I’ve started bulk downloading videos with yt-dlp and watching them locally. No ads or throttling to deal with.
Google is intentionally throttling YouTube videos, slowing down users with ad blockers
Submitted 10 months ago by mesamunefire@piefed.social to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/streaming-video/google-throttling-youtube-adblock-users
Comments
SpicyTaint@lemmy.world 10 months ago
gruhuken@slrpnk.net 9 months ago
I’ve been doing this with band love videos and storing them on a hard drive. One I love for taken down and almost lost a whole back and it’s made me paranoid ha
Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
DVRs are back in 2025. Who would have thought?
pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
This is the way.
When YouTube wanted to throw me some entertainment and a couple ads, very conveniently, I was down for that.
Now that it’s an all out technology knowledge battle - well, I’m quite good at that.
So I spend the time I would have laughed at their ad instead working around their bullshit.
I haven’t seen an ad in years, but I still enjoy the same content. 🤷♀️
To me, it seems like they’re working really hard, just to fail to serve me ads.
Psythik@lemm.ee 9 months ago
I would but my issue with that is that SponsorBlock doesn’t work on downloaded videos.
B_DL@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
I’m new to yt-dlp. Care to share your flags? I’m a little confused on which ones I actually need.
OwlPaste@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I like github.com/ArabCoders/ytptube gui. Only started using it yesterday, so far for indovidual videos. However it looks like it can also watch new videos being uploaded, thought not tried it myself.
Use docker compose for quick deployment
SpicyTaint@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’m a filthy Windows user that’s too lazy to migrate my main PC to Fedora.
> Path\to\yt-dlp.exe -P <target directory> <URL>Multiple URLs can be separated by spaces. Put any URLs with ampersands in quotes or remove the ampersand and following arguments.
theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I’ll wait.
the_abecedarian@piefed.social 10 months ago
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Oh no, where will I get my AI slop?
Agent641@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Like it or not, YouTube still has a fuckton of good, informative tutorials and advice on how to fix things or make things made by individuals with a phone camera and no script, who make them not for money but for the pride in sharing their knowledge. I shared some fix it videos for my van and a very obscure phone, and consumed a lot of fix it videos for washing machines, motorbikes and furniture.
mesamunefire@piefed.social 9 months ago
Give it a couple of years. AI is just getting started.
bassomitron@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This. YouTube is extremely helpful for anyone who can’t afford to take their stuff to a repair service or hire someone to fix something at their home. Just a few months ago, I thought my washer was done for, but it turned out to be a super simple fix that no website mentioned except for a super obscure YouTube video with only a couple hundred views. Saved me hundreds of dollars. There’s countless other anecdotes like that over the years.
This is what sucks so much about Google’s monopoly. I truly wish a cooperative of governments of academia created a publicly funded alternative as well as hosting an archive of YouTube on it.
RedEyeFlightControl@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yeah they are, I noticed it get really, really bad this week. It’s an awful experience. But they’ll leave my browser before my adblocker does.
Psythik@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Same. When I opened the Stats for Nerds pop-up, I noticed that I was being throttled to 1500kbps. Anything above 720p was unplayable this week.
But apparently the Ublock Origin devs yet again figured out another workaround, because streaming speeds are back to normal for me as of yesterday.
stebo02@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
just use invidious instead
Carrot@lemmy.today 9 months ago
It’s not perfect, but I use grayjay. They have an android app and a desktop client, and are usually pretty quick to make updates that will sidestep Google’s anti-adblocking measures (within 1-2 days.) Again, not perfect, but I don’t mind a slightly worse experience to avoid having to see an ad. Plus it has sponsor block support built right in
RedEyeFlightControl@lemmy.world 9 months ago
This doesn’t seem very straightforward…
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
This is also a good beginner way to learn about self hosting in docker.
Freetube can make a great backup for when google inevitably breaks something.
And for thise videos you really cant miss there is always yt-dlp scripted to download a channels latests video on a schedule straight to jellyfin of course.
I have not visited the youtube website in more then a year.
zurohki@aussie.zone 10 months ago
The thing is, their anti-adblocking measures are still less unpleasant than actually watching ads.
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 10 months ago
100%. Half the time I get blocked due to VPN or whatever I just close the tab and go with my life. The rest of the time I try all known workarounds. If those fail, I just go with my life.
My hatred for monopolisation and enshittification is stronger than my desire to watch content on any platform.
Trihilis@ani.social 9 months ago
Lol, this is exactly why I use Lemmy. Sure there might be less engagement than reddit. But I’d rather gargle a bucket of diarrhea than go back to that shitty place.
LucidNightmare@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Amen.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
I’ve been seeing this for a couple weeks now along with a popup telling me “ad blockers aren’t allowed” at work where I’m forced to use Chrome. I have UBlock Lite installed. Typically a refresh takes care of the popup and a 10 second delay later, the video loads.
myreel@lemm.ee 9 months ago
I switched to Firefox basically as soon as ublock origin didn’t work on chrome. It was easier than I thought it would be.
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
I run portable Firefox on my work PC. I refuse to use chrome. some of our apps require Edge, but outside of that, I don’t touch chrome.
OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
uBlock Lite is simply not as potent, so it’s understandable it can be beaten. Almost like Google is abusing their monopoly
Coolbeanschilly@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
It’s a good thing I’m patient when it comes to when the videos load. If they keep doing this, I’ll just find another platform. Nebula seems like it has the same types of videos I like to watch.
Of course, I can get into PeerTube as well.
mesamunefire@piefed.social 10 months ago
Yeah Peertube is awesome. It already scales very well with its tech. Its been growing too. I think its good to have multiple alternatives. Its a good free option.
Ultimately the platform is the last important part of watching a video. If the creators can get more $$/activity going somewhere else they will. It happened to Vimeo, it will happen to Youtube.