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YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

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Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#171

Post by MereInterest »

CapsAdmin wrote: post #52
jiggawatts wrote: post #37

Oh, and they also falsely show "4K" in the video quality icon, but "accidentally" play a 720p or even worse quality stream. If you manually select the 4K stream quality, then and only then will YouTube deign to show 4K to you.

Something related to this which I find extremely frustrating is that I'm capable of watching a 4k video in my browser just fine. So if I decide to buy or rent a movie on youtube, they can only be played back at 420p. Apparently this is due to DRM restrictions, but the frustrating part is that you can pay extra money for the HD version and there's nothing telling you about this not being supported in your browser unti…

This sort of behavior should be an open-and-shut case of false advertising. You were told that the video would be a certain resolution. You gave money as a result of that statement. You received an inferior product to the one that was described.

Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#172

Post by FoodWThrow »

lifthrasiir wrote: post #132
ayhanfuat wrote: post #3

From reddit discussion ( https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/17ywbjj/comment/k9... ): > To clarify it more, it's simply this code in their polymer script link: > setTimeout(function() { c(); a.resolve(1) }, 5E3); > which doesn't do anything except making you wait 5s (5E3 = 5000ms = 5s). You can search for it easily in https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/96766c85/jsbin/desktop_pol...

That is not correct. The surrounding code gives some more context: h=document.createElement("video");l=new Blob([new Uint8Array([/* snip */])],{type:"video/webm"}); h.src=lc(Mia(l));h.ontimeupdate=function(){c();a.resolve(0)}; e.appendChild(h);h.classList.add("html5-main-video");setTimeout(function(){e.classList.add("ad-interrupting")},200); setTimeout(function(){c();a.resolve(1)},5E3); return m.return(a.promise)})}…

Why is it only trying to detect ads when the user agent is Firefox?

https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/17zdpkl/this_behav...

Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#173

Post by noname120 »

blueflow wrote: post #31

If you are fluent with the terminal, you don't need to suffer from the YT Web UI. Install mpv and yt-dlp. Play videos like this: mpv [--no-video] "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9zVjEZ7W8Q" Option in brackets is optional.

Or use any of the many alternative YouTube frontends: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends#youtube

Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#174

Post by Ygg2 »

gear54rus wrote: post #156
lifthrasiir wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not correct. The surrounding code gives some more context: h=document.createElement("video");l=new Blob([new Uint8Array([/* snip */])],{type:"video/webm"}); h.src=lc(Mia(l));h.ontimeupdate=function(){c();a.resolve(0)}; e.appendChild(h);h.classList.add("html5-main-video");setTimeout(function(){e.classList.add("ad-interrupting")},200); setTimeout(function(){c();a.resolve(1)},5E3); return m.return(a.promise)})}…

[flagged]

How come switching to User Agent to Chrome fixed it for that Reddit OP? Does it omit this if UA is changed?

Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#175

Post by jeroenhd »

imiric wrote: post #49
blueflow wrote: post #31

If you are fluent with the terminal, you don't need to suffer from the YT Web UI. Install mpv and yt-dlp. Play videos like this: mpv [--no-video] "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9zVjEZ7W8Q" Option in brackets is optional.

This is the way. I really don't understand why any technically proficient user would willingly use any of the official YouTube frontends. You get bombarded with ads, you're constantly tracked and experimented on, and your behavior is used to improve their algorithms in order to keep you on the site for as long as possible. It's a hostile user experience, just like most of the mainstream web. Whenever possible, I sugg…

Because using the website is a better experience. None of those tools worked with Sponsorblock last time I tried, for one.

I don't want to yt-dlp every video, Piped and Invidious both have awful frontends in comparison, even the Newpipe dev admitted to using Vanced at some point, and yt-dlp needs some massaging to get the right video quality (and it can't download some videos at all).

If any of your solutions were better for the majority, the majority would be using them. Youtube's ad blocker war is making the platform worse for everyone, but having a couple of billions of developer power behind your platform still beats any open source video players built for fun.

Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#176

Post by boudin »

FrenchDevRemote wrote: post #160

Not only that: Google's recaptcha will also ask you for dozens of captchas on firefox android (which is probably the best) way to watch youtube/use google site without ads on mobile) f** google

On android NewPipe is a good alternative to watch youtube

Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#178

Post by jeroenhd »

denkmoon wrote: post #54

Using firefox I get "instant" youtube. The video starts playing before most of the rest of the UI has loaded even, definitely under 1 second. Any idea what specifically causes it to happen, rather than just "firefox"?

An up-to-date adblocker blocker blocker, most likely. Paying for Premium may also do it.

Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#179

Post by TheLML »

jiggawatts wrote: post #37

Oh, and they also falsely show "4K" in the video quality icon, but "accidentally" play a 720p or even worse quality stream. If you manually select the 4K stream quality, then and only then will YouTube deign to show 4K to you.

That has irked me for quite some time. I always manually select 1080p, because sometimes YT claims it's already playing 1080p, but it's obviously not and the video starts buffering anew when I select 1080p manually. Quite annoying

Re: YouTube slows down video load times when using Firefox

#180

Post by lifthrasiir »

FoodWThrow wrote: post #172
lifthrasiir wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not correct. The surrounding code gives some more context: h=document.createElement("video");l=new Blob([new Uint8Array([/* snip */])],{type:"video/webm"}); h.src=lc(Mia(l));h.ontimeupdate=function(){c();a.resolve(0)}; e.appendChild(h);h.classList.add("html5-main-video");setTimeout(function(){e.classList.add("ad-interrupting")},200); setTimeout(function(){c();a.resolve(1)},5E3); return m.return(a.promise)})}…

Why is it only trying to detect ads when the user agent is Firefox? https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/17zdpkl/this_behav...

I have no idea because I didn't experience anything like that both in Chrome and in Firefox (both with uBO though). But I'm confident that this particular code is not related to the actual slowdown, if it did happen to some Firefox users, because I received the same code even in Chrome.
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