SmartTube - an advanced player for set-top boxes and tv running Android OS - GitHub - yuliskov/SmartTubeNext: SmartTube - an advanced player for set-top boxes and tv running Android OS
I’ve already been paying for YouTube Premium for many years to get rid of advertisement, and I’ve been using SponsorBlock for a year or so on my laptop to skip the inline ads, but because most of my watching of YouTube happens on the TV I always had to use the remote to skip it. It helps to see the “most rewind” area so you can fast forward to it, but it’s still very cumbersome.
Now a couple of days someone mentioned SmartTube on Lemmy and I installed it on my Chromecast with Google TV OS and oh boy is this software great! I did it to get SponsorBlock, but that is by far not the only feature I love about it.
flexible time hiding the UI of a video (have it to 1 sec now)
not showing UI when pausing
way faster scrolling
instant loading
way faster account switching
instant voice search
But there is one feature missing, changing the search language. We speak combined 7 languages at home and it’s impossible to search anything other than in English which is really annoying.
I… didn’t know I needed this. Remapped the YT and Netflix buttons, with single and double taps. The remote is now exactly the remote I need for my Chromecast.
Thank you very much for this, finally managed to disable and rebind some remote buttons for apps that Ive already nuked off the TV. Works great with some workarounds.
Has Remapper been updated to fix the volume control glitch?
Last time I used Remapper the volume would be uncontrollable. Without it, pressing the volume up key would only go up 2-3 units on my tv. If I used the volume up button with Remapper running it would scroll all the way up to max volume with a single press…
Cool. It’s been about a year since I tried it so I’ll have another whack at it tomorrow. That will be so awesome. My Chromecast will be complete. Smart tube on one button and either Stremio or HDOBox on the other…
Just tested it out and still get the runaway volume.
Did some testing and it seems to happen with some other services activated so a Chromecast problem not a Remapper problem…
I’ll play again tomorrow…
Put it this way: I put it on my 70yo mother’s tab for her when I cancelled the family Netflix plan…
Have a look at it.
You can link in your Trakt account
And they have a Discord and a Telegram for keeping an eye on updates.
Can currently sideload on to iPhone and hoping to make it available on Apple appstore in the future.
Available on Android obviously.
No PC port unless you want to mess with an Android emulator…
One idea for the language problem. It needs a little bit of tinkering. Grab the apk and alter the package name. Than you can install multiple instances side by side. You could install one instance for each language. Probably necessary to alter the app name as well so you can distinguish between the different versions.
In Smarttube, go into settings and link device or something similar (edit: remote control). On your phone, go into settings and link TV and input the code Smarttube will give you.
It acts more as a remote, you need to have Smarttube already opened. It’s not perfect, it’s a decent compromise.
Sounds like the devices aren’t properly connected yet. In the settings of the SmartTube app, go to Remote Control to find the numbers you need in order to connect to SmartTube. Then, in the YouTube app (unmodded or Revanced) on your phone, hit the Cast-button, then “Connect with TV-code”. Enter the code, and you’re ready to cast. Next time you want to cast a video, just hit the Cast-button and select the device with its name ending in “(SmartTube)”.
I haven’t tried it with the official YouTube app, but in YouTube revanced, there is a “watch on tv” settings that would let you pair with SmartTube. This would turn the cast button from casting to Chromecast to casting to SmartTube, though you’ll need to have SmartTube running first.
SmartTube is what the YouTube app should be. I’ve been using it for I think 2 years now and it works like a charm, is super stable, offers loads of customization options, and the interface is better and more complete than the official app.
Truly a must have for any Android tv box.
But be aware that those two apps do vastly different things. One is trying to save your privacy by hiding you behind a wall of other users, the other one is just a different frontend for the YouTube API.
I’d love to find something like this for the SamsungOS tvs, or at least a locally hosted alternative adblocker. I get 3-4 ads per 10 minute video now and it’s endlessly frustrating.
I really like the app, but I wish it would let me load ads on creators I wanna support, I realize it’s worth less then peanuts, but if it could allow only 30s ads or less that would be perfect for me
If you are that concerned why not just run a playlist of their videos on desktop in the background with the tab muted and Adblock off while you do other things.
that is a terrible UX lol, the main youtube app for TV is absolute dogwater, it’s slow and it even crashes fairly often. im not going to swap apps for this. browser is even worse
Oh I agree that it’s terrible, and that’s what you should be expecting with ads, as a majority of the money goes towards funding the terrible YouTube experience. If you really want to support your content creators, send them money directly. $5 directly to them will improve their lives more than 3¢. If you don’t want to go as far as directly funding them, try patreon even.
I’ve been using it for a few months on my Nvidia Shield and the only two problems I have with it are the audio and video desync when skipping segments (rewinding one step resyncs it though) and the content on the Suggested Videos/Home page sucks, it doesn’t seem to offer the same recommendations that the YouTube equivalent does.
Other than that, it’s great to not have to manually skip the Sponsor segments.
I love finding and using other people’s wonderful creations.
I got an Apple TV, and found a SponsorBlock script i can run from my media server that polls the tv for what YouTube content I’m watching, and automatically skips ads for me. It’s so seamless, I don’t even realize it’s doing it most of the time.
I’d love to use it on my smartphone as well… problem is the interface was designed to react only to directional buttons, not to touch inputs. I wonder if somebody can manage to add the ability in the source code?
My only issue with Newpipe is that I can’t sync my “watch later” list with Google’s servers. That, and I can’t reply to comments straight from the app. Otherwise I’d probably be using either that or Piped.
That makes sense, comments are an issue with NewPipe.
Please open an issue on the NewPipe GitHub about that and the watch-later list.
The functionality will only get added if users ask for it. The idea for NewPipe in the beginning was a light-weight YouTube frontend with offline subscriptions ( i.e. no need to login ). Bits and bobs got added as and when user requests came in.
One step above it , slightly more involved is ,YouTube-Revanced. The step by step walkthrough is in this thread, no command line stuff just follow the steps religiously.
https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/xlcny9/_/
Currently using Revanced, I’m hoping to see a way to actually integrate my Google account with something else, in a similar manner to what SmartTube is somehow allowed to do.
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Just installed it, I’ve been crying about not having sponsorblock on my chromecast. Works a charm, thank you!
ohh totally gonna try and get this installed on my friends tv!
I also installed https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flar2.homebutton to be able to remap the YouTube button on the Chromecast remote to SmartTube.
I guess it’s time to get the SmartTube icon on the remote too 😂
I… didn’t know I needed this. Remapped the YT and Netflix buttons, with single and double taps. The remote is now exactly the remote I need for my Chromecast.
Oh good poind with the doubble taps!
Awesome! I’ma try this!
This is awesome, thanks!
Legend!
Thank you very much for this, finally managed to disable and rebind some remote buttons for apps that Ive already nuked off the TV. Works great with some workarounds.
Has Remapper been updated to fix the volume control glitch? Last time I used Remapper the volume would be uncontrollable. Without it, pressing the volume up key would only go up 2-3 units on my tv. If I used the volume up button with Remapper running it would scroll all the way up to max volume with a single press…
Volume control seems to work fine for me.
Cool. It’s been about a year since I tried it so I’ll have another whack at it tomorrow. That will be so awesome. My Chromecast will be complete. Smart tube on one button and either Stremio or HDOBox on the other…
Just tested it out and still get the runaway volume. Did some testing and it seems to happen with some other services activated so a Chromecast problem not a Remapper problem… I’ll play again tomorrow…
Never heard of HDO Box. Is it good? Do I need a debrid subscription in order to use it?
No Debrid required. Recommend VPN obviously.
Put it this way: I put it on my 70yo mother’s tab for her when I cancelled the family Netflix plan…
Have a look at it. You can link in your Trakt account And they have a Discord and a Telegram for keeping an eye on updates. Can currently sideload on to iPhone and hoping to make it available on Apple appstore in the future. Available on Android obviously. No PC port unless you want to mess with an Android emulator…
https://hdo.app
Also, resolved my volume problem. Had the Chromecast set to CEC mode instead of device volume.
One idea for the language problem. It needs a little bit of tinkering. Grab the apk and alter the package name. Than you can install multiple instances side by side. You could install one instance for each language. Probably necessary to alter the app name as well so you can distinguish between the different versions.
Been using since few days on my first gen fire stick. Feels like another world completely. No more bloated YouTube app and MUCH faster
The only feature missing is the streaming from the phone
You can cast videos from your phone, you just have to connect it somewhere in the settings (can’t really check right now but I’m sure I’ve used it)
I tried but it opened the YouTube app instead
In Smarttube, go into settings and link device or something similar (edit: remote control). On your phone, go into settings and link TV and input the code Smarttube will give you.
It acts more as a remote, you need to have Smarttube already opened. It’s not perfect, it’s a decent compromise.
On my Android box running SmartTube, I can cast to it a few seconds after it’s booted up. No need to open the app first.
Sounds like the devices aren’t properly connected yet. In the settings of the SmartTube app, go to Remote Control to find the numbers you need in order to connect to SmartTube. Then, in the YouTube app (unmodded or Revanced) on your phone, hit the Cast-button, then “Connect with TV-code”. Enter the code, and you’re ready to cast. Next time you want to cast a video, just hit the Cast-button and select the device with its name ending in “(SmartTube)”.
I haven’t tried it with the official YouTube app, but in YouTube revanced, there is a “watch on tv” settings that would let you pair with SmartTube. This would turn the cast button from casting to Chromecast to casting to SmartTube, though you’ll need to have SmartTube running first.
SmartTube is what the YouTube app should be. I’ve been using it for I think 2 years now and it works like a charm, is super stable, offers loads of customization options, and the interface is better and more complete than the official app. Truly a must have for any Android tv box.
I’ve been using this app for years and sometimes it’s almost super stable. Sometimes things don’t load and an update or restart is required to fix it.
The only trouble I have is sometimes it can’t parse updates so I have to try again later
If any of y’all watch twitch this is like the SmartTube version of it
https://github.com/S0und/S0undTV
I’ve been searching for a good twitch app replacement for so long. Will definitely try this out thank you
This is so good I bought a cheapo tv box just to run Smart Tube
I have a box in the mail, was going to install newpipe, but gonna try SmartTube instead.
But be aware that those two apps do vastly different things. One is trying to save your privacy by hiding you behind a wall of other users, the other one is just a different frontend for the YouTube API.
I’d love to find something like this for the SamsungOS tvs, or at least a locally hosted alternative adblocker. I get 3-4 ads per 10 minute video now and it’s endlessly frustrating.
Get an Android Box and run the apps you want to.
This is amazing
I really like the app, but I wish it would let me load ads on creators I wanna support, I realize it’s worth less then peanuts, but if it could allow only 30s ads or less that would be perfect for me
It’s not really possible because api requests don’t include ads AFAIK
I am aware, just find it kinda sad
Sign up to their patreon or buy their merch. They’ll get a bigger cut that way.
if only I had the funds to do so lol
Yeah understandable, good on ya for wanting to pay it back tho!
If you are that concerned why not just run a playlist of their videos on desktop in the background with the tab muted and Adblock off while you do other things.
Just open your favorite creator on the main app or through your browser with AdBlock off
that is a terrible UX lol, the main youtube app for TV is absolute dogwater, it’s slow and it even crashes fairly often. im not going to swap apps for this. browser is even worse
Oh I agree that it’s terrible, and that’s what you should be expecting with ads, as a majority of the money goes towards funding the terrible YouTube experience. If you really want to support your content creators, send them money directly. $5 directly to them will improve their lives more than 3¢. If you don’t want to go as far as directly funding them, try patreon even.
Definitely loving these alternatives
I’ve been using it for a few months on my Nvidia Shield and the only two problems I have with it are the audio and video desync when skipping segments (rewinding one step resyncs it though) and the content on the Suggested Videos/Home page sucks, it doesn’t seem to offer the same recommendations that the YouTube equivalent does.
Other than that, it’s great to not have to manually skip the Sponsor segments.
I love finding and using other people’s wonderful creations.
I got an Apple TV, and found a SponsorBlock script i can run from my media server that polls the tv for what YouTube content I’m watching, and automatically skips ads for me. It’s so seamless, I don’t even realize it’s doing it most of the time.
I’d love to use it on my smartphone as well… problem is the interface was designed to react only to directional buttons, not to touch inputs. I wonder if somebody can manage to add the ability in the source code?
Newpipe is pretty effective for me on Android.
My only issue with Newpipe is that I can’t sync my “watch later” list with Google’s servers. That, and I can’t reply to comments straight from the app. Otherwise I’d probably be using either that or Piped.
Revanced?
That makes sense, comments are an issue with NewPipe. Please open an issue on the NewPipe GitHub about that and the watch-later list.
The functionality will only get added if users ask for it. The idea for NewPipe in the beginning was a light-weight YouTube frontend with offline subscriptions ( i.e. no need to login ). Bits and bobs got added as and when user requests came in.
What about Revanced?
For the phone the easiest way is NewPipe with Sponsorblock https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe
One step above it , slightly more involved is ,YouTube-Revanced. The step by step walkthrough is in this thread, no command line stuff just follow the steps religiously. https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/xlcny9/_/
Currently using Revanced, I’m hoping to see a way to actually integrate my Google account with something else, in a similar manner to what SmartTube is somehow allowed to do.