this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Unlock origin and ReVanced is great, but it doesn't allow casting to the TV without ads..

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Smarttube Next works great on my TV with FireTV. No ads.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its the only way we can watch TV in our house.

Im just afraid that they might remove thr ability to install custom apks altogether.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Get rid of fireTV and get a true android TV like the nvidia shield. I'm sure there are others that are cheaper too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thats basically the plan eventually. Or just download the playlists that our toddler watches, since tv comes under his purview.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Also you can use a browser (I usually recommend Brave but I think the tide of opinion on them recently has turned?) that has adblocking built into it, navigate to youtube, and use that to cast to TV.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's my secret, Cap. I don't own a TV.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I’ve got one! …but it’s only connected to a computer. All of our screens have computers connected. Computers that can install adblocking software and play videos are insanely cheap. I’m astounded anyone uses smart TVs’ rubbish software or a stick of any sort.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

If u have an old Laptop colleting dust you can always install a light weight Linux on it and use it for YouTube or even pirated Films or series on your TV

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is when apple comes in clutch with airplay. Safari + sponsorblock equals casting supremacy. I don't even have the YouTube app installed on Apple.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I run Newpipe on a fire stick. No ads.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

If only that was a real issue that mattered.

You can screen mirror pretty much any windows, iOS/macOS, or android machine through your network or Bluetooth for FREE

You can pick up casting stick USBs for the price of ONE month of youtube premium

You can just hook up a dinky little raspberry pie or something to your TV and not even need to cast. Lord knows all these Lemmy computer geeks have some tiny computer or laptop lying around

You can pick up some jailbroken smart TV device like a Roku and watch a LOT more than ad-free clickbait videos for the cost of two months of premium

You can place a PiHole or equivalent somewhere in your network

It's actually braindead easy to just never see an ad from online content on your Tv

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All of these options are unreasonable when you are talking a whole household and catering to a family that is not tech savvy. I have a pihole and it does not block ads from the YouTube TV app.

I have a plex going with content enough for the adults, but the kids consume so much media there is no reasonable way to get enough and fast enough and to meet their current interests. Youtube is the only streaming subscription we have left in the house because nothing even comes close for kids. Even Disney+ completely fumbles when it comes to appealing to what used to be its target market.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

You can also use Apple TV which is hands down best streaming box, use ATV remote on your couch without faffing with computers and pay for good service that YouTube and content creators on YouTube provide.

It's easy to avoid paying but the experience is just worse.

And if you're really short on cash, subscribe from Argentina or India and pay ~$2.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am a big fan of isponsorblocktv which sits on a network device like a nas and skips YouTube sponsor segments on Apple TV.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Whoa, this looks awesome and I do have always on server for Usenet/Plex and Homebridge.

Thanks!

[edit] Installed and working great but I had to change os.exit() to sys.exit() in one of the files, looks like it's not compatible with recent Python versions out of the box. Converted into system.d daemon, now working 24/7.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh that’s sick, only reason why I won’t get an Apple TV. You still need a subscription to get rid of YouTube ads, yeah?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. I am one of those who pays for premium. I primarily watch on my tv and probably watch more youtube than anything else. Also still on the old $10 plan but we will see how long that lasts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You can use a secondary google account, sign up for premium family plan using a vpn to Turkey and pay like $10 per year, while adding your main google account as a family member to save a bundle of cash. I haven’t bothered since I’m happy with STN on android tv, but knowing that there’s a working sponsorblock solution for appletv now I might have to make the switch lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

But, only way I have found I can get casting + sponsorblock without messing with any third party apps on TVs or casting devices has been just using Safari + sponsorblock and using air play.

Paying for YouTube doesn't solve the issue of me wanting to avoid being exposed to segments of people begging me to like and subscribe etc. Those I actually find way more annoying than ads.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That part is annoying but I generally don't subscribe to channels that overdo it. My remote has a button to skip 10s forward so I keep pressing it until I see sponsored segment is over.

I'd love to be able to use sponsorblock on ATV but I don't see how it could be reasoned that it makes morally ok to not pay Google and content creators for the service they provide (with cash, ad views or otherwise). Video hosting ain't cheap.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

But, I don't have to press any remote at all. I don't even need sponsor block installed on any ATV or Android device. It's been as simple as just air playing a video from safari. Such a polished experience.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

AppleTV doesn't let you cast from obscure streaming websites.

Chromecast does though. That's why it will always be better.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Huh? You can Airplay those. Not sure what do you want to stream there that would be a better experience than downloading it outright from Usenet or torrents.

Chromecast is fine for what it is and a very good value but it does not compete with Apple TV or Nvidia Shield.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can airplay any video playing on your phone with the AppleTV

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Flixtor.to

By all means, please attempt to cast. Not mirror your phone, but actually cast.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, AirPlay works fine with flixtor. It shows up in the media player in the control center and allows you to airplay just like any other video

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

But but… Apple Bad?!?!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Odd, I've never been able to get it to work

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does ReVanced still work? I know YouTube Vanced was killed a while back, but I think I tried ReVanced recently but couldn't get it to work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Works perfectly well.
With the root install method casting works too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's catt which can be installed in termux on Android or directly on your PC easily enough. AFAIK there's also a few (T)UIs for it out there. I personally have set up a bash script in termux as a share target and send the links from the revanced app to catt for casting. But yeah, it's definitely more work and needs more expertise setting it up than hitting the cast button in the app, fully agreed.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Best solution is PiHole. If you can find RaspberryPi, but any replacement will work. Essentially local DNS which ignores requests to ad servers. There are also some other DNS servers which filter ads. But I've had less success with them.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In my experience PiHole doesn't stop YouTube ads on the mobile app. I imagine that it won't fix on a TV either.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The only solution I've found on mobile without installing security certificates and stuff is to use You tube's website on Firefox with ublock installed there too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Just found that out. Although uBlock kills those for me. Perhaps setting up a proxy and blocking those URLs could work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pihole won't keep you from watching ads,for what I know its because google uses the same servers to serve the content and the ads.Pihole is great to browse the web though.. I have it at home. For me what gets the job done is newpipe for my android phone and Smartube on my Android TV.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Hm, then it won't.