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

(github.com)
798 points bertman | 40 comments | 12 Nov 25 10:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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embedding-shape ◴[12 Nov 25 14:06 UTC] No.45900337[source]▶
Seems its already in Arch's repositories, and seems to work, just add another flag to the invocation:

    yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox --remote-components ejs:github -f "bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best" 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXX'
It is downloading a solver at runtime, took maybe half a second in total, downloads are starting way faster than before it seems to me.

    [youtube] [jsc:deno] Solving JS challenges using deno
    [youtube] [jsc:deno] Downloading challenge solver lib script from  https://github.com/yt-dlp/ejs/releases/download/0.3.1/yt.solver.lib.min.js
It would be great if we could download the solver manually with a separate command, before running the download command, as I'm probably not alone in running yt-dlp in a restricted environment, and being able to package it up together with the solver before runtime would let me avoid lessening the restrictions for that environment. Not a huge issue though, happy in general the start of downloads seems much faster now.
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WD-42 ◴[12 Nov 25 14:59 UTC] No.45901047[source]▶
Glad to hear it’s faster now!

YouTube barely works in a full-on browser these days, props to the team that keeps it accessible via a Python script!

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1. recursive ◴[12 Nov 25 15:58 UTC] No.45901739[source]▶
I use YouTube on a daily basis. I haven't seen any of these problems.
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2. latexr ◴[12 Nov 25 16:42 UTC] No.45902304[source]▶
Are you using Chrome or a Chromium browser? From experience and reports I’ve seen, that seems to make a huge difference.
replies(1): >>45902593 #
3. recursive ◴[12 Nov 25 17:01 UTC] No.45902593[source]▶
Firefox
4. NooneAtAll3 ◴[12 Nov 25 17:18 UTC] No.45902798[source]▶
do you never encounter opening youtube video in a new tab only for video itself to load, while rest of the page doesn't?
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5. mikkupikku ◴[12 Nov 25 17:22 UTC] No.45902861[source]▶
That happens to me about 50% of the time. I assume it's google engineers not testing on Firefox.
replies(1): >>45903409 #
6. kiwijamo ◴[12 Nov 25 17:42 UTC] No.45903142[source]▶
That's never happened for me and I normally watch 5-10+ YouTube videos daily. Firefox.
7. gaudystead ◴[12 Nov 25 17:50 UTC] No.45903270[source]▶
I experience this, but only with YouTube Shorts. Video loads, but none of the elements around it.
8. shevy-java ◴[12 Nov 25 17:55 UTC] No.45903326[source]▶
Since some days I suddenly get freezes in the tab; these unfreeze after some time, say 20 seconds or so, but I notice a delay.

Something has really changed to the worse lately. I think it has to do with anti-ad programs as well as AI, like the UI also changed. It is important to point out that while you do not have any issues, other people do or may.

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9. thenthenthen ◴[12 Nov 25 17:59 UTC] No.45903397[source]▶
I have, and recently, i nothing is loading until i open a new video in another tab, then all of a sudden both pages start loading and playing :s
10. mavamaarten ◴[12 Nov 25 18:00 UTC] No.45903409{3}[source]▶
Hah. I always assume it's them actively trying to make the experience worse on anything that is not Chrome.
11. riidom ◴[12 Nov 25 18:07 UTC] No.45903509[source]▶
Yes happens sometimes to me, Vivaldi.
12. embedding-shape ◴[12 Nov 25 18:07 UTC] No.45903519[source]▶
I had that happen some week ago too! I had to clear site data + cookies for YouTube in Firefox before I got it to work again.
13. PuercoPop ◴[12 Nov 25 18:21 UTC] No.45903763[source]▶
It is likely you use Chrome or a browser that uses Blink for its engine and the OP uses a non-blink browser like Firefox. I use Firefox and I can cofirm since the last few months Youtube usability borders on usable
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14. MrNeon ◴[12 Nov 25 18:27 UTC] No.45903856[source]▶
I use Firefox with uBlock and besides a couple of times where video start was delayed by a few seconds it has been working as well as before.
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15. recursive ◴[12 Nov 25 18:28 UTC] No.45903878[source]▶
I'm using Firefox.
16. recursive ◴[12 Nov 25 18:29 UTC] No.45903894[source]▶
I've never seen that. I use Firefox.
17. viftodi ◴[12 Nov 25 19:00 UTC] No.45904453{3}[source]▶
Google does A/B testing for anti ad blockers.

Not only do I get slowdowns and some videos don't load at all at times, but I also get a notification that explains that the reason is using adblockers.

18. TiredOfLife ◴[12 Nov 25 19:07 UTC] No.45904585[source]▶
I use Chrome and it's not good. They recently removed ability to force AV1 to only low resolution videos and as a result I had to disable HW acceleration in Chrome because accelerated AV1 decoding is broken on Steam Deck.
19. busymom0 ◴[12 Nov 25 19:15 UTC] No.45904748[source]▶
This has happened to me frequently.

Also many times, the video won't play. If I reload the page, then it will play.

20. BrenBarn ◴[12 Nov 25 19:27 UTC] No.45904974[source]▶
I've been seeing weird stuff where the video will play but the page is unresponsive: can't click to pause, can't click the time index bar to move to a different point in the video, etc. Then I close the tab, and the audio keeps playing! It will play for 10-15 seconds before cutting out. Bizarre. . .
21. johnisgood ◴[12 Nov 25 19:27 UTC] No.45904977[source]▶
Well... I have many new, emerging problems with YouTube as of lately.

For example I have to scroll down a lot to get to the comment section, the suggestions are all over the place, and so forth. Annoying.

Also due to uBlock Origin, some videos do not start and I have to refresh. It is not much of an issue for me but the fact that apparently I need a huge monitor to see the "old layout" is a problem for me.

22. rubyn00bie ◴[12 Nov 25 19:31 UTC] No.45905055[source]▶
Yeah, big same here. It’s pretty frustrating, because I pay for YouTube premium, but cannot use my preferred browser. I have to use Chromium in order to have it work reliably. Doubly so considering it worked fine in Firefox for YEARS… until maybe six months ago?

It feels like something the FTC should be investigating, or perhaps a European equivalent, but I doubt it will.

23. tuhgdetzhh ◴[12 Nov 25 19:39 UTC] No.45905212[source]▶
Only if you use Googles Chrome Browser. Other browsers have issues like Firefox[1].

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41379517

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24. metalliqaz ◴[12 Nov 25 19:47 UTC] No.45905353[source]▶
I can no longer watch videos on YouTube with Firefox.

When Firefox dies, the last glimmer of hope will go out.

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25. raydev ◴[12 Nov 25 20:06 UTC] No.45905686[source]▶
Are you running any extensions that modify content?
26. wiml ◴[12 Nov 25 20:11 UTC] No.45905780[source]▶
That sounds pretty nice. Is there a way to do it on purpose?
27. o11c ◴[12 Nov 25 20:13 UTC] No.45905815{3}[source]▶
Recently I've found Youtube to just show a white screen if it detects Firefox+uBO.
28. jorvi ◴[12 Nov 25 20:29 UTC] No.45906105[source]▶
They've also started to be really aggressive against VPNs. I've tried Private Internet Access, Mulvad and AirVPN and often I have to cycle through 5-15(!) servers before YouTube stops saying "sign in to confirm you're not a bot".

Discord has started to become absurdly aggressive with it too, to the point that they don't even let you load messages whilst logged in if you're on a VPN.

It really makes me feel like there will be an inflection point in a few years, where the internet is cleaved in two. You'll have the 'free' internet that is full of interesting stuff but also full of malware, spam and scams, and you'll have the squeaky clean corporate internet, basically a facsimile of WeChat's super-app, of which you'll only have access with a government ID. No VPNs or anti-fingerprinting allowed.

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29. galaxy_gas ◴[12 Nov 25 21:02 UTC] No.45906620{3}[source]▶
For Discord it is basic rate limiting ( anty-VPN is other separate thing require phone number )

There a bunch of bad actors doing mass scrape of all public server and history via all of those VPN

30. tedivm ◴[12 Nov 25 21:10 UTC] No.45906745{3}[source]▶
For the last two days I haven't been able to watch youtube videos on Firefox without disabling uBlock.
31. jcalvinowens ◴[12 Nov 25 21:39 UTC] No.45907132[source]▶
YT works pretty flawlessly for me with firefox on debian. What's the issue you're seeing?
replies(1): >>45907236 #
32. immibis ◴[12 Nov 25 21:47 UTC] No.45907226{3}[source]▶
it's already like that
33. therein ◴[12 Nov 25 21:47 UTC] No.45907236{3}[source]▶
If you are blocking ads now, the videos will start in a very delayed fashion almost as if the server is waiting the length expected for the ad to take before streaming you any bytes.
replies(1): >>45907626 #
34. immibis ◴[12 Nov 25 21:48 UTC] No.45907237{3}[source]▶
I considered it as motivation to switch more from Firefox to Zen, where it works, I guess because Google doesn't recognize it as Firefox and doesn't apply the anti-competition script?
35. velcrovan ◴[12 Nov 25 21:54 UTC] No.45907311[source]▶
I use it on Firefox and Safari on Mac OS (mainly Safari), and it's been OK except it's started doing a thing where it blips a bit after roughly the first 1sec of video plays.

I wonder if being a YouTube Premium subscriber is also a factor here. I do pay for it so I don't see ads. But maybe the way ads are being served/injected has changed things for the worse for people that get them.

36. ciberado ◴[12 Nov 25 22:18 UTC] No.45907626{4}[source]▶
Same here. Still, I prefer to wait instead of suffering those aggressive ads.
37. RHSeeger ◴[12 Nov 25 22:49 UTC] No.45907992[source]▶
Interesting. I use Firefox and it works flawlessly for me. I wonder if it's a computing power thing?
replies(1): >>45908271 #
38. Khaine ◴[12 Nov 25 22:51 UTC] No.45908012[source]▶
Airplay from youtube is broken for me. I airplay and instead of english, I get german and no way to change the language. This is not an isolated incident.

See https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1id4amh/youtube_ch... and https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255931836

39. Eduard ◴[12 Nov 25 22:57 UTC] No.45908092{3}[source]▶
> It really makes me feel like there will be an inflection point in a few years, where the internet is cleaved in two.

Hasn't it been like that for already many years?

arguably, already 90's AOL very much pushed its users to stay within its walled garden.

40. rajamaka ◴[12 Nov 25 23:17 UTC] No.45908271{3}[source]▶
I am constantly having serious issues running YouTube (Pentium II, IE3, Windows SQL Server 2003)