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franga2000 21 hours ago [-]
Clever hack! I didn't think the latency would be low enough for that, but I guess with some ad segments being upwards of a minute long these days, it's still worth it.
For anyone who can load APKs on their TV and wants a more integrated solution, this alternative client works wonderfully https://github.com/yuliskov/smarttube
It's at the level of polish where people didn't even realize it wasn't the official client for quite a while, until I turned on SponsorBlock that is.
drewg123 11 hours ago [-]
I can't recommend this enough. The difference between this and the official YT app is:
- Blocks YT ads, even without a YT Premium
- Presents a consistent view of a channel, rather than having to hunt around for wherever the creator hid the recent uploads
- Does not play the next video when asked not to.
This last one was a huge factor for us. My wife is a YT Premium subscriber and has a creator she finds comforting and likes to play one of their videos at bed time to fall asleep. EVEN WHEN THE SETTINGS SAY TO NOT AUTOPLAY, the official FireTV YT app will often autoplay. This leads to some loud obnoxious video waking us up at 3am. SmartTube actually stops playing when asked and we get a good night's sleep.
So we use this app in preference to the official app, even though my wife pays for YT Premium
bradknowles 11 hours ago [-]
Ahh. So this only works on TV devices. I was hoping for something like this for iOS or iPadOS.
djfergus 5 hours ago [-]
Easy option: install brave and watch YouTube there - it auto blocks the ads (but no sponsorblock)
Hard: side load YouTube lite (or similar) via AltStore (or similar). Full ad blocking, sponsorblock, QOL/premium options (hide shorts everywhere, PIP, background play, 3x speed etc).
You have to put your phone in developer mode (make sure your banking apps don’t complain) and will need a Mac to get it going. You then need to play whack-a-mole with Apple developer auth quirks. Not for everyone but worth it IMHO.
c-hendricks 7 hours ago [-]
Tbh I just use the browser version of YouTube. Then uBlock origin lite for ads, SponsorBlock for segments, and pipifier for pip.
It's definitely not as nice, but I get everything I need out of it.
bradknowles 5 hours ago [-]
That presumably works on a regular laptop or desktop computer. Not an iPhone or iPad.
esseph 14 hours ago [-]
WARNING:
---
My development environment was infected by unknown malicious software, as a result of which a few builds may have been affected. Once the issue was detected, I secured everything with a full disk wipe, restored a clean setup, and now all builds are scanned with VirusTotal. The F-Droid version will also be verified before release.
Public keys may have been compromised, which is why I am sharing this issue. You can download the new version and the new public key below, and instructions for restoring backups are provided.
No extra actions are required since the app uses one-time connection codes. These codes have very limited permissions (for example, they cannot change your password). Still, you can revoke them if you want full peace of mind.
---
This is from the GitHub page you linked
FredFS456 14 hours ago [-]
Yeah, there was an incident a bunch of months ago. Dev says new builds are clean now...
Grombobulous 16 hours ago [-]
I’ve been using this a long time and it works great, possibly even better than you’d imagine it to work. You can even configure which types of segments to skip (e.g., sponsorships versus self-promotion).
rustyhancock 10 hours ago [-]
This is a great project but for a smaller problem than the primary issue.
I don't mind watching one sponsored block per video. I really don't..if the created adds three sponsored blocks I don't watch to watch them anyways.
But this morning I have 5 advert breaks in the first half of a video by Ahoy on the call of duty series. Each one had that nightmare 90+ skip button.
It's so unbelievably insane that they run ads which could be longer than the video..I simply don't understand it.
And I assume the creators don't say yes make sure ads run for 3 times as long as my video by default.
I installed Sponsor block this morning by chance it only skips parts of the video that have been marked as sponsored segments I.e. not the dynamic ads YouTube ads.
Why do I think in getting such brutal ads btw? Well I daned to cancel YouTube Premium after nearly a year and either YouTube has become intolerable since or they're punishing me.
upboundspiral 2 hours ago [-]
to block ads there is uBlock origin.
ku1ik 21 hours ago [-]
I’ve been using it with Apple TV youtube app for several months and I can say it works very well. Very little configuration, and it does the job. Can’t go back. Highly recommended!
makefu 21 hours ago [-]
Anyone is aware of software which does the same but for podcasts? I've had built a downloader by qwen38 (https://cgit.euer.krebsco.de/makefu/podfetch) which does so via multiple programmatic approaches (keywords, sponsorblock-ml, neuralblock) but actually i think crowdsourcing the solution is the best approach here.
briHass 1 hours ago [-]
Ironically, the best answer is to see if the podcast is available on YT and use sponsorblock.
I went as far as to write a YouTube downloading app, that uses ytdlp, but presents the downloaded mp3s in a feed that can be picked up by antennapod.
rdwallis 20 hours ago [-]
Downloading the podcast via a computer or vpn in a low income country will remove almost all dynamic adverts (which is most podcast advertising)
I lived in Tanzania for a few years and most podcasts wouldn't play adverts while I was there.
mgrandl 21 hours ago [-]
Crowdsourcing doesn’t work for Podcasts because most providers cut in ad segments based on your location. Those differ in length so the sponsorblock approach would not work. I slopped up a small go app that uses whisper API to transcribe and then uses Jev-compatible API to classify ad segments. Works great and costs like $0.01 per episode.
xnx 20 hours ago [-]
I've wondered if it would be possible to crowdsource tiny -but distinct- segments of audio that bookend each ad break so clients could remove any ads inserted between those points.
eik3_de 16 hours ago [-]
Would you mind sharing a little bit more about that jev approach? I'm building something similar and would be interested in trying it out. (Don't worry about pasting some labelled AI generated description)
I like the approach it acts as a kind of RSS proxy which cleans up the original feed. Also just offloading the task to the LLM API is really something. Thanks for sharing and i hope your SaaS works out for you!
notrealyme123 19 hours ago [-]
Would love to look at it, but GitHub gives 504.
xnx 16 hours ago [-]
I got the same, but the page is back up again now.
BoofMcQueen42 10 hours ago [-]
This did so-so for me. It more or less automates what you can do yourself. Seems heavily limited by YouTube functionality. I wanted a bit more.
A great adjunct, it turns out, is proxying DNS requests to YouTube through Albania. Way less pain than using a VPN to do the same thing. Paired with ISponsorBlockTV to skip in-video ads, I see nothing.
Only if the AppleTV YouTube client didn’t suck.
VCFundedGenYer 16 hours ago [-]
FYI you should reword your headline and nomenclature. This makes it sound like you made a thing for YouTube TV (and it is not at all possible to block ads on live TV without pre-recording)
YouTube TV is a product offered by Google and it's not at all the same as YouTube.
jffry 15 hours ago [-]
Google's fault for their confusing branding. OP's headline is one of the two perfectly understandable parsings: (YouTube (TV Clients)) vs ((YouTube TV) Clients)
dmunozv04 12 hours ago [-]
It's really confusing honestly.
I've gone ahead and changed the line to be "YouTube for TV
app"
hridyaagrawal 20 hours ago [-]
How does it find out what's playing? pairing like a phone & listening to the API?
eddythompson80 20 hours ago [-]
You link it to the YouTube app as a remote controller/chrome cast. The communication between it and YouTube app happens through YouTube APIs.
jareklupinski 16 hours ago [-]
putting this on the same machine as my pihole :)
how long until we can set up an Omni-Block Box?
xnx 14 hours ago [-]
That would be the best use case for AR.
andrewstuart 18 hours ago [-]
But that’s how the content creators get paid, at least partly.
Why would you not want them paid?
Grombobulous 16 hours ago [-]
I watch a channel with a guy who runs a car negotiation business and streams it, because car dealerships are annoying to work with.
Car dealerships and salespeople often offer similar objections to his business as well as customers who want a good deal.
They’ll say things like “we’re losing money on this car” or “a business needs to make a profit.”
And his objection to that is always the same: the customer doesn’t care about that, and it’s not their problem. If your business model delivers something that people see value in, you’re more likely to be able to make a profit. Customers obviously don’t see much value in the car dealerships.
I certainly don’t want my favorite YouTubers to go broke, but their business model is not my problem. The fact is that I refuse to watch ads. I don’t see value in watching an ad. In some cases I’m willing to pay for that privilege, like how I can get sponsor-free viewing from many YouTube channels on Nebula.
But, sorry, if I’m allowed to skip forward in a video to skip an ad, I’m going to do it. And if I’m not allowed to skip around in a video platform to the part of the video I want to watch, I’m probably not going to be using that video platform.
The reality is that most YouTube sponsors already know that a certain percentage of viewers will skip their sponsor segment, even manually without a tool like this, or using YouTube Premium’s included Skip Ahead feature, just like a TV advertiser knows that a certain percentage of viewers will change the channel during ads, mute the TV, or go to the bathroom during an ad segment.
I have a friend who refuses to buy premium versions of popular streaming services like Disney+ and actually prefers to have the advertising. They even said “my kids will see ads” almost like they want their kids to experience the childhood they did. It’s a bit of a strange philosophy to me but I kind of see where they’re coming from: advertisements are something of a cultural experience, like how you can play back a super soaker advertisement for me and I’ll get some intense nostalgic feelings.
nkrisc 16 hours ago [-]
> I certainly don’t want my favorite YouTubers to go broke, but their business model is not my problem.
It will be your problem, however small, if they can’t make a living and stop producing it.
There was a bike shop near me that people used as a showroom for online purchases. Now we don’t have a bike repair shop nearby anymore.
I hate ads too, but you’re going to have to pay for the content somehow.
bluebarbet 9 hours ago [-]
>I hate ads too, but you’re going to have to pay for the content somehow.
But this logic is flawed. Suffering through an ad does not "pay for" anything. The only way you can pay for content via advertising is to buy a product or service you wouldn't have bought otherwise (and probably don't need), or to buy product A instead of product B (when product A might in fact be better). Advertising means (1) psychological manipulation and (2) mindless consumption with all its attendant negative externalities. This is what pays for content in the advertising business model. Hence the aversion so many have to it. Hence why invocations of morality in its defense always fall flat.
Advertising itself does not pay for anything.
Grombobulous 13 hours ago [-]
It actually isn’t my problem because I don’t need YouTube content to survive or even to have a mildly good time. It’s a pretty low-tier entertainment activity that I could replace with something else.
nkrisc 12 hours ago [-]
Problem in the sense you wouldn’t have it then, which I would agree is a very small problem.
My point though is that it’s not completely without consequence.
Grombobulous 5 hours ago [-]
That's certainly true, if everyone did what I did it would be a problem for many creators.
progval 14 hours ago [-]
> I hate ads too, but you’re going to have to pay for the content somehow.
The person you are replying to said they already pay videographers in an other way: Nebula.
nkrisc 12 hours ago [-]
I meant the content on platforms like YouTube.
progval 10 hours ago [-]
Then if ads on YouTube are no longer profitable enough, they'll move to a different funding model, like patron-only videos or Nebula. And YouTube will have to innovate to keep them on YouTube, eg. by charging its users more so they can pay videographers more.
andrewstuart 16 hours ago [-]
>> I certainly don’t want my favorite YouTubers to go broke, but their business model is not my problem.
If your first statement is true then your second statement is false.
Grombobulous 13 hours ago [-]
What makes this a non-contradictory statement is the fact that I don’t need YouTube. If the whole business model collapses and the content turns to shit I can just find some other form of entertainment.
I wish that nobody ever had to experience financial hardship, but that wish isn’t a commitment from me to financially support their profession.
tgsovlerkhgsel 16 hours ago [-]
I have it set up to skip on button press and usually listen to each sponsor product pitch once (at least up to the point where I know what the product is about). I've even signed up for Onshape through one of the creators that promoted it. But I'm not going to listen to the 100th repeat of an ad for a sketchy VPN or US-only meal delivery service or malware browser extension or microtransaction-infested MMO.
And the regular ads can get fucked until the platforms manage to keep the scams out.
JDups 7 hours ago [-]
I know creators doing comics who don't live off ads, just voluntary patreon pages, merch, and the like. They make as much money as most people working "regular" jobs. Of course they don't make "buy a content house in LA and pay a team of 3 to 8 people" money.
I think there's too much chasing big success. People see giant creators who made millions and so chase every potential growth opportunity or monetization technique, a lot of them could probably settle into a stable one person operation making good enough money.
opengrass 18 hours ago [-]
It only mutes the audio.
Grombobulous 17 hours ago [-]
It doesn’t mute the audio, it skips ahead.
16 hours ago [-]
Krasnol 16 hours ago [-]
Strange, since the whole "content creator" thing grew up while we had significantly less ads.
So maybe the issue aren't the few tech guys blocking those ads but greedy investors wanting more and MORE.
Such tools are a direct result of this greed.
VCFundedGenYer 16 hours ago [-]
They can find another way to earn money. Patreon, etc are much better ways. Sponsors and ads are objectively irritating.
jrootabega 14 hours ago [-]
You can get a library card.
ranger_danger 16 hours ago [-]
> Sponsors and ads are objectively irritating.
So is having to give money to every person you watch on youtube, and not everyone can afford it.
bluebarbet 10 hours ago [-]
They might be able to if we could finally find a way to make micropayments work.
omegaSigma95 21 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
talliedthoughts 16 hours ago [-]
This seems possibly abandoned, the last commit is over 3 months ago. Anyone know a fork or alternative that is more actively developed?
darkstar999 13 hours ago [-]
3 months is abandoned?
ranger_danger 17 hours ago [-]
Very misleading title, this has nothing to do with the actual app called "YouTube TV" (their IPTV service, tv.youtube.com).
I was hoping there was a way to actually skip the ads on that app, but it appears unrelated.
xnx 14 hours ago [-]
Valid point of confusion. Can you think of better wording for the description of the service?
VCFundedGenYer 16 hours ago [-]
There would never be a way to do this on YouTube TV proper as it airs live.
ranger_danger 16 hours ago [-]
It could at least mute the ads, which this does too. And it does have some interstitial ads that do actually come from the app that aren't baked into the stream.
For anyone who can load APKs on their TV and wants a more integrated solution, this alternative client works wonderfully https://github.com/yuliskov/smarttube
It's at the level of polish where people didn't even realize it wasn't the official client for quite a while, until I turned on SponsorBlock that is.
- Blocks YT ads, even without a YT Premium
- Presents a consistent view of a channel, rather than having to hunt around for wherever the creator hid the recent uploads
- Does not play the next video when asked not to.
This last one was a huge factor for us. My wife is a YT Premium subscriber and has a creator she finds comforting and likes to play one of their videos at bed time to fall asleep. EVEN WHEN THE SETTINGS SAY TO NOT AUTOPLAY, the official FireTV YT app will often autoplay. This leads to some loud obnoxious video waking us up at 3am. SmartTube actually stops playing when asked and we get a good night's sleep.
So we use this app in preference to the official app, even though my wife pays for YT Premium
Hard: side load YouTube lite (or similar) via AltStore (or similar). Full ad blocking, sponsorblock, QOL/premium options (hide shorts everywhere, PIP, background play, 3x speed etc).
You have to put your phone in developer mode (make sure your banking apps don’t complain) and will need a Mac to get it going. You then need to play whack-a-mole with Apple developer auth quirks. Not for everyone but worth it IMHO.
It's definitely not as nice, but I get everything I need out of it.
---
My development environment was infected by unknown malicious software, as a result of which a few builds may have been affected. Once the issue was detected, I secured everything with a full disk wipe, restored a clean setup, and now all builds are scanned with VirusTotal. The F-Droid version will also be verified before release.
Public keys may have been compromised, which is why I am sharing this issue. You can download the new version and the new public key below, and instructions for restoring backups are provided.
No extra actions are required since the app uses one-time connection codes. These codes have very limited permissions (for example, they cannot change your password). Still, you can revoke them if you want full peace of mind.
---
This is from the GitHub page you linked
I don't mind watching one sponsored block per video. I really don't..if the created adds three sponsored blocks I don't watch to watch them anyways.
But this morning I have 5 advert breaks in the first half of a video by Ahoy on the call of duty series. Each one had that nightmare 90+ skip button.
It's so unbelievably insane that they run ads which could be longer than the video..I simply don't understand it. And I assume the creators don't say yes make sure ads run for 3 times as long as my video by default.
I installed Sponsor block this morning by chance it only skips parts of the video that have been marked as sponsored segments I.e. not the dynamic ads YouTube ads.
Why do I think in getting such brutal ads btw? Well I daned to cancel YouTube Premium after nearly a year and either YouTube has become intolerable since or they're punishing me.
I went as far as to write a YouTube downloading app, that uses ytdlp, but presents the downloaded mp3s in a feed that can be picked up by antennapod.
I lived in Tanzania for a few years and most podcasts wouldn't play adverts while I was there.
A great adjunct, it turns out, is proxying DNS requests to YouTube through Albania. Way less pain than using a VPN to do the same thing. Paired with ISponsorBlockTV to skip in-video ads, I see nothing.
Only if the AppleTV YouTube client didn’t suck.
YouTube TV is a product offered by Google and it's not at all the same as YouTube.
I've gone ahead and changed the line to be "YouTube for TV app"
how long until we can set up an Omni-Block Box?
Why would you not want them paid?
Car dealerships and salespeople often offer similar objections to his business as well as customers who want a good deal.
They’ll say things like “we’re losing money on this car” or “a business needs to make a profit.”
And his objection to that is always the same: the customer doesn’t care about that, and it’s not their problem. If your business model delivers something that people see value in, you’re more likely to be able to make a profit. Customers obviously don’t see much value in the car dealerships.
I certainly don’t want my favorite YouTubers to go broke, but their business model is not my problem. The fact is that I refuse to watch ads. I don’t see value in watching an ad. In some cases I’m willing to pay for that privilege, like how I can get sponsor-free viewing from many YouTube channels on Nebula.
But, sorry, if I’m allowed to skip forward in a video to skip an ad, I’m going to do it. And if I’m not allowed to skip around in a video platform to the part of the video I want to watch, I’m probably not going to be using that video platform.
The reality is that most YouTube sponsors already know that a certain percentage of viewers will skip their sponsor segment, even manually without a tool like this, or using YouTube Premium’s included Skip Ahead feature, just like a TV advertiser knows that a certain percentage of viewers will change the channel during ads, mute the TV, or go to the bathroom during an ad segment.
I have a friend who refuses to buy premium versions of popular streaming services like Disney+ and actually prefers to have the advertising. They even said “my kids will see ads” almost like they want their kids to experience the childhood they did. It’s a bit of a strange philosophy to me but I kind of see where they’re coming from: advertisements are something of a cultural experience, like how you can play back a super soaker advertisement for me and I’ll get some intense nostalgic feelings.
It will be your problem, however small, if they can’t make a living and stop producing it.
There was a bike shop near me that people used as a showroom for online purchases. Now we don’t have a bike repair shop nearby anymore.
I hate ads too, but you’re going to have to pay for the content somehow.
But this logic is flawed. Suffering through an ad does not "pay for" anything. The only way you can pay for content via advertising is to buy a product or service you wouldn't have bought otherwise (and probably don't need), or to buy product A instead of product B (when product A might in fact be better). Advertising means (1) psychological manipulation and (2) mindless consumption with all its attendant negative externalities. This is what pays for content in the advertising business model. Hence the aversion so many have to it. Hence why invocations of morality in its defense always fall flat.
Advertising itself does not pay for anything.
My point though is that it’s not completely without consequence.
The person you are replying to said they already pay videographers in an other way: Nebula.
If your first statement is true then your second statement is false.
I wish that nobody ever had to experience financial hardship, but that wish isn’t a commitment from me to financially support their profession.
And the regular ads can get fucked until the platforms manage to keep the scams out.
I think there's too much chasing big success. People see giant creators who made millions and so chase every potential growth opportunity or monetization technique, a lot of them could probably settle into a stable one person operation making good enough money.
So maybe the issue aren't the few tech guys blocking those ads but greedy investors wanting more and MORE.
Such tools are a direct result of this greed.
So is having to give money to every person you watch on youtube, and not everyone can afford it.
I was hoping there was a way to actually skip the ads on that app, but it appears unrelated.