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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

#481

Post by IggleSniggle »

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…

Fair enough, but I've been super happy with the ability to do network level blocking; if you're willing to decrypt your own traffic, you can even do things like strip advertisements from getting embedded in Smart TVs and whatever else you have connected to your insecure network partition. I like it that I can hook up some random Roku and I won't get ads. Or my kid can connect his school laptop to our network and it wont get ads.

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

#482

Post by viktorcode »

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.

For many it's not about supporting the platform and creators. YouTube can be unwatchable with ads. I believe this was done in part to push people to purchase premium. Some pay, some block, but nobody thinks the YouTube advertisement business is something done right.

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

#483

Post by dylan604 »

jupp0r wrote: post #450
yrro wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? This isn't the 90s any more. You shouldn't use your employer's systems for anything other than work.

You never watch a conference talk on YouTube at work?

I've always created a google account specific for that company though, so it is still technically segregated from my personal anything

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

#484

Post by dahfizz »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #433
musictubes wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is insane. No corporation has the ability to incarcerate you or kill you. No corporation can round up your family. What, precisely, is the “threat” that Google presents that does not rely on a government to be the muscle. Are they going to cancel your Gmail account? Cut you off from YouTube? Surely if they actually are as powerful and dangerous as you think they are you wouldn’t use their stuff at all. But then…

(Shrug) Insane, whatever. All I know is, when I call the IRS, I can get a human on the phone who actively wants to help. Try that with Google, PayPal, Amazon, Apple, or any number of other companies when an error they've made but refuse to even explain, much less fix, threatens to wreck your livelihood. To redress grievances with my government, I don't need to make the front page of HN or go viral on Twitter. We don'…

"megacorps have bad customer support" is a wildly different assertion than "megacorps are indistinguishable from government"

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

#485

Post by viktorcode »

elif wrote: post #265

[flagged]

I can answer it. I am not against advertisement. I'm against advertisement that does whatever possible to get in the way of viewer trying to watch a creator's content they want to support.

Did you know there were half an hour long advertisement blocks on YouTube? I saw them in long playing videos I turned on for kids. If that doesn't bother you, I don't think it's in my power to explain to you "why people block ads on YouTube".

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

#486

Post by Salgat »

skinner927 wrote: post #452
slacka wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The problem is that unless you're willing to do surgery on a regular basis as you come across blocked sites, PiHole is going to cause more problems than it solves when you have your entire family using it. Even google stops working correctly because results for products on the front page start leading to blocked links. I like PiHole, but I had to stop using it because it was so aggravating for my wife.

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

#487

Post by paulryanrogers »

BoppreH wrote: post #332
quickthrower2 wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But who pays for the medium? Someone needs to. And YT offers an alternative where you can be the customer not the product.

That's a good question, and I think we haven't explored alternative solutions enough. As for me, I'm happy to pay for Netflix, Nebula, my VPN, and other services. I still pay, but I'm disappointed in Spotify, who is pushing more and more soft ads even on supposed ad-free plans. But a YouTube Premium subscription would be financing this ad machine and the decisions that come with it. Have you watched Shorts? No thanks…

Blocking ads just pushes more ads on others and/or into embedded sponsorships.

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

#488

Post by notjoemama »

kentonv wrote: post #480

Cool hack overall, but some of the statements about protobuf strike me as odd. > Exploit a Protobuf Flaw to Easily Remove All Ads by Changing One Byte He's intentionally corrupting the tag on one field of the protobuf. The "flaw" is apparently that Protobuf ignores tag numbers it doesn't recognize. But that's not a flaw, it's a core design feature of Protobuf, designed to allow extensibility. > Notice how the Protobu…

Brilliant response and observations. I’m not sure I’d agree with this one tiny assertion though:

“1.87MB is not that big“

I have lived in rural communities most of my life and unless I’m on my own Wi-Fi, this actually is a big file to download. Maybe they have a workaround for mobile? Mostly I just want to add that rural Wi-Fi still struggles with Web 2.0 architecture. More often we’re operating on 2-4G speeds.

Although if you’re in any kind of metro area with a population that supports better infrastructure, 1.87MB has mostly become a small file size. Except maybe at 6pm when everyone on your cable trunk is streaming content. :)

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

#489

Post by paulryanrogers »

smoldesu wrote: post #394
slikrick wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if nobody pays for YouTube then YouTube will go away.

I'm prepared. I own a 10tb hard drive that is half-filled with YouTube videos I've backed up. That's 13,000-odd videos in 360p, all raring to go once YouTube bites the dust. Defending YouTube because we're afraid it will "go away" is the same Stockholm Syndrome that paralyzed people on Twitter for so long. I welcome a change that forces people onto more P2P-oriented services, the status-quo is obnoxious and unsustain…

Great, you've a solution for the past. How will creators be incentivized to make and distribute future videos, that you can then download somehow?

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

#490

Post by 418tpot »

musictubes wrote: post #408
danmaz74 wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not seeing ads is a benefit of the service. Paying for premium is to support the video makers and, yes, the service itself. Paying for things you use is how you signal you like the product. The insane contortions people resort to in order to justify piracy boggles my mind. You either pay by watching ads or you pay the premium price. No one is entitled to YouTube. YouTube has to be paid for in order for it to exist an…

Or you can do what I do and support the creators on patreon and continue to use adblock on YouTube. That way you can consume content without feeling guilty and not support Google's monopoly at the same time.
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