Yt-dlp: External JavaScript runtime now required for full YouTube support

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

YouTube’s Web Experience and App-Centric Future

  • Several commenters report YouTube’s web UI getting worse: broken clicks, “something went wrong” errors, memory leaks on livestreams, missing comments, weird search behavior, and anti‑adblock slowdowns or blank pages (especially in Firefox).
  • Debate over whether YouTube might eventually be app‑only or Chrome‑only: some see this as plausible given mobile dominance and generational shifts; others call it fantasy due to desktops, TVs, embeds, and antitrust risk.
  • Some argue the web itself already enabled lock‑in, attestation, and proprietary enclaves; others fear a future where desktop/laptop use is niche.

DRM, Hardware Attestation, and Control

  • Many expect broader use of DRM (e.g., Widevine) for all YouTube content once older devices age out; experiments on TV/HTML5 clients are already noted.
  • Discussion of using TPMs, secure enclaves, HDCP, and Web Environment Integrity to bind decryption to attested hardware and approved browsers, making tools like yt‑dlp much harder.
  • Others note piracy always finds paths: leaked Widevine keys, HDCP workarounds, HDMI recorders, or the “analog hole” (pointing a camera at a screen), though with more friction and lower quality.

yt‑dlp’s External JavaScript Runtime Requirement

  • YouTube now uses increasingly complex JS “challenges” on the TV‑style API yt‑dlp impersonates, beyond yt‑dlp’s old regex‑based pseudo‑interpreter.
  • yt‑dlp therefore requires an external JS engine for “full” YouTube support; without it, formats (especially high‑res and logged‑in variants) are limited and may degrade over time.
  • Recommended setup is Deno, for permission‑restricted execution and easier component fetching; alternatives include QuickJS/QuickJS‑NG (portable but slower), Node, and Bun.
  • Some worry about running untrusted JS and criticize relying on runtime sandboxes vs OS/VM isolation; others point out browsers themselves are complex, heavily‑hardened JS sandboxes.

Archiving, Preservation, and “Digital Hoarding”

  • Many use yt‑dlp (and tools like Tube Archivist) to archive liked videos, niche music, tutorials, sumo highlights, and other content that frequently disappears or gets removed.
  • People describe large personal collections (tens of thousands of videos), elaborate scripts for tagging, thumbnail‑to‑album‑art, playlist syncing, and self‑hosted search/index frontends.
  • Debate over whether such hoarding is truly useful: some rarely rewatch; others rely on archives for background viewing, parties, or recovering vanished cultural artifacts.

Ads, Adblocking, and Monetization Ethics

  • Strong disagreement over whether blocking YouTube ads is unethical “leeching” or a user’s right to control their own device and avoid scams/malware.
  • Some argue YouTube’s vast profits and scammy/low‑quality ads justify adblocking and even piracy in some regions; others insist the implicit bargain is “watch ads or pay,” and adblockers should expect to be blocked.
  • Frustration that YouTube serves fraudulent or harmful ads (phishing, crypto scams), with claims it should be legally or ethically obliged to vet advertisers.
  • Paying for Premium splits opinion: some see it as good value and support for creators; others call it enshittification—charging to remove degradations that weren’t there originally.

Scraping, AI, and Platform Lockdown

  • Several commenters suspect large‑scale scraping for AI training and YouTube clones (or geo‑blocked markets) is driving stricter anti‑bot and anti‑download measures.
  • Others say AI traffic is a “drop in the bucket” at Google scale and that general enshittification and desire to monopolize access to user‑generated content were always coming.
  • There’s sympathy for yt‑dlp maintainers doing constant cat‑and‑mouse against a hostile provider; some find the fight technically fun, others see it as exhausting but important.

Nostalgia and Enshittification of Video UX

  • Contrast between early QuickTime/desktop days—simple copy/paste of video clips, straightforward downloads—and today’s JS‑heavy, DRM‑laden, ad‑ridden streaming stacks.
  • Some acknowledge that local video playback tooling is vastly better now (VLC, MPV, codecs), but the web experience is worse mainly due to business models, not technology.
  • “Enshittification” is repeatedly invoked: platforms optimized for users in the past now prioritize advertisers and lock‑in, with users and creators treated as captive resources.