Well done. Would this work on iOS natively through an app?
Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
261–270 of 544 posts
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#262The best part of this is the channel doesn't pause when you flip away from it. It is always "running" and if you flip away you will miss it. That builds in a FOMO trade-off which causes user to automatically/subconciously decide on channel they most want to watch, because they can't watch everything.
Another observation: with this setup, you essentially randomly jump into the middle of videos, skipping what is usually the most grating part of the show: the intro. In the intro to most shows/videos, there's annoying jingles, silly animations, a redundant summary of what's about to happen in an already short segment, or just useless chatter "hey guys! it's your boy, _. welcome to my channel, remember to smash that l…
This was the first thing I noticed, too. It's amazing how much better it is, simply leaving off all that "what's up guys" introduction.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
For real accuracy of tv of a few decades ago they could add a 13th channel that takes content from Pornhub, but then adds a bunch of filters so you can barely see anything.
Even better: make not-porn videos with vegetables, but when it's obfuscated it would look like porn. Repetitive motions will help.
Is this an American thing? This sounds hilarious
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#264Neat! I have wondered how much of a foothold "retrograde" tech will take in the next 10-20 years.
Decision fatigue, nostalgia, attenuation — call it what you will. At some level we're tacitly acknowledging that the vast ocean of content and complexity we've created is beyond what is desirable or even healthy to effectively evaluate.
A very modern malaise. Excuse the armchair philosophizing.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#265Also works on localhost, run these commands: `wget -r -np -k https://ytch.xyz ` - downloads the website recursively `wget https://ytch.xyz/list.json ` - download the list of what every channel plays and will play (I'm not sure if this ever really changes. The real website adds ?t= ) Then for instance run `python3 -m http.server` and visit localhost:8000 :)
When a channel reaches the last video, list.json will be fetched to get an updated list of videos.
How are you making this list? The thing I surprisingly miss about tv is that what to watch was someone else's problem. YouTube overwhelms me with choices, TV was simple, I liked maybe 4-5 channels and (I later realized) I was implicitly trusting them to have something good on.
If I was allowed to dream, I imagine a world where that specialization is brought back. People curating a feed, which was on average good.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#266The shared reality, the shared experience of hearing and seeing things at the same time as others are listening, creating content... Radio and TV and theater give this to us, where hyper individual on demand feeds break it.
I hope society decides to retain some level of "over the air" information sharing that is synced.
This is a neat idea.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#267Well done. My team built this at Disney six years ago when we were trying to solve content discovery problems. The problem with endless carousels of thumbnails is that it really doesn't draw you in. Sometimes you just need to drop people into content like it's channel surfing.
Netflix tried something similar a few years ago, but in my opinion it missed a critical ingredient, which was dropping people into the middle of content at a compelling point.
Really like the execution here. YouTube take note.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#268This is very nice! Improvement requests:
* Add channel information so that folks can bookmark good stuff on YT.
* Add keyboard shortcuts for ease of channel surfing.
And then folks can buy one of those retro TV bezel for even deeper immersion.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#269Damn, I realized the thing I like the most about this is I can be disappointed. There can legitimately be "nothing on", and then I can go and do something else to come back later. I think the most apparent way algorithms have messed with my head is teaching me there is always something on. So I keep wasting sometimes upto an hour just to find something. In the end I end up watching something I had already seen anyways.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#270Well done. My team built this at Disney six years ago when we were trying to solve content discovery problems. The problem with endless carousels of thumbnails is that it really doesn't draw you in. Sometimes you just need to drop people into content like it's channel surfing. Netflix tried something similar a few years ago, but in my opinion it missed a critical ingredient, which was dropping people into the middle…
Can you give any insight into why these projects were canceled at Disney or Netflix?