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Comment on Google just broke *all* third-party web clients, including yt-dlp; a full JS implementation is now required.

Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Well the problem for google is that Youtube MUST be accessible to almost any internet user in the world - that’s a key reason why it’s so ubiquitous.

The reason this cat and mouse game has lasted as long as it has in the first place is because any method that is currently being quashed has a solution lying in another user agent that youtube can’t kill.

If one day YT sets a “minimum requirements” page on their website to access their content, they’ve immediately ceded market share to the next upstart. Imagine if they broke viewing for all of the countless cheap (and e-waste) phones, tablets, low end IOT devices, “smart TVs”, and so on because they place a requirement that the device cannot meet. Those users will not throw away their hardware - they’ll migrate to the first available alternative way to watch content.

As long as YT caters to the lowest common denominator (Their business model essentially binds them to do so), there will always be a software/hardware environment that these tools can spoof. The moment that stops being the case, people look for other options.

A similar analogy would be how Microsoft handled the windows 11 requirements - the strict requirements locking out years upon years of hardware has resulted in a substantial amount of users finding workarounds for their machines (like windows 10 IOT LTSC), or to even jump to linux entirely. They abandoned the entry level users, so entry level users are abandoning them.

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morrowind@lemmy.ml ⁨41⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

A similar analogy would be how Microsoft handled the windows 11 requirements - the strict requirements locking out years upon years of hardware has resulted in a substantial amount of users finding workarounds for their machines (like windows 10 IOT LTSC), or to even jump to linux entirely.

Staying in windows 10 sure, but I’ve yet to see much evidence people have been switching much to Linux.

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Chozo@fedia.io ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

If one day YT sets a "minimum requirements" page on their website to access their content, they've immediately ceded market share to the next upstart. Imagine if they broke viewing for all of the countless cheap (and e-waste) phones, tablets, low end IOT devices, "smart TVs", and so on because they place a requirement that the device cannot meet. Those users will not throw away their hardware - they'll migrate to the first available alternative way to watch content.

This all incorrectly assumes that there exists any viable competition to switch to. YouTube ran at a net loss for over a decade to get the reach they currently have, only because Google was one of the very few companies who could feasibly afford to do so. And most of the content people access YouTube for is only found on YouTube, so those hypothetical users aren't going to switch to a new platform, they're going to either just flat-out stop watching or will replace their devices.

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- morrowind@lemmy.ml ⁨35⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  Tiktok and intagam are standing by to at least take over short form video.
  
  Tiktok has also experimented with longer videos.
  
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- Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Users replacing their devices isn’t feasible in many parts of the world, especially outside of the west.
  
  You are correct that a service similar in scale and scope would not appear out of the aether due to the cost, but to say nothing would make a grab for those underserved users would be foolish.
  
  Again - the entry level cost conscious users do constitute a large part of Youtube’s userbase, so even if they are burdensome to support (due to ad blocking rates, required legacy features to upkeep, and so on), they are a core part of the audience that youtube serves. In an economic environment where people cannot afford to abandon their hardware, there is no chance they will opt out of receiving information and entertainment entirely because of their devices being unsupported by google’s sites. They will move to the next service in the chain, either existing or new. To google’s investors, that shrinkage in userbase may be untenable.
  
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  - MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    PeerTube or LBRY (The protocol, not Odysee) might help in that. As in decentralized instances focussing on specific content. All connected via hubs/open-protocols.
    
    Basically Decentralized or dustributed networks are key. The next hurdle is populating those platforms with content.
    
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    smnwcj@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Unfortunately video platforms are also much harder on small hosts. More storage, more bandwidth, harder to moderate.
    
    I feel like the solution might be a media management company, like buffer, offering to host videos directly and over a open protocols for a small upgrade in addition to posting to YT et all.
    
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DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Imagine if they broke viewing for all of the countless cheap (and e-waste) phones, tablets, low end IOT devices, “smart TVs”, and so on because they place a requirement that the device cannot meet. Those users will not throw away their hardware - they’ll migrate to the first available alternative way to watch content.

Not-so-fun fact, this is exactly what ATSC 3 is trying to do for OTA broadcast TV.

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- Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  ATSC 3 ?
  
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  - DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    New broadcast standard which if implemented as intended, will use Widevine DRM to encrypt/decrypt streams, and require a web connection to view previously free OTA broadcasts, also that DRM will limit what you can do with it, as Rossmann puts it early on in his ‘this is why I show these things in my vids’ vid. …gravitywell.xyz/…/61332f1b-9a15-46b6-8a97-c4e378…
    
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    Kyrgizion@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I would be alarmed, if there was still anything worth watching on TV.
    
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    Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Damn. Hopefully some capture mechanism will exist so piracy sites can still reupload a backup.
    
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