Yt6 -- Snarl's YouTube Video Player (bookmarklet)

Latest version: 2024-08-18-19:49

Features

1. restrict on-site advertisement -- suppress endscreen cards, auto-skip or just auto-mute video ads (in case some may be interesting to you),
2. resize, zoom, rotate and move around video picture arbitrarily,
3. pick your favoured and supported video/audio codec and resolution for playback,
4. select the desired media sequence to loop -- custom loop segments become active once the starting and ending time input fields disappear,
5. change playback rate ("speed" or tempo) from 0 up to 1600%,
6. replace soundtrack with any external audio (or video) file across the net
Works only if you select a video-only format of the youtube video, and play it back with the progressive download method,
7. grab media URLs directly from the "shorts" pages,
8. download the video/audio content,
9. occasionally extract video commercials as well, accessible through the alternative links,
10. download subtitles/closed captions (CC)
    On bookmarklet line, you can edit the value of "add_subs" after the equal sign and between apostrophes (a comma separated list of ISO 639-1 languge codes, such as 'en, de, fr, es, ja'...) to add Google-Translated tracks of your choice,
11. facilitate background play while your mobile is in sleep mode,
12. bypass age verification
    Examples: Tunnel Vision (signatures encrypted), Cobra (signatures unencrypted)
    
13. show videos in mobile view which are otherwise available only in desktop view mode
    Examples: Basic Instinct (MON) (STUDIO CANAL), The Relic - Trailer
    
change between YouTube layouts by setting the cookie on exit
YouTube stopped honoring the setting in July 2020 and shut down its classic layout for good early December. I wrote a userscript that partially restores it though. See the YouTube Classic layout section for details.

- leaving the current YT subdomain,
- typing URLs directly to the address bar instead of following links,
- or even just navigating between two points in your browsing history where a full page refresh has already taken place

Setup

1. Right click (on mobile, hold your finger) on the Yt6 link above, and "Copy link address".
If you have no such option, the code is written in plain text below, select and copy it manually.
2. Bookmark any web page (this one for example)
3. Edit the created bookmark's Properties / Location:
delete its URL-address entirely and paste this snippet of javascript code in its place. (Optionally, you can give it a name of your choice.)
4. Save the changes if there is a Save button!

CODE IN PLAIN TEXT

javascript:(function(){var v='2c7ae5f3cf051eeeaeeebeecbb0d4b997875a7c4/yt6.js',y='youtube.com/',w=window,d=w.document,h=d.location.href,yt6=w.yt6||{},yt6d=w.yt6d||{},t=w.trustedTypes;if(yt6d.loaded>=4)return void 0;if(h.split(y+'watch')[1]||h.split(y+'embed')[1]||h.split('playlist')[1]||h.split(y+'shorts')[1]||h.split('/base.j')[1]=='s'){var id='snarls_player',e='script',q,u=function(s){if(typeof s=='string')return s};try{t.createPolicy('default',{createHTML:u,createScriptURL:u,createScript:u,})}catch(f){};yt6.loaded=0;function s(x){x=x||id;return d.getElementById(x)};function c(e){return d.createElement(e)};function a(q){s().appendChild(q);s().add_subs='en,hu,de';s().version='2024-08-18-19:49';yt6d.src=q.src};function r(){if(s()){var x;try{x=s().querySelector('#'+id)}catch(e){x=s().firstChild};if(x)s().removeChild(x)}};function b(){var i,j,o,x;o=['rawcdn.githack','js','cdn.rawgit'];for(j,x,i=o.length;i;j=Math.floor(Math.random()*i),x=o[--i],o[i]=o[j],o[j]=x);q=c('div');q.id=id;if(q!=s())d.body.appendChild(q);var src='https://'+o[0]+'.com/snarly/yt6/'+v,src0='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/snarly/yt6@'+v;function oc(ox,oy,sr){return(oy!='js')?sr.replace(ox,oy):src0};q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=(o[0]!='js')?src:src0; q.onerror=function(){q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=oc(o[0],o[1],src);q.onerror=function(){q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=oc(o[0],o[2],src);q.onerror=function(){q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=oc(o[0],o[3],src);q.onerror=function(){q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=src.replace('https','http')};a(q);r();};a(q);r();};a(q);r();};try{a(q);}catch(f){a(q)};};function g(){try{deldiv()}catch(f){r()};b()};if(!s()){b()};setTimeout(function(){var t=w.yt6;if(t)t.loaded=t.loaded||window['status'];if(!t||(t&&(!t.body||(t.loaded<3))))g()},3000);}else{void 0};})()/*2024-08-18-19:49*/

How to use

1. Tap the browser's address bar first (NOT the YouTube search bar!)
this will select / highlight the whole address of the current YouTube video page.
One exception is Microsoft Edge Mobile, whose developers decided that a single short tap should immediately get us to line editing mode instead of highlighting the whole line. We don't want to edit the address now, we want to completely overwrite it. So in the case of Edge you would need to hold your finger a bit longer on the address bar till the system offers the option to "Select all".
2. The browser should suggest the bookmarklet as an available option
-- if these type of suggestions are not allowed, head to the specific part of the browser settings and turn them on --
once you start typing either its name ("Yt6" or whatever you named it) or the prefix "javascript:" to narrow the search down to bookmarklets only.
3. Tapping on the correct entry shall initiate the call.
   

Greasemonkey (for Firefox),
Tampermonkey (for Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Opera) or
Violentmonkey (for Firefox, Chrome and Edge)

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Yt6 -- Snarl's YouTube Video Player (userscript)
// @namespace    yt6
// @version      2024-08-18-19:49
// @author       Snarl
// @description  Auto-Load Yt6 script as soon as possible
// @match        https://*.youtube.com/watch*
// @match        https://*.youtube.com/embed/*
// @match        http://*.youtube.com/watch*
// @match        http://*.youtube.com/embed/*
// @grant        none
// @run-at       document-end
// @icon         https://yt3.ggpht.com/-afBnHVG_R6E/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAAA/LtE5kbPkZvE/s27-c-k-no-mo-rj-c0xffffff/photo.jpg
// ==/UserScript==

(function(){

  window['yt6'] = {}; window['yt6d'] = {}; window['yt6'].body = 1

  var idle_time = 2000 // wait some time before running the bookmarklet part

  var onComplete = function(){setTimeout( //javascript:(
	function(){var v='2c7ae5f3cf051eeeaeeebeecbb0d4b997875a7c4/yt6.js',y='youtube.com/',w=window,d=w.document,h=d.location.href,yt6=w.yt6||{},yt6d=w.yt6d||{},t=w.trustedTypes;if(yt6d.loaded>=4)return void 0;if(h.split(y+'watch')[1]||h.split(y+'embed')[1]||h.split('playlist')[1]||h.split(y+'shorts')[1]||h.split('/base.j')[1]=='s'){var id='snarls_player',e='script',q,u=function(s){if(typeof s=='string')return s};try{t.createPolicy('default',{createHTML:u,createScriptURL:u,createScript:u,})}catch(f){};yt6.loaded=0;function s(x){x=x||id;return d.getElementById(x)};function c(e){return d.createElement(e)};function a(q){s().appendChild(q);s().add_subs='en,hu,de';s().version='2024-08-18-19:49';yt6d.src=q.src};function r(){if(s()){var x;try{x=s().querySelector('#'+id)}catch(e){x=s().firstChild};if(x)s().removeChild(x)}};function b(){var i,j,o,x;o=['rawcdn.githack','js','cdn.rawgit'];for(j,x,i=o.length;i;j=Math.floor(Math.random()*i),x=o[--i],o[i]=o[j],o[j]=x);q=c('div');q.id=id;if(q!=s())d.body.appendChild(q);var src='https://'+o[0]+'.com/snarly/yt6/'+v,src0='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/snarly/yt6@'+v;function oc(ox,oy,sr){return(oy!='js')?sr.replace(ox,oy):src0};q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=(o[0]!='js')?src:src0; q.onerror=function(){q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=oc(o[0],o[1],src);q.onerror=function(){q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=oc(o[0],o[2],src);q.onerror=function(){q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=oc(o[0],o[3],src);q.onerror=function(){q=c(e);q.id=id;q.src=src.replace('https','http')};a(q);r();};a(q);r();};a(q);r();};try{a(q);}catch(f){a(q)};};function g(){try{deldiv()}catch(f){r()};b()};if(!s()){b()};setTimeout(function(){var t=w.yt6;if(t)t.loaded=t.loaded||window['status'];if(!t||(t&&(!t.body||(t.loaded<3))))g()},3000);}else{void 0};}
    //)()/*2024-08-18-19:49*/
  , idle_time)
  }

  var check = function(){ // conditions to meet before loading
    var x = window['performance'];
    if (x && x.timing && x.timing.loadEventEnd > 0 && x.timing.loadEventEnd >= x.timing.domComplete) return true
  }

  if (check()) {
      onComplete()
      return
  }

  var delay = 500, timeout = 8000

  var timeoutPointer
  var intervalPointer = setInterval(function () {
      if (!check()) return

      clearInterval(intervalPointer)
      if (timeoutPointer) clearTimeout(timeoutPointer)
      if (typeof onComplete == 'function') onComplete()
  },delay)

  if (timeout) timeoutPointer=setTimeout(function () {
      clearInterval(intervalPointer)
  },timeout)

})()

These "monkey"-scripts only seem to work on normal, non-incognito tabs on mobile.

If the launched program appears dysfunctional in Desktop view mode, edit the userscript code through the manager's Dashboard* and try to set the idle_time variable to a higher value (the number is in milliseconds).

Background play on Mobile

• sometimes background play stops because there is only video but no legit audio to play back, as the YT commercial happens to hog all the available audio formats
• other times, all playable formats are from a commercial, but the program still identifies them as advertisement, and rather chooses to repeat the audio track of the previous video
• and there are occasions when the program finds no clue suggesting that every bit of available video and audio are from a commercial, and plays them back as if it were the actual video.

Supported browsers

1. Firefox
   the uBlock Origin add-on was rendered almost useless on mobile
2. Mull*
   Firefox-based
3. Firefox Nightly
4. Brave
   definitely the best choice for background play if you don't load the script at all
5. Edge
   slow video handling but currently the second best in eliminating YT ads
6. Vivaldi
   the builtin ad-filter has become useless in a mobile environment for some time now
7. Kiwi
   engulfed by ads
8. Google Chrome
   defined by ads
9. Chromium*
   available for older versions of the Android OS only
10. Ecosia
    seems to be a Brave-clone except much slower
11. DuckDuckGo
    not sure if it can block anything at all on YT
12. Yandex
    may only launch the code through a userscript manager
13. Bromite*
    available only for older versions of the Android OS

    Unsupported

14. Opera
    the mobile version no longer supports bookmarklets -- one less reason to use it
15. Firefox Focus, Samsung, Qwant, Mint ...

Legacy browsers

The example above is the 214th entry and it will load fine as long as you use the alternative player. Just do not let the native one load because from its perspective, the current index does not exist (being outside of the boundary), hence would trigger an automatic jump to the first video, with no way to go above the 200th entry again.

Stream capturing

(YouTube may replace the stream-only URLs with regular ones after the video reaches a certain level of popularity.)

./yt_streamcat target_file "stream_base_URL" start end "2nd_stream_URL"

./ means the program file is located in the current directory (in Windows, .\ would mean the same thing)
yt_streamcat
is the script file we run as our command
target_file (mandatory)
is a user-specified file the media segments are going to be written into -- must not exist yet, if it does, the script will abort to prevent an accidental overwrite
"stream_base_URL" (mandatory)
is a YT stream source URL originating from one of the two possible types of videos mentioned above, extracted by the yt6 main program. Must be enclosed in quotation marks to prevent bash from misinterpreting each URL-parameter (after each "&" sign) as yet another command to run in the background.
start (optional)
is the number of the segment the media should begin download from. For live streams, you should give this a value somewhere between the first and last available "sq" (segment query?) parameter values which you can read on the DASH and HLS Manifest URL lines. If you go over that range, the download will start with the most recent live segment. If you go below it, the download will stall.
end (optional)
is the number of the ending segment, or if it's less than the previous number, it will be interpreted as the number of segments to download
"2nd_stream_URL" (optional)
to save another track parallel to the first one (an audio stream, maybe?). Must be between quotes as well. (You must specify the previous two options in order to be able to specify this fifth one.)

#!/bin/bash

./yt_streamcat v \
"https://[...]googlevideo.com/videoplayback?[...]" \
100 \
150 \
"https://[...]googlevideo.com/videoplayback?[...]"
	

Remuxing commandline examples:

mencoder v.mp4 -ovc copy -o v2.mp4

mencoder v.webm -ovc copy -mc 0 -noskip -fps 30 -ofps 36 -o v2.webm

mencoder v2.webm -ovc copy -ss 4 -o v3.webm

ffmpeg -i v3.webm -i vA.aac -c:v copy -c:a copy v.mkv

__

John Dyer - Mediaelementplayer - http://mediaelementjs.com/
Christian Heilmann - Transformvideo - http://github.com/codepo8/rotatezoomHTML5video
Steven Penny - Youtube download bookmarklet - (closed account)

__

Important Notes

1. If you use add-ons like NoScript (a recommended practice), make sure to

   Whitelist / Trust these domains permanently:

   githubusercontent.com - program code is stored on this site
   jsdelivr.net - #1 cdn proxy to load the files
   githack.com - #2 (does not always fix the Content-Type header...)
   rawgit.com - #3 (now redirects to jsdelivr's cdn)
   api.codetabs.com - (should not be necessary but it wouldn't hurt either)
   youtube.com - won't even budge without its own javascript code running
   googlevideo.com - youtube media is delivered through this domain
   

2. On videos with strong copyright protection, it is often the case that YouTube sends deliberately wrong signature decryption keys on the first try. I did not implement a fully automatic update of video signatures because of the high risk of infinite loop on repeated failure. You MUST switch over to the alternative player to manually initiate playback on multiple formats till enough errors occur for the updating procedure to fire. The video can be downloaded as soon as it becomes playable on the alt-player. The appearing blue gauge on its time rail shows that the video data has arrived and is buffering.




3. The alternative player of Yt6 uses the Progressive Download method to access video & audio instead of the Adaptive Streaming YouTube's own player had as the default since late 2013.
   
   Both have their pros and cons. With the former, media is getting piled up in the browser's cache during playback, which means there must be enough free space for storage either in the system RAM or on the disk. While in the case of streaming, you only have tiny slices of the media buffered at all times, which in turn requires higher CPU-power and constantly fast network speeds.
   Consequently, for live streams or Ultra-HD videos it is recommended to switch over to YouTube's native player, as it is much better suited for those.
   
   To make sure your browser chooses memory over the much slower and/or fragile Hard Disk / Solid-state drive, use the program in an Incognito / In-private browser window or tab.



Occasionally, some age-restricted videos may get the same subdomain for their source location as known YouTube video commercials which have already been registered with adblockers such as uBlock Origin or Brave Browser's ad-shield, and as a result, their download links will be made inaccessible by these adblockers as well. Except if

1. you are logged in to an eligible YouTube account
2. don't use ad-blockers at all
3. or set up exceptions in the ad-blocker's settings
For example, on uBlock Origin's control panel, the explicit greenlighting of the domains

youtube.com -- for the player data and
googlevideo.com -- to access the media links

will do the trick, although this way you may end up getting some video ads too.
(You first need to activate the Advanced User mode in uBlock Origin's settings menu to be able to do this. Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIYcI2tEqo8)