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Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels

tantalor
29 replies
2h58m

The best part of this is the channel doesn't pause when you flip away from it. It is always "running" and if you flip away you will miss it. That builds in a FOMO trade-off which causes user to automatically/subconciously decide on channel they most want to watch, because they can't watch everything.

angry_moose
10 replies
2h29m

I added ErsatzTV to my Plex setup about a month ago and we honestly love it so much. I've got 2 sitcom channels, British panel shows, Taskmaster, all Star Trek all the time, British sitcoms, cartoons, and a few others.

Its really nice to just sit down and watch "whatever is on" (even though I could switch over to the main library and watch any episode I want).

Sometimes I just want a 0-effort/0-decision background noise while I work on something else or browse on my phone.

l72
6 replies
1h52m

I've also been using ErsatzTV with my jellyfin setup. It can take a while to setup channels how you want them, but I love my sci-fi channel which is going through all the Star Treks, Stargates, and Twilight Zones.

It is so much easier to flip it on to my Sci-fi Channel, animation channel, movie channel, or James Bond marathon channel then to decide what to watch. And since I've seen all this content, it is often kinda nice to start in the middle of an episode.

I also found a ton of old Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim bumps that I use as some filler content if I want episodes to start on the hour.

I've been thinking a lot about setting up some kids channels with specific hours (like channel comes on at 7am, goes off during part of the day, comes back on in the afternoon, and goes offline at bedtime) for my siblings kids, as I think letting them just browser youtube kids is terrible.

vundercind
2 replies
1h32m

Do you know if that can operate with no transcoding?

I’ve designed my media set-up around Jellyfin on a weak server that can’t handle transcoding, and very-capable clients that don’t need it. This lets me avoid like half the bugs on the Jellyfin bug tracker and all the instability an Nvidia or AMD video card would introduce to the server itself.

I’m very interested in this, but can’t use it if it must transcode.

l72
1 replies
1h16m

No, it must transcode to work correctly, which can be a problem for me too (although I just have an intel card and use vaapi).

I believe there is a container you can use where it doesn't transcode, but it trips up every player I have tried, as they do not like having different resolutions/codecs suddenly swap.

vundercind
0 replies
1h14m

Damn, kinda what I figured. Thanks. Maybe some day I’ll upgrade/downgrade to a less perfectly-stable server that is transcoding capable.

lackstein
2 replies
1h45m

I also found a ton of old Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim bumps

Where were you able to find these? Recreating one of these channels has been a side project I’ve wanted to do for ages.

l72
1 replies
1h13m

I think it was mostly youtube and retrojunk.com

Try searching for "$channel bump"

Personally, I think Adult Swim had the best bumps, usually just some nice house music with a nice animation and some funny quotes.

hadrien01
1 replies
2h16m

I've done the same thing with dizqueTv for my grandmother. On her Android TV, I was able to integrate the IPTV channels on the same channels list, so she can simply use the remote to navigate between the digital channels and the IPTV channels (30 for Hercule Poirot, 31 for classic B&W movies, etc.)

archon810
0 replies
53m

dizqueTv, ErsatzTV... these are the "Chinese company names on Amazon" of TV app names.

enobrev
0 replies
27m

I've been using Quasi TV (android app) to try out the concept. I remember having something similar back in the boxee / xbmc days. I especially liked that it "just worked" without having to set anything up besides pointing it at my plex. I'm not afraid of hosting something, but I didn't want to go through the trouble if it turned out I wasn't going to use it.

I quite like it. Unfortunately, the app's been a bit buggy - not always picking up the stream at the "current time" and sometimes navigation gets wonky. But it was a good test run and that, along with your post, has convinced me to give Ersatz (or something like it) a try.

A_Duck
10 replies
2h36m

Yep this works really nicely, and psychologically it's somehow way more relaxing than having to curate what you watch

I predict this appears as real youtube feature soon. Since it will also allow them to do a Spotify-style payola approach to scheduling.

Group_B
2 replies
2h4m

well they already have youtube shorts, which is kinda similar.

bobbob1921
1 replies
1h54m

I hate that if anytime I upload a short video it forces the video to YouTube shorts. Especially since I’m not making content for the public - it’s more a demo video or something to specifically send to a few people. As with so many services nowadays, I like the ability to use YouTube shorts when I want, but I hate that it’s forced upon us with no reasonable and consistent method to not use shorts at the users discretion.

rd
0 replies
1h28m

Uploading horizontally or >1m should fix this?

Most things or demos I send are horizontal, but I agree, the automatic shorts of vertical is annoying

0cf8612b2e1e
2 replies
1h7m

I have long wanted Netflix to offer this feature. Just give me a random episode of a low stakes sitcom. Seinfeld, SVU, whatever.

My other wishlist item was that Netflix would offer a “shuffle” this series option. For standalone episodic shows, ordering does not matter, and it is a bunch of overhead to pick something.

saintfire
0 replies
34m

I didn't realize how much I would appreciate shuffle until i started using jellyfin.

I use it all the time for shows that have self-contained episodes (e.g. Futurama).

teska
0 replies
34m

They experimented with it for a bit last year. I think Linus talked about it on the WAN show, and for a while LTT had it enabled on their channel.

It was essentially a 24/7 livestream which played from their back catalogue, with the ability to add "promo" segments in between videos, which they used for products on their merch store.

Seemed to dissapear around the same time the whole monoblock scandal and production shutdown happened last year, so I'm not sure if the YouTube experiment also concluded or if they turned it off during the shutdown.

dotnet00
0 replies
53m

I predict this appears as real youtube feature soon

I highly doubt it. They're going to wait for competitors to implement it and have it for several years before they bother to poorly copy the idea.

digging
0 replies
2h18m

I predict this appears as real youtube feature soon.

I doubt it would. The modern style of binging on-demand streaming content seems to be too effective at capturing attention. Remember that lots of people get notifications on their phone the instant a new video comes out for a subscribed channel, especially kids and teens who haven't developed resistance to these business models.

YT would be unlikely to spend any effort implementing an alternate mode that doesn't capture attention as effectively; the old model of live channels is likely a niche preference. If somehow this did prove to be more effective at capturing attention, I could see it being implemented, but that would surprise me.

aa-jv
0 replies
1h37m

Along the same lines, I have a near-terabyte of videos I have downloaded from Youtube, of my own vast and multivariate interests, and having it on random, with a simple pause/next/prev-style interface, is also a compelling viewer-experience equillibrium akin to the sets of yore ..

(cue Buggles..)

notfed
1 replies
1h53m

Another observation: with this setup, you essentially randomly jump into the middle of videos, skipping what is usually the most grating part of the show: the intro.

In the intro to most shows/videos, there's annoying jingles, silly animations, a redundant summary of what's about to happen in an already short segment, or just useless chatter "hey guys! it's your boy, _. welcome to my channel, remember to smash that like button, we have a great show today".

Because of all this intro bloat, I tend to jump a few minutes into most YouTube videos by default.

tantalor
0 replies
1h36m

The only thing worse than the intro is the 2nd intro. Just get to the GD content please.

recursive
0 replies
28m

I don't see how this is a good thing. It's a totally artificial constraint. It's already impossible to watch everything on youtube. I don't want software I use to instill fear as a design goal, detached from any of the outcomes of user actions.

imiric
0 replies
10m

If only we had a TiVo...

hadisafa
0 replies
2h50m

channels are synced so everyone is watching the same exact content at the same time, just like TV.

aman2k4
0 replies
2h54m

yeah when i noticed this, it blew my mind.

TheKarateKid
0 replies
25m

The FOMO would only work if the content was exclusively available during that livestream, and not re-posted later.

That being said, I think the last thing society needs is to make these platforms more addictive. The algorithms already do a good enough job of keeping us glued.

lucasoshiro
18 replies
2h37m

This is something I always wonder... Something that I really miss from TV on internet content (YouTube, movie streamings and so on) is turn it on and watching what's being transmitted without thinking about what I wanna see.

Three reasons:

1. Picking something to watch takes time. Sometimes I only want to see something in the 15 minutes that I'm dining alone. My meal gets cold before I start the video

2. Choosing something to watch is stressful. If I'm tired and I don't know what I want to see makes me more tired and frustrated. These are the times that I don't want the freedom to watch I want because they are the times that I don't want to think about what I want

3. The random factor of watching something that I would never watch by myself it's something that makes me go outside my bubble. I can't say how many good movies (or songs, etc) I found by that randomness

I'm not against the freedom of streaming services but there are moments that I just don't want that freedom. So, thank you!

Almondsetat
6 replies
2h35m

Why can't you pick randomly from your home page and let auto play do its thing?

lukas099
1 replies
2h22m

I wish my YouTube recommendations were anywhere good enough to do this.

s1artibartfast
0 replies
51m

Agreed, my recommendations are extremely narrow. Usually videos from the same three content creators, and ones that I've already seen or in there chronological queue that I already plan to watch.

lucasoshiro
1 replies
2h28m

The recommendation algorithms suggests things that are related to what I watched before. And I still need to choose one of the options that it recommends.

Almondsetat
0 replies
1h39m

They recently introduced an anonymous mode

digging
0 replies
2h13m

This works pretty well for YT when it knows your preferences, but for streaming TV services like Netflix I find it's a box of chocolates full of shit. It's just going to be whatever is being "promoted" at the time and has the most widespread appeal, not something interesting.

Mathnerd314
0 replies
2h27m

Yeah, for me loading the homepage and clicking the top-left video is almost an automatic reflex at this point.

asveikau
3 replies
2h30m

Sometimes I only want to see something in the 15 minutes that I'm dining alone.

I think the YouTube recommendation algorithm you get from opening the app or viewing the front page is good for this. They have a lot of random content and when the algorithm gets to know you, it will suggest things of interest that can be consumed this way.

Suppafly
1 replies
2h22m

I have so many subscriptions on youtube that the home recommendation is actually a quicker way to find something interesting if I have limited time, since the subscriptions are full of shorts and 'reruns' now where creators try to monetize old videos in new ways.

The only issue is that my youtube is the one on the main tv, so sometimes the suggestions get messed up when my kids watch. Youtube probably has a really confusing set of conflicting beliefs about who I am.

asveikau
0 replies
2h13m

My kids mostly watch on tablets which are their own. On the TV, they have separate profiles on all the streaming apps. We don't do YouTube much on TV but when we do, I've always been sure to give them a different device that is not logged into my account.

If I lend them a device to watch YouTube I usually do it in the browser in incognito.

cuanim
0 replies
14m

My youtube recommendations on my laptop are just short videos(all are below 3 mins with a few exceptions ;-;) I get so much better recommendations by using youtube tv but it sucks that they don't let us switch preferences. But well results in me spending less time on youtube so a win heh

Suppafly
2 replies
2h24m

The solution to a lot of those is to just have a goto show that you watch. Before netflix removed The Office, that is what I always did when wanting something to watch while eating a snack on the couch or to have noise on in the background. I'd just fire up netflix and resume whatever episode it was last one.

We ditched cable forever ago, but I do find that I miss just watching 15 minutes of some random show like I used to. I usually forget about it until I'm at someone's house or a doctors office and catch a snippet of some random car show or cooking show.

lucasoshiro
1 replies
2h8m

The solution to a lot of those is to just have a goto show that you watch.

Cool! I have a list of movies to watch that I write from several recommendations sources, so I can try focus in watching instead of choosing. I can't say the same about music, I'm stuck for years hearing almost the same bands, which is kinda sad...

I usually forget about it until I'm at someone's house or a doctors office and catch a snippet of some random car show or cooking show.

Another good point, watching something that I don't need to pay too much attention because I don't care about the subject, but can entertain me while I do other things... Here in Brazil that kind of shows that "we watch, we like but we don't know why" is a recurring joke, and we have three main ones: one about farming (Globo Rural), one about fishing (Pesca Alternativa) and one about trucks (Siga Bem Caminhoneiro)

Suppafly
0 replies
1h46m

Here in Brazil that kind of shows that "we watch, we like but we don't know why" is a recurring joke, and we have three main ones: one about farming (Globo Rural), one about fishing (Pesca Alternativa) and one about trucks (Siga Bem Caminhoneiro)

Are those public access type shows that are meant to be somewhat educational?

archon810
1 replies
50m

What I am really missing is a "Play random episode" or "Randomize episodes" button on TV shows. I want to just flip on Seinfeld or Family Guy and watch random episodes, not in order. Such a missed opportunity for Netflix, etc.

ksynwa
0 replies
35m

Jellyfin has this. Very nice feature for comedy shows.

rubslopes
0 replies
1h34m

I hadn't watched actual television for years. Then, in a visit to my parents house, I randomly got to watch a band in a talkshow that later became a band that I love.

butlike
0 replies
1h49m

WHY is there not an "I'm feeling lucky" button for streaming services. Akin to "give me anything," though, I suspect the answer is the more time spent scrolling, the less data has to be streamed over the wire, so it's cheaper.

DougWebb
15 replies
2h56m

I really like how there are only 12 channels, and you don't get to choose what's on. The only way to make it even more like tv from a few decades ago would be if half of the channels were static.

loloquwowndueo
10 replies
2h52m

Given how full of crap content and intrusive ads YouTube is these days, I actually kinda miss tv from back then. About the only benefits at this point are time shifting and pause/rewind.

arethuza
4 replies
2h41m

I've long since concluded that YouTube's ads are merely a way of persuading me to upgrade to Premium. Given that they actually seem to be pretty good at recommending content to me I am mystified by why the ad selection is so awful.

UncleOxidant
2 replies
2h22m

I got a f'n Trump asking for money ad on YT last night. The algorithm should know better than to serve me something like that.

yesco
0 replies
1h39m

But doesn't it make sense to pay for targeted political ads towards people opposed to you? The algorithm allows advertisers to do targeted advertising, and you were targeted, the subtle implication that targeted advertising would only show you "what you want to see" was intentional and misleading to get people on board with their attention being sold to the highest bidder.

gwervc
0 replies
2h16m

If the ads are indeed just a way to push for subscriptions and you are upset or annoyed by a particular add, the algorithm is perfectly doing its job.

randomdata
0 replies
2h25m

1. If the ad selection is too good, people will fall into the uncanny valley. They have to make it terrible enough to maintain user confidence.

2, They may not have anything better to select from. Quickly start/stop the ads a few times and it will usually (but not always) give up on showing any ad at all, which suggests to me that the available ad pool at that point in time is being exhausted.

naikrovek
1 replies
2h19m

have you forgotten how bad commercials were back then, and still are?

I haven't watched TV in years and years and years, because of the ads. I have a YouTube premium subscription and I am not ever going to watch broadcast or cable tv again. ever.

tracerbulletx
0 replies
2h47m

I mean you realize there were many more ads per hour on TV though right? What makes the youtube ones more intrusive?

dbspin
0 replies
2h26m

It's still trivial to block these though with a combination of uBlock Origin and Sponsorblock. Despite Google's ongoing efforts to make this impossible.

add-sub-mul-div
0 replies
2h43m

With real TV and a DVR you haven't had to see a single commercial in the last 25 years if you didn't want to.

We don't talk enough about how streaming has forced us into a much worse experience with ads that are unskippable, privacy-invading, and now I hear they're being dynamically inserted into programming mid-scene.

zikduruqe
0 replies
2h21m

Or if they could simulate an antenna rotor and you had to turn it towards the station.

myself248
0 replies
15m

Integrate a Kinect / Realsense camera that estimates your body pose, so you have to stand in front of the computer and hold your arms in a specific way to direct a weak signal into the rabbit-ears...

gryn
0 replies
1h33m

if we're talking about stuff to make it more authentic, how about looking up my local weather if there's a strong storm the quality drops + more static, and a small (rng) chance of it completely breaking if the antenna upstairs got completely broken by the strong wind.

Tiktaalik
0 replies
1h17m

For real accuracy of tv of a few decades ago they could add a 13th channel that takes content from Pornhub, but then adds a bunch of filters so you can barely see anything.

hadisafa
12 replies
3h20m

Channel 1: Science and Technology

Channel 2: Travel and Events

Channel 3: Food

Channel 4: Architecture

Channel 5: Film and Animation

Channel 6: Documentaries

Channel 7: Comedy

Channel 8: Music

Channel 9: Autos and Vehicles

Channel 10: News and Politics

Channel 11: UFC

Channel 12: Podcasts/Interviews/Talk Shows

ollybee
3 replies
2h40m

This is what I was looking for, where did you see that info?

hadisafa
1 replies
2h27m

I made the thing :)

harshaxnim
0 replies
2h13m

May be you could put it up in the site too

anarcat
0 replies
2h28m

I think they built it. :)

ks2048
1 replies
1h23m

This is a good idea for this app, but maybe the least realistic part of the old TV experience. You'd have maybe 3 "premium" channels of a mix of tv shows, news, talk shows, sports. Maybe a dedicated sports channel and dedicated news channel. A channel more biased towards educational shows. A channel or two of weird low-budget shows (local access). A few channels that don't come in well (static and distortion). And add some off-air "colorbars" sometimes. And a channel or two in a foreign language.

And then force the user to get off the couch and walk to the monitor to turn a knob when you want to change channel...

hathawsh
0 replies
34m

It's more like SiriusXM than broadcast TV, and I would say the SiriusXM model is a lot nicer. I like being able to choose a topic.

pants2
0 replies
1h21m

Would love a few more sports channels, a local news channel based on your location, and maybe a video gaming channel.

mxfh
0 replies
1h31m

Local 58?

kajecounterhack
0 replies
24m

Thinking back to childhood it was all History Channel, PBS, and Cartoon Network / Nick. Would be great to see analogues to some of those :)

hathawsh
0 replies
31m

This project is very cool. Amazing execution. Other channels I would suggest:

  - Cooking
  - Family movies (from the public domain?)
  - Baseball

dbingham
0 replies
3m

It'd be really awesome to have a link to the channel and video that is playing in case I want to find it later. This is a wonderful discovery tool, but I'd really love to be able to save the content I discover!

Apofis
0 replies
0m

Build that into the TV Guide!

shprd
5 replies
2h37m

Really cool with great execution.

Out of curiosity, I'd love to know more:

- how the backend look like?

- Are the channels are based on a static pool of videos by category?

- Is there a "schedule" for a channel or picked at random?

hadisafa
3 replies
2h33m

- There is no backend, just html, css, and js

- yes channels are based on categories(science, travel, documentaries, etc.)

- yes there is a schedule, each video is scheduled to play at a certain time, so everyone is watching the same exact thing.

shprd
1 replies
2h11m

Well done. Do you've plans for further development to grow this?

hadisafa
0 replies
1h54m

Definitely yes! Will add more features very soon.

brandon272
0 replies
2h21m

I love that this is a small amount of plain html and js, as I think the instinct for a lot of folks these days in creating this would have been to invest a lot of time in using the frameworks du jour.

mayormcmatt
0 replies
2h32m

Also really enjoyed it and echo these execution questions.

lukas099
4 replies
2h23m

This is awesome! How are the videos being chosen? Without any monetization, I guess we shouldn't expect anything more than a loop of the same videos, right?

hadisafa
3 replies
1h52m

The videos are hand-picked and are scheduled so everyone is watching the same thing at the same time.

lukas099
2 replies
1h47m

I guess what I'm getting at is, we shouldn't expect this hand-picking to continue indefinitely, since this isn't a paid service. I'm guessing the playlists will start to loop before too long?

hadisafa
1 replies
1h35m

This is still an experiment at the moment, we'll figure it out.

lukas099
0 replies
55m

Cool. Even if it never updates, I think it's awesome. Thanks for building and releasing it.

yadaeno
3 replies
2h47m

I’d love something like this where I can configure channels to have podcasts, music, movies and it all streams to my tv.

Is there something like this? I’ve heard of other users mentioning side projects like this.

zehaeva
0 replies
2h42m

There's a project called DizqueTV[0] that lets you set up "channels" of media to be streamed to a Plex server, which then lets you send that onto a TV.

It's not quite the same as straight TV channels. But it's pretty close!

[0]: https://github.com/vexorian/dizquetv

ibizaman
0 replies
2h41m

I know of https://ersatztv.org which I used a while ago. With a Kodi frontend you can play on TV. Not sure it does podcasts and music though but I used it successfully for movies and TV shows.

al_borland
0 replies
2h35m

For music I setup a micro pc at my place connected to a radio transmitter. I have a music library on it and set it to shuffle. I can have normal radios around my house, tune to my station, and it’s always something I like with no commercials. I don’t have multiple stations to flip to, but that’s ok. I like the simplify of turning on a radio without having to pick what’s playing. I can also turn on multiple radios and it works just like those fancy setups for multi room music streaming at a fraction of the cost/complexity. Something like Sonos or AirPlay requires a lot to do what a radio could do decades ago.

The transmitter seems pretty weak, to maintain a legal status with the FCC, so some days it works better than others. I probably need to experiment with placement or other frequencies. I’m in a pretty congested area from that perspective. I found a website that suggests the best one based on the city a user us in and just went with that.

I wish there were reserved frequencies for personal use that would make home transmitters better to use. I have 0 hope for that now, but during the era of FM transmitters being popular in cars, it would have been nice if it had gotten some attention.

mrkramer
3 replies
2h30m

Are those livestreams or videos? They seem like videos but if they would be livestreams it would be cool if you could speak to a livestream and then it would speech to text type it in the streamer's chatbox.

hadisafa
2 replies
2h20m

These are just youtube videos but they are synced so everyone is watching the same thing at the same time.

mrkramer
0 replies
2h16m

I like UIs like this when just one thing is in the focus....I think few years ago here on HN someone did something like this but for Twitch; where you could switch back and forth between live streamers which had only 1 viewer. This format is definitely good for fast and easy discovery.

bob1029
0 replies
1h41m

This is what makes the experience for me. You can tell someone "check out channel 12" and you'll both be watching the same thing just like we used to do.

georgeecollins
3 replies
2h33m

This hooked me right away! I wish it had pause though because I discovered a show I wanted to watch and had to work. :(

hadisafa
1 replies
2h26m

you can copy the video id (below the controls) and watch it later on youtube

qingcharles
0 replies
1h57m

Is there a reason it's not a direct link? I just right-clicked "Search Google for..." but still...

prmoustache
0 replies
2h30m

you can record it though. OBS Studio becomes your VCR.

timnetworks
2 replies
1h58m

What a different experience than default UI. Are you making the source for this public, and/or is it based on an existing project?

hadisafa
1 replies
1h47m

There is no backend, just plain html, css and js. The source is public.

strangecyan
0 replies
1h35m

Amazing! Are you generating the list.json and just pushing new data when it's due to run out? Or is there some logic that loops it?

theginger
2 replies
2h48m

Is there an open source code repo for this?

OwseiWT
1 replies
2h6m

By what I understood there's only front-end code. Ignoring the file server, of course.

justanotherjoe
0 replies
1h0m

Can't you just embed the youtube videos?

slazaro
2 replies
2h19m

I'd echo the sentiment that this is amazing, and that a TV guide would be awesome.

I'd also suggest maybe adding the channel names (like the comment you posted here) to the app itself (although i think it's cool when it's unnamed and you get the old-school feeling of channels just being numbers).

Also, I'd love to have permalinks for the channels. Not for the individual videos themselves, but just a link that when sharing would bring somebody else to the same channel you're watching right now.

Another thing, although probably outside your control, is that I use a Firefox extension called "SoundFixer" that I use to force the youtube audio to mono (since a lot of channels are annoying to me using headphones, they pan the audio sources too hard left/right and it's super distracting), but it doesn't seem to work on this website, probably because of the way they're embedded. I don't know if this can be changed somehow, or have a mode to force mono audio (which would be also oldschool like old TVs with one speaker only!). It's probably too niche and hard to do though.

Also I don't seem to find any volume control except mute?

myself248
0 replies
35m

You can probably do the audio fix systemwide with EasyEffects.

hadisafa
0 replies
1h59m

Thank you for the feedback, I'll see what I can do regarding the mono audio issue, and I'll try to add more features as soon as possible.

silisili
2 replies
2h12m

In Brave, even disabling ad blocker, all I get is static on all 12. Did we kill it?

*edit - oops, I have an extension to stop autoplaying html5 videos. Disabling that did the trick.

odo1242
0 replies
2h9m

It does take much longer than I expected to load (~15 seconds), but it does work for me

Baljhin
0 replies
55m

Similar experience using Firefox. I don't have extensions or userscripts specifically blocking html5, but I'll check my user.js settings.

Til then, still getting the static.

racefan76
2 replies
2h55m

This is neat! Feels just like old cable, the static transitions being a good touch.

aroemers
1 replies
2h42m

Perhaps you like this nostalgic TV as well then: https://90s.myretrotvs.com. It also uses Youtube as a source and plays uninterrupted like an old-school channel.

djeastm
0 replies
57m

This seems like it'd be great to have playing at an old folks home. I know my grandparents watch the Johnny Carson/Tonight Show channel for a taste of their old culture

qwertox
2 replies
1h24m

This blew my mind, it's such a different experience. Currently watching the music channel (8, The Lumineers - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)).

Since the author is reading here, one feature request: Please put a volume slider on it and also make a mouse wheel scroll on any part of the page change the volume.

I think it's the lack of timeshift which triggers me so much, since it's a somewhat standard feature on TVs. No way to pause makes me a bit anxious. I have a bad habit of nesting YT videos, where I pause one, watch another, pause that one, watch another, when it finishes I go back to the previously paused one and so on until I end up watching the first video to the end.

Theoretically you could add a per-client timeshift feature.

colecut
1 replies
52m

If you really like a video and want to watch it later, it displayed the video ID.

I really like the no pausing / everyone being in sync aspect, it's maybe the best feature

archon810
0 replies
50m

Why not add a link to the video instead of just the id?

jeffhuys
2 replies
37m

Also works on localhost, run these commands:

`wget -r -np -k https://ytch.xyz` - downloads the website recursively

`wget https://ytch.xyz/list.json` - download the list of what every channel plays and will play (I'm not sure if this ever really changes. The real website adds ?t=<time since epoch in ms>)

Then for instance run `python3 -m http.server` and visit localhost:8000

:)

hadisafa
1 replies
32m

When a channel reaches the last video, list.json will be fetched to get an updated list of videos.

jeffhuys
0 replies
21m

I see that you're the creator, I absolutely love what you made :)

I'm curious, do you generate that list on-the-fly, based on the current time/day? Or is it more static?

FrequentLurker
2 replies
2h43m

Wish it had video settings like captions, video quality etc

hadisafa
1 replies
1h51m

I'll add more control options soon :)

johnmaguire
0 replies
1h30m

Closed captions would be really awesome so I can watch without sound.

DougWebb
2 replies
2h54m

You should make the channels change the video they're playing on a schedule, and link to a tv guide listing that shows the schedule.

hadisafa
0 replies
2h31m

The channels are on a schedule, everyone is watching the same exact video at the same timestamp!

ProllyInfamous
0 replies
2h41m

I understands what you're trying to replicate, but I believe this would distract from the charm since users could then just visit YouTube [directly] and search for things scheduled.

The randomness and uninterrupted playback is why this is so cool =D

tumidpandora
1 replies
40m

This is simply awesome, but apologies, I don't follow, what's the source for all the content?

hadisafa
0 replies
39m

The content is hand picked, no algorithms :)

stavros
1 replies
2h44m

This is great, but the static doesn't seem random? It just bugged me a tiny bit. Otherwise, I love this.

soneil
0 replies
2h8m

It looks like the static is tiled. So it's random (enough) within a tile, but you can perceive the tiling.

seydor
1 replies
1h1m

This is what will replace tiktok: Television. Having to scroll down or swipe is just so tiresome, it leaves marks on the screen and ... who cares if i have to wait for a crap video to end , maybe there s something good after that. We are going to come full circle

popcalc
0 replies
18m

I reckon TikTok will just scroll for you.

nashashmi
1 replies
50m

It seems like random videos are being played from many years ago and/or getting live feeds of some stations. Does everyone get the same selection of channel feeds?

hadisafa
0 replies
37m

Yes everyone is watching the same content at the same time just like an actual TV channel.

metadat
1 replies
2h24m

This is cool and really well done, I'm kinda blown away. Would love to hear from the creator on what inspired them and how they designed and made it retro yet also minimal and so smooth. It's been awhile since I saw something so well polished!

Imagine if it also included to an index channel like the old Cable TV Guide programming schedule screen, with the blue background and time slot cells. Some versions of this even had a PIP (Picture-in-Picture) sort of capability.

E.g. https://i.redd.it/ygxao2bj0jz81.jpg

kajecounterhack
0 replies
20m

+1 would love to read a writeup about how this was made. Very cool.

katspaugh
1 replies
2h6m

This is amazing! I want this on my TV as the default firmware!

hadisafa
0 replies
1h57m

Thank you!

jprd
1 replies
2h14m

Well done, bravo!

hadisafa
0 replies
1h50m

Thank you.

hdlothia
1 replies
3h15m

This is great, really smooth

hadisafa
0 replies
3h11m

Thank you!

gowld
1 replies
2h18m

Need a larger "static" sprite so it's not obviously a sprite.

OwseiWT
0 replies
2h9m

Maybe an atlas, or a selection of (larger) sprites to choose from, displayed in random order

frabjoused
1 replies
2h34m

Awesome! But please remove the static fuzz it's really unpleasant.

CamperBob2
0 replies
1h34m

It's unpleasant because of the repeating patterns, IMHO. If it actually looked like NTSC or PAL snow it'd be quite nifty.

That's probably one of those things that's harder to generate dynamically than it sounds like it would be, though. Perlin noise might be the right approach.

andrewstuart
1 replies
8m

Add an “upload video” link and YouTube suddenly has competition.

m348e912
0 replies
2m

Maybe you realize this (or not), but each channel is comprised of YouTube videos streaming from Youtube. This website is a very well done, clever front-end. But it doesn't host or stream any video.

Copy the ID of any of the channels and you can bring up the source video on YouTube by adding it to the YouTube URL after the ?.

TomK32
1 replies
2h44m

Must be my crappy internet connection that lets me watch the white noise for an unbearable amount of time. It's a very annoying white noise. Also, I wonder if some channels send a sign-off sequence once they run out of content.

myself248
0 replies
13m

Oh I love that idea, a signoff message followed by an image of a test pattern for several hours, until they sign back on the next morning.

93po
1 replies
2h28m

this is phenomenal, i love it, it genuinely feels like flipping TV channels. really excellent work!

hadisafa
0 replies
2h25m

Thank you :)

1-6
1 replies
2h37m

It just needs upvote and downvote buttons and it would be perfect.

al_borland
0 replies
2h33m

What would that do?

It seems flipping away is effectively a downvote, stating to watch is effectively an upvote. I’m not sure why we feel like everything needs to be actively voted on these days.

xyst
0 replies
2h59m

Love how you captured the feel of channel surfing. Seems like most videos/channels I surfed through were at the midpoint or near completed in their play through (usual if you just hop on the tube at the middle of the hour).

wuliwong
0 replies
40m

I love this. I've often thought about this type of interface for youtube and also beyond. Also, the same thing with audio, bringing a terrestrial radio type of experience to internet based audio content. Very cool to see someone taking actual steps and not just day dreaming. :)

willband
0 replies
1h31m

To everyone saying this needs this feature or that feature: it really doesn't, it's perfect as it is. Please don't complicate it OP!

whoiscroberts
0 replies
2h48m

Now we need a TV Guide.

tobiasbischoff
0 replies
2h19m

This is awesome since it removes decision fatigue completely. It turns YT into a TikTok with quality content. Great.

tambourine_man
0 replies
2h34m

You're showing your age there, hadisafa, with that static simulation :)

Awesome work.

sonofaragorn
0 replies
1h25m

Loved this. Would it be possible to add subtitles?

smusamashah
0 replies
1h41m

This is perfect. Can it be customized (with custom channels and schedules)?

I was looking for exactly this to control my (and my kid's) TV habbits. My TV is only for YouTube. Everything we like watching is on Youtube.

But with remote in hand, it NEVER STOPS. We (and my kid) keep jumping from one video to another. When I watched TV as a kid, I only had to be in-front of TV on a schedule. I would be doing something else in other times.

THIS is the YouTube TV that I need.

slazaro
0 replies
1h18m

I have an extra suggestion: Maybe some keyboard key mapping, like up/down for switching the channel. I'm imagining having this perma-running in a small PC connected to a TV and the small wireless remotes have mappings for the arrow keys and up/down for channel would be perfect for that. (maybe other mappings as well)

shafyy
0 replies
1h32m

This is amazing! It brings back old school feelings. Just turn it on and let it run in the background. The limited choice is sooo freeing.

sambeau
0 replies
13m

I thought this was stupid.

Then I tried it. It's awesome. I can't tell you why, but there's something about it that, I guess, has been programmed into my brain over decades.

Great work.

rcarmo
0 replies
1h18m

This is mesmerizing. I zapped twice, landed on an interesting channel and... Moved the window to another monitor and full-screened it. Well done.

quadrature
0 replies
1h2m

I love this, it would be perfect for my parents. The algorithm tends to send them down weird rabbit holes and echo chambers.

petejodo
0 replies
2h28m

So neat! I've been thinking of something similar to this where content creators would join their content to form channels in the original sense of the word and users would browse much like how they would on a normal TV

perryizgr8
0 replies
1h53m

So amazing and so well executed. Brings a tear to my eye. I'd love this app on my tv. I hate deciding what to watch.

notThrowingAway
0 replies
1h8m

This is just delightful. What would make it perfect is the white noise that you get while switching channels.

noboostforyou
0 replies
2h7m

Wow this is really cool! Such a simple idea but very well executed and definitely hits the nostalgia factor too. As others have mentioned, I do miss the "stress-free-ness" of not having to pick a specific content to watch and how everyone is getting the same stream at the same time.

nexuist
0 replies
1h57m

Hey, this is great! Could you make it so clicking on the video ID in the bottom right corner opens the full video in a new tab? It would be nice to be able to like / save the whole video for later. Kinda like DVR.

mudiadamz
0 replies
48m

I know it's no way possible to add any Hollywood Movies, but if it's possible it would just look like a real TV

mrweasel
0 replies
1h41m

This is awesome, it really gives you the feeling of flipping through channels and stopping up and just watch something random that you might not have otherwise.

Much of YouTubes potential is pretty much wasted, because of the monetization policy. It permeates the platform, even if you're a "Premium" subscriber. Rather than optimize for "engagement", it would be nice, even if it was a Premium feature, to be able to say: "I want to watch content that will help improve my health, teach me to become a better developer or "On Friday evening, I want long format retro computing content".

mncharity
0 replies
2h13m

TIL alternative front-ends are a thing.[1]

I wonder what an alternative commercial culture might look like, to enable a monetized FRAND ecosystem of UI diversification and evolution.

[1] https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends

milanhbs
0 replies
2h52m

Are we going full circle from TV to streaming back to TV? Probably not, but I do really enjoy the discovery aspect as well as reducing the overwhelming options of streaming down to a few channels.

This has a super smooth feel and throws you directly in, really well done.

lnauta
0 replies
2h2m

I love this! This is how I want to watch stuff sometimes, very relaxing to take away all the functionality and (mental) noise that comes with it. Thanks.

krabat
0 replies
1h21m

plz add subtitles, if they exist

Brilliant - and if the channels are actually broad in content and varied... Yeah!

justanotherjoe
0 replies
1h7m

This is brilliant. Great for my old TV where browsing youtube (or the internet) is a chore.

jodacola
0 replies
1h26m

Goodness. I never realized how nostalgic it would feel to flip channels. Your project took me all the way back to being a kid in the 90s and clicking through channels on the TV at my grandparents' house after school.

I love it when I unexpectedly encounter something that turns on the nostalgia in such a deep way. Awesome project.

Do I love it because of the nostalgia, or is there something novel here worth exploring further?

insane_dreamer
0 replies
22m

This is genius.

Keeping the number of channels limited (<50?) is important to the experience, I think.

herrvogel-
0 replies
40m

I would love to see this with my feed. Like personalized but always running. Seems like a good alternative to clickbait thumbnails and titles.

gramakri2
0 replies
2h2m

Incredibly well done! Great execution

golergka
0 replies
3m

Thanks, I love it. When I open YouTube homepage, I often have decision paralysis, but jumping right in the middle of a video glues my ADHD brain in.

Also, this really highlights how better is modern YouTube than TV that I used to watch as a kid.

fawnzworth
0 replies
7m

This scratched the right itch for me. Deciding what to watch is so difficult and this limits options in just the right way. It really does feel like TV. Good job!

energy123
0 replies
2h16m

Feels way better without the likes, comments, ads and recommendations.

emiliobumachar
0 replies
10m

Very cool concept, congratulations!

I do have two bugs to report.

1) I only see static until I fiddle with the mute button, which makes the image work besides working as expected. As soon as I change channel, all static again until I hit mute. I'm on Chrome over Windows using a corporate network.

2) The info button shows a reasonable email address, and, under "Support", the string "bc1q4s2f6df2cqa8stenwp8y5tlmd5pywy8dwqqxvh". I have no idea what to do with that string.

cynicalpeace
0 replies
29m

It's surprising I've never heard of anything like this before!

cryptonector
0 replies
1h48m

Oh no.

(This is great. Just... it's too easy to get lost in this!)

complianceowl
0 replies
2h6m

Absolutely love this.

callamdelaney
0 replies
1h30m

If youtube had channels you'd need a TV license to watch it.

bprasanna
0 replies
1h18m

Please make this an Amazon Fire TV Stick App! Would love to simply switch on and keep doing my work.

bni
0 replies
1h2m

boomer.tube is not yet taken

ben_
0 replies
1h47m

Very cool, I like the old school feel of watching whatever is on. That said I immediately noticed the lack of volume control, which IMO is essential.

baobabKoodaa
0 replies
50m

This reminds me of Neverthink tv, which basically did the same thing except (recycling youtube videos into "tv channels") with heavy manual curation of content.

atum47
0 replies
45m

cannot get past UNSTARTED or buffering... Am I doing something wrong?

asdfkhafs
0 replies
2h30m

I worked at Google ~ 2010 and I distinctly remember playing with a TV like experience like this that Youtube was working on (it was part of the Google TV efforts at the time). I don't remember if it made it to the public but it's probably in the large graveyard of cool products Google killed.

apineda
0 replies
31m

I've put it on for 2 hours now, this hits the spot.

andyfosh11
0 replies
1h7m

this is the best thing ive seen in a long time! instant pmf

alonsonic
0 replies
4m

This is such a fun idea, great execution too.

In a way I feel TikTok taps into this type of TV-like discovery, where you are not overloaded with options but instead just swipe through channels until you find something you want to stop and watch.

alericbdent
0 replies
1h20m

Great stuff, I really like it! As others mentioned, channel names, a channel list or a guide would help. Also, if you're looking for new channel ideas: (british) game shows or talk shows!

add-sub-mul-div
0 replies
2h47m

I download videos and schedule them as channels with https://ersatztv.org/ to watch through Plex locally to get the same effect. I usually want some noise on the background and in that mode I can't be stopping frequently to choose the next video or mess with playlists.

_sidewalkchalk_
0 replies
1h59m

this is great but I wish I could customize or disable the flashing between channel changes, it's really strobe effectish when changing quickly and hard on my eyes

WarOnPrivacy
0 replies
2h10m

I see channels 1-12 = static. The status of each says Unstarted.

Same experience with a different browser. Also same after shifting location.

SuperHeavy256
0 replies
2h58m

Haha this is really well engineered, it feels honestly like TV and not a cheap iframe embed

SirMaster
0 replies
1h36m

What about commercials?

IamLoading
0 replies
14m

Funny, how we are slowly attracted towards the thing that we were planning to revolutionize away from.

1. Cable is expensive, pretty much majority of streamming services bumped up their $$$, if you add 3-4 of them, the cost will be the same as cable.

2. When i used this, cant lie. I missed the nostalgia.

HugoDias
0 replies
3m

Why I f*cking love this? Congrats.

HL33tibCe7
0 replies
1h48m

This is the kind of brilliant idea that seems so completely obvious in hindsight that it's hard to believe no-one has done it before

Eduard
0 replies
2h5m

even the mainstreaminess is well-captured

EcommerceFlow
0 replies
2h53m

Wow this is really cool. I'd love to have specific channels for Ai, NBA highlights, etc, all of which are readily available on Youtube.

CTDOCodebases
0 replies
2h16m

Awesome. Now I can just flip between channels constantly. "Doom scrolling" the kids call it.

999900000999
0 replies
1h59m

This is amazing. Let's hope youtube doesn't block it.

I already pay for YT Red and would love this to be an official feature.