Alternative YouTube clients having issues loading videos
It seems YT started another attempt at blocking alternative clients. They changed something in their API and both SmartTube and Tubular (NewPipe fork) are completely broken. Apparently it started happening this past week, but we personally just felt it today.
Edit: SmartTube already has an update but still not working for 4K videos it seems. Tubular still not working but it might be due to the upstream (NewPipe) is still working on a fix.
Freetube is broken. It only works if you use the Invidious API, but the FreeTube API is broken at the moment. They created a fix, but it did not reach me yet on the Flatpak / Flathub version.
Freetube does work; it simply requires you switch to the Invidious API or have "Fallback to non-preferred API on Failure" enabled. (which honestly you always should have this setting ON).
Personally; I refuse to change my preferred API; so the "Fallback to non-preferred API on Failure" just works.
also yt-dlp does work but you need to upgrade to latest nightly/build.
yt-dlp version nightly@2024.07.09.232843 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds [d2189d3d3]
I should point out that this isn't always "Google is trying to block adblockers" again!
Google can, will, and does simply change how the YouTube watch pages look, feel and operate behind the scenes quite regularly.
Thankfully we have people like those at the FreeTube, NewPipe and yt-dlp projects to sift through those changes and update the code to cope with the new output.
We as a collective should be figuring out how to remunerate content creators on alternative platforms in non-shady ways (aka no crypto). I think it's part of the reason content creators don't put their stuff on platforms like peertube, dtube, or whatever else exists. With no monetary incentive, it'll stay niche and we'll be reliant on youtube until that's resolved.
What would be an unopinionated party? 🤔 And at some point a bank does come into play. Even if peertube had the possibility to transfer funds directly between banks, that would still be a third party. Or would you consider that an unopinionated third party?
Maybe I'm getting hung up on "opinionated third party". Don't quite understand that point.
I do wish there were more services like nebula one yearly fee no baked in ads or ads at all and more creators are willing to join them.
The thing that sucks with youtube premium is you still have creators dumping 1 min long sponsors ruining the experience. Additionally often only way these creators allow you to go add free is via patreon, floatplane, etc which can get quite expensive if you follow 30-50 channels. The only other viable route is sponsorblock which works great but requires modified youtube clients/browser extensions and with youtubes new video adinjection could potentially be broken.
The only part I do wonder with nebula is how well it works for larger creators.
I dunno, I watch YouTube on desktop with a premium account.
Since they began experimenting with ad injection directly into videos a month or so ago, I no longer use YouTube really. Videos rarely load proper the first time. Often takes 7 or 8 reloads of the page to get a video to start, sometimes stopping mid video.
Clearly since I can get it to play, it feels like a Google problem. Could be because I'm on Firefox, or Linux though (maybe even an update to something else, but all other video streaming services work just fine). Turning off uBlock Origin and uMatrix do not help at all.
Even if it isn't Google's fault, it's still causing me to not use their service anymore. Feels like they are just trying to drive away users in general.