fyi:
- https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp lets you download videos (from youtube and also hundreds of other sites)
- for desktop, https://mpv.io/ is free and lets you watch youtube (or any other video) at even more and faster speeds than youtube premium does, among many other features
- for android, https://newpipe.net/ lets you play youtube in the background (and download videos, and block ads, …)
- https://ublockorigin.com/ blocks ads everywhere (and yes it does still work on youtube, at least in firefox anyway)
I feel like whatever alternative ways of consuming YouTube videos there are are only because the overlords haven’t considered them sufficiently problematic. yt-dlp recently had to choose to delegate javascript challenges to stuff like deno.
YouTube really recently stepped up their efforts to detect and circumvent adblockers. Before last year, there was no such thing as an adblock error message. Now, anything but uBlock will likely trigger it.
Part of this is Google’s step to gain more control over the browser ecosystem and lock down the ability to even use adblockers.
I think it’s both a matter of these solutions not being sufficiently problematic, while also being unfeasible to actually fix.
That used to be possible without premium. Is wonder what other features they will paywall next.
it still is, i just tested it
I have the impression that youtube rolls out these types of changes gradually, possibly based on location
Edit: Just checked, still works for me too
For me it’s only 4x they’re charging for (so far) which is admittedly approaching ludicrous speed… but nonetheless, charging for it is awfully petty.
I noticed that youtube hasn’t let me change the speed at all recently on my computer. They show the typical speed control, but it doesn’t work and shows 4x speed premium.
That being said, I have a browser extension that just lets me speed up the video with a keyboard shortcut to whatever speed I want, so it really doesn’t matter.
uBlock Origin Lite also works just as well as standard Origin on youtube, for those of us who can’t use the latter.
AdGuard is also an acceptable option if you’re willing to pay a small amount. I won’t say it’s as good as ublock but it’s what I have to use on iOS to actually get good blocking.
Open console (F12 and select console tab) in desktop browser and run:
document.querySelector('video').playbackRate = 4;
