cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/14909762

It seems YT started another attempt at blocking alternative clients. They changed something in their API and both SmartTube and Tubular (NewPipe fork) are completely broken. Apparently it started happening this past week, but we personally just felt it today.

Edit: SmartTube already has an update but still not working for 4K videos it seems. Tubular still not working but it might be due to the upstream (NewPipe) is still working on a fix.

  • plactagonic@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    4 months ago

    My working theory is that it has something do with YT trying to add ads directly in to the stream. This messes up timestamps and other metadata about the video and these clients don’t know how to deal with it yet.

    • treasure@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      0·
      4 months ago

      In the case of Tubular (a NewPipe fork), the issue is getting code 403 (Forbidden), which prevents playing the video. It occurred sporadically while playing videos for some time but could always be fixed with a restart. Now this occurs at the very start while trying to play a video for all people at the same time. I’m strongly suspecting that this is a move aimed specifically at 3rd party players.