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Ask HN: Does anyone else notice YouTube causing 100% CPU usage and stattering?

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Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else notice YouTube causing 100% CPU usage and stattering?

#21
I've had something similar happen starting maybe a year ago, and varying in intensity from "no problem" up to "pegged CPU in the youtube tab and UI actions can lag up to several seconds". It doesn't affect video playback though.

This behavior comes and goes over time, for example it's been fine for several weeks in a row now. I assume it's punishment for running an ad-blocker.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else notice YouTube causing 100% CPU usage and stattering?

#27

If you have an adblocker it might be intentional.

Hanlon's Razor: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

>Hanlon's Razor

Sorry, but drive-by philosophy is not applicable here.

YouTube developers single out adblocker users and taunt them with an "Experiencing interruptions" toast prompt that locks the video stream for ~5 seconds. Curiously, it contains a link to the YouTube Help Center, to the section fragment "#check_ad_blockers". In other words: "yeah, we know you've got uBlock Origin enabled, enjoy the speedbump".

Player base.js:

    api.XL("innertubeCommand",{openPopupAction:{popup:{notificationActionRenderer:{responseText:{runs:[{text:"Experiencing interruptions?"}]},actionButton:{buttonRenderer:{style:"STYLE_OVERLAY",size:"SIZE_DEFAULT", text:{runs:[{text:"Find out why"}]},navigationEndpoint:{commandMetadata:{webCommandMetadata:{url:"https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3037019#check_ad_blockers
User reports: https://old.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1la6tkm/anybody_no...

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else notice YouTube causing 100% CPU usage and stattering?

#29
post #28

Also happens with Github and anything that uses ads lately. A 2 core PC dies while trying to render those pages.

Hell, I have to use my phone instead if I want to go to any of those pages nowadays. And even my phone now gets a random crash from chrome or the page itself.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else notice YouTube causing 100% CPU usage and stattering?

#30

If you have an adblocker it might be intentional.

That's not plausible.

If someone sees, oh YouTube is making my computer hot, the last thing that's going to occur to them is, "wait let me try turning off my adblocker."

When corporations try to change people's incentives, they are obvious about it, so people know what to change.

In contrast, changing CPU usage on video playback for people who use adblockers and then not telling anyone is... just not a strategy that makes any sense at all.

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