Seems like Piped and Invidious are both on their last legs. Public instances on both services are pretty iffy, they go down fairly often now. Freetube works well on desktop but no real way to sync subscriptions and watch history to a phone. Self-hosting Piped/Invidious might be the solution but I don’t know if it’s worth the upkeep when YouTube is actively fighting against it.

  • ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Stop using chrome! You cannot win using the browser provided by google. On Firefox adblock still works like a charm.

        • jana@leminal.space
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          1 year ago

          uBlock Origin is the one that used to be relevant, but their anti-ad-blocking pop-up has made the site unusable for me lately.

          I’m sure uBO will eventually work again but for now, no dice.

          • ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Ok, then I guess my location is not being targeted yet. uBlockOrigin with NoScript works well for me. There where a couple of slipups about a month ago, but hitting F5 would usually be enough.

  • snap@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Automatic daily downloads of all my favorite channels and watching them via jellyfin. Good enough for me

    • bl4kers@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      That sounds cool. Does Jellyfin handle the downloading or is that something else?

        • wzrd@eviltoast.orgOP
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          1 year ago

          TubeSync sounds like a good alternative for what I’m looking for. I’ve already got a Jellyfin server running so this will be perfect. Here’s a link for those interested TubeSync

  • ram@bookwormstory.social
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    1 year ago

    I found a smaller instance of Invidious whose been taken down and rolled over to a new IP within a couple hours. I’m feeling pretty safe where I’m at.

    Long term I’d like to see PeerTube become a viable alternative but I don’t really see that happening.

  • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I use NewPipe + SponsorBlock on Android, and I let Libredirect direct YouTube links to a working Piped instance. Sure, sometimes instances don’t work or go down, but I’ve not seen any signs that it’s on its “last legs.”

    • wzrd@eviltoast.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      Some days are good and videos load just fine, but a majority of days no videos load even though the site is still up. I’ve experienced this on official instances and smaller instances. I mentioned last legs because of the recent breaking changes YouTube made, took some time for Piped devs to make a fix. Github Issue.

      • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        NewPipe has worked pretty reliably for me throughout all that. I did notice LibreTube required switching instances a lot more often (which is actually why I switched back to NewPipe).

        Hopefully, they’ll be able to keep things working. If not, YouTube’s never been much more than a fun novelty to me, so I wouldn’t miss it too much.

      • MrSilkworm@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m trying to setup an ADGUARD Add On through Home Assistant, but I’m having difficulties to set it up. Once I’m done all the local network will be Ad free, so it includes all the smart TVs and their apps

        • Psythik@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Hate to burst your bubble, but no you won’t. Unless you know something I don’t, adblockers don’t work on smart TVs. I’ve tried various apps, DNS blocking, even installed an adblocker on my router; still get ads on my TV. Drives me fucking nuts.

          Eventually I gave up and just use SmartTube for YT, and Streamio for movies and TV. If I can’t block ads in apps, then I simply won’t use those apps. Unfortunately that doesn’t solve the problem of ads on the home screen, but it’s the best I can do.

          • MrSilkworm@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No bubble burst. One cannot know everything. I hate wasting time in things that cannot be done. I’ll try to use smart Tube for YT on my smart TVs. Thanks for your feedback .

  • xvlc@feddit.de
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    1 year ago
    • Browser: I selfhost Piped
    • Mobile: NewPipe works fine
    • Subscriptions: I use RSS to subscribe to my favorite channels. No account required
  • onlinepersona@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    mpv 🤷 Don’t have to see ads anymore. The day I can’t watch it without seeing ads, is the day I stop using youtube.

    On the phone: NewPipe.

    Everytime I open youtube, I struggle to find something to watch. Most of the videos I watch are linked to from third-party sites.

      • onlinepersona@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        It can play individual videos or playlists with the help of yt-dlp or youtube-dl (I think the former is more active than the latter).

    • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      New pipe on the phone works pretty well. Better than YouTube ads. Although you can’t directly watch shorts without searching for them (as far as I know). I just watch those on Firefox with adblock.

      Would recommend though.

  • Devjavu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    LibreTube has the most beautiful UI although it’s sometimes unstable. Latest releases have been a lot more stable and improving. Has integrated Sponsorblock. I like it more than other clients as they either have worse video quality if they don’t use Piped or just look bad, like the NewPipe client. Keep in mind that without an account, no matter what option you use to view, you will not be able to be part of a community. I like that I am kind of shut off, as I do not like the way the Algorithm keeps me from my favourite channels and feeds me shit, but this makes Youtube essentially just a video platform instead of a social media platform.

    • opt9@feddit.ch
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      1 year ago

      Yes, people should not be looking for ways to watch youtube secretly, but support alternative platforms that don’t censor and intimidate people?

  • FlappyBubble@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    As a archiver/data hoarder I use Tube Archivist that downloads videos from my subscriptions using sponsorblock to cut out ads. Then I use a script that tags the content and present them in Jellyfin with all info, sorted by channel and year.

    This way I also have everything saved and no logging from YouTube of my viewing habits apart from what’s my subscriptions.

    Not perfect, but close to it.

  • pluja@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Selfhosted Piped instance. LibreTube with my instance on mobile, the piped web ui for the rest.

    When you selfhost an instance, it works way better than any public one with many users.