They finally shut off my premium account in Argentina for $3 and now I’ve been blasted with ads so much it’s unbearable. Like 3 ads every 3 mins pretty much.
Maybe I can try again in another country but I’m pretty sure they’re wise to it and demand a card used be of the same country too.
It’s fine on my phone but on the tvs where I mostly consume it’s hell on earth!
God damn YouTube. Why do we like it so much.
You can usually pay a radom guy in any latin American country who makes a business sharing family accounts for netflix etc. or just get ublock origin.
Try Invidious
I’ve heard there’s too many issues and they have to keep one step ahead of YouTube all the time and it’s getting difficult. Plus, can’t use that on TV
Any good instances? All I’ve tried are dead
I am seriously thinking of cobbling together a cheap pc just to plug into my TV to watch things like YouTube without the ads.
I know right. I have Apple TV because it’s awesome and doesn’t have Ads everywhere like Google and fire tv.
I’m thinking an android tablet with revanced or similar and casting to the tv…
I’ve got smartube on my fire TV
Casting on ReVanced will still have ads, because the ads are baked into the cast feature. The ad removal only works for the app itself.
doesn’t have Ads everywhere like Google and fire tv.
yet.
I’m not sure if it counts as an AD but seems like an AD, many many moons ago (I think when Apple TV+ was introduced), they changed the “home screen” with the apps in your Apple TV to an Apple TV+ one with their content (and some linked from other platforms).
The apps view still exists but now the “home” button gets you to the Apple TV+ one unless you click it again from there (unless you accidentally scrolled a bit and the button) or double click it to open the menu with the recently opened apps.
You can change the home button behaviour in the settings to take you to the app view.
It’s the world’s medium length video platform. If there’s an indie creator that’s good he’s there. Of course we like the whole world’s content that’s fed to us by an incredibly sophisticated algorithm.
You could try SmartTube
It’s a great product. It is thanklessly maintained by a single developer who is constantly fighting Youtube changes to break it. If you do use it and like it, and you can afford it, please consider a few bucks a month via patreon to keep it alive.
It is thanklessly maintained by a single developer
A lot of these services are just passion projects by odd individual developers who create something for themselves and then share it with the rest of the world.
Github is great for this kind of spontaneous innovation. But it doesn’t do a good job of organizing communities at large. Why have six different “YouTube cleanup service” alternatives when you could have a single collaborative team working towards the same end-goal? Why are people constantly trying to “fix” YouTube when what we really seem to want is an alternative media host?
Like 3 ads every 3 mins pretty much.
It’s crazy on both ends of the pipeline. Like, if I’m an advertiser, I want my content to be relatively exclusive. I don’t want to be the twelfth ad you see in an hour. If I’m a consumer, I want a continuous uninterrupted stream of media. I don’t want a service that repeatedly cuts out, spams me with some volume-adjusted bullshit, and then cuts back in again seemingly at random.
Yeah I honestly don’t mind a short ad in between videos like the old days. But this shit right now is horrible, forcing people on to premium. YouTube don’t care about the creators they just want subs.
Google asking me for €13 a month? Their empire is built upon selling user data. Fuckers should be paying us.
And if you’re a content creator, you can opt in to allow your content to be used by AI… Without compensation. 🤡
At least that’s opt-in, unlike them using your Wi-Fi SSID to fine tune their location settings. Not only was that opt-out but you had to change your router settings (either change your SSID, which isn’t hard but shouldn’t be required, or hide your network, which alienated guests when mobile data wasn’t so ever present). I don’t even know if there’s still a (simple) way out.
But yes. The option you describe is clearly ridiculous.
I thought it was based around BSSID which cannot be changed on most devices. Changing SSID helps?
Well, last time I looked was many years ago, so it might no longer be true. However, supposedly, adding
_NOMAPor something like that would prevent your network from being recorded. As I said, though, that was a long time ago and, of course, trusting Google to not record anything at your request was always a fool’s game.Yes, it’s bssid (the wifi mac address) which is collected by streetview cars as they pass by.
Back when I researched this (which, as mentioned previously, was a long time ago), it was just the SSID. Possibly (probably) they were also collecting the BSSID but I don’t think they were publicly admitting it at that time.
The funny thing is, I’m nearly certain that it’s opt-in for their benefit (i.e. legal reasons) and not because it benefits the content creator, because it really doesn’t benefit the content creator at all! “Here’s my work. Do what you like with it, and don’t worry about paying.”.
I suspect any time Google gives you a choice about anything, especially anything regarding data, it’s not for your benefit. With that in mind, you’re likely right.
As with most things in the modern world that have gone to shit. It is not the monetization scheme in of itself that is the issue. It is the never ending desire for more profit this quarter than last forever.
If it was acceptable to stop trying to make even more once the cost to operate is covered and some healthy profit is made predictably then a lot less people would have issues. And enshitification would slow down.
The 1080p non-premium looks like shit, not better than 720p. I think they reduced the Bitrate a lot and premium restors the original Bitrate.
Bitrates have always been garbage to be fair
uBlock Origin 🥳
I see this recommendation all the time. It frustrates me. I’m in favor of blocking ads and modding clients and whatever it takes to optimize one’s experience, but the majority - by far - of my YouTube experience takes place on my TV. I can’t do much to control it (pihole and other DNS solutions don’t work on YouTube since their ads are hosted in the same servers as their videos).
I could perform various modifications to the operating system of my TV, and trust me it’s tempting for a lot of reasons, but it was a very expensive (by my standards) TV so I want to at least wait until the warranty expires until I start experimenting.
I could also use something hooked up to my TV and mod that, which is my favorite idea, but my wife likes the interface as it is. It’s an LGTV with the … Sigh … “Magic” remote, which I absolutely hate, but I don’t want to take it away from her. It seems like that interface, especially the “magic” cursor, would be hard to replicate. I’d prefer not to go through the tedium of having two different systems.
Especially because we also have a console hooked up and no solution I’ve found so far has provided a simple way of switching between HDMI sources without running a disgusting number of cables. I did recently order a new receiver, so hopefully that helps with the multiple origins issue.
Obviously this is very much a a first world problem, and I apologize for my privilege, I just wanted to point out that uBO (or other software based solutions) aren’t always the solution.
Thank you for the recommendation and I’ll investigate this.
I haven’t personally used it, but a buddy likes it.
You’re me but elsewhere it seems.
I don’t have a solution either unfortunately
I certainly haven’t had time to investigate them, but there are one or two decent solutions proposed in this thread. So far I think the “dev mode” suggestion is my favorite idea. I’ll look into that and try to remember to let you know how it goes.
Thanks for bringing this up, because it frustrates me as well. Most of the time I’m watching on a TV, and there’s no way to block YT ads on a TV. The people I share my house with aren’t technical and will watch YouTube even with ads. So to keep them out of my house I pay for YT premium.
Suggesting that people just do something technical and janky to block ads isn’t a solution for me, not because I can’t do it, but because there’s no way my family will do it.
It has been frustrating to read the various solutions that are all for PC or mobile, but there are some good solutions in this thread. Mad_Punda, who also replied to you separately, had what - at a glance - seemed like a pretty viable solution. Hopefully the new receiver I mentioned fixes things for me, but if not, I’ll be looking into his suggestion.
Good luck to you; though I don’t wish you to suffer, it’s nice to know I’m not alone.
I think there are ways, will likely vary by TV brand. I’ve set it up for my LG TV at home, it’s better than premium.
Edit: to clarify, I didn’t set up uBlock, I set up the TV with a patched TY app that has ad block and sponsor block. The latter makes it better than premium.
Oh and I can remove shorts.
If your wife wants her familiar interface with ads, then she made the choice that you’re watching ads on YouTube on your TV.
I agree. Once my warranty expires or I get brave enough to tinker with the OS hopefully the “ads” part will no longer be relevant.
I totally get that, I have a few suggestions since I’ve been in the same situation for years and have recently improved it.
Our Yamaha stereo takes many HDMI inputs, and has a single TV output, so the TV never needs to change inputs. It’s quite easy and quick on the Yamaha.
I bought a Raspberry Pi 500 for ~$100 US and am loving it. I think it could use a speed upgrade (I hear the SD card will do it). Of course it’s mouse and keyboard, but we only use it for Netflix, YouTube, etc, so it was easy to make shortcuts and get a small/nice living room keyboard/mouse combo.
It’s led to zero ads, and the household discussion was like “would you trade some ease of use to not see this stupid ad?” And we both agreed that it’s worth it. So far it’s been really nice.
Thank you for the recommendation! I have, at this point, probably five forms of HDMI splitters, including at least two receivers (though admittedly no stereos). Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get any of them working with the TV. I think, though I can’t confirm, that HDCP is the problem. The best I’ve managed to do is a multitude of sources plugged into the the splitter, but only two of them working; specifically my (original) switch and (also original) Steam Deck seem to be pretty recalcitrant.
I’m hoping the problem is the splitter / receiver. The new one, which promises HDCP compatibility, is set to arrive in four days. My fingers are metaphorically crossed. I’ve already replaced everything else but the consoles, so the next troubleshooting step, replacing the consoles, would be much more expensive.
I’ve been eyeing this little gadget, maybe it would solve the inconvenience issue?
Logitech K400 on all my machines!
thank you! i was hesitant to get one that was unbranded, but i am more inclined to get one by Logitech!
I have three of them and I love them! One TINY complaint is that if I’m all fucked up on drugs, the thumb sweat makes the touchpad very difficult to use. But that’s only a couple times a year, so it’s not a huge deal. My oldest is like eight years old and I have spilled on it, and it still works!
Living room? Logitech k400!
LG AI Voice Remote?! That’s a huge no from me dawg hahaha
All of my screens just have computers hooked up to them, controlled by wireless keyboards with built-in touchpads. Adblocking on everything!
May I ask which devices (computers/keyboards) do you use for your screens? I’d like to do the same, since we mostly watch the same TV channels in my house and one subscription would cover most of the content my family watches.
Sure! I have a bunch o Logitech k400s controlling some standard windows 10 PCs, and a couple screens have Raspberry Pis connected. Even a very old windows computer can run 1440p videos or YouTube just fine if it has a solid state drive, and those are mega cheap now!
Thanks! I’ll check which similar hardware I can find near me :D
If I lived alone, this would be the way for me as well.
I recently spoke to LG support, rather at length, about an unrelated issue. During that conversation I asked if there was a way to turn off the “magic” cursor because fuck do I hate it. Apparently, there is: turn on narration - that is, the accessibility option that reads anything you highlight on screen in case you have vision issues. Why are the two things related, you ask, and why is it a binary option? I’m sure the answer is because LG leadership wants you to use the cursor, but apparently they couldn’t think of a PR friendly answer, because every time I asked support changed the subject.
edit: Fun fact: yesterday I complained about LG support. Today all features of my LG TV (other than the screen) stopped working and I came down to find my wife using the console to watch YouTube. I … Guess I got what I wanted?
Woof… I’m so sorry you hafta deal with that. I hate anything listening to me. D: I’m thankful both my partner and myself love using keyboard with touchpad.
I love my wife extensively and for many reasons, but her respect for privacy concerns is not among them.
Even if you have a device connected to your TV to block ads when you’re using Youtube, nothing prevents her from using the TV OS when she does.
That’s why I mentioned the console. She and our kid both use that pretty extensively. Obviously I can switch the HDMI cables around manually as necessary, but they’re in a fairly awkward spot and I have some mobility issues. Once the new receiver arrives, I hope to be able to switch between devices using a remote, at which point I’m more likely to be plausibly able to do this.
Your general point is acknowledged and appreciated, though.
I recently set up dev mode on my LG TV and installed a patched version of YouTube with ad block and sponsor block. I don’t think this voids warranty.
If there’s interest I could look up the instructions I used (I’m traveling right now).
If things don’t work out with the receiver, I’ll look into this. Thank you for the suggestion.
Yes, certainly, fuck their ads; but that wont restore the degraded resolution now will it.
Maybe it’s more expensive in Europe, my premium is 7.99 usd
More than you think, actually. My wife recently signed up. I’m like, Babe! I already have uBlock Origin to block ads on desktop! On mobile, Firefox also blocks ads and allows listening to videos with the screen off. 😫
But, we still get ads on our smart LG TV. So. That’s apparently enough to throw the money away.
We csncelled all streaming and use plex but we watch too much YouTube and am tired of having to keep up with versions of pirate apps every time they break. I already deal with having to keep patching the newest youtube apk with vanced on my phone. Not gonna bother for all the other devices.
we still get ads on our smart LG TV
That’s when I hit the mute button, hold the remote with my finger on the OK button ready to skip, and use the remote to block my view of anything but the bottom right corner of the screen. Then when I see the skip button appear, I can click it.
Recently I have discovered that I can just use the “why this ad?” menu and select “return to video”. That way you can skip any ad before the timer runs out.
Exact same story. It’s frustrating.
It’s okay to pay for a service that you use daily.
I don’t, but I disagree it’s “to throw money away”.
Especially if you can finagle a subscription out of one of the cheaper countries, too!
Does that still work? Thought to have read here and there that Google is cracking down on that loophole? Maybe not (yet) if you are an existing ‘foreign’ sub.
Finally gave in to a 2 month free trial of YouTube premium this week. Not planning on buying into it however when the trial expires. But with the holidays thought it was a good time to accept the trial for two full months.
They are getting stricter, but there are still ways around it - and it only gets easier if you have friends/family (or are willing to make friends) in said countries; the internet is a global community, after all.
Look into getting SmartTube for the TV. Works pretty great for me
Browbeating people into buying services continues to be unpopular, film at 11.
I’d try it if they finally offered us a one year subscription period here in europe. they don’t. their loss 🤷♂️
My girlfriend said the same thing about Korea. Google keeps getting in their own way of selling a good service
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wow, premium in the usa is expensive. it’s a little under $3 per month here in india for the family plan and even that’s after a recent 16% hike. the individual plan is even cheaper.
i guess these rates are in store for us as well in the future?
That’s the Euro symbol. Just FYI.
Depends on economies, they can’t really charge like double minimum wage, so countries like India have “cheaper” subscriptions. So for a minimum wage worker, it’s about the same in terms of expense (ignoring other bill differences).
So it’s probably going to stay about the same for you.
Is this something that could be gamed with a vpn possibly?
Yes. I’m in Europe paying Pakistan prices. You just need to find a location that doesn’t require a local payment method.
Does that require you to watch via vpn all the time or just when you make the account?
Just when making the subscription.
Would that be Pakistan? Asking for a friends dogs friends owner…
Correct. There’s cheaper locations like Turkey but YMMV and you need to do it via iPhone/iDevice through the apple pay method and create a local apple account and I don’t remember the specifics.
Yeah… I pay for premium and I’m not proud of it…
This has been a thing for a while now, hasn’t it? I remember trying to watch the Noseferatu trailer a few months ago and seeing how shit it looked. Tried to up the quality only to see that it was paywalled
Thought it was always that way.
It’s a year or two old at the most
Yes. And I thought that’s how it always had been.
I’ve just seen it for the first time now. Might be because I’m situated in Europe? Or because I mostly don’t give a damn about the pixel count.
Possibly, I don’t think its on every video
trailer
I mean, that’s an advertisement. I feel like if you’re going to watch an ad, that the company trying to sell the product should find a way to have the ad in full quality themselves.
It looks like the official website does use YouTube, though.
At least according to YouTube, the enhanced bitrate option is higher than 1080p normal has ever been
But what about the new normal 1080p? Has it been reduced?
Personal experience, but I feel like it has. Especially on videos with a lot of still frames like 3blue1brown, you can see the still images become slightly better quality after all the animations stopped. I noticed a few months ago and saw 1080p premium as an option.
No, at least according to YouTube
It’s obviously noticeable from the ones they don’t pull this shit on.
I never noticed a quality difference on my phone due to the small screen, even 1080p to 720p wasn’t bad on my 4k TV. Also, when did they change the free trial from three months to one?
when did they change the free trial from three months to one?
When they decided FUCK YOU!!! PAY US MONEY FASTER!!!
I don’t notice it on a 75" TV.
But when 99% of the content on YouTube is struggling to just get focusing right, pursuing higher quality bitrates is a useless priority. It’s all trash amateur TV. Resolution is not a factor here.
Isint higher bitrate better for busy scenes with lots of movement? Like games that have a lot going on or tall grass in the wind.
Yes
Depends. While compressing the video, it will create repetition,.artificial motion blur, etc. Either through software or directly on the device itself with its own software—GoPros are notoriously bad for this, for example.
Then when uploading to YT, it has its.own compression—because billions of petabytes—which will introduce your classic.nearest neighbour type compression problems. Colour spots, blurring, flat contrasts,.etc. All in an effort to keep bitrate and thus the file size down.
But as I said, it’s unusual to have content on YT of this quality where bitrate “ruins” the experience. There’s much worse problems at the forefront in amateur and/or.fast content video.
I can do all of them already without premium.
Pray tell how you have enhanced bitrate without premium.
Enhanced bitrate? Do you get smoother bits there? If it means “more cache”, that’s a setting in mpv.conf.
Better even, i have AI-upscaling.
Can’t yt-dlp download high bitrate videos? I think I saw this option in the list of formats.
I don’t think so - but I’d love to be proven wrong on this. I’m not sure what the other guy is on about.
