Hacker News Reader

Comment by zelphirkalt | Hacker News Reader

What I found much more annoying, and so far have not been able to work around, is that yt-dlp requires you to have a YouTube account, something that I have not had for a decade or so, and am unwilling to create again.

What tool can I use to simply store what my browser receives anyway, in a single video file?

View on HN

When did it start requiring one? It didn't require one the last time I used it a few months ago...

Google started using IP range blocks recently. If they decide that your IP stinks, they'll block YouTube viewing and demand that you log in.

It's inconsistent as fuck, and even TOR exit nodes still work without a log in sometimes.

I can confirm this. I guess they didn't like me using Invidious.

That's bad enough for normal VPN users who use VPN for privacy reasons. But a lot of countries have heavily censored web, and not using a VPN is simply not an option there.

Good on Google for kicking people while they're down.

I think for me it has been this way for a year or so. Maybe it is because I am on a VPN. I also cannot view YouTube videos on YouTube any longer, because it always wants me to log in, to "prove I am not a bot". So I have switched to only using invidious instances, and if they don't work, then I just cannot watch the video.

I wish content creators would think of their own good more, and start publishing on multiple platforms. Are there any terms that YouTube has for them, that reduce revenue, if they publish elsewhere as well? Or is it mostly just them being unaware?

It's a VPN thing, or a 'you've been downloading too much and are ratelimiting you' thing.

It must be a pretty recent (as in added yesterday) addition, as I was watching youtube with mpv+yt-dlp.

> What tool can I use to simply store what my browser receives anyway, in a single video file?

This. I'm interested in such a tool or browser extension.

I'm using it right now without a youtube account.

yt-dlp has never required an account. If it looks like that, either you're seeing some error from, e.g., youtube and not yt-dlp claiming that or you're running some sort of scam version instead of the real thing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com