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Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

ericdraken.com

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Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#451

Post by mwidell »

kaliqt wrote: post #166
jjallen wrote: post #122

I just subscribe to YouTube premium to support my favorite application out there. I learn so much from the people who spend hours and hours making videos every month that I am more than happy to pay a measly $13 or whatever it is every month to YouTube.

This reads like an ad. I wouldn't support them that way. They shaft creators in every way possible. You should be subscribing to Patreons and their video subscriptions. YouTube Premium is NOT the way.

The problem is that most people don't subscribe to hundreds of Patreon creators. It is actually REALLY hard to have a substantial income from Patreon unless you have like 1 million subscribers on youtube. YT Premium+Ads is the next best thing and makes most creators a lot more money with less effort.

Source: I'm a full time youtuber, I have done Patreon for over a year, and I have friends who are also full time youtubers.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#452

Post by skinner927 »

slacka wrote: post #431
userbinator wrote: post #12

I've been MITM'ing my traffic to, among other things, strip ads and rewrite pages with things like custom CSS, ever since I discovered The Proxomitron over 2 decades ago. It does tend to get me profiled as a "bot" by CloudFlare and such, but there are not-so-trivial ways around that too. It also shows why things like remote attestation are hazardous for user freedom.

Network level ad-blocking like Privoxy and pi-hole have so many downsides like they can't handle inline adverts. My pi4 pi-hole is unplugged right now because it just didn't work well. After hours wasted trying to make it work with all the services, I've thrown in the towel. The time involved is just not worth it for a home network. What works are browser based ad-blockers and app patchers like ReVanced. As my saving…

I think this is an unfair critique of the PiHole and I believe you’re throwing the baby out with the bath water. The PiHole blocks DNS and that’s all it’s designed to do, and it does it well. There’s a grandiose amount of telemetry, marketing, and general unsavory traffic flying through your network that didn’t originate from a browser. The PiHole is not exactly a turnkey solution and does take some adjusting to your preferences, but once you get it set up, you basically only have to touch it to do system updates.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#453

Post by jupp0r »

ufjfjjfjfj wrote: post #423
l33t7332273 wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The primary benefit that many pay for is to not see ads and to support creators you enjoy, not to avoid tracking.

Why not use an ad blocker?

Because they don't work on mobile apps, TVs and other non-desktop devices.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#454

Post by ttctciyf »

tbbfjotllf wrote: post #388
ttctciyf wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(With thanks to your grandchild) https://github.com/barre/privaxy seems definitely worth a look - thanks!

How does this compare to adguard home??? https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardHome

Adguard seems to offer blocking only, whereas Privaxy "is able ... to inject scripts as well as styles into HTML documents", which was the feature my comment expressed interest in.

The readme goes on to say: "Privaxy is also way more capable than DNS-based blockers as it is able to operate directly on URLs and to inject resources into web pages."

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#455

Post by mmastrac »

ddalex wrote: post #426
LocalH wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather use their services and block their ads, if I'm honest. Ad supporters talk like blocking ads is literal theft , which is absolutely laughable. It's further away from theft than piracy, which is also in no way literal theft . If I'm watching traditional non-demand television, and I go to the bathroom or change the channel during an ad, am I stealing from the network or the show? Hell no, that's ridiculous.

Theft? Of course it's theft, if I reduce to what is happening - you're using their services for free with no compensation. That is the definition of theft. I would agree with you it's ok if there was no way to _otherwise_ pay for the service. If they push a only ads-supported version, and I have no choice but see ads, and I don't consent to the impact of ads on my brain, it makes a case for blocking ads being ethical…

That is not literally not the definition of theft.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#456

Post by ohgodplsno »

peter422 wrote: post #440
ohgodplsno wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I just happened to always have it for free. They are the ones that decided that it was a good deal in exchange for tracking me throughout the internet, stalking me. They are the ones that decided to make my watching experience miserable by putting unskippable ads. They are the ones that decided to make the videos I watch crap, because if they're not 10 minutes long with a perfectly engineered cover image, they wo…

So you are vehemently anti-youtube, yet it still sounds like you get tons of content from it. Why not get your content from ad-free platforms?

To quote another comment I made:

It would be, if Google didn't have a chokehold on most of the internet. Sure, Nebula exists, I can watch three creators there, woohoo. Let me go on Dailymotion too for those sweet 2005 videos.

Google did everything in their power to force themselves into every aspect of our lives and leaving no alternatives, or destroying them, or buying them. Now they get to deal with the consequences

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#457

Post by jupp0r »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #437
DrBazza wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're giving them money because they're serving you ads in the first place. I appreciate advertising money pays the salaries of people in such companies, but there are other less intrusive ways. Since I've grown up with the evolution of internet advertising, my brain is wired to just ignore it. I can't saying I've knowingly be influence by any form of internet advertising, ever. A better solution for all concerned w…

You’re paying because you want the product, but there’s incidentally a free ad-supported tier. The way you phrase it makes it seem like you think they slapped ads on something that would have otherwise been a free gift.

Even more so - lots of content on YouTube wouldn't exist without the economic incentives to create it in the first place.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#458

Post by ajkblue »

syntaxing wrote: post #239
ajkblue wrote: post #28

This reminds me of a now-dockerized Privaxy, which is a UBlock-origin blocklist compatible MITM proxy. It’s crazy to see how many ads and tracking scripts are on smart products, especially my TV where so far in my testing it’s over 40% unnecessary traffic. Its been pretty fun to try and strip out ads on my smart-tv apps. https://github.com/deetungsten/webui-privaxy is the dockerized fork of https://github.com/Barre/p…

Aha it’s awesome to see you here on HN too! Thanks for bringing up that filter list pinging. Been meaning to change the fork to stop using the hardcoded address of 0.0.0.0 on the front end so we can truly isolate the docker container but life gets in the way. Have you tried this on an Apple TV?

Of course! I’ve been wanting to run this for my Apple TV devices for a while now. tvOS itself doesn’t really have ads, but the third-party tv network apps have a lot of ads and tracking services which is what I wanted to work on stripping out.

I have it working for a few TV Everywhere compatible apps, but some are proving to be more difficult than others. I may have to do some other TLS inspection with mitmproxy and figure out what needs to be removed with the custom uBlock filter syntax option.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#459

Post by guerrilla »

danmaz74 wrote: post #360
guerrilla wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they're not going to leave money on the table. Eventually you'll be seeing ads too. This is just a hook period. I don't understand how we as a culture haven't learned this already. This is at least the fourth or fifth generation of this with media. How things actually work should be common sense by now.

But the only reason to pay for Premium is not to see ads, so that wouldn't work.

For now.

Re: Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf

#460

Post by guerrilla »

elif wrote: post #267
guerrilla wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they're not going to leave money on the table. Eventually you'll be seeing ads too. This is just a hook period. I don't understand how we as a culture haven't learned this already. This is at least the fourth or fifth generation of this with media. How things actually work should be common sense by now.

I've been using premium for almost a decade now, since before it was rebranded from YouTube red. I'll let you know when it's safe to remove your tinfoil hat. Oh and I'll be downloading my videos for offline viewing and listening to ad free unrestricted music as well.

It's funny that all the counterarguments here depend on things staying exactly the same forever.
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