This is very cool! I've actually been working on something similar for some time as a feature on my website https://www.bingeclock.com. Can I ask if you've done something to minimize the number of banner ads Youtube pushes onto the screen? That has been a challenge for me and yours looks very clean! Awesome job!
Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
341–350 of 544 posts
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#342This is a great idea, I'd love to be able to use it on my TV. It would be nice if it also supported changing the playback speed to 1.5x, 2x etc - the youtube player has this so I'm assuming it's possible.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#343I wish the arrow keys and/or scroll wheel could be used to change channels too.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
> since a lot of channels are annoying to me using headphones, they pan the audio sources too hard left/right and it's super distracting I find this interesting. Are you oversensitive? I've never even considered that this could be an issue. Do you experience the same problem with other things like music and games?
Not the parent, but with similar view on panned audio. If it's music where it's done on purpose, no problem. But talking with audio in one ear? I'm out. Not sure why exactly, but it's very jarring. For me, it's one of the worst audio quality issues a video can have.
If you have mpv+yt-dlp set up you can fix this with an audio filter to mix to mono.
mpv --audio-channels=mono 'urlhere'
--vf=lavfi="hflip"
Another fun one I bind in input.conf
ctrl+shift+r cycle_values video-rotate "90" "180" "270" "0"
I also have these binds for unbalanced audio, mainly used with 5.1 audio to sound better on headphones or stereo speakers, and the \ bind one seems to make normal stuff slightly louder also, so sometimes I hit it when I don't wanna turn up my speaker knob for one video.
\ af toggle lavfi=[dynaudnorm=f=100]
| af toggle lavfi=loudnormRe: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#345I have an extra suggestion: Maybe some keyboard key mapping, like up/down for switching the channel. I'm imagining having this perma-running in a small PC connected to a TV and the small wireless remotes have mappings for the arrow keys and up/down for channel would be perfect for that. (maybe other mappings as well)
Seconding the keyboard mapping. Up/Down or Left/Right would be helpful.
I love this OP. Well done!
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#346This is the kind of brilliant idea that seems so completely obvious in hindsight that it's hard to believe no-one has done it before
Encountering this reminds me of the earlier days of the internet when finding novel things like this was a common occurrence. Reminds me of something you'd find using StumbleUpon.
Cable tv and even Amazon has “channels” for some YouTube stars.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#347Is there a way to embed this? I use Obsidian and want to capture this for historical sake and when I want to go back to it I can search for it on my hard drive.
Really cool idea btw.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#348The 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.
Each channel displays the video code for the YouTube video its playing so if you see something interesting you can easily access the video. I really like this as a curated discovery tool, there is something up flipping thru channels and catching something at just the right time to peak your interest that viewing a clickbaity thumbnail and video title just can't replicate.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#349Neat! 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.
This is actually making me think about how I watch programs when I dont really need to focus in on anything. I wonder if there is a plug-in where you can spin the wheel between types of media to watch and it selects one for you.
Re: Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels
#350I'd echo the sentiment that this is amazing, and that a TV guide would be awesome. I'd also suggest maybe adding the channel names (like the comment you posted here) to the app itself (although i think it's cool when it's unnamed and you get the old-school feeling of channels just being numbers). Also, I'd love to have permalinks for the channels. Not for the individual videos themselves, but just a link that when sh…
> since a lot of channels are annoying to me using headphones, they pan the audio sources too hard left/right and it's super distracting I find this interesting. Are you oversensitive? I've never even considered that this could be an issue. Do you experience the same problem with other things like music and games?
In the real world you almost never hear something on one ear but not the other. Even if something is on your left, your right ear still hears it (differences in timing and volume inform your brain on the sound source location). Exception being if it's something really quiet right next to one ear, but that's relatively rare.
So when things are mixed "improperly" (it's subjective), it's very distracting to me. I don't need to force mono everywhere, but it's very common in amateurish channels, and surprisingly also in movies and TV shows. Big productions tend to mix assuming you'll play on speakers (where it's fine to have something playing on just one channel/speaker, since both your ears will hear it), but when it mixes down to stereo and you listen on headphones, it's soooo common for them to pan something 100% to one channel when the source is supposed to be on that side. Like, somebody speaking to the left of the camera, and it comes 100% on the left channel and 0% on the right one. It's so unnatural and annoying to me.