A YouTube ad hack
On my Roku YouTube app, I lifehacked a way to skip the initial ads (and sometimes mid-program ads).
If the program does not start and an ad is shown, I immediately hit the back button and select the program again. If the ad (or very often a blank screen) is shown, I immediately hit the back button and select the program again.
It always works the third time (and often, second or first).
This is completely muscle memory, and I can start any program without ads in a couple of seconds.
Furthermore, when the ad comes up mid-program (with the usual 40-second or more ad), I back out and restart, then fast forward to the marked position where I was. That takes a lot less than watching the ad.
Doing it mid-stream is a little risky because sometimes the app reloads a new set of suggested videos and the one I was watching is gone. But whatever, usually I take it as God's way of letting me know that I shouldn't bother. Or I'll catch it later.
Note: I do not log in and watch as guest. I don't know if it's different if you log in or on other non-roku platforms.
Mar 24 · 6 weeks ago · 👍 norayr, Atomic-Germ
9 Comments ↓
🚀 stack [OP] · Mar 24 at 02:43:
Does that work for you? What platform? I know that it wasn't always the case, but works now.
👻 darkghost · Mar 24 at 13:22:
I've got a raspberry pi running a hacked Android AOSP and I watch YouTube through something called NewPipe that occasionally results in my IP being blocked which I get around that using a VPN. It's a house of cards that will collapse in a gentle breeze but at least I don't see any @$#!ing ads.
results in my IP being blocked which I get around that using a VPN.
we've been using an adblocker for years without issue on youtube. sometimes video playback doesn't work for a day or two, but we've never been blocked from accessing the site or had any action against our accounts.
it's interesting to know that google draws a distinction between people who watch youtube without ads in an otherwise "correct" web browser from people who get video without running their javascript.
🏍️ Atomic-Germ · Mar 24 at 14:55:
It works on my LG TV also, and I am logged in
👻 darkghost · Mar 24 at 15:14:
Yes, NewPipe basically looks like somebody's downloading the video to Google. I know the ad blockers can be defeated if they choose to. I've also used public Invideous instances that also skip sponsored segments, but they tend to break too and are harder to fix. Sometimes NewPipe breaks and needs an update. My solution there is to watch less YouTube.
i pipe the output of yt-dlp to the input of mpv.
and it doesn't show any ads.
i have some presets for quality as a variable in the script.
i also fond a program called pipe-viewer that basically does the same but is more polished and has more options.
and i wrote my own rss reader. youtube has rss feeds but it is hard to extract them from pages, so if when adding a feed you provide a youtube profile url my rss reader tries to get the rss and subscribe to it by scraping channel_id from the page source.
so my rss reader tells me how many new videos were published by thin or that person.
i don't even run a browser and that saves me lots of memory, and also youtube may not show me new videos from the authors i want to see new videos from.
i don't remember which are my favoirite channels i don't want to miss new videos from. so i have them in the rss reader and see on the left: 2 new videos from this author and 3 from that.
🚀 stack [OP] · Mar 25 at 01:06:
On Android I use Grayjay or new pipe, no ads. This is just for TVs
😺 BlueChinchompa · Apr 13 at 17:06:
For Android TV I personally like to use SmartTube Nightly and its been working very well.