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Yt-dlp: External JavaScript runtime now required for full YouTube support

(github.com)
798 points bertman | 7 comments | 12 Nov 25 10:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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xeonmc ◴[12 Nov 25 12:31 UTC] No.45899355[source]▶
In ten years time YouTube will be entirely inaccessible from the browser as the iPad kids generation are used to doomscrolling the tablet app and Google feels confident enough to cut off the aging demographic.
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BinaryIgor ◴[12 Nov 25 12:44 UTC] No.45899465[source]▶
It's not YouTube though, but downloader :)

"yt-dlp is a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader with support for thousands of sites. The project is a fork of youtube-dl based on the now inactive youtube-dlc."

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1. nicce ◴[12 Nov 25 12:49 UTC] No.45899501[source]▶
I guess the point was that yt-dlp is only possible, because of the mandatory protocols you need in the browser. Moving to native app makes it much easier to prevent downloading and denying access to the unencrypted content.
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2. easton ◴[12 Nov 25 12:53 UTC] No.45899551[source]▶
I think these days yt-dlp is possible because they're relying on the infra YouTube has for their TV apps, which are html5 (ish) browser apps. so they'd also have to dedicate time to building native apps for every TV in existence, even if youtube.com went away.
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3. somat ◴[12 Nov 25 13:17 UTC] No.45899764[source]▶
My understanding is that the original yt-dl used the browser interface. yt-dlp uses the android app interface.
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4. freefaler ◴[12 Nov 25 13:50 UTC] No.45900162[source]▶
I think that too. When the people refresh their TVs with the newer, more DRM friendly/updated version this channel will meet its end :(
5. Thorrez ◴[12 Nov 25 13:51 UTC] No.45900173[source]▶
>This impacts yt-dlp as we currently request video data from YouTube as if we were YouTube on TV.

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12563

6. goku12 ◴[12 Nov 25 13:57 UTC] No.45900227[source]▶
> Moving to native app makes it much easier to prevent downloading and denying access to the unencrypted content.

It would still be possible with native apps. Somebody will have to reverse engineer it continuously. So it will be slower, but still possible.

However, that won't be the case if they start using some secret (like a private key) that you can't access directly from an app, or if they decide that you can't run custom/modified apps. That's what I believe to be the true intentions behind their push to adopt dystopian technologies like secure enclaves and platform attestation. Not really about security as they claim.

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7. nicce ◴[12 Nov 25 14:08 UTC] No.45900360[source]▶
> That's what I believe to be the true intentions behind their push to adopt dystopian technologies like secure enclaves and platform attestation. Not really about security as they claim.

Yeah, that is exactly I was thinking.