Many YT privacy frontends are down it seems. YouTube is cracking down on these servers fast. Both Invidious and Piped services are not working now.

So how are you watching videos now? Just plain youtube[dot]com with unblock and VPN?

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
    0·
    12 days ago

    Searching Videos on FreeTube but watching these in the SMplayer, because FreeTube lists theVideos, but often don’t play it. SMplayer works almost always, Also possible open the Video copying the URL in it. Another possibility is searching the Video with Andisearch and watch it there in the search results sandboxed and anonym with the random proxies which use Andisearch.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    I wish we had some sort of way to copy videos from YT to PeerTube on some sort of on-demand way.

    Like tell PeerTube the video you want, wait a few minutes, and then its available for everyone. Then it auto deletes after X days if it has had 0 views.

    Edit: oh man, you could even have a Lemmy bot do this automatically when it sees a link to a YouTube video.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    12 days ago

    Downie.app (MacOS) and yt-dlp (multiplatform).

    I am not watching YouTube content while these are blocked. I will not watch stupid ads. I will not submit to shitty platforms that suck. Until these work again, there is no YouTube.

    I’m finding other ways to fill my free time during the holiday break. I’ll have a bevy of new content to watch when they’re updated.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
    0·
    12 days ago

    I found that switching my VPN server allowed FreeTube to work for me. I’m on Mullvad’s South African servers atm, which are quite slow. If anyone knows of any unblocked Mullvad servers that are faster, lmk, but those were the first ones I found that you can use FreeTube with.

  • airikr@lemmy.ml
    0·
    12 days ago

    I download the videos I want to watch with yt-dlp. This applies to audio as well. I then add the videos to my Jellyfin server to watch them on the TV.

  • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    12 days ago

    Close the door, turn off the lights, wear earbuds, pull a duvet over your head. Works every time. Might look a bit suspicious, but at least it’s private.

    Seriously though, it’s getting pretty bad. I’m currently shifting my video watching habits away from YT. I have a feeling that sooner rather than later I may have to quit YT completely.

  • drascus@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    11 days ago

    Freetube and newpipe for me. However I will say they just don’t work sometimes. So then I just am left with my browser.

    • Kiuyn@lemmy.ml
      0·
      9 days ago

      I personally think Freetube is the best for desktop right now. Recently, there is also grayjay for desktop. The UI is still buggy IMO, but also seem promising.

        • Kiuyn@lemmy.ml
          0·
          9 days ago

          That is a fair point. Source first software isn’t a part of FLOSS, but even in worst case scenarios it still can be considered as “source available”. Which is better in term of transparency compared to closed source App. OP asked for “private” way to watch Youtube not open source way, so I think grayjay could still be a great choice. We are talking about watching from YouTube which is a corpo closed source spyware anyway.

          • Blender Dumbass@lm.madiator.cloudEnglish
            0·
            8 days ago

            but wait a second. Privacy is good because it is a Freedom. And because it make Freedom as a whole more possible. But using software with which you have no freedom, kind of defeats the purpose. Like you gain +1 freedom points and lose -1 freedom points. It’s net zero.

            Transparency is good to see privacy, but if it is not Libre, you are not gaining any freedom.

            I just woke up, I don’t know if I am making any sense

  • normalexit@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    On mobile, Firefox plus ublock works well. There are a few issues like losing your position if the page reloads, but it works pretty consistently otherwise.

    I also use NewPipe, but Google breaks it fairly regularly.

    • Kiuyn@lemmy.ml
      0·
      9 days ago

      Grayjay seems to be really stable compared to newpipe. I used it for 6 months now never break once. They also recently released a beta version for desktop which is quite promising

  • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
    0·
    11 days ago

    I feel like most have misunderstood the point of the question, they offer to use newpipe, yt-dlp and the like, but those aren’t private, they just allow you to watch without signing in, just as you could through the official website with maybe uBlock origin, you’re still exposing your IP.
    The only fitting suggestion I saw is that of downloading from invidious through yt-dlp, which sounds pretty neat, I had no idea you could when the web frontend is apparently not working

    • cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      0·
      11 days ago

      Yes I tried to using freetube with VPN this morning. I have to say… Its pretty good. But the catch is you have to use a vpn server that is not used by many.

      • cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.deOP
        0·
        11 days ago

        Some invidious instances directly embeds the video from googlevideo[dot]com. This means google will get your IP. But in the setting you can choose an option to proxy the video for you.

    • TurtleOnASkateboard@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      I feel like most have misunderstood the point of the question, they offer to use newpipe, yt-dlp and the like, but those aren’t private, they just allow you to watch without signing in, just as you could through the official website with maybe uBlock origin, you’re still exposing your IP.

      This implies invidious and piped hide your IP address, which I’m not sure is true.