Frustrated with Freetube, what do you use on desktop (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 month ago by anticurrent@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Basically Most videos don't load on first try for me on Freetube. so I have to go back and forth to reload the video hoping this time it will load? they have removed the reload button, and the team are just closing issues on GitHub that demand reinstating the reload button. Plus comments have stopping loading as well.

Invidious doesn't work half of the times. and piped is dead.

What do you recommend using on desktop. or is paying for youtube Red the only option left?

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[-] onlooker@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago

Anything that integrates yt-dlp, honestly. I used to use Freetube exclusively on my PC, but now I find myself downloading every video I want to watch because of Youtube's stupid SABR requests. Basically, Youtube forces a 5 second pause on the video you're watching for no good reason, seemingly at random, too, and this seems to affect NewPipe and its forks and yes, Freetube as well. It's super annoying.

[-] Geodes_n_Gems@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

What even is SABR, I, at first thought it was something the Freetube devs added to make playback more stable, but I sure I was very wrong now.

[-] onlooker@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago

Nope, it's very much a YouTube/Google/Alphabet thing. Here's a short explanation (taken from this page):

In 2025, YouTube started rolling out a new streaming protocol, known as SABR, which breaks down the video into smaller chunks whose internal URLs dynamically change rather than provide one whole static URL. This is problematic because it prevents downloaders (such as yt-dlp) from being able to download YouTube videos at resolutions higher than 360p due to only detecting format code 18 (which is the only format code available that doesn't use SABR).[11] So far, this issue has only affected the web client, so one workaround would be to use a different client, such as tv_embedded (where SABR has not yet been rolled out to), so for instance in yt-dlp you could add --extractor-args "youtube:player_client=tv_embedded" to use that client. It is not known how long this workaround will work as intended, as YouTube rolls out SABR to more and more clients.

[-] Geodes_n_Gems@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago

So it's basically just another instance of Youtube/Google going to extreme lengths and trying way to hard to stop alternative clients rather than just tackling the reasons why people use alternative clients, like ads & privacy?

[-] onlooker@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

Ding, ding. That's it exactly.

[-] bleustenns@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

Any recs that use yt-dlp?

[-] onlooker@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

Not off the top of my head, sorry. In fact, I could use some recs myself.

this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026

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