Android: revanced manager
Pc: firefox+ublock+dearrow+sponsorblock
AndroidTv: smartTubeNext
I haven’t seen an ad in years
I wouldn’t call them ‘better’ alternatives. They’re easier to install for sure. Personally, I’ve used revanced, newpipe, and libretube and love them all. I stuck with newpipe, since that’s what my family uses now, and it’s easier to troubleshoot when I have it too. And revanced takes some steps, more than just “install this package, done”.
And revanced takes some steps, more than just “install this package, done”.
It depends. Personally I patch it and then share the patched apk with friends and family, so for them it’s literally just “install this package, done” without compromising security.
I’d say they are objectively better, because are independent, free & open source apps, instead of relying on patching Google’s proprietary software.
Obligatory post mentioning that Freetube exists on Android as well. With Syncthing, I sync history, playlists and subscriptions. It’s brilliant.
iOS DID have Yattee, but it’s basically unusable at this point unless I’m doing something terribly wrong on my end. Every time I try to use it, even when signed in, I get errors no matter which back end I use.
I use the Orion browser with uBlock Origin installed and get 0 ads on YouTube.
Firestick: https://www.firesticktricks.com/
They have actually started serving ads with a skip button… That only skips to the next ad.
That’s been a thing for years now like back before I got premium which was at least 4 years ago the skip button would skip the first ad and then bring you into a timed ad afterward that you couldn’t skip, was obnoxious as hell
I got premium
Don’t expect things to improve after happily paying consecutive ransoms.
it’s improved for me, as someone who easily watches 20ish hours of video a week It’s worth it for me to not have to deal with all the hassle of ad block on it. I run a pihole for everything else but the cat and mouse game got old. I currently get my money’s worth, but if it raises much further I’ll cancel.
This presents a good demonstration of what we can expect Alphabet / Google / Youtube to do if ever it should win its war on adblockers, or convince people to watch YouTube without vetting. Any time it promises to compromise and make a tolerable user experience, it will ratchet up advertisement plugs until it becomes intolerable.
This is why we can’t relent, ever.
This is why we can’t relent
What are “we” doing? Not uninstalling our ad blockers? Its not as though people are boycotting the site. Just use Piped, ffs. No ads whatsoever. It’s a late-00s YouTube experience.
We the public have to keep making better ad blockers that better detect ads and prevent them from being displayed (or in some cases, activating their malware payload).
YouTube is trying to either detect ad blockers and deny service, or change the insertion paradigm so that ads cannot be blocked. We cannot let them succeed doing either.
Thats why i have a dumb tv with a little linux pc attached to it, so i can open piped and jellyfin in my librewolf browser.
- Go to <insert distro>.com
- Download iso
- burn iso to usb stick (ventoy!)
- install on pc
- install ublock origin on firefox
- done
also get a dumb tv ofc
edit: despite what people will say, ubuntu is still a rock solid distro. Alternatively, tumbleweed is brilliant too.
You don’t need a dumb TV, just switch the input. If your TV shows ads when connected to other inputs, yeet that TV out of your house today.
despite what people will say, ubuntu is still a rock solid distro. Alternatively, tumbleweed is brilliant too.
real!! just do the thing to disable snaps and it’s perfect for anyone
EDIT: actually turns out snaps have gotten really good lately, ubuntu is still great!!!
Set up a mini PC like a used Lenovo ThinkCentre, install Linux, and add a keyboard with trackpad. Run Jellyfin and Piped on your homelab, then ‘obtain’ media for your Jellyfin-Instance. Enjoy TV without distractions or tracking!
Follow ups,
Whats the trackpad for?
Any guide on jellyfin setup?
Also homelab 😂😂
You could also use Chromecast with SmartTube. Works like a charm. Let me know if you need help with it.
Are you me? Except I use FreeTube instead of Piped. I am so happy with this solution. Years of discontent of watching services going through the enshittification cycle… everything just becoming so underwhelming. This has given me back freedom over my own media consumption. No ads. No endless scrolling through bullshit content. Just a nicely personally curated selection of movies and TV shows (on Jellyfin) and an ad-free YouTube-experience with sponsorblock and dearrow enabled, and blocking of live chats and shorts.
what model? im looking into getting a dumb tv myself but havent found anything good
Well its just old sony tv and i am looking for a replacement with better quality and it is pretty hard to find anything. I will probably just go with a smart tv and never connect it to the internet. You can hack samsung TVs to jump straight into a hdmi input so i will probably do that even tho i am not happy with it.
Not only is this true and annoying, but other things about the ads are getting worse, too.
I recently had to factory reset my TV and, after the first time I opened the YouTube app, immediately had to find the “don’t play video preview” option. It worked, except for the huge banner ad at the top of the list of videos, which still saw fit to play with deafening sound when I didn’t immediately change the video selection. I can’t find a setting to disable this.
Also, I’ve noticed the “fewer ads for this long video” message popping up during videos longer than thirty minutes (and now it seems like longer than twenty minutes). Not only is that message condescending like they’re doing me a favor, but I’m pretty sure it’s not true, at least not by much; and the ads are definitely longer and mostly unskippable.
Like someone else says in this thread, it feels like extortion.
Try this, if your TV can run it: https://smarttubeapp.github.io/ No ads, and there is even sponsor block included, so you don’t have to hear the annoying „segue to our sponsor“ and „please like and subscribe“ nonsense.
