cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40372957
fyi:
- https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp lets you download videos (from youtube and also hundreds of other sites)
- for desktop, https://mpv.io/ is free and lets you watch youtube (or any other video) at even more and faster speeds than youtube premium does, among many other features
- for android, https://newpipe.net/ lets you play youtube in the background (and download videos, and block ads, …)
- https://ublockorigin.com/ blocks ads everywhere (and yes it does still work on youtube, at least in firefox anyway)
I am not against paying for services to unlock extra features, but I utterly despise the way YouTube premium is entirely composed of features we had but they took away.
Years ago I understand why streaming services want to implement paid subscription. But now, I heard that even on premium you will still get ads! It is just milking more money at this stage!
How would you suggest they get people to pay?
Come up with new features that people would be willing to pay for.
How is that any different from shifting existing features to premium? If you aren’t paying you’re lucky to get anything.
I dont pay and I ad block everything. I’m surprised I can use the site at all. These features are nice to haves and not core to using YouTube.
I dont pay and I ad block everything. I’m surprised I can use the site at all.
3 billion active viewers is what makes up the majority of Alphabet’s stock value. The revenue from ads, donation extortion, and premium are peanuts. That’s why youtube will never go full paywall or hard ban ad blocker users.
For anyone wondering, only 4x speed is behind premium:
On mobile I can increment it by 0.05 up to 4x
Typical. Take it away, then charge to bring it back.
Play video in background
Was such a shamelessly sleazy was to try and twist arms into using their service. Nevermind that it just spawned a thousand different 3rd party tools for getting around this annoying limiter. It just felt like a huge red flag, indicating they were going to use their native app to be fucking annoying to their clients going forward.
Because where would we be if we couldn‘t CONSUME ENDLESS SLOP AT FOUR TIMES SPEED?! Seriously who needs this? This is sickening.
If you’re watching lectures from someone who talks really slow.
Slop comment aside, a lot of people with ADHD listen to videos at 1.5x or more speed because that’s how their brain works.
I watch a bunch of channels that are mostly talking and are 20+ minutes. I always put it on 1.5x speed and its barely noticeable and you get used to it. It saves me time without any loss of what was being shown so I consider it a win.
1 question, this feature already exists for non paying costumers, does this mean its going to be a pay for option only soon? That will piss me off…
I was thinking they’d cap the free speed up at either 1.5 or 2, but I don’t know
1.5x is totally legitimate but Youtube advertises 4x speed. They put 4x speed behind a paywall. That‘s ridiculous.
Tutorials where they are going through stuff you 90% understand already and you just need to find that juicy remaining 10%.
When you think about it, it’s not really that different from learning to read faster, which is a valued skill.
(There’s an argument to be made that for many things you’d be better off reading rather than watching YouTube vids at 4x but let’s not focus on that.)
Have you seen people who complain about written jnfo his video info? Its because they can read thr info faster than listening to it be said. But if you speed it up to 2x or 3x then it becomes the same as reading in terms of time. You get used to it over time. I can’t listen to anything at 1x speed anymore.
I’ve thought about dipping my toes into this but I don’t want to start getting antsy when people talk IRL
Do NOT do it. I dont think the time saved is worth it. It hasnt changed irl stuff for me but any media feels painfully slow. I had to listen to a 1hr video conference with a group on 1x speed and I felt like I was being tortured. I had to refocused myself every sentence because i couldn’t hold attention on sentences that were being said so slowly.
If you want to consume info fast then reading is way better.
This is me but backwards sort of. Media has always been painfully slow for me and it wasn’t until I found the playback speed settings that I could tolerate watching most things. ADHD is wild.
My boss uses a VPN and some other clandestine methods to subscribe via India, so he pays the equivalent of about £3 per month for premium.
I gave it a try, but could never quite manage. You need to fully turn off location services, use an Indian registered Gmail and pay via a credit card of some kind. I think you also need a registered address, but he just used one for a random hotel in Bangladesh.
… Or you could just use an ad blocker
Can you do that on a firestick?
Maybe a jailbroken one. But I have no idea, I’ve never used one.
You don’t really jailbreak them as such to get functionality. You just enable dev options and APKs from unknown sources. You can SSH onto them if you really want to go command line and dig around in the OS, but it’s not necessary.
VPN to Albania. No ads on free YouTube.
How does playing videos faster than x1 affect creators i actually want to watch? The Spiffing Brit did a thing a while ago about doubling their view time (and thus engagement) by having people watch the videos at 1/2 speed. If that was true it makes sense that watching it at 2x would only count as a half watch even if you watched all of it.
They are throttling top VPN ips, too. Can’t watch videos without them constantly buffering
Last night for the first time a video wouldn’t play for me at all, with a new error: VPN detected. Other videos were fine.
YouTube is the only subscription I maintain month to month. Its worth the 13 bucks for no ads, and a music service (to me)
Same, the algorithm seems to do recommendations a little better too but that might be my imagination. I dont pay for streaming services and my neighbors let me piggyback off their wifi so yt is my only internet expense.
Respectfully, ew.
I pay for premium to get rid of ads. Not convinced that adblockers will be a permanent and privacy friendly option but havent really explored it. But anything faster than maybe 2.35x is unintelligible, and not worth usint due to sound “tearing” issues (youtube lets you adjust it in 0.05x increments)
I’ve never liked YouTube.
I didn’t watch it when it was free. I didn’t watch it when it had ads. I don’t watch it now. It is bad. Most of the content on it is bad.
Super hot take that.
You do realise that there isn’t just one kind of content right?
Not trying to change your mind, I just feel like that’s a very narrow minded view of what is a vast wealth of human knowledge in video form.
I mainly watch tech/science stuff, super interesting and definitely has taught me stuff. Theres years worth of educational content on there.
Same. I mostly watch informative and educational videos on YouTube.
I am mostly on Nebula these days but it’s problem not to avoid YT because most content creators are still on the platform.
I feel like you can both be right, the sheer number of videos can have years of educational content while still being mostly SEO influencers and money leeching junk. If you go on it with a completely fresh account you’re going to see a bunch of brain rot before you tune your algorithm into good content.
Fair point.
I’m with you brother. Are there gems? I’m sure. For example, how to repair things. But 99% of it is garbage.
I never really liked youtube. But you’ve got to admit that sometimes, when you have a very niche tech problem, there is always one indian making just the right video for you.
I’ll admit that once upon a time someone would have written up the solution somewhere and now it’s buried in a fucking video.
The existence of this shitty platform makes the internet worse.
This is the worst part of YouTube. Just read the manual.
Got a 3 month free trial of it, honestly love the things I used to have. But it still stutters like shit and is a garbage feed of shit I don’t watch. I will not be paying when it’s used up.
How’s your Internet connection? I never get stuttering issues
More internet than I need, snd thankfully not spectrum. Not an internet issue.
TizenTube Cobalt or Smart Tube on AndroidTV
