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

(github.com)
798 points bertman | 4 comments | 12 Nov 25 10:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.471s | source
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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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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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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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1. 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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2. galaxy_gas ◴[12 Nov 25 21:02 UTC] No.45906620[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

3. immibis ◴[12 Nov 25 21:47 UTC] No.45907226[source]▶
it's already like that
4. Eduard ◴[12 Nov 25 22:57 UTC] No.45908092[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.