§ Improve ^
- Sponsorblock
- https://sponsor.ajay.app/
- Skips over garbage sections of videos. Absolutely required for watching YouTube in $PRESENT_DAY. Widespread support; integrated in many clients.
- DeArrow
- https://dearrow.ajay.app/
- Replaces clickbait garbage with descriptive titles and actual thumbnails. Not totally necessary but improves the experience. Not as widely supported as Sponsorblock.
- uBlock Origin
- https://github.com/gorhill/ublock
- For if you are ever cursed to open the actual YouTube site. You should have an adblocker installed either way.
§ Download ^
- yt-dlp
- Android: Seal
- https://github.com/JunkFood02/Seal
- yt-dlp frontend.
§ Stream ^
- mpv
- https://mpv.io/
- Use with yt-dlp for no-bullshit streaming (
mpv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmD-HlPAVTw).
- Electron: Freetube
- https://freetubeapp.io/
- A less bad "full" YouTube experience (search, etc.) on the desktop.
- Android: Tubular
- https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular
- One of many forks of Newpipe.
- Android: PipePipe
- https://github.com/InfinityLoop1308/PipePipe
- Another Newpipe fork. Updates with fixes for breakage faster than any others, but also loaded with many features I don't care about, so I use it as a backup.
- Roku: playlet
- https://github.com/iBicha/playlet
- Breaks frequently. Better: Jellyfin + yt-dlp.
- Web: Invidious
- https://invidious.io/
- Many unreliable public instances.
- Mostly only useful as a privacy-protecting backend and as a way to share videos with normies.
§ Consult ^
- Increase video speed. Usually 1.2x is comprehensible, and often you can push it further.
- Set player to skip over silence. Usually makes it very unpleasant to listen to but still comprehensible and much faster. A godsend for speakers who take long pauses and ones who talk too fast to just speed it up.
- Read the transcript.
- Usually there are no proper subtitles, just terrible automatic ones, but these are often good enough to at least find a starting point in the 45-minute unedited "tutorial" you're desperately trying to get info from.
- Fetch with yt-dlp:
yt-dlp --write-auto-subs --skip-download - Sometimes the abominable official player exposes this and makes it easier to seek but I'm not sure when. Live videos, maybe?