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Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

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Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have different views about ethics. Fortunately, there is no truth of the matter, so anything goes as long as we're internally consistent. I think ad revenue models are unethical. Promotion of extremist content is unethical. Privacy-invading data collection is unethical. Honestly, I think shitty content, in general, is unethical too. On the other hand, I think it is ethical for an entrepreneuring developer to c…

If you feel ad-supported content is flat out unethical, how would you prefer to pay for media online?

I don’t necessarily think ad funded content is bad. But YouTube seems to do it the worst. 2 ads at the start, sometimes they can’t be skipped. Ads in between at weird places. Now there are 2 ads at the end too.

Spotify is ok. Ads. Bunch of uninterrupted songs. Ads. Like radio. Many Anime streaming services are similar. Ads bookend the content.

YouTube could have spent time curating good content and building a platform worth a damn. Instead the vast vast majority is trash. There are really only a handful of content creators that make anything good. And it seems like more and more of them have patreons or their own sponsorships. I again don’t mind these. But I have direct ways of paying the creators. And if they moved somewhere else I’d follow them.

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#42
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you feel ad-supported content is flat out unethical, how would you prefer to pay for media online?

Remember the times before Spotify? Piracy was the only way to get a lot of music ; there simply weren’t any paid options. Nowadays the market for buying or streaming digital music has made paying for digital music viable. With a lot of YouTube content, the situation is very similar today; there isn’t a way to pay for content without simultaneously being exposed to ads and the associated tracking/profiling/stalking. M…

YouTube premium removes ads on YouTube so that covers half the woes.

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#43
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you feel ad-supported content is flat out unethical, how would you prefer to pay for media online?

Remember the times before Spotify? Piracy was the only way to get a lot of music ; there simply weren’t any paid options. Nowadays the market for buying or streaming digital music has made paying for digital music viable. With a lot of YouTube content, the situation is very similar today; there isn’t a way to pay for content without simultaneously being exposed to ads and the associated tracking/profiling/stalking. M…

That Spotify model basically already exists on YouTube with YouTube Premium. YouTube pays creators directly when a Premium viewer watches.

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#44
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you feel ad-supported content is flat out unethical, how would you prefer to pay for media online?

Remember the times before Spotify? Piracy was the only way to get a lot of music ; there simply weren’t any paid options. Nowadays the market for buying or streaming digital music has made paying for digital music viable. With a lot of YouTube content, the situation is very similar today; there isn’t a way to pay for content without simultaneously being exposed to ads and the associated tracking/profiling/stalking. M…

I remember buying cassettes and then CDs, either from a known distributor or litte hole-in-the-wall shops.

When digital music was getting big, it was mostly experienced through DJs at parties. They got their records from distributors and there were ways of pressing small amounts of vinyl cheaply.

Artists who didn't have a record deal had to hustle, selling their tunes directly from the trunk of their car or any means necessary.

Lots of musicians didn't make their money from these routes, instead they gave their music out for free as promotional material for live shows where they charged tickets.

Even if we jump forward to now, there's a few listener-supported models like soma.fm which may not last forever but have survived without resorting to ads or piracy.

Piracy is fun for the consumer, while it lasts, but it suffocates the artists and was never a viable solution.

For anyone willing to pay, there is always a way to get your wares if you know what you're looking for.

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#45

So what is this, replacing it with an invidious-hosted embed?

Probably it's resolving the direct video (and/or audio) links and setting those as the source in the video tag. Like using the -g option for yt-dlp.

Ah, interesting! I didn't think of that.

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#46
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely your choice to bypass it, I just don't agree it's ethical when there is a choice to pay a bit of money instead to not have the ads. I will agree that this does not stop them from gathering your data and that is fair. But just stripping the ads without paying when they give you that choice doesn't seem like an ethical choice.

With all the shit google has done i honestly don't care if people are ethical when dealing with them.

I don't care about Google. I'm more concerned with the creators on YouTube.

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#47
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The YouTube app on Android only supports picture in picture and background play (screen off) with premium; I imagine the iOS app is similar.

Picture-in-picture works great on Android without premium. No background play though.

Hmm, this doesn't work for me in the app in Android 10 or 11. Perhaps it is region specific? I'm in the UK.

Edit: it does work via browser if you navigate out of fullscreen. TIL :)

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#48
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Picture-in-picture works great on Android without premium. No background play though.

Hmm, this doesn't work for me in the app in Android 10 or 11. Perhaps it is region specific? I'm in the UK. Edit: it does work via browser if you navigate out of fullscreen. TIL :)

Happy to help! May our paths cross again.

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#49
post #12

Installed this and it's great. That said, it's embarrassing how many iOS extensions I have installed just to work around today's shitty websites. AdGuard to make the web usable, AMPlosion to avoid AMP nonsense, Open in Apollo to avoid mobile Reddit dark pattens, now this (which I installed because YouTube's new embed widget starts playing on touch-start instead of touch-release, so it triggers while scrolling...)

Also bought it and works great. Minor caveat is that it seems to be unable to get a 4K stream, so it’s capped to 1080p. Likely this is a YouTube limitation though.

Re: Vinegar: Safari extension that replaces YouTube embeds with HTML5 video tags

#50

I really love this idea, but it seems like on macOS, you can't use the left/right arrows to skip forward/backward. I did some testing and this appears to be a limitation of the HTML5 video player implemented in Safari, but it would be amazing if this functionality was added (along with other keyboard shortcuts).

Slapped this together.

    const video = document.getElementById("video");
    const skipSecs = 5;

    video.onkeydown = (e) => {
      if (e.keyCode !== 37 && e.keyCode !== 39)
        return;

      e.preventDefault();
      const time = video.currentTime;
      video.currentTime =
        e.keyCode === 37
          ? time - skipSecs
          : time + skipSecs;
    };
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