I don’t think I have it in me to put together a video, but I can describe it if you like.
Once you install the extension and follow the setup instructions, you just go to a YouTube page. The extension adds an ugly button to the top-left of the page that says “bypass”. When you click it, Firefox launches yt-dlp [the URL you’re at] -o - | mpv - which basically just downloads the video and streams the output through the mpv video player. So now you’re watching just the video, with no web page necessary.
I was curious how you implemented this as it’s pretty much the default YT bypass qutebrowser users use. Then I read the MIME type addition you did and had a good laugh. That’s clever. Always nice to see a fellow Go user, too.
Is there another way to do this? This hack was the only way I could figure out how to get Firefox to invoke an external binary, but if there’s a more conventional way to do it, I’d like to know 'cause I have another more complicated project in need of a pattern much like this one.
No, the way you did it is the only way I can think you can. Otherwise it opens up things to arbitrary code execution. I’m not exactly sure how qutebrowser gets away with it, but I know it’s built on QT so maybe it just isn’t running sandboxed or had some special method for calling external binaries/scripts. You might take a look at that project and see, but Firefox/qutebrowser is probably like comparing apples and oranges.
That’s actually very helpful, thanks. I’ve been working on another project to open certain URLs in specific browsers/profiles, and wanted to be sure that I wasn’t missing a more obvious design pattern. The project is here if you’re curious.
This is sweet, this exact same idea has been kicking around my head for awhile but I’ve never taken the initiative.
I did write a script (powershell lol), that uses yt-dlp to download all your subscription videos as they come in and sends a notification. Could easily be modified to work on linux and use ntfy or another notification service. ALso no need to scrape your subscriptions as it stays in sync with your currently subscribed channels.
Honestly, because I didn’t know (a) that ff2mpv even existed, or that (b) mpv could play YouTube URLs directly. So thanks! I learnt two things today :-)
It was still a fun project though 'cause I learnt how to write a Firefox extension and get the browser to launch programs on-click, so not a waste of time!
Needs an elaborate by github standards workaround to work on android? I think I’ll just continue to avoid sites whose paywalls archive.ph and 12foot can’t defeat…
Well, one does need to sideload two apps, a browser and then the corresponding xpi file which will install the add on.
There was/is an alternate way on Firefox Nightly, I think to create a custom add on collection which will add it to mobile Firefox normally. But yes, you are correct, only a miniscule amount of people would care to run it on Android(though it is always nice to have a workaround).
On Android, you can add Ublock to the Firefox mobile browser (use the Mull fork and you even have about:config). This plus NoScript gives a seamless experience between my phone and my Linux desktop. Almost never hear or see ads thanks to this and LibreTube/Sponsorblock.
It does, it works better and covers more sites, but at the cost of security (increasing attack surface) and using more resources. Pros and cons to both.
Didn’t know that, I actually switched to Kiwi Browser because I couldn’t get the addon to work in IceRaven. And it’s one of those addons I really couldn’t live without.
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