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> One thing I find rather frustrating about YouTube’s redesign (on desktop) is that it devotes so much screen real estate to promoting videos other than the one

> One thing I find rather frustrating about YouTube’s redesign (on desktop) is that it devotes so much screen real estate to promoting videos other than the one you’re actually there to watch. I’d prefer fewer distractions. Theater mode (shortcut 't') is a bit better. But yes, I too would like a mode where the video fills the whole browser window.

davkan 2y ago
If I’m watching a video longer than 10 minutes or so I usually use a Firefox popout window.
asdff 2y ago
Its the nature of the beast. For a while I used a custom ublock filter to strip out the recommended videos section, the comments, whatever I considered junk pixels. Now I just pull the video to /tmp/ and don't have to deal with buffering (somehow still an issue in 2024).
dredmorbius 2y ago
Use an external video player. mpv and VLC are my usual go-to's. Both will stream straight from a URL (and both handle far more than just YT). You can also of course download and play at your leisure with ytdlp. <https://mpv.io/ https://mpv.io/> <https://www.videolan.org/vlc/ https://www.videolan.org/vlc/> <https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp>
- oblio 2y ago
  I just tried VLC. Media - From Network Stream - pasted Youtube URL. Nope, error message, said check the logs. Searched the UI for an entry for the logs, found nothing. Googled for "vlc logs". Found a guide. Configured the path to be on the desktop. Restarted VLC. Tried again, same error message. No log file created and of course no log file entries. The joys of FOSS.
  - thatloststudent 2y ago
    I tried the same route, but got the logs correctly. It gave me a HTTP 410 error. I wouldn't be surprised at all if VLC's youtube plugin is just too old and there's a better one somewhere else. But in the meanwhile, mpv's plugin works (if you're using yt-dlp and not youtube-dl, that is)
    - oblio 2y ago
      Logs not being directly visible in the VLC UI and not having a default log file location plus the fact that even going to advanced settings and configuring things doesn't make logs show up after the first try is not Google's fault, though.
      - allarm 2y ago
        It's hardly a fault though. And if you need this feature go ahead and implement it.
        oblio 2y ago
        The first part is a feature, the second one is a bug. And no, I don't think I will, I'll just use Youtube with ad blockers for as long as I can.
        dredmorbius 2y ago
        Despite having defended FOSS and advocated VLC ... I understand your viewpoint here. Calling on people to contribute bugfixes isn't especially realistic. Filing a bug on the fact that VLC has poor debug/log tools would be helpful though. Particularly as a useful logging / debugging capability should enable more useful bug reports specific to function. Sorry it's not working out for you, thanks for trying regardless.
        oblio 2y ago
        I'm just jaded at this point. FOSS won the battle and lost the war. It's been subsumed into the bowels of these corporations that are ending up mega predatory.

davkan 2y ago

If I’m watching a video longer than 10 minutes or so I usually use a Firefox popout window.

asdff 2y ago

Its the nature of the beast. For a while I used a custom ublock filter to strip out the recommended videos section, the comments, whatever I considered junk pixels. Now I just pull the video to /tmp/ and don't have to deal with buffering (somehow still an issue in 2024).

dredmorbius 2y ago

Use an external video player. mpv and VLC are my usual go-to's. Both will stream straight from a URL (and both handle far more than just YT). You can also of course download and play at your leisure with ytdlp. <https://mpv.io/ https://mpv.io/> <https://www.videolan.org/vlc/ https://www.videolan.org/vlc/> <https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp>

oblio 2y ago
I just tried VLC. Media - From Network Stream - pasted Youtube URL. Nope, error message, said check the logs. Searched the UI for an entry for the logs, found nothing. Googled for "vlc logs". Found a guide. Configured the path to be on the desktop. Restarted VLC. Tried again, same error message. No log file created and of course no log file entries. The joys of FOSS.
- thatloststudent 2y ago
  I tried the same route, but got the logs correctly. It gave me a HTTP 410 error. I wouldn't be surprised at all if VLC's youtube plugin is just too old and there's a better one somewhere else. But in the meanwhile, mpv's plugin works (if you're using yt-dlp and not youtube-dl, that is)
  - oblio 2y ago
    Logs not being directly visible in the VLC UI and not having a default log file location plus the fact that even going to advanced settings and configuring things doesn't make logs show up after the first try is not Google's fault, though.
    - allarm 2y ago
      It's hardly a fault though. And if you need this feature go ahead and implement it.
      - oblio 2y ago
        The first part is a feature, the second one is a bug. And no, I don't think I will, I'll just use Youtube with ad blockers for as long as I can.
        dredmorbius 2y ago
        Despite having defended FOSS and advocated VLC ... I understand your viewpoint here. Calling on people to contribute bugfixes isn't especially realistic. Filing a bug on the fact that VLC has poor debug/log tools would be helpful though. Particularly as a useful logging / debugging capability should enable more useful bug reports specific to function. Sorry it's not working out for you, thanks for trying regardless.
        oblio 2y ago
        I'm just jaded at this point. FOSS won the battle and lost the war. It's been subsumed into the bowels of these corporations that are ending up mega predatory.