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YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

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Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#71

Post by simondedalus »

ghrifter wrote: post #33
JoshTriplett wrote: post #11

Alternative hypothesis (assuming a bug rather than intended behavior): YouTube is testing a new ad mechanism, and the new mechanism (rather naturally) wasn't tested on systems blocking ads; it then produces a delay if the ad can't be downloaded, rather than silently skipping it. But yeah, I do tend to watch most of my videos through youtube-dl these days, even though the HTML5 player works fine for me in Firefox with…

> videos through youtube-dl these days how do you find the video you want without using youtube? do you just use the youtube search interface then download the video by copying the url (w/o even clicking on the link to start the video buffer)

you could search (and watch) with mps-youtube:

http://www.webupd8.org/2014/02/new-command-line-youtube-play...

incidentally, you could also just use google.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#72

Post by wesleytodd »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #11

Alternative hypothesis (assuming a bug rather than intended behavior): YouTube is testing a new ad mechanism, and the new mechanism (rather naturally) wasn't tested on systems blocking ads; it then produces a delay if the ad can't be downloaded, rather than silently skipping it. But yeah, I do tend to watch most of my videos through youtube-dl these days, even though the HTML5 player works fine for me in Firefox with…

> it then produces a delay if the ad can't be downloaded

I work for video site and wrote the player we use, and this is exactly that I think would be happening. Our player has a similar issue, and it even sometimes occurs with no ad blocker.

The player I wrote loads ads via the VAST specification, which is pretty much what the entire web uses for ads. This means we have to make a client side request for an xml document, parse it, then see if it has an ad unit we can show. Even if we don't get an ad there can end up being multiple round trips due to the way VAST and the ad networks work, thus delay.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#73

Post by wesleytodd »

wesleytodd wrote: post #72
JoshTriplett wrote: post #11

Alternative hypothesis (assuming a bug rather than intended behavior): YouTube is testing a new ad mechanism, and the new mechanism (rather naturally) wasn't tested on systems blocking ads; it then produces a delay if the ad can't be downloaded, rather than silently skipping it. But yeah, I do tend to watch most of my videos through youtube-dl these days, even though the HTML5 player works fine for me in Firefox with…

> it then produces a delay if the ad can't be downloaded I work for video site and wrote the player we use, and this is exactly that I think would be happening. Our player has a similar issue, and it even sometimes occurs with no ad blocker. The player I wrote loads ads via the VAST specification, which is pretty much what the entire web uses for ads. This means we have to make a client side request for an xml docume…

Additionally, it might be possible that the ad blocker is silently dropping the request, which would result in a request timeout before moving on to the actual video content.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#75

Post by wildmusings »

meritt wrote: post #70

YouTube is free. It's free because Google pays for it via ads. If you aren't watching ads, then you're effectively not paying for the content. Exactly what are people expecting to happen and why are they mad at Google here? Why do they feel like they're owed something for nothing? If you don't like it, go launch and finance your own free-to-watch-no-ads-included video site.

I agree. I adblock but I fully expect web businesses to do everything in their power to stop me; if they think that's in their best interests. We're all looking out for number one.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#76

Post by Animats »

imaginenore wrote: post #54
martinald wrote: post #19

It's quite staggering to think the risk adblocking poses to Google's business. They have virtually no business apart from ads. AFIAK they have marketshare in the UK (and maybe US) which surpasses print+tv. Can you imagine this 40 years ago? An invention which cuts out newspaper ads and time travels broadcast TV past the commercials? Staggering.

They have all kinds of other businesses besides the ad (which is a large percentage of their revenue). Cloud services, maps, email for work. Very soon they will be selling self driving car systems, which is going to be huge. Even if they made zero through ads, being a search engine, they can charge for positioning. Or they can start their own businesses in literally any area, and drive all the traffic they want to th…

Ads are still about 94% of Google's revenue.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#77

Post by zobzu »

meritt wrote: post #70

YouTube is free. It's free because Google pays for it via ads. If you aren't watching ads, then you're effectively not paying for the content. Exactly what are people expecting to happen and why are they mad at Google here? Why do they feel like they're owed something for nothing? If you don't like it, go launch and finance your own free-to-watch-no-ads-included video site.

its probably whats going to happen. Wait, its already happening.

http://zeronet.io/ for example. served by users for users. all you pay is your ISP, thats IT.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#78

Post by JoshTriplett »

ghrifter wrote: post #33
JoshTriplett wrote: post #11

Alternative hypothesis (assuming a bug rather than intended behavior): YouTube is testing a new ad mechanism, and the new mechanism (rather naturally) wasn't tested on systems blocking ads; it then produces a delay if the ad can't be downloaded, rather than silently skipping it. But yeah, I do tend to watch most of my videos through youtube-dl these days, even though the HTML5 player works fine for me in Firefox with…

> videos through youtube-dl these days how do you find the video you want without using youtube? do you just use the youtube search interface then download the video by copying the url (w/o even clicking on the link to start the video buffer)

I browse the site and copy the URL. Often, I'll copy the URL of a playlist, and use -A to download and number a series of videos.

Or, for something sufficiently ephemeral, I'll hand the URL directly to mpv and let it stream. Particularly useful if I suspect I won't care to watch the entire video. And I find mpv's player interface far better than YouTube's.

Occasionally I still use the browser video player as well.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#79

Post by milankragujevic »

xrstf wrote: post #66
milankragujevic wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@imaginenore: They're not, but if the video is licensed for embedding that means that I can't be sued for copyright infringement, plus the standard "linking != infringement" applies.

You are breaking several of YouTube's TOS ( https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms ) > (5A) you agree not to distribute any part of or parts of the Website or the Service, including but not limited to any Content By downloading and sending the videos from your servers, you are distributing their content. > (5C) you agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages…

Tbh, Im not distributing anything, they are, I just hotlink the video file. Also, anyone using an adblocker is also doing the same thing, yet youtube isnt blocking adblockers.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#80

Post by [deleted] »

xrstf wrote: post #66
milankragujevic wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@imaginenore: They're not, but if the video is licensed for embedding that means that I can't be sued for copyright infringement, plus the standard "linking != infringement" applies.

You are breaking several of YouTube's TOS ( https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms ) > (5A) you agree not to distribute any part of or parts of the Website or the Service, including but not limited to any Content By downloading and sending the videos from your servers, you are distributing their content. > (5C) you agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages…

[deleted]
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