this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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I have a headless raspberry PI 4 8GB connected to my TV setup with Kodi and the Jellyfin add-on. Now I would like to have a convenient option to watch Youtube in a privacy-friendly way on the TV.

The experience should be similar to Freetube: creating playlists, search videos, follow subscribed channels. I don't mind running it either directly on the PI or install it on my server.

Thanks for any recommendations of what you folks use!

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[–] turkalino@sh.itjust.works 39 points 5 days ago (3 children)

If you have an Android TV device, SmartTube is fantastic. It’s highly configurable and blocks ads out of the box

[–] postman@literature.cafe 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm terrified some day it'll stop working and I'll have to go back to regular YouTube!

[–] SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zone 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I actually wonder sometimes how it's survived this long.

There are ... alternative methods. Fiddly, you have to roll your own, added frustration... but it could be done. Though I hope I never have to.

OTOH, it's a bit like hydra - cut one head off, three more appear. Until google fully locks down YouTube (and they might), there will always be wiggle room.

Honestly, I think they know that if they get too annoying, everyone will go elsewhere, so they are boiling the frog slowly. I'd bet Smarttube, Revanced, PipePipe etc are the Zion to YouTube's Matrix - allowed to exist as a pressure release valves.

[–] SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

I actually wonder sometimes how it's survived this long

So I've been involved with the repo a little (just some basic issue triage and documentation stuff) and all I can say is that Yuliskov has made that project his life's work. If anything happens to him, we're all screwed!

[–] scrooge101@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I have an LG with WebOS which is also not connected to the internet. So that's unfortunately not an option.

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Buy a $20 Android TV box from Walmart and install Smarttube on it.

[–] Samiaouuu@jlai.lu 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

He wants privacy from YouTube, pretty sure that he doesn't want Walmart to steal his data either

[–] SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

There is an ATV LineageOS image available for the 2021 Onn for anyone who wants to go that route https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/dopinder/

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Walmart doesn't make the box so more like Google or China.

[–] cardfire@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

Nobody makes their own boxes, everything you love to play with either gets designed, fabricated, or packaged in to boards, or assembled, in China.

So tired of the casual racism of "this brand good, but that brand bad, because China." I know you didn't mean something malicious by it, but we've got to do better.

[–] uuj8za@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago

I also have an LG TV. I bought an external Android TV box (Nvidia Shield) and now primarily use that as the interface.

[–] bigmclargehuge@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Would a Roku work? Forgive my ignorance, not sure if they count as android based

[–] brewery@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Please nobody buy roku. It's become full of ads and monitoring.

[–] turkalino@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

Roku uses a custom OS unfortunately