Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels

ytch.xyz

2,741 pointshadisafa514 comments

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?

Before Netflix, there was Blockbuster. If we’re old enough, we remember going there and wandering through the aisles, trying to find something we would commit to. It was just as hard as picking something to watch today. There’s something incredibly important about not having the option and just going with the flow, which I think a lot of people won’t admit they like but actually do. It’s something truly missing from today’s society.

Actually, now that I think about it, I believe this is why TikTok succeeds so well, along with all the doom scrolling—it’s exactly like this. You don’t know what you’re going to get next. Maybe you like it, maybe you don’t, and that’s okay. You’re just flipping through it.

I had youtube TV for a while and the most annoying thing is that there were no channel numbers.

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.

Bonus points if the TV guide is not interactive like they are today, but rather the old style that slowly scrolls at a fixed rate

You can probably do the audio fix systemwide with EasyEffects.

>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

In windows you can also go to "Ease of access audio settings" and click "Turn on mono audio". Useful for games which have positional audio which gets annoying (sf6 training room for example).

This is incredible and I want this on my TV, hooked up to my remote for exactly this experience.

If you are using windows, it allows you to switch sound to mono

Regarding sound, if you are on a Mac you can use Audio Hijack to made the sound do anything you want.

> 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

I find this interesting. Are you oversensitive? I've never even considered that this could be an issue. Do you experience the same problem with other things like music and games?

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.

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.

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.

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

Each channel displays the video code for the YouTube video its playing so if you see something interesting you can easily access the video. I really like this as a curated discovery tool, there is something up flipping thru channels and catching something at just the right time to peak your interest that viewing a clickbaity thumbnail and video title just can't replicate.

> It is always "running" and if you flip away you will miss it.

Throw in some ads and it will be everything I hate about broadcast TV.

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.

I use Pluto for this. Quick download, no sign up required, and tons of topic-specific channels to switch to. I put it on all my devices and don't even worry about it.

Google TV also has a "Live" tab that collects all the live channels across all your apps and puts it into a TV guide grid. I've installed Fubo and Tubi and others just to build out my TV guide.

Works pretty well.

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.

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.

That is what it was like in the 90s! Although you could use your VCR to record the other channel.

If only we had a TiVo...

yeah when i noticed this, it blew my mind.

Similarly I find I sometimes enjoy listening to the radio more than Spotify because I don't feel forced to min/max my enjoyment. I have to listen to whatever is on.

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!

How strange, I’m the complete opposite. I’d never go back to letting corporates dictate how I engage with content; I even avoid recommender algorithms for the same reason. Being able to choose is so valuable to me.

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.

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.

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.

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.

> 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.

I miss channel surfing (a little). But from when the cable box was a dumb pipe and the picture would switch near instantaneously. The 3 seconds between channels in the last couple of decades was super obnoxious to me.

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

Why are you stressed about what to select, when it is guaranteed that any selection you make will be better than something a network would select for you to watch? Just pick anything.

Get Plex. There's a ton of free live streaming channels for a ton of tastes and genres. Some of them I think to myself "This should have been a steaming channel years ago".

Sitcoms solve this. Just watch your favourite one again.

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

I just wasted the last 2hrs watching instead of working and I have not even made it past Channel 8. Thank God there're only 12 channels, I was afraid they would find me dead from starvation at my workstation in about a week's time.

Great. Can you elaborate a little on how channels are populated? Do you search YT for tags and order by most recent videos first? Or do you do some manual curation?

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

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

One channel I always appreciate wherever I go, is the low budget non-profit hobby regional channel.

Would love to see people just working on projects they have around the house, not taking things too serious.

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...

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!

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

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

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

I need this as a Roku app ASAP ;-;

Build that into the TV Guide!

Local 58?

Channels really should go from 2-13 instead, but this is awesome.

I'll never understood why Netflix, Hulu and others haven't done something similar to this. It's a much more natural way of "finding out" what you want to see. Create a bunch of channels based on existing tags or categories, have thing playing on a schedule, and allow me to zap through.

Bonus points if you allow me to zap as efficiently as I was able to back when we had analog TVs and cable. I was the master zapper, zapping through hundreds of channels in seconds. Just buffer the adjacent channels and calculate the maximum input latency.

My guess would be that the primary users would keep it on as background noise in some room or another, and it would take a significant amount of data for comparatively little benefit.

Instagram tried this with IGTV. I actually liked the format too but they did shutdown due to lack of interest https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17484436/instagram-igtv-v...

The streaming service Shudder has it and it's one of my favorite features on any streaming platform.

I think this is the reason why "shorts" , or tiktok style videos work. I think YT shorts does this in a way, where you get a snippet of a long video as a shorts

I used to love this chrome extension back in the day, unsure if it still works but same idea:

https://ottoplay.tv/

There was a startup called RheoTV started by ex-Apple people that did exactly that and it didn't work out.

There was also something called NeverThink that had the same fate.

Well done. My team built this at Disney six years ago when we were trying to solve content discovery problems. The problem with endless carousels of thumbnails is that it really doesn't draw you in. Sometimes you just need to drop people into content like it's channel surfing.

Netflix tried something similar a few years ago, but in my opinion it missed a critical ingredient, which was dropping people into the middle of content at a compelling point.

Really like the execution here. YouTube take note.

Part of the issue with endless carousels of thumbnails now is that the thumbnails are almost invariable clickbait now. What will I actually get? I have no idea. Even YouTube channels I genuinely enjoy use thumbnails which are entirely different from the actual content. I suppose sensationalism has taken over.

I think the user intent matters. When I go to Netflix to choose what I want to watch the last thing I want is to be dropped into the middle of random content. I hate auto playing videos when I'm trying to decide if I even want to watch this.

On the other hand when I go to tiktok I get thrown into a random content at every finger flick and I'm delighted because that's exactly why I went there.

If Netflix had well personalized mini tiktok mode serving interesting scenes from the movies you can watch there it could do wonderfully.

Interesting movie scenes is entire genre of tiktok videos. Another movie related genre is narrated summaries of weird movies. This requires bit of work to prepare but still could do well.

Can you give any insight into why these projects were canceled at Disney or Netflix?

TikToks has a bunch of channels playing juicy clips from random movies and shows. always have to pop into hashtag or comments to find out what. Maybe they got axe, I don't see them in my feed anymore, but more than a few times I wished there was one click to keep watching optinos. There's always short form video that gets people side tracked, why not side track into an episode of a show.

This Netflix feature drives me crazy. Now I always mute my TV when browsing Netflix because as you highlight items they play and it is super annoying.

could that be solved by finding and using the 'most replayed' mark timestamps for each video and using that to find the best start points for each video

Neat! I have wondered how much of a foothold "retrograde" tech will take in the next 10-20 years.

Decision fatigue, nostalgia, attenuation — call it what you will. At some level we're tacitly acknowledging that the vast ocean of content and complexity we've created is beyond what is desirable or even healthy to effectively evaluate.

A very modern malaise. Excuse the armchair philosophizing.

> At some level we're tacitly acknowledging that the vast ocean of content and complexity we've created is beyond what is desirable or even healthy to effectively evaluate.

I don't think there's enough useful and organized information to evaluate. There's no reason for everyone to be stuck in a vast ocean of content labeled with a handful of vague categories, except that that's just the way that someone decided to make it.

If I want to figure out if I want to try a game, I can go to steam and watch a trailer, look at the tags, and still have no idea if the game is worth playing. How do I make a decision?

If I just watch 3 minutes of a lets play, or a live stream, I can get an idea of what the game is like. This youtube channels thing is giving us exactly that experience.

Opening a youtube video directly, on the other hand, is an entire ordeal. It's slow to load, takes up a bunch of ram, puts the video in your history and messes up the minigame of trying to micromanage the algorithm so you don't end up with bad recommendations. It's hard to just simply watch a few seconds of a bunch of videos to get a vibe.

There's so much low hanging fruit in terms of content organization/discovery, it drives me insane that the experience is generally so bad, and getting worse.

Clay Shirky gave a talk on this years ago (also I think it's a blog post) called "It's not information overload, it's filter failure". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabqeJEOQyI

There's certainly a market for it among the older crowd, but for those who've spent their formative years consuming content in the Netflix / Youtube era ... you can't miss what you've never had. I do echo the decision fatigue complaint - there is simply too much content out there to meaningfully engage with. The downsides of living in such a connected world ...

This is actually making me think about how I watch programs when I dont really need to focus in on anything. I wonder if there is a plug-in where you can spin the wheel between types of media to watch and it selects one for you.

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

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

Even better, host it on github pages - then you mirror the code too https://stevemk14ebr.github.io/YTCH/ . Author, how do generate the list

JSON looks like tinydb

Am I the only child of the 80s that hates this? A bunch of stuff I'm not interested in, and then I switched off. The moment TiVo was available we had it in our house and it was great. I still like the occasional shared experience of big sporting events or Eurovision or something on broadcast TV, but outside that it's just the equivalent of doomscrolling. If you look at your plethora of streaming options today and can't find anything to watch, just do something else. The wonder of the modern age is the sheer volume of stuff you can ignore entirely and never care about.

You're not. Though on a recent vacation, one of my kids only had access to cable and absolutely loved the randomness of what was available.

I'm a child of the 80s too and I haven't watched TV in a decade, save for the occasional TV in hotel room. I do miss the luxury of occasionally having what you watch already decided for you and the serendipity of discovering something engaging by accident. Lately it has started to feel like all the choices we have in modern life and the decision paralysis that entails is causing more not less stress. I'd hazard the biggest problem with the old format was not so much the lack of control as the lack of quality content and paradoxically having too much choice with the explosion of cable tv channels. I think there's space for a refined version of something like this to coexist with all the modern options - something like a personalized curator that picks quality content tailored to your tastes and just plays it without you having to decide exactly what to watch beyond flipping (a limited number of) channels.

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

I've always wanted a recreation of 80s Saturday morning cartoons, you can choose one channel to watch and if you switch away to another channel, it's gone, just like this. You have three primary channels and two secondary or "local" channels (and maybe a PBS) to choose from. It's a 5½ hour block, to simulate starting at like 6am and going until 11:30am. You get a bunch of half-hour kid and pre-teen shows for a few hours, and then you get some more older teen-oriented shows (like Saved By the Bell), and a 1½ hour block of the cartoon variety-hour shows like The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show. CBS would always have some kind of wild-animal showcase. Throw in some toy commercials, School House Rock, the Time for Timer PSA ("A hanker for a hunk of cheese!"), and those bumpers that showed you how to make the "come back can" and how to whistle with an acorn top.

It's the delivery and the format that I'm nostalgic for, it doesn't need to be the vintage material. It would be cool to have some modern School House Rock and PSA and mini-craft projects.

Grab a big bowl, a box of cereal, and a carton of milk and just veg out in your pajamas on the couch on a weekend morning.

Did something similar years ago for tech-related topics: https://old.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/l3kel1/tech_tv/

Didn't get much love from the internet but it was featured on a popular site, along with other similar TVs: https://www.makeuseof.com/fun-streaming-sites-for-a-tv-like-...

Regarding the iframe, the YT controls. Someone has noted that it takes the TV experience away. I agree, but hiding the YT embedded UI is against TOS. Plus the UI already has sound control, subtitles, link to the video - features that others suggested here.

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)

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.

I'm old enough to miss channel changing and really like this.

But even moar than that, boy do I love me some Youtube iframe API - https://developers.google.com/youtube/iframe_api_reference - it's probably the last but certainly coolest piece of FAANG Web 2.0-ness left

Really love this and couldn't help but sketch out a quick YTCH-Guide https://git.jonathanbobrow.com/YTCH-Guide/

Github repo is here: https://github.com/jbobrow/YTCH-Guide

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.

Just like https://80s.myretrotvs.com/

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

As someone who grew up with a handful of channels and no recording or TV guide besides the one that came in the paper, this experience is pretty accurate* , so kudos on the execution, but in contrast with some other comments, it is not nostalgic in any positive way. I will gladly take clickbait thumbnails and titles over wasting time flipping through garbage.

* It's missing the part where you get your little sister to hold the antenna in a certain position so you can get a clear picture.

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.

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.

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).

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?

One thing about analog interfaces is that they are really in a way empowering to the User. Don't like what you're seeing? Just one button press or the turn of a tuner dial and you're outta there and into a new thing. And there is no algorithm telling you what to tune into or which channels you see. Heck, if you want you could tune your radio in-between the station and listen to the static of the atmosphere for an hour.

As a programmer with UI experience (for both physical and graphical UIs) I am aware that nothing stops us from deploying similar paradigms in the digital domain and this is yet another example to make the point, that it is possible.

Sadly few companies nowadays have any incentive to make their interfaces so neutral, egalitarian and simple. It seems to take a special kind of radicalism to commit to limited controls and not slap open ended navigational structures, menus and so on onto a touchscreen. Car interfaces come to my mind.

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.

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.

I've built a similar thing 3 years ago -> https://tv.istasyon.app Your comments here are golden and congrats to @hadisafa for his clean and simple execution.

My project was never used (except me and just my family) nor resurfaced on forums etc. but our choice of the same favicon touched me :)

My concern for such a project was that I found using the content that others created without attributing the og creator a bit sketchy.

P.S: It seems I leaked my app 10 months ago under another thread -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37905024

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

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.

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

This is very nice! Improvement requests:

* Add channel information so that folks can bookmark good stuff on YT.

* Add keyboard shortcuts for ease of channel surfing.

And then folks can buy one of those retro TV bezel for even deeper immersion.

My senior mother needs this. She doesn't use a computer, but does have a TV a firestick. I've tried showing her how to use the search of youtube but she is too use to how tv use to work and wants to channels to find something.

If this could be made into a firestick app or something and come with a recommendation system, allow some customization using topics instead of channel names and have them be editable and customized to different youtube interests - I would buy it

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?

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.

https://www.youtube.com/tv used to be this, but they closed it down.

Source https://github.com/stevemk14ebr/YTCH

Are you going to keep updating the content so it's current and has rewatchability? I would really like to keep using this.

So it appears that OP is only using items off YouTube front page as options on channels? I think this would be a lot more interesting if it chose more randomized content, especially having an option for content with low views...

Also, an option to do full-screen would greatly enhance the experience.

I think the biggest issue that exists with current YouTube is that so much is crammed into the UI and viewing experience (Ads, the videos on the sidebar, clunky controls to skip videos, etc...) that ruins the continuity of video content, especially when mixed with so many videos in different formats... It's also the same problem that TikTok is fighting with, it makes for a pretty disruptive viewing experience in comparison to cable TV or just choosing to watch TV shows or movies instead.

Wish it had video settings like captions, video quality etc

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

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.

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".

This is a great idea, I'd love to be able to use it on my TV. It would be nice if it also supported changing the playback speed to 1.5x, 2x etc - the youtube player has this so I'm assuming it's possible.

It's so refreshing to know that you don't have to watch everything. Go through the content, once you find something that you enjoy, watch it. Not worrying about what else you have to "watch later".

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.

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

Awesome work.

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!

I worked at Pluto TV pre-launch, and YouTube "live" crammed into channels was basically our app, with a scheduler system that allowed us to also render a channel guide.

Several years ago I spent a great deal of time thinking about how to create something like this, glad someone did it!

My vision went beyond this into allowing users to create their own channels (still only identifiable by a channel number) which would basically just be a playlist. I think a better idea now would be to have them add a list of channels and have it randomly play videos from only those channels and have that interrupted by anytime that channel is live streaming.

Don't add a thing - the purity is what makes this perfect.

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.

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.

I feel like the secret sauce to this is the fact that it drops you into the middle of a video. If it was just a queue of videos that play from start to end it wouldn't be as interesting. I cant believe Netflix hasnt added something like this for TV shows. Just drop you into something random and have a few basic categories to choose from. Its so much better for discovery than having to judge 100s of shows based on their thumbnail.

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!

Second channel in and someone is saying "plandemic" maybe channels on youtube just highlights how close you are to some of the weirder views on there.

Very neat. I like the channel idea. There’s also https://random-video.com which shows one of 4.5 Billion YouTube videos randomly (or with a filter for view count, language, year).

Pretty fun to discover what’s out there, without being influenced by YouTubes algorithm. It’s based on the YT Archive project and some other sources, since YT sadly has no randomize function.

Suddenly I see that tiktok and YouTube shorts and such are just new incarnation of chanel flipping mechanics. And I'm not sure if it's better all around.

Algorithm driven personalized YouTube videos playing from random moment with easy follow up with rewinding to see the whole thing or more from this creator or more like that would be awesome.

You can also be smart about where from start playing by using the hot moments information from YouTube.

I made the same thing a few years ago. Youtube embeds, react, socket.io and postgresql on a node.js server. I got the idea from poolside.fm's video player.

https://wem5637.medium.com/i-made-a-probably-illegal-youtube...

This is very cool! I've actually been working on something similar for some time as a feature on my website https://www.bingeclock.com. Can I ask if you've done something to minimize the number of banner ads Youtube pushes onto the screen? That has been a challenge for me and yours looks very clean! Awesome job!

Think the website is getting the HN hug of death; just static for me on every channel, but reminded me of a story:

Recently my sister was on a vacation with her family, and my two nephews were upstairs watching TV. They came down "Mom - The TV is broken!", she goes upstairs - working fine. 10 mins later it repeats, and repeats again.

Finally, she catches when the TV "breaks" ... it's a commercial, haha.

I can't believe how awesome this is. I've spent hours watching.

I'm not sure what's going on. Why is this so great?

The lack of toxic labeling, which is everywhere now?

Thank you.

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

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.

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.

I remember cobbling something like this together myself using a Kodi plugin called PseudoTV a number of years ago

Definitely a lot more usable from a browser for sure. I'd echo other comments that a TV guide style interface would be a fantastic addition that would take this from a "that's cool" to something I'd potentially regularly use.

This is amazing. It reminds me a little of betamaxmas[0]. I wish I could find a Christmas Channel! :)

It also occurs to me that there are a whole bunch of people here for whom this doesn't offer any nostalgia or memories, but is purely just a weird old affectation.

[0] https://betamaxmas.com/

This is great! I wonder what the best way to get this up on a TV, preferably with control of the channels through the remote.

A physical selector dial for your faves would be nice.

I remember we had a chunky dial that required a lot of force (for me as a little kid) to turn from channel to channel. It had a bunch of channels (a dozen?) but I think there were only two channels broadcasting. (My Dad bought a B&W TV for us to watch the moon landings)

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

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

The shared reality, the shared experience of hearing and seeing things at the same time as others are listening, creating content... Radio and TV and theater give this to us, where hyper individual on demand feeds break it.

I hope society decides to retain some level of "over the air" information sharing that is synced.

This is a neat idea.

I love this! Criterion Channel has a similar sort of function - a single, continuous channel (called 24/7) that plays curated movies from their collection. Did you curate the list of channels / videos?

Also, how is the noise generated? I know it's a tiny thing but it looks a bit repetitive / pseudorandom.

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

In a similar vein: https://radio.garden

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. :)

I watched right up until I heard a goddamn ad for manscape or dollar shave club or whatever the fuck

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

This is super fun, but I hope the content creators are being compensated. Content creators work hard to produce this content under the assumption they will be paid for it (in one of many different potential channels but the HOW is less relevant).

There is a bug when using qutebrowser (using arch linux) - when turning on the sound, the TV turns off (e.g. goes to black-and-white-noise-mode). When turning off the sound, the TV turns on again.

On google chrome, all is well. Just for FYI :) very cool project!

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.

The main benefit of TV was (and sometimes is, e.g. bbc if we ignore news) editioralized picking of programs. There was someone deciding if a video is worth watching (and in many cases acting in good faith).

Very useful in modern Youtube world.

Great idea, beautifully executed!

was annoying that i couldn't find the source of the the video (i know you provide the id, but still), had to remove a couple of elements to be able to rightclick the video and copy the url at timestamp

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.

It's a pretty good idea, but how are the videos picked? I flipped through all the channels and 11/12 was Americans talking (and the last one was sports). Would it be easy to be able to set the language?

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.

I see people asking the creator to add some data about the channels, but i think this is intended to mimic traditional TV, where they didn't have any information other than what the producers put on screen.

I've been dying to try this but on macOS Sonoma 14.5 both Chrome and Safari cannot establish a secure connection.

Chrome complains

> This site can’t provide a secure connectionytch.xyz sent an invalid response. ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

Very cool. A lot to be said for jumping right in to the action. This is a perfect demonstration of that "law" that states you can skip the first 30% of a YouTube video and not miss much.

So, the content in this test is all TV production content as far as I can see. I reckon this would really hit it’s strides once it was changing through content actually produced just for You Tube.

How many years do you think it would take, and how powerful a computer would you need before you could switch Youtube channels as fast as channels on a regular analog TV from the 1960's?

This is what YouTube TV should have been. Google is blowing it. They have an unlimited collection of high-quality content, for free, just begging to be organized into channels.

Love this. Good quality video and low latency. The content? Well, can't please everybody. I was looking for cartoons, any cartoon. No dice. That would be great addition.

There's something cool about knowing that other people are all watching the same thing at the same time. Sports are really the only thing that give that feel now a days.

This is interesting. Maybe this could help bring back some long form tv, which in my opinion is better than watching TikTok which consumes our dwindling attention span

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?

Just got addicted to Ch 12 which is a bunch of interviews and talk shows. Never knew this was what I was missing to go off in the background at an isolated work place.

Is there a way to embed this? I use Obsidian and want to capture this for historical sake and when I want to go back to it I can search for it on my hard drive.

Really cool idea btw.

This is so wonderful, thank you. Please don't change anything about it (except making the explanation of the channels available in the site's info panel)!

Could you precache some of the videos so you can click through faster?

This should probably be a toggle and then you can set how many channels each way depending on your bandwidth.

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?

My vote is to _not_ let the features creep in. Keep it simple. Make a more advanced one at a different address or something. The beauty here is the simplicity,.

Not having the algo recommendations but with your curation is also amazing. I’ll need to pin this to my tv app folder to remember to try it on the big screen.

This is super cool!

I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of super-charged tag-based browsing of various existing sites that are annoying to browse. YouTube is one of them.

Love it! This is a brilliant example of how removing choice actually make the product so much better. If this was an app on a Apple TV I would actually use it

This amazing and great! I absolutely hate having to choose something to watch from an immensive infinite list, specially when I'm just trying to relax.

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.

One of the keys to the success of this thing is not letting it become infested with advertisements. The desire to monetise will be almost irresistible.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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

Man, this is strangely compelling ... it's a very different experience. The only complaint is I have no idea what I am watching.

remings me of https://90s.myretrotvs.com/

The quality of the steams are excellent. I would love to know how it works so well with no buffering and latency. I like it.

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

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

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

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.

Why do people build video players with no volume control, it has to be one of the worst UX choices in common practice.

If you could take 10-12 key words and build personalised channels based on those topic/keywords would be amazing.

Just gotta say, this is incredible. If this was an app on my "smart" TV I would use it more than the YT app.

I have nothing else to contribute to this conversation other than to say this is fucking amazing. Brilliant job, mate.

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.

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

The most amazing thing is the off button. Think about it. I've never seen a website that just turns off before

This webpage need to be converted to a PWA application. That's would be a great or better experience!!!

The worst thing about youtube is the discovery part. It's abysmal, an early 2000s derelict, a shitshow.

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

Absolutely love the sense of discovery this has. Kudos to the creator… I will be watching for updates!

This reminds me of a spinoff project from the creator of SpySpace (L4nd) called "Toobin.tv"

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

One of the keys to success for this thing is not letting it become infested with advertisements.

plz add subtitles, if they exist

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

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

This is genius.

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

I love this idea, I kind of created something similar with skipvids.com subscriptions

I wish the arrow keys and/or scroll wheel could be used to change channels too.

I’ve watched more YouTube today than I have cumulatively this month. A lovely thing.

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

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

This is great, really smooth

There used to be reddit.tv for this, but it would start everything from 0s

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

I love this. Please keep it running. I just bookmarked it in favorites.

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

oooo I love being dropping in to content

I miss that aspect of the tv experience, something live streamers do still except that it’s just them playing a game, rambling or doing porn. This is far more diverse

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

Timing for this being on FP could not be better given Github downage.

Somebody finally made the Interdimensional Cable from Rick and Morty.

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

video speed controller extension is automatically speeding up the video for me and I can't change it back on this website (due to the invisible divs covering everything I think)

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

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

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

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

That's awesome. Can you package it into a Google TV app?

How do I disable the static effect between channel changes?

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

Well done. Would this work on iOS natively through an app?

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

Oh no.

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

This feels good, thank you for hacking it together!

Loved this. Would it be possible to add subtitles?

Excellent execution. Need some green volume bars.

This is awesome, wish it worked on my firestick.

Can u make it use only your subscribed channels?

This is so cool, thank you for building this!

This is awesome. How come we never see ads?

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

Is there an open source code repo for this?

My wife bitched theres no beauty channel.

Don't worry kids, it's Google's remote work policy that is the problem, not their terrible product design and lack of innovation.

This is incredible, thanks for sharing

Incredibly well done! Great execution

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

I don't know why I love this.

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

Damn, I realized the thing I like the most about this is I can be disappointed. There can legitimately be "nothing on", and then I can go and do something else to come back later. I think the most apparent way algorithms have messed with my head is teaching me there is always something on. So I keep wasting sometimes upto an hour just to find something. In the end I end up watching something I had already seen anyways.

This is unbelievably good

Please do a kids version!

I... I think I love it.

Take my money, so cool!

What about commercials?

This is really, really cool, but I'm a little disappointed that there's no credit for the channel / video you're watching when you click on the (i) icon—only a link to your own credit. I think if you're going to credit yourself, you have a moral obligation to credit the people who made the content you're highlighting as well.

this is so cool that I wish it were an app on my samsung tv

This is really slick!

Absolutely love this.

Judging from the enthusiasm from HN toward this in general, it seems like I'm in the minority in that I hate this experience. I was born in '87, for reference. Channel flipping always frustrated me, and I haven't had TV hooked up in my house in well over a decade - the TV is for youtube/streaming media only.

Where's CEEFAX?

Effing brilliant!

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

This is brilliant

Well done, bravo!

even the mainstreaminess is well-captured

Mesmerising

Now we need a TV Guide.

Zapping!

can i selfhosted it?

radical, I love it.

this is amazing！

this is tiktok

I now need USB rabbit ears so I can tune to the correct spot.

brilliant!

Why I f*cking love this? Congrats.

boomer.tube is not yet taken

my experience just got so much better lol, thanks!

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

Thanks, I hate it

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