, except maybe those crazy “Marxist-Leninist” types. Not all Jewish people are pro-Natanyahu, in fact, many are probably against Netanyahu.
I know very well that many Jews are against Netanyahu. All my relatives in Israel regularly protest that war criminal, along with tens of thousands of others.
Doesn’t stop the majority on this site from equating Israel with Jews. I made the mistake of writing “mazel tov” as part of one of my previous comments and received all sorts of colourful inbox messages calling me a “Zionist” and a “colonizer”, despite being a Canadian haha.
Just the hint of something Jewish invites everyone to yell about Gaza 🤪
It all becomes clear once you understand that the Jews returning to Israel is a precondition for the Christian apocalypse. Christofascists don’t give a flying fuck about the Jews; they support Israel as a country (and Zionism in particular) for the entirely ghoulishly selfish reason that they wanna get ‘raptured.’
And you both are oversimplifying by putting the christian zionist nutjobs within the same basket with the vast array of other nutjobs and assume that they are all the same.
oversimplifying by putting the christian zionist nutjobs within the same basket with the vast array of other nutjobs
It’s a fairly compact venn diagram.
Instead of dismissing you out of hand, I wouldn’t mind hearing what the big picture is that you see.
All of our politicians are proud zionists, even if few are jews, or extreme evangelicals.
“I hate you, but I hate these guys even more. Nice job”
Also a ‘I hate you but, you build a nice ethnostate that I want to adapt over where I live.’
Don’t forget, jews have to own the entire holy land before the apocalypse comes and god sends them to hell, according to evangelical Christians.
Well, the Jewish Jews are the LORD’s chosen, underdogs who are bravely soldiering the storm, but the American Jews are communist Satan worshippers who’ve sold their souls for control of the world. They’ve been battling for millenia to control the space lasers.
Also, now that I’ve imagined it, there’s both porn and a Manga of it.
I recommend Amish porn instead. I dont think they are actually Amish but way better than jewish porn.
God I was looking for peertube apps and rumble was advertised in the app store. Boy did I have a surprise when I scrolled through the most subscribed list
That happens on any platform that advertises itself as totally unmoderated and uncensored.
Like it or not, it’s the moderators and acceptable use policies that keep the nazis and other bad actors at bay.
Yeah, don’t do that. The most popular content on YouTube isn’t bad in the same way it is on Rumble/Odyssey, but in general, it’s filled with clickbait/rage bait and is generally pretty awful. It’s going to be especially awful on Rumble and Odyssey because it’s a refuge for people who didn’t like YouTube’s policies, so it’s going to largely be conspiracy theorists and far right nonsense.
That said, there’s some good on every platform. On Rumble, I like Glenn Greenwald, who is a right of center independent journalist who lives in Brazil (also gay, but that’s irrelevant). On Odyssey, I like Mental Outlaw (covers hacks, leaks, and privacy related news) and Naomi Brockwell (privacy advocacy). I don’t have an account at either, largely because those platforms are full of trash, I just sub through Grayjay so I don’t see that nonsense.
I wish a credible alternative existed, but for now, I’ll hedge a bit with other platforms.
I remember, pre-wikileaks, when Glen Greenwald was left of center. Or at least that was my perspective at the time.
I think he’s pretty centrist, but he does tend to defend Trump a bit (not a fanboy, but a “see what he does” position) and is against supporting Ukraine, which is why I say he’s right of center. He’s nowhere near the Republican Party though, he’s pretty independent.
Regardless, I don’t really care where he sits on the left/right spectrum, I just appreciate an independent voice that backs statements with facts.
I’d watch the shit outta that with some popcorn. Between the logic jumps and the mandatory hand-waving of actual evidence to the contrary, and sheer numbers of fallacies to make the argument make sense it sounds like a hella entertaining time
Lol.
There’s some decent content if you look. I like Glenn Greenwald, and I sub to NBTV and Mental Outlaw on Odyssey. There’s a lot of nonsense on all platforms, but if you’re careful, you may find some decent stuff there. I wish more YouTubers would re-upload on other platforms, but I guess that’s asking too much…
i use ublock origin
reddit still good for something: Filter Lists–>uBlock filters–>uncheck the “ublock filters - quickfixes” box and then reload the page.
this worked for me
Yup, I use ublock origin and have never had issues on YT.
They do random testing. I’ve received one of these a couple of times with unlock as well. Google/yt has not fully committed.
I hope they don’t commit. But if they do, I guess that’ll be the end of YT for me…
Yeah you and a lot of people. There’s a couple articles about it but essentially there’s some talk of pushback.
And personally for me there are alternatives that people could use. While not a lot of people are on it, peertube is a viable alternative. I’ve watched a couple of small creators on it and it ha good performance. Just a very small audience.
Makertube is one of my favorites.
deleted by creator
Sometimes I have to use YouTube rawdog for work and it’s unusable, if I want to skip forward in the video to reach the solution to my problem I get an add every time I click the timeline.
If you need it for work, why don’t you have YouTube premium?
I don’t speak for the person you are asking, but for me the reason is that google is evil, and huge. They don’t need my money, and I wouldn’t pay them for any reason.
I expect that if the workplace officially needed to use YouTube, then that workplace would be paying for that subscription. But if its just that sometimes someone wants to include video from YouTube in a presentation or something - then probably not.
The way they worded it, it sounded like dealing with YouTube was their job, like maybe managing a company’s YT account. So yeah, I totally expect a company to pay for YT premium. I’m certainly not suggesting they do it, unless they’re a freelancer or something.
I didn’t screencap it but today on YT I was given a modal that said I was using an adblocker (ublock) and I have three more videos before they require premium. I changed VPN locations and stopped getting the message.
Awesome.
The day FireFox and UBlock Origin stop working with eachother completely. Might be the day I just uninstall all of my browsers and use my PC more personally than before.
Fuck reddit, this solution did not work for me. All YouTube videos stop buffering after 59 seconds. Only fixes i have found is with either making a custom userscript or disabling ublock from working on YouTube by whitelisting the entire domain.
Or you could download freetube and be done with it
Only one of my three computers was having this problem, but this solution worked for me as well. Thanks for sharing it here!
Yea this is also what I had to do to get things moving again.
Rip chrome. It just killed ublock for me yesterday
Huh, I was able to just close the pop-up and play the video as normal.
I just gave it 15 minutes and they started working again.
I find the adblock yt prompt only shows now when I try to open two tabs of YouTube. Second tab has this message but the first plays fine. I think ublock probably deployed a half fix already
Yep, used the reddit solution.
The whole idea that it violates the terms of service of a company to not let them show things on my screen without my consent is insane. It’s like if every time you went to the grocery store, the employees held you down and force fed you a free sample, then banned you from the store when you started running away from them.
It’s not that bizarre. They don’t have to serve you the content without showing you the ads that make the platform profitable. The freedom goes both ways. I use an ad blocker too, but I don’t think that YouTube is really doing anything wrong here. (Other than possibly ruining their own platform, but that’s their problem that they’re making for themselves.)
If they weren’t a monopoly, I’d agree, they can do whatever they want.
But since they are a monopoly, its a de facto the equivalent of a town square, and they are policing people’s speech, and broadcasting annoying public announcements that nobody wants to hear.
A privately owned platform cannot serve the public good. There will always be conflicts of interest. A proper public square should be funded by a competent government (but those are rare) or decentralized.
I hate the way they‘re doing it and how they push their silly premium subscription in my face whenever I open the app to look something up quick. Adblock all the way. But you‘re right. They have to make money somehow. They‘re a corporation after all. It‘s naive to think they will ever give up.
When suggested adblock, my mother also do not convinced it’s right to use them. Basically, my mother is grateful for the service provided, and will “pay” by watching ads. I guess this one is not so clear-cut.
I’m imagining a future where you’re not allowed to mute broadcast commercials
Fifteen Million Merits - Black Mirror - 2011
Please drink verification can.
I mean they already show ads when you pause. It’s just a tiny jump further to play video ads when you pause.
You already often can’t mute ads directly, you can only mute them on whatever platform you’re watching them on.
The whole idea that it violates the terms of service of a company to not let them show things on my screen without my consent is insane.
Something something contract of adhesion something something. It is functionally a term of service to watch the whole body of content as a condition of watching any of it.
It’s like if every time you went to the grocery store, the employees held you down and force fed you a free sample, then banned you from the store when you started running away from them.
This effectively used to be how people would sell Time Share rentals. You would “win” a “free vacation” to a destination that hosted the time share. Then, in order to check in you needed to sit through a sales pitch that only ended when you agreed to purchase the unit you’d allegedly been awarded as a prize.
If you tried to leave the sales pitch prematurely, you were ejected from the venue.
Yeah, and there’s a reason contracts of adhesion are [supposed to be] illegal.
Incoming Meat Canyon video
Exactly, it’s absolutely absurd.
Think we ought to just start harassing marketers and anyone involved with advertising.
Yes. The only positive thing the Dilbert creator ever did for the world was teach me (and others) that Marketing is bad. (He’s a fucking creep and a Trump weirdo.)
It’s worse than that. They use so much bw that most users have limited higher -speed to access, but they’re not giving anyone vouchers to pay for extra bandwidth.
