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.

Anyway, check it out if you can on your TV.

  • LievitoPadre@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    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

    • Deiran@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      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)

        • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

        • mrjfilippo@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          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.

        • antipiratgruppen@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          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)”.