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I just tried this last week and wrote this tiny Userscript that redirect Youtube videos to their .mp4 source file, so nothing is actually loaded except the vide

by yoavm 6y ago

I just tried this last week and wrote this tiny Userscript that redirect Youtube videos to their .mp4 source file, so nothing is actually loaded except the video itself. No ads, no "watch next!", no related movies, no comments. // ==UserScript== // @name youtube-redirect // @match https://www.youtube.com/watch* // @run-at document-start // @version 1.0 // ==/UserScript== window.stop(); GM.fetch("https://alltubedownload.net/json?url="+document.location).then(x=> window.location=JSON.parse(x).url);

gruez 6y ago
This has the disadvantage that you're stuck on 720p, not to mention a bunch of functionality missing (eg. subtitles, being able to use the "copy video url at current time" functionality). A better solution would be simply to adblock the elements you don't like.
- bscphil 6y ago
  To clarify this: I ran youtube-dl -F apeZO6C0ZeA and if you ignore the entries that are video or audio only, there's only a 640x360 stream and a 1280x720 stream. This video is actually available in 2160p, so you definitely are getting a lesser quality experience if you just redirect to the MP4. The reason for this is that Youtube uses DASH[1] to switch to the best usable audio and video automatically. In this case the top video bitrate is about 18 Mbps! Incidentally, Youtube has really gone into the sewer. I spent about 5 minutes scrolling down the page to find a video I wasn't too embarrassed to use as an example for this comment. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_over_HTTP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_ove...
  - wccrawford 6y ago
    There's still plenty of good content on Youtube. It's just that, like most other social networks, the content enjoyed by the majority of people is pretty much garbage. To get good content, rather than popular, you have to search for it. Or have a history of watching good content, so the system can recommend more. Even so, I still ignore the vast majority of Youtube's suggestions. But again, there's also plenty of good content.
    - bscphil 6y ago
      To be fair, I wasn't logged in. But it's pretty soul destroying whenever I see the home page. It's a bunch of people "reacting" to things (meaning that they have their mouths wide open in the thumbnail), or worse ("I bought everything at X store"). Just excruciating. That's before you get to the fact that like 80% of front page stuff is compilation videos (i.e. content stolen from users on other sites).
      - 3np 6y ago
        In my country, prank videos are dominating
      - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
        Being logged out isn't enough. You have to eliminate all of Google's tracking cookies to avoid the profile bubble they've created for you.
        gruez 6y ago
        This is fairly easy to do on firefox if you use the "temporary containers" extension.
    - curryst 6y ago
      Letting people choose their own video sample picture definitely has lead to a huge increase in videos with highly sexualized cover photos. Some topics are more prone to it than others. I've definitely noticed a huge increase in the number of videos with scantily clad women as the cover photo. Sometimes even on videos that have much tamer actual content. I do agree that there's good content on YouTube, but if I watch any garbage at all, the recommendation engine will only recommend that. I wonder if someone has a script that will reset my YouTube history every day. Might be interesting for the algorithm to have a fresh take on me every day to show me what I'm into that day.
      - wccrawford 6y ago
        I noticed that I started getting woodworking videos featuring hot women that clearly didn't actually know what they were doing. They were just following someone else's instructions. Some of the followed those instructions fairly convincingly, but at least 1 was so bad and I instantly saw through the ruse. To be fair, I've also seen some with pretty women that did know what they were doing. Then, those videos stopped appearing in my feed. I doubt they aren't being made, but I was surprised the algorithm stopped offering them.
numakerg 6y ago
ViewTube is also a userscript that offers the same functionality and more. http://sebaro.pro/viewtube/ http://sebaro.pro/viewtube/
maple3142 6y ago
I have a script that can fetch YouTube videos links and download them easily, and it doesn't need external service to work, only YouTube are needed: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/369400-local-youtube-downloader https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/369400-local-youtube-downl... Disclaimer: I am the author of the script

by yoavm 6y ago

gruez 6y ago

This has the disadvantage that you're stuck on 720p, not to mention a bunch of functionality missing (eg. subtitles, being able to use the "copy video url at current time" functionality). A better solution would be simply to adblock the elements you don't like.

bscphil 6y ago
To clarify this: I ran youtube-dl -F apeZO6C0ZeA and if you ignore the entries that are video or audio only, there's only a 640x360 stream and a 1280x720 stream. This video is actually available in 2160p, so you definitely are getting a lesser quality experience if you just redirect to the MP4. The reason for this is that Youtube uses DASH[1] to switch to the best usable audio and video automatically. In this case the top video bitrate is about 18 Mbps! Incidentally, Youtube has really gone into the sewer. I spent about 5 minutes scrolling down the page to find a video I wasn't too embarrassed to use as an example for this comment. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_over_HTTP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_ove...
- wccrawford 6y ago
  There's still plenty of good content on Youtube. It's just that, like most other social networks, the content enjoyed by the majority of people is pretty much garbage. To get good content, rather than popular, you have to search for it. Or have a history of watching good content, so the system can recommend more. Even so, I still ignore the vast majority of Youtube's suggestions. But again, there's also plenty of good content.
  - bscphil 6y ago
    To be fair, I wasn't logged in. But it's pretty soul destroying whenever I see the home page. It's a bunch of people "reacting" to things (meaning that they have their mouths wide open in the thumbnail), or worse ("I bought everything at X store"). Just excruciating. That's before you get to the fact that like 80% of front page stuff is compilation videos (i.e. content stolen from users on other sites).
    - 3np 6y ago
      In my country, prank videos are dominating
    - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
      Being logged out isn't enough. You have to eliminate all of Google's tracking cookies to avoid the profile bubble they've created for you.
      - gruez 6y ago
        This is fairly easy to do on firefox if you use the "temporary containers" extension.
  - curryst 6y ago
    Letting people choose their own video sample picture definitely has lead to a huge increase in videos with highly sexualized cover photos. Some topics are more prone to it than others. I've definitely noticed a huge increase in the number of videos with scantily clad women as the cover photo. Sometimes even on videos that have much tamer actual content. I do agree that there's good content on YouTube, but if I watch any garbage at all, the recommendation engine will only recommend that. I wonder if someone has a script that will reset my YouTube history every day. Might be interesting for the algorithm to have a fresh take on me every day to show me what I'm into that day.
    - wccrawford 6y ago
      I noticed that I started getting woodworking videos featuring hot women that clearly didn't actually know what they were doing. They were just following someone else's instructions. Some of the followed those instructions fairly convincingly, but at least 1 was so bad and I instantly saw through the ruse. To be fair, I've also seen some with pretty women that did know what they were doing. Then, those videos stopped appearing in my feed. I doubt they aren't being made, but I was surprised the algorithm stopped offering them.

numakerg 6y ago

ViewTube is also a userscript that offers the same functionality and more. http://sebaro.pro/viewtube/ http://sebaro.pro/viewtube/

maple3142 6y ago

I have a script that can fetch YouTube videos links and download them easily, and it doesn't need external service to work, only YouTube are needed: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/369400-local-youtube-downloader https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/369400-local-youtube-downl... Disclaimer: I am the author of the script