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SmartTube – an advanced player for set-top boxes and TVs running Android OS
- thunderbong 2y ago> Do not download SmartTube from any app store, APK websites or blogs; these were uploaded by other people and may contain malware or ads. SmartTube is not officially published on any app store. Sadly, the Google PlayStore does not allow ad-free Youtube apps using unofficial APIs.
- shiroiushi 2y agoI've been using this for a couple of years now, and it's utterly fantastic. I highly recommend it. I honestly have a hard time imagining using YouTube without it, because without it (or something similar that can be installed on a TV), I'd have to find videos I want to watch on my PC, download them manually with yt-dlp, and then copy them to a USB stick or put them someplace where I could watch them with Jellyfin, just so I can watch them on the TV. As the warning says, you need to install it directly from the github site. There's a helpful how-to that details how to do this on a typical Android TV using the "Downloader" app, listed as the "easiest" method here. It's really not hard, but obviously more work than just installing an app from the Play Store.
- gbraad 2y agomany TV boxes come with it 'cheap' preinstalled, like the slimboxtv firmware. still, remove this or go with an AOSP/stock TV firmware and install it yourself.
- gbraad 2y agomeant to say: cheap TV boxes. anyway, only install from a reliable source
- happyopossum 2y ago> because without it (or something similar that can be installed on a TV), I'd have to find videos I want to watch on my PC, download them manually with yt-dlp, and then copy them to a USB stick or put them someplace Where in your scenario are AirPlay and ChromeCast? Or just yt-dl and plex? All of which seem waaaaaay easier than your song and dance
- shiroiushi 2y agoAirPlay is Apple-only, so that's a no-go. ChromeCast I don't know much about (edit: it appears to be a dongle device you have to buy, and they're discontinued now), but the whole point of SmartTube is that you don't need to mess around with other devices; you just do everything from the TV and its remote control. Yeah, if SmartTube didn't exist (and other similar apps, I think NewPipe is similar), then I'd have to resort to some crazy stuff. I think I did mention yt-dlp and Jellyfin before. But still, that's a big pain: I'd have to go to my PC to do that stuff, then go back to the couch to watch it on the TV. With SmartTube, I don't have to do all that.
- m4rtink 2y agoChromecast is not discontinued - it runs Android TV & I run Smart Tube on it. Also a new Chromecast device was released just a couple weeks ago (I have the previous one).
- shiroiushi 2y agoAccording to Wikipedia, Chromecast has been discontinued, but replaced by something else called "Google TV Streamer". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromecast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromecast
- gnabgib 2y agoChromecast the device is discontinued. Chromecast the protocol lives on. Confusingly it was first named Google cast (2013-2016), then renamed "Chromecast" or "Chromecast built in" (most brands just using the first label), but due to the device's retirement this year, google has reverted the protocol name to "Google Cast" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cast
- m4rtink 2y agoIndeed, they did rename it: https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/articles/google-tv-streamer/ https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/articles/google-tv-st... Lol, did not realize that so far they renamed it - looks like just an updated chromecast with the USB-C dock I'm using with it built in.
- ryukoposting 2y agoI just hit the "cast" button in the YouTube app, and my TV and stereo receiver switch on by themselves, my Google TV box opens the YouTube app by itself, and the video on my phone starts playing on my TV. I'd love to have greater control over the software stack on my TV, but what you're describing seems awfully overwrought.
- shiroiushi 2y agoYour solution sounds like you have to watch ads. No thanks. SmartTube lets you watch YouTube without the ads or sponsor segments, and without messing with other devices. You just start the app, and use the TV remote control to navigate and select and play videos.
- SoftTalker 2y agoNo ads with YuuTube Premium.
- mouse_ 2y agoI will not be extorted by a rectangle lol
- 1oooqooq 2y agoto watch video my friends uploaded and marked no monetization even. google is ruthless now.
- sadeshmukh 2y agoVideos that they pay hosting for?
- emptiestplace 2y agoWe are talking about YouTube Premium.
- fracus 2y agoI love it too. I just wish it was also available on Android mobile.
- shiroiushi 2y agoI can see why the developer doesn't bother: the UI would need to be very different. SmartTube is meant for use on TVs, not on touchscreens, so it has no touch UI at all and is designed for use with a remote control. There's some other apps that basically do the same thing, but on Android mobile, such as ReVanced I think.
- takeda 2y agoReVanced is patched up original Youtube (which has among other things the benefits of not showing ads), but the equivalent to SmartTube would be NewPipe, which is a new YouTube replacement app.
- willywanker 2y agoIt would not - NewPipe and its derivatives don't support Youtube accounts unlike SmartTube. With SmartTube (and Revanced, on Android mobiles) you can sign into Youtube and use your playlists, likes, comments etc.
- takeda 2y agoOk I did not know that. I need to check, but I don't think I signed in my SmartTube, I don't see a good reason for it.
- fracus 2y agoRevanced is a pain in the ass to install.
- mrandish 2y agoI use Revanced Extended on Android mobile. It took about ten minutes to set up the first time and has worked flawlessly since.
- mrandish 2y ago> I honestly have a hard time imagining using YouTube without it I agree and would go further to the extent I simply will not ever use YT without SmartTube on any of my TVs. For desktop I get similar functionality in Firefox with the Nova YouTube UserScript (which hosts dozens of user-created modules able to modify every aspect of YT) and on Android mobile I use ReVanced Extended. And it's not just removing the ads and commercials, which I could (mostly) get with a YT subscription. It's that even with the subscription, YT's entire site, interface and interaction model is now so completely enshittified, it's a miserable, frustrating experience. I've used YT since months after it was launched and until I ran Nova YouTube and allowed it to "restore" the YT interface back to what it was a decade or so ago, even I didn't realize how YT has gradually 'boiled the frog' by introducing hundreds of small, anti-user regressions one at a time over the years. It was literally shocking.
- hnburnsy 2y agoSmarttube is amazing especially as YouTube ad duration, skipability, and quantity are completely abusive on TV devices. It is completely frustrating experience versus YouTube in a web browser.
- hermes2024 2y agoWhile a lot of folks are touting SmartTube for avoiding ads, I will install it to finally have a way to change the YouTube playing speed on the TV. Thanks for posting. Press and hold for 2x playback is one of the more useful features of the YouTube premium experience and the lack of speed adjustment on TV is quite annoying.
- shiroiushi 2y agoSmartTube is even better than that: it lets you select from a huge range of speeds (I frequently like 1.25x and 1.5x personally, but it has even more fine-grained settings like 1.15x, 1.20x, etc.), and it remembers that selection for that channel, so if a particular Youtuber is a slow talker, you can pick a speed that works well and all his videos will show at that same speed.
- radicality 2y agoThis app is the only reason I bought a FireTV Stick 4k. For everything else (Netflix, Infuse), I use an Apple TV. App works great, can recommend.
- joejohnson 2y agoIs there an easy alternative to the standard Android version running on Sony TVs? In the past year, the home screen now shows ads and it can’t be disabled.
- mdaniel 2y agoI don't have one to test but if their history with the PlayStations is any indication you'll have good luck with https://duckduckgo.com/?q=jailbreak%20sony%20tv&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=jailbreak%20sony%20tv&ia=web
- pimeys 2y agoI just installed a different launcher to our NVIDIA Shield. One that has two big icons for Smart tube an Plex, nothing else. Here's a list: https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/nkboqd/list_of_alternative_launchers_for_android_tv/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/nkboqd/list_of_a...
- shultays 2y agoI don't know if it would work on Sony TVs but a while ago I switched to Projectivy launcher on a Philips android tv and I am quite happy with it Alternatively you can reset your TV to factory settings and then disable auto updates for TV and google play. You will probably want to check google play from time to time and manually update the apps you are using though (just don't update things like "home screen" or whatever that will put ads backs). I was doing that but I was not comfortable leaving my TV unupdated
- venusenvy47 2y agoI have 2 Sony TVs with Android/Google TV and there is an "apps only" mode that you can choose in the settings, which reduces the clutter. I've dabbled with alternate launchers like ATV Launcher and Projectivity, but have had quirky behavior. I find the "apps only" mode to be just fine without needing the third party launchers. Instructions: https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en&sjid=15896297050233087472-NC https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en&sj...
- mbix77 2y agoIt's another life, a life without ads.
- singularity2001 2y agodoes any of these have a microphone array? I'm still looking for a high-quality smart speaker with TV output and the ability to connect to GPT
- thiht 2y agoSmartTube is amazing for many, MANY reasons. The first obvious one is that it blocks ads AND embeds SponsorBlock by default. The second is that ads aside, it has a better UI and UX than the official YouTube app. One single unpaid guy does a better work than Google at making a TV app. The third is that SmartTube comes with tons of useful features: - remote control to be able to cast on SmartTube, directly from the official YouTube app - there’s a plugin to use a crowdsourced version of thumbnails - you can hide Shorts - and basically everything is configurable Just install SmartTube, even if you’re a YouTube Premium user it’s worth it.
- freefaler 2y agoThe "single guy" does better than google is because of incentives. Not that google is unable to do the same thing. The biggest ad company won't make the same choices as a dev who wants to use the product for its benefits. We'll see more and more algo-feed enshitification. I'm not ruling out "you don't need a subscription feed anymore, we'll show you our best AI-chosen videos. It was a good long run, I hope "product managers" won't destroy YT like Facebook did with "a place to keep up with frends" to "a shitty feed infested with ads".
- izacus 2y agoIn other words - SmartTube developer doesn't have to earn revenue for YouTube with their app. Everything else comes from there.
- ilrwbwrkhv 2y agoI mean anybody can do anything so the talk here is about what one person can do and is actually doing rather than the potential of what they can do. Google I don't know if it has the potential or not but it doesn't seem to do anything to build good products it never has whatever successes it ever had. It also creates very buggy apps. For example, even now Gmail and YouTube is buggy on common paths. For example, try deleting your spam emails and you will see the spam number on the sidebar will not clear unless you refresh. YouTube comments on the YouTube Android app often doesn't load or it loads for the wrong video etc. So historically, Google has always been bad with actual product development. So it's not really a stretch to say that one person can do better than Google.
- chakintosh 2y agoWould Google be able to detect I'm using this app and outright nuke my Google account and literally all of my digital existence?
- FeistySkink 2y agoFor people with non-Android smart TVs there are similar apps (with adblock and sponsorblock) both for Tizen [0] and webOS [1]. [0]: https://github.com/reisxd/TizenTube/ https://github.com/reisxd/TizenTube/ [1]: https://github.com/webosbrew/youtube-webos https://github.com/webosbrew/youtube-webos
- renegat0x0 2y agoIt is not available on play store, but that is to be expected. You cannot be there with a such product. It is not available on f-droid, which is a bummer, because I use f-droid. Installing things from a webpage like an old barbarian. I cannot find nowhere sha for the builds on page. The same is for their 'releases' on github.
- opan 2y agoGPLv3, nice. Is this a Newpipe fork or totally new codebase?
- willywanker 2y agoNo relation to NewPipe. It's an Android TV exclusive and isn't available for Android mobile phones.
- stiltzkin 2y ago[dead]
- iluvcommunism 2y agoWe use this app all the time. I love it.