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I signed up for YouTube Premium because I wanted to watch some videos offline (on a flight). The download speed is awful. Now I use YouTube-dl when I want to wa

I signed up for YouTube Premium because I wanted to watch some videos offline (on a flight). The download speed is awful. Now I use YouTube-dl when I want to watch videos offline. I still have Premium because ad-free is great!

jsmolka 5y ago
I did the same because I wanted to consume podcasts with the screen locked and not have adds. But the download speed for me is pretty good. Downloading a 2.5h podcast in 480p (which has the same audio quality as 1080p IIRC) takes less than half a minute.
- RealStickman_ 5y ago
  Why would they not allow audio-only downloads?
  - ravenstine 5y ago
    This is the main reason why I use NewPipe rather than pay YouTube's ransom. Although I have a high bandwidth plan, I just don't like wasting bandwidth and disk space for video data I'm not actually looking at with my eyes. Most of the time I pop on some intellectual content and listen to it, and the video is often unnecessary. Just give me the damn audio and I'm good. YouTube seems to think this isn't a concern, and maybe it isn't if I forced it to download the 140p version of the video, but that's still a clunky solution. Or maybe the execs think that providing audio downloads lets people "steal" music.
    - RealStickman_ 5y ago
      Afaik using the 144p version would be terrible, as YouTube couples the audio bitrate to the video resolution.
- hhmc 5y ago
  Is there really not a audio only version of the podcasts your interested in. i.e. the classic rss feed of audio files. It's such a shame what has happened to podcasts
  - mnw21cam 5y ago
    You can download only the audio using youtube-dl.
    - hhmc 5y ago
      Sure, and I can rip the audio off the DVD for Gone With The Wind, but that wouldn't make it a podcast.
zeepzeep 5y ago
> I still have Premium because ad-free is great! Use an alternative ad-free client if you don't wanna pay for a not working download feature.
- danuker 5y ago
  Who knows whether you can stop paying for it.
  - npteljes 5y ago
    Of course you can.
  - tomashubelbauer 5y ago
    I did when they stopped displaying public dislike counts. Very smooth experience, did not even ask me why I was leaving. YouTube doesn't seem to care much.
  - madeofpalk 5y ago
    When I moved to another country where Youtube Red/Premium wasnt available, when I eventually contacted Youtube support they refunded the past 6 months of the subscription.
- TingPing 5y ago
  Or just support the platform/creators because it's a small amount...
  - zeepzeep 5y ago
    1) doesn't work without an account 2) I dont give google my payment details 3) the platform does not deserve any % of my donations, it's used used because it's a monopoly 4) not every creator I watch deserves the same cut, smaller high quality creators need more -> off site donations e.g. Patreon is way better in many ways.
Nextgrid 5y ago
I wish the media industry understood this and took action. A lot of what they call "piracy" is less about people not wanting to pay and more about the paid experience being on-par if not worse than the pirate experience.
- kaladin-jasnah 5y ago
  I wholeheartedly agree. With video games, especially on Linux, it is far better to pay. On Steam, it was far easier to just pay and click Play than to pirate the gane and deal with Wine and getting the game to work. So I pay.
  - charrondev 5y ago
    Gaming in particular is an area where I think most marketplaces have gotten their act together. I don’t hesitate to buy games through Steam or the Microsoft store. Games are easy to pay for, fast to download and I know at least steam and Epic have a very reasonable refund policy (if you have less than 2 hours of playtime they will refund you without issue). I’ve used this a couple times for games that either had many technical issues on launch or I didn’t like the mechanics of the game. The only game store that is absolutely terrible in all of this is EA/Origin who have a very buggy and slow client. I just avoid their games as a result.
wintermutestwin 5y ago
We are already paying Google with our data.
Proudmuslim 5y ago
Just use uBlock origin, easy way to block ads on YouTube

jsmolka 5y ago

I did the same because I wanted to consume podcasts with the screen locked and not have adds. But the download speed for me is pretty good. Downloading a 2.5h podcast in 480p (which has the same audio quality as 1080p IIRC) takes less than half a minute.

RealStickman_ 5y ago
Why would they not allow audio-only downloads?
- ravenstine 5y ago
  This is the main reason why I use NewPipe rather than pay YouTube's ransom. Although I have a high bandwidth plan, I just don't like wasting bandwidth and disk space for video data I'm not actually looking at with my eyes. Most of the time I pop on some intellectual content and listen to it, and the video is often unnecessary. Just give me the damn audio and I'm good. YouTube seems to think this isn't a concern, and maybe it isn't if I forced it to download the 140p version of the video, but that's still a clunky solution. Or maybe the execs think that providing audio downloads lets people "steal" music.
  - RealStickman_ 5y ago
    Afaik using the 144p version would be terrible, as YouTube couples the audio bitrate to the video resolution.
hhmc 5y ago
Is there really not a audio only version of the podcasts your interested in. i.e. the classic rss feed of audio files. It's such a shame what has happened to podcasts
- mnw21cam 5y ago
  You can download only the audio using youtube-dl.
  - hhmc 5y ago
    Sure, and I can rip the audio off the DVD for Gone With The Wind, but that wouldn't make it a podcast.

zeepzeep 5y ago

> I still have Premium because ad-free is great! Use an alternative ad-free client if you don't wanna pay for a not working download feature.

danuker 5y ago
Who knows whether you can stop paying for it.
- npteljes 5y ago
  Of course you can.
- tomashubelbauer 5y ago
  I did when they stopped displaying public dislike counts. Very smooth experience, did not even ask me why I was leaving. YouTube doesn't seem to care much.
- madeofpalk 5y ago
  When I moved to another country where Youtube Red/Premium wasnt available, when I eventually contacted Youtube support they refunded the past 6 months of the subscription.
TingPing 5y ago
Or just support the platform/creators because it's a small amount...
- zeepzeep 5y ago
  1) doesn't work without an account 2) I dont give google my payment details 3) the platform does not deserve any % of my donations, it's used used because it's a monopoly 4) not every creator I watch deserves the same cut, smaller high quality creators need more -> off site donations e.g. Patreon is way better in many ways.

Nextgrid 5y ago

I wish the media industry understood this and took action. A lot of what they call "piracy" is less about people not wanting to pay and more about the paid experience being on-par if not worse than the pirate experience.

kaladin-jasnah 5y ago
I wholeheartedly agree. With video games, especially on Linux, it is far better to pay. On Steam, it was far easier to just pay and click Play than to pirate the gane and deal with Wine and getting the game to work. So I pay.
- charrondev 5y ago
  Gaming in particular is an area where I think most marketplaces have gotten their act together. I don’t hesitate to buy games through Steam or the Microsoft store. Games are easy to pay for, fast to download and I know at least steam and Epic have a very reasonable refund policy (if you have less than 2 hours of playtime they will refund you without issue). I’ve used this a couple times for games that either had many technical issues on launch or I didn’t like the mechanics of the game. The only game store that is absolutely terrible in all of this is EA/Origin who have a very buggy and slow client. I just avoid their games as a result.

wintermutestwin 5y ago

We are already paying Google with our data.

Proudmuslim 5y ago

Just use uBlock origin, easy way to block ads on YouTube