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

ericdraken.com

91–100 of 659 posts

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

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike the attitude of those who reject ads but also refuse to pay. How is this any different from changing the channel, leaving the room, or just hitting the mute button and closing your eyes in the scenario of "regular" TV when adverts or any other content you don't want to see appears? Compelled consumption should be illegal.

If the ad is displayed but you don't watch it you're hurting the advertiser, but id the ad is not displayed at all you're hurting the platform.

Serious question here. What's the difference between not responding to the ad in any meaningful way vs blocking the ad entirely? Does youtube know when you've blocked the ad and therefore the content creator earns less ad revenue?

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

#92
post #87
post #18

>I propose heuristically scanning for query and path parameters of ad URLs with high entropy and using those as keys (fingerprints). > https://xn--rr6sn-uxa0n-t8gz-vg6i.googlevideo.com/initplayba... &orc=1&oeis=1&c=IOS&oss=1&oda=1&oad=5500&ovd=5500&oaad=11000&oavd=11000 &ocs=700&oputc=1&oses=1&ofpcc=1&osbr=1&osnz=1&msp=1&odeak=1&odepv=1 &osfc=1&id=58cc678216d6aaca&ip=121.35.98.26&initcwndbps=2125000 &mt=1640373902 Th…

[flagged]

Yes, I evidently compared the obfuscation techniques to malicious actors because I know nothing about computers!

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

#93

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

> I dislike the attitude of those who reject ads but also refuse to pay And I dislike YouTube's hostile ad escalation in recent years. One ad - fine, two ads - hmmm, three ads - what the hell. Unskippable ads. Inappropriate ads. Loud-ass eardrum ripping ads. Ads even on Premium.

I have premium but don’t see any ads, except the sponsorships of the creators themselves. Which is a bit annoying but not a lot YouTube can do about.

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

#94

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

I find this a false proposition, there are plenty of other ways to to support a video streaming platform. There is nothing that suggest a platform like youtube has to exist in it's current form either. If a monetizing strategy does not work it is not the users holding it wrong. People consumed videos online before youtube and will be consuming after youtube just fine. It is not like Google is the creative mind behind the content either, in fact, the streaming part is by far the most boring problem.

I really dislike the attitude of defending megacorps and worrying about their bottom lines, especially anti customer ones like Google.

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

#95

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

> I dislike the attitude of those who reject ads but also refuse to pay And I dislike YouTube's hostile ad escalation in recent years. One ad - fine, two ads - hmmm, three ads - what the hell. Unskippable ads. Inappropriate ads. Loud-ass eardrum ripping ads. Ads even on Premium.

[dead]

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

#96
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can be a petty individual at times, and the thing that convinced me to never pay a cent to youtube was their removing the ability for the app to continue to play the clip in the background when switching to another app or locking the phone. I listen to news and podcast-esque things in the car going to work or school drop-off / pick-up, on the way to sport etc. I'd begrudgingly tolerate the ads if the app background…

The said ability also exists in a premium subscription. So what you effectively saying is that YouTube offers you a valuable feature, but you refuse to pay for it.

YouTube is not offering a valuable feature here. It's an OS feature. YouTube is going out of its way for you not to have this feature, unless you pay them (even though it wasn't them who brought you the feature to begin with). I understand why this upsets people.

Imagine Youtube preventing you from adjusting the volume unless you paid. This is similar.

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

#97
post #70
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption is that not many people would leave the room, close their eyes or mute the ads. If you created a painless, super easy way to remove all ads, i'm sure that TV channels will also find it hard to sell to advertisers, and thus, their revenue would decrease.

In my household growing up the ads were almost always muted as soon as the roll started. I always found it bizarre that other people did not do the same

That always felt counterproductive to me. I knew people who did this and they still stared at the adverts. In fact, without the sound, you are probably focusing more on the ads, trying to figure out what is going on.

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

#98

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

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

#99

The only alternatives to a service like youtube showing people ads are for its users to pay for it, for it to be funded through donations, for it to be run by the government and paid for through taxation or for it not to exist. I prefer the first or second approaches and Youtube is unusual among social media sites in actually giving me the first option. So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the…

> So I happily pay for premium and while I'd rather that were the only option (I think ad supported content is an inherently socially corrosive model) Still doesn't protect you from in-video sponsorships (skullshare, OstVPN, etc.), product placements, etc. Some creators especially do these because it protects them from platform demonetization risk. Same shit with paying for cabletv & movie theatre tickets. If anythin…

To me at least the sponsorblock extension is completely ethical when you are using youtube premium. The creators get paid extra for a premium view anyway, plus I don't think advertisers for in video ads pay per view of that segment (if there are even tools to detect that metric) or anything like that so you're not even hurting the creator. But I agree that something built in by youtube for premium users would be nicer. Would get youtube more premium users too I think because I was e.g. initially hesitent too of buying premium because I knew I would still be getting in video sponsors.

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

#100

The real tragedy: > In fact, the YouTube app is zippier because fewer connections are made to ad URLs in the first place. I swear on LG TV that webOS runs at a smooth 60 FPS when it's not connected to Wi-Fi and slows down as soon as it phones home for whatever telemetry and ads LG intend to serve me...

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