this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I've landed on that page a couple of times. I'm just waiting to be blocked.

I almost never watch videos on youtube because I download them and watch them locally. The two things that I use to download them are Downie (Mac) and yt-download (cross platform). This helps me avoid ads unless they are baked into the video. I also like to grab a bunch of content all at once and then watch at my leisure.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you use yt-dlp you can save your subscriptions in a text file and download all their latest vids on a schedule.

Easy enough ChatGPT can write you this script and you may also find examples online.

If not directly useful for you, i am also putting this down for others. Do not let a monopoly dictate what is “the normal way” to do things.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

What a great idea! I love Bash scripting, so I'll look into doing this myself for fun tomorrow.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

I also like to grab a bunch of content all at once and then watch at my leisure.

If you're tech-inclined you might like pinchflat or Tube Archivist, which can archive channels/playlists in the background with video metadata automatically, which you can then use with JellyFin.

Need to be comfortable with /c/[email protected] type setups, however.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago

I’d vote for Pinchflat. Tube Archivist is good software but very heavy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I run a Plex server for my movie and television library. I just watch YT videos once and delete them, mostly in the background while I do other things. But I'll look into both tools regardless because automation is always interesting to me. Thanks for the tips!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

TubeArchivist is kind of an all-in-one software for you to watch YouTube videos in so its own web interface and is pretty heavy. But PinchFlat is very lightweight and is actually designed to be used with your Plex server being the medium you watch your videos on. So I’d recommend starting with the latter, as it’s kinda built for your exact use case.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

This is an interesting way to watch YouTube, and I have some questions about your system around watching the videos.

  1. How do you plan out downloading and watching the videos? Do you download at the time of watching, or do you just download as many videos you like when you get the chance?
  2. What do you do with the videos after watching?
[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

I download when I have free time to fill / kill. I watch one genre of videos and periodically check on a number of channels that have that content. I watch each video working down the list deleting them as I consume them. In the rare case that I want to save something, I toss it in an unmanaged directory of internet content.

My Plex library is where managed content lives. Stuff from the internet doesn't deserve that level of care (in my system of data management).