4 ms·

Show HN: FreshTube – show latest videos from YouTube channels

47 points by porjo 9y ago

jlebrech 9y ago
I used to use subscription groups to see videos of people talking about different subjects, If i felt like a certain subject i'd just watch those, but they got rid of that feature.
- yeukhon 9y ago
  I am subscribed to over two dozens, but honestly I only care about 6-7 channels (they are all YouTube gamers and they are friends with each other). The rest, I just look at them on occasion. YouTube is quite good at suggesting what I want to see based on frequency and then recommend a few from channels I haven't been to a while.
j_s 9y ago
"Fresh" reminded me of this discussion 4 months ago: Astronaut – YouTube videos with almost zero previous views | http://astronaut.io/ http://astronaut.io/ | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13413225 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13413225 Edit: Incognito mode or YouTube history ad/tracker-blocking add-on recommended!
- tgb 9y ago
  That's completely entrancing. Though I'm a little worried to see what Youtube will recommend me after spewing random videos into my history.
- dhimes 9y ago
  where is the "go" button I'm supposed to 'tap?' EDIT: It eventually showed up.
garysieling 9y ago
It's interesting to see how many people are building projects to re-arrange Youtube. I ran a lot of videos through Watson, so you can filter by category- https://www.findlectures.com/ https://www.findlectures.com/
jschuur 9y ago
I really wish YouTube brought categories/collections back. I also can't get this to work. Or figure out what it's supposed to do.
- helb 9y ago
  > I also can't get this to work. Or figure out what it's supposed to do. 1. Paste a key from https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials into the "API Key" input 2. Paste channel/user URLs into the textarea, one per line 3. Click "Refresh", it will show five latest videos from each channel: https://vgy.me/tfseJu.png https://vgy.me/tfseJu.png
  - porjo 9y ago
    Your screenshot is missing durations! That's a bug. Fixed now.
gigatexal 9y ago
Everything other than YouTube that ends with *Tube sounds like it might be a porn site especially one prepended with "Fresh" but that's probably just my own fault.
oridecon 9y ago
I'm using https://www.inoreader.com https://www.inoreader.com to manage my YouTube subscriptions. You don't need a Google account or API key (isn't that basically the same as being logged in?). There's a small delay for updates but it's really amazing. I'm not affiliated with Inoreader but I've tried to make them appear on the front page here without success. Unfortunately I don't see anyone talking about them.
- findjashua 9y ago
  rss readers in general seem to have been lost, for some reason. I still haven't found anything I like better.
- oridecon 9y ago
  https://imgur.com/a/YD5zz https://imgur.com/a/YD5zz
- porjo 9y ago
  Thanks for the tip. > You don't need a Google account or API key (isn't that basically the same as being logged in?) Yeah, the key is a pain but once setup it's set and forget. Not being logged in is about not having my usage tracked at such a fine grained level - not only on my Youtube account, but across the entire Google ecosystem.
helb 9y ago
Youtube channels have XML feeds (seems like Atom with some custom extensions), so it should be possible to follow channel's latest videos even without using their API at all. eg. https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UChWv6Pn_zP0rI6lgGt3MyfA https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UChWv6Pn...
- justboxing 9y ago
  Thanks for this feed example. Found this gem in there. A beautiful technical / engineering take on why Juicero failed, after he takes apart a brand new Juicero => https://youtu.be/_Cp-BGQfpHQ?t=2111 https://youtu.be/_Cp-BGQfpHQ?t=2111
- codeplea 9y ago
  This is the solution I've always used. I wish that YouTube would make this easier to find though. Oddly, some channels include the HTML link tag in the page head, but many don't.
- porjo 9y ago
  Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. I note however these do not contain durations which I definitely want. Freshtube shows a duration for each video.
fudged71 9y ago
A screenshot in the repo Readme would be useful before needing to go through the process
- porjo 9y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion. Done.
  - darshandsoni 9y ago
    That screenshot in the repo... such a familiar collection of channels :D
gcb0 9y ago
why? this is exactly the problem I have with YouTube own recommendation system. it ignores the 5+yr old gems and only give me fresh crap.
- porjo 9y ago
  My use case is to load up my favourite channels every morning before I go for a jog, and download any recent stuff that looks interesting onto my music player. I wanted something that combined it all on one page, but grouped by channel.

47 points by porjo 9y ago

I used to use subscription groups to see videos of people talking about different subjects, If i felt like a certain subject i'd just watch those, but they got rid of that feature.

yeukhon 9y ago
I am subscribed to over two dozens, but honestly I only care about 6-7 channels (they are all YouTube gamers and they are friends with each other). The rest, I just look at them on occasion. YouTube is quite good at suggesting what I want to see based on frequency and then recommend a few from channels I haven't been to a while.

j_s 9y ago

"Fresh" reminded me of this discussion 4 months ago: Astronaut – YouTube videos with almost zero previous views | http://astronaut.io/ http://astronaut.io/ | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13413225 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13413225 Edit: Incognito mode or YouTube history ad/tracker-blocking add-on recommended!

tgb 9y ago
That's completely entrancing. Though I'm a little worried to see what Youtube will recommend me after spewing random videos into my history.
dhimes 9y ago
where is the "go" button I'm supposed to 'tap?' EDIT: It eventually showed up.

garysieling 9y ago

It's interesting to see how many people are building projects to re-arrange Youtube. I ran a lot of videos through Watson, so you can filter by category- https://www.findlectures.com/ https://www.findlectures.com/

jschuur 9y ago

I really wish YouTube brought categories/collections back. I also can't get this to work. Or figure out what it's supposed to do.

helb 9y ago
> I also can't get this to work. Or figure out what it's supposed to do. 1. Paste a key from https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials into the "API Key" input 2. Paste channel/user URLs into the textarea, one per line 3. Click "Refresh", it will show five latest videos from each channel: https://vgy.me/tfseJu.png https://vgy.me/tfseJu.png
- porjo 9y ago
  Your screenshot is missing durations! That's a bug. Fixed now.

gigatexal 9y ago

Everything other than YouTube that ends with *Tube sounds like it might be a porn site especially one prepended with "Fresh" but that's probably just my own fault.

oridecon 9y ago

I'm using https://www.inoreader.com https://www.inoreader.com to manage my YouTube subscriptions. You don't need a Google account or API key (isn't that basically the same as being logged in?). There's a small delay for updates but it's really amazing. I'm not affiliated with Inoreader but I've tried to make them appear on the front page here without success. Unfortunately I don't see anyone talking about them.

findjashua 9y ago
rss readers in general seem to have been lost, for some reason. I still haven't found anything I like better.
oridecon 9y ago
https://imgur.com/a/YD5zz https://imgur.com/a/YD5zz
porjo 9y ago
Thanks for the tip. > You don't need a Google account or API key (isn't that basically the same as being logged in?) Yeah, the key is a pain but once setup it's set and forget. Not being logged in is about not having my usage tracked at such a fine grained level - not only on my Youtube account, but across the entire Google ecosystem.

helb 9y ago

Youtube channels have XML feeds (seems like Atom with some custom extensions), so it should be possible to follow channel's latest videos even without using their API at all. eg. https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UChWv6Pn_zP0rI6lgGt3MyfA https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UChWv6Pn...

justboxing 9y ago
Thanks for this feed example. Found this gem in there. A beautiful technical / engineering take on why Juicero failed, after he takes apart a brand new Juicero => https://youtu.be/_Cp-BGQfpHQ?t=2111 https://youtu.be/_Cp-BGQfpHQ?t=2111
codeplea 9y ago
This is the solution I've always used. I wish that YouTube would make this easier to find though. Oddly, some channels include the HTML link tag in the page head, but many don't.
porjo 9y ago
Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. I note however these do not contain durations which I definitely want. Freshtube shows a duration for each video.

fudged71 9y ago

A screenshot in the repo Readme would be useful before needing to go through the process

porjo 9y ago
Thanks for the suggestion. Done.
- darshandsoni 9y ago
  That screenshot in the repo... such a familiar collection of channels :D

gcb0 9y ago

why? this is exactly the problem I have with YouTube own recommendation system. it ignores the 5+yr old gems and only give me fresh crap.

porjo 9y ago
My use case is to load up my favourite channels every morning before I go for a jog, and download any recent stuff that looks interesting onto my music player. I wanted something that combined it all on one page, but grouped by channel.