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I can't stand watching videos on something I need information for <right now>. Maybe I'm just terrible at video scrubbing, but give me a long form write up and

I can't stand watching videos on something I need information for <right now>. Maybe I'm just terrible at video scrubbing, but give me a long form write up and I can scroll or ctrl+f my way to what I'm looking for very quickly. I suppose they can't force inject 5-15 second ads though, so maybe folks like us brought this on ourselves.

immibis 2y ago
There must be a market for video information converted to text. It would be completely illegal, of course.
- dbspin 2y ago
  Well, there's a source if not a market - LLMs. https://www.proofnews.org/apple-nvidia-anthropic-used-thousands-of-swiped-youtube-videos-to-train-ai/ https://www.proofnews.org/apple-nvidia-anthropic-used-thousa...
- CuriouslyC 2y ago
  The irony of serving a video, consumed by a robot, to serve a human text, rather than serving the text in the first place.
throwway_278314 2y ago
Oh, but they can put blinky video ads all over the page so no matter where you look there are things to distract you. yeah yeah adblock pihole yes I know.
hprotagonist 2y ago
yt-dlp audio only, and stuff that into whisper: video to text in ~30 seconds.
imp0cat 2y ago
Sound like some sort of ADHD symptom where any video longer that a few seconds is perceived as too long, doesn't it?
- samsari 2y ago
  No, it doesn't even remotely sound like such a thing.
- ryukoposting 2y ago
  Not really. Video just doesn't lend itself well to searchability (is that a word?). YouTube's "table of contents" feature helps, but only when the video's creator actually uses it. Even if they do provide a ToC, it still doesn't help much if you're trying to find a particular sentence, or brief mention of a particular detail. Perhaps we also need videos with an index, in addition to tables of contents.
  - imp0cat 2y ago
    Right, but as I see it, there are multiple kinds of videos. Some are made specifically to be a vehicle for ads. You know what I mean, those 10+ minute long videos on simple tricks, where a short clip would suffice. They also usually lack any markers or chapters which makes skipping through them infuriating. I understand the rage here, I hate those with a passion, too. But some long videos are excellent, well-made and informative. Perhaps when the OP needs the info right now he may be more stressed and less in control of himself?
bigstrat2003 2y ago
Videos absolutely suck for transmitting information, compared to text. I estimate that I can read an article about 10x faster than an equivalent video, they aren't even in the same ballpark. It boggles my mind that so many people prefer videos, given how much slower they are. It's enough to make me cynically wonder if people these days are illiterate or something.
- Schiendelman 2y ago
  I suspect it's because they can't focus on text - their devices have 2000 notifications distracting them. Video is more easily engaging, they're less likely to switch away.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    I daresay thee average user would be a lot better off if they disabled all but a very small handful of notifications.
    - lukan 2y ago
      The average user likely does not know, that even the option exists.
      - Schiendelman 2y ago
        It's getting better. Apple's summarizing multiple notifications coming in 18.1 (you can try this in the beta today) and only highlighting "important" notifications by default. I haven't seen any evidence of them abusing this, either.
- jsjohnst 2y ago
  > I estimate that I can read an article about 10x faster than an equivalent video Especially due to all the filler b/s that every YT video has these days, be it over sharing their back story, Like and Subscribe! (And ding that bell!), sponsored ad reads, here’s my ten other videos you need to watch, etc etc.
geoffeg 2y ago
I'm always surprised at how many non-tech people don't know about their browser's ability to search in the page. I've been on multiple calls at work with researchers who have been in the field for more than a decade and they'll read the entire page instead of hitting ctrl-f.
Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago
> terrible at video scrubbing It is partly the form, video, but more so the access method, the network. All networked video sucks at skimming through because the file isn't cached and takes a few milliseconds to several seconds to load the part you jumped to. The interface also doesn't help because usually they lack controls for skipping forwards and backwards and long jumps forwards and backwards.
Workaccount2 2y ago
Google has been trialing AI overviews of youtube videos, essentially it opens a gemini chat where gemini has been prompt-stuffed with the whole video. A 12 minute "Here is my favorite method for unclogging a drain" video becomes a three sentence reply from gemini telling you what it is. I don't know how google is gonna get this past creators if they fully role it out, as it is a massive shameless backstab, but at the same time it is wonderful for viewers who don't want to trudge through filler video after clickbait headlines.
- sitkack 2y ago
  Wow, it is a backstab! They force creators to make longer videos or they won’t get monitized and then do this. Creators get paid by the watch minutes.
  - mhh__ 2y ago
    They've been doing that for a while though e.g. a specific (say) 31s segment of a video will come in the search results rather than just a link to a popular video
- yazzku 2y ago
  Text -> video -> text It's come full circle, just that the wheel now consumes orders of magnitude more power to churn the final text.
arprocter 2y ago
I didn't realize how bad this has gotten until I was looking for a GPU undervolting guide What could be a couple of paragraphs is stretched into a 5-10 minute video; most of which is explaining what it is, and not how to do it
TacticalCoder 2y ago
> I can't stand watching videos on something I need information for <right now>. Maybe I'm just terrible at video scrubbing Do not worry: in a very short while we'll all have AI tools, running locally, that can summarize videos in textual forms in a split second. Prompt: "Summarize this vid in five paragraphs. List specs." It already exists. In a short while we'll all have this at home. P.S: prompt: "Remove every single ad and submarine content too".
- thrwaway1985882 2y ago
  Replacing "downloading 2kb of text on a device with minimal technical specs" with "buying a top-end computer to download hundreds of megabytes of video & shove it into an LLM to mangle and hallucinate the message down into 2kb of text". Thank god for progress. What would we do without it.
- Sakos 2y ago
  I'm waiting for it to become more convenient, but no joke this is what I've been doing. When I find interesting videos about software development, I'll often use Whisper to create a transcript and then upload it to Claude to summarise, then I can ask it questions about the content as well as explore related topics and ask it for further reading.
- amyjess 2y ago
  Of course, that assumes the AI won't just hallucinate and give you false information. Which is a major problem with current LLMs.

immibis 2y ago

There must be a market for video information converted to text. It would be completely illegal, of course.

dbspin 2y ago
Well, there's a source if not a market - LLMs. https://www.proofnews.org/apple-nvidia-anthropic-used-thousands-of-swiped-youtube-videos-to-train-ai/ https://www.proofnews.org/apple-nvidia-anthropic-used-thousa...
CuriouslyC 2y ago
The irony of serving a video, consumed by a robot, to serve a human text, rather than serving the text in the first place.

throwway_278314 2y ago

Oh, but they can put blinky video ads all over the page so no matter where you look there are things to distract you. yeah yeah adblock pihole yes I know.

hprotagonist 2y ago

yt-dlp audio only, and stuff that into whisper: video to text in ~30 seconds.

imp0cat 2y ago

Sound like some sort of ADHD symptom where any video longer that a few seconds is perceived as too long, doesn't it?

samsari 2y ago
No, it doesn't even remotely sound like such a thing.
ryukoposting 2y ago
Not really. Video just doesn't lend itself well to searchability (is that a word?). YouTube's "table of contents" feature helps, but only when the video's creator actually uses it. Even if they do provide a ToC, it still doesn't help much if you're trying to find a particular sentence, or brief mention of a particular detail. Perhaps we also need videos with an index, in addition to tables of contents.
- imp0cat 2y ago
  Right, but as I see it, there are multiple kinds of videos. Some are made specifically to be a vehicle for ads. You know what I mean, those 10+ minute long videos on simple tricks, where a short clip would suffice. They also usually lack any markers or chapters which makes skipping through them infuriating. I understand the rage here, I hate those with a passion, too. But some long videos are excellent, well-made and informative. Perhaps when the OP needs the info right now he may be more stressed and less in control of himself?

bigstrat2003 2y ago

Videos absolutely suck for transmitting information, compared to text. I estimate that I can read an article about 10x faster than an equivalent video, they aren't even in the same ballpark. It boggles my mind that so many people prefer videos, given how much slower they are. It's enough to make me cynically wonder if people these days are illiterate or something.

Schiendelman 2y ago
I suspect it's because they can't focus on text - their devices have 2000 notifications distracting them. Video is more easily engaging, they're less likely to switch away.
- ghaff 2y ago
  I daresay thee average user would be a lot better off if they disabled all but a very small handful of notifications.
  - lukan 2y ago
    The average user likely does not know, that even the option exists.
    - Schiendelman 2y ago
      It's getting better. Apple's summarizing multiple notifications coming in 18.1 (you can try this in the beta today) and only highlighting "important" notifications by default. I haven't seen any evidence of them abusing this, either.
jsjohnst 2y ago
> I estimate that I can read an article about 10x faster than an equivalent video Especially due to all the filler b/s that every YT video has these days, be it over sharing their back story, Like and Subscribe! (And ding that bell!), sponsored ad reads, here’s my ten other videos you need to watch, etc etc.

geoffeg 2y ago

I'm always surprised at how many non-tech people don't know about their browser's ability to search in the page. I've been on multiple calls at work with researchers who have been in the field for more than a decade and they'll read the entire page instead of hitting ctrl-f.

Am4TIfIsER0ppos 2y ago

> terrible at video scrubbing It is partly the form, video, but more so the access method, the network. All networked video sucks at skimming through because the file isn't cached and takes a few milliseconds to several seconds to load the part you jumped to. The interface also doesn't help because usually they lack controls for skipping forwards and backwards and long jumps forwards and backwards.

Workaccount2 2y ago

Google has been trialing AI overviews of youtube videos, essentially it opens a gemini chat where gemini has been prompt-stuffed with the whole video. A 12 minute "Here is my favorite method for unclogging a drain" video becomes a three sentence reply from gemini telling you what it is. I don't know how google is gonna get this past creators if they fully role it out, as it is a massive shameless backstab, but at the same time it is wonderful for viewers who don't want to trudge through filler video after clickbait headlines.

sitkack 2y ago
Wow, it is a backstab! They force creators to make longer videos or they won’t get monitized and then do this. Creators get paid by the watch minutes.
- mhh__ 2y ago
  They've been doing that for a while though e.g. a specific (say) 31s segment of a video will come in the search results rather than just a link to a popular video
yazzku 2y ago
Text -> video -> text It's come full circle, just that the wheel now consumes orders of magnitude more power to churn the final text.

arprocter 2y ago

I didn't realize how bad this has gotten until I was looking for a GPU undervolting guide What could be a couple of paragraphs is stretched into a 5-10 minute video; most of which is explaining what it is, and not how to do it

TacticalCoder 2y ago

> I can't stand watching videos on something I need information for <right now>. Maybe I'm just terrible at video scrubbing Do not worry: in a very short while we'll all have AI tools, running locally, that can summarize videos in textual forms in a split second. Prompt: "Summarize this vid in five paragraphs. List specs." It already exists. In a short while we'll all have this at home. P.S: prompt: "Remove every single ad and submarine content too".

thrwaway1985882 2y ago
Replacing "downloading 2kb of text on a device with minimal technical specs" with "buying a top-end computer to download hundreds of megabytes of video & shove it into an LLM to mangle and hallucinate the message down into 2kb of text". Thank god for progress. What would we do without it.
Sakos 2y ago
I'm waiting for it to become more convenient, but no joke this is what I've been doing. When I find interesting videos about software development, I'll often use Whisper to create a transcript and then upload it to Claude to summarise, then I can ask it questions about the content as well as explore related topics and ask it for further reading.
amyjess 2y ago
Of course, that assumes the AI won't just hallucinate and give you false information. Which is a major problem with current LLMs.