As the warning says, you need to install it directly from the github site. There's a helpful how-to that details how to do this on a typical Android TV using the "Downloader" app, listed as the "easiest" method here. It's really not hard, but obviously more work than just installing an app from the Play Store.
I'd love to have greater control over the software stack on my TV, but what you're describing seems awfully overwrought.
It’s in the settings of SmartTube under the name "remote control"
If you've got an Android TV (natively, or a TV) then this is a great UX for finding and playing youtube content directly on the TV, no mobile device needed.
It also has a bunch of improvements over using the Youtube app on your phone - Adblocking, and Sponsor Blocking being two major benefits.
I was until recently paying for Youtube Premium and it was getting increasingly frustrating trying to watch most content for the number of intrusions into the content. From "This video brought to you by <the same 30 vpn/site builder/audiobook> companies" to "Hey, just to interrupt - do you know that 90% of people don't subscribe to this channel?"
Putting SmartTube on the device took about 15 minutes, most of that was finding a browser that would let me download a file without showing a million ads.
SmartTube lets you watch YouTube without the ads or sponsor segments, and without messing with other devices. You just start the app, and use the TV remote control to navigate and select and play videos.
Where in your scenario are AirPlay and ChromeCast? Or just yt-dl and plex? All of which seem waaaaaay easier than your song and dance
Yeah, if SmartTube didn't exist (and other similar apps, I think NewPipe is similar), then I'd have to resort to some crazy stuff. I think I did mention yt-dlp and Jellyfin before. But still, that's a big pain: I'd have to go to my PC to do that stuff, then go back to the couch to watch it on the TV. With SmartTube, I don't have to do all that.
I agree and would go further to the extent I simply will not ever use YT without SmartTube on any of my TVs. For desktop I get similar functionality in Firefox with the Nova YouTube UserScript (which hosts dozens of user-created modules able to modify every aspect of YT) and on Android mobile I use ReVanced Extended.
And it's not just removing the ads and commercials, which I could (mostly) get with a YT subscription. It's that even with the subscription, YT's entire site, interface and interaction model is now so completely enshittified, it's a miserable, frustrating experience. I've used YT since months after it was launched and until I ran Nova YouTube and allowed it to "restore" the YT interface back to what it was a decade or so ago, even I didn't realize how YT has gradually 'boiled the frog' by introducing hundreds of small, anti-user regressions one at a time over the years. It was literally shocking.
- remote control to be able to cast on SmartTube, directly from the official YouTube app
- there’s a plugin to use a crowdsourced version of thumbnails
- you can hide Shorts
- and basically everything is configurable
Just install SmartTube, even if you’re a YouTube Premium user it’s worth it.
We'll see more and more algo-feed enshitification. I'm not ruling out "you don't need a subscription feed anymore, we'll show you our best AI-chosen videos.
It was a good long run, I hope "product managers" won't destroy YT like Facebook did with "a place to keep up with frends" to "a shitty feed infested with ads".
Google I don't know if it has the potential or not but it doesn't seem to do anything to build good products it never has whatever successes it ever had.
It also creates very buggy apps. For example, even now Gmail and YouTube is buggy on common paths. For example, try deleting your spam emails and you will see the spam number on the sidebar will not clear unless you refresh. YouTube comments on the YouTube Android app often doesn't load or it loads for the wrong video etc.
So historically, Google has always been bad with actual product development. So it's not really a stretch to say that one person can do better than Google.
Press and hold for 2x playback is one of the more useful features of the YouTube premium experience and the lack of speed adjustment on TV is quite annoying.
It is not available on f-droid, which is a bummer, because I use f-droid.
Installing things from a webpage like an old barbarian. I cannot find nowhere sha for the builds on page. The same is for their 'releases' on github.
Here's a list:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/nkboqd/list_of_a...
Instructions: https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en&sj...
Alternatively you can reset your TV to factory settings and then disable auto updates for TV and google play. You will probably want to check google play from time to time and manually update the apps you are using though (just don't update things like "home screen" or whatever that will put ads backs). I was doing that but I was not comfortable leaving my TV unupdated
I just followed the instructions on the webpage, after installing the "Downloader" app from the Play Store. The hardest part was entering the SmartTube URL into Downloader using the on-screen keyboard and TV remote control. Kind of a pain, but totally worth it. After that, the SmartTube app can be updated inside the app easily.
They have the ability but not the incentives to make great products now. It's the bane of all big companies, design by committee and MBA trained managers.
All big high-performance companies had the owner/founder in charge to fight the bureaucracy and conformity.
I need to check, but I don't think I signed in my SmartTube, I don't see a good reason for it.
It has to be on the same network as your phone or PC, and then you should see a "cast" icon when you play video.
Lol, did not realize that so far they renamed it - looks like just an updated chromecast with the USB-C dock I'm using with it built in.
Edit: fine, you all convinced me. The very first thing it did on the very first video I played was "sponsor block," jumping over 30 seconds of a video that didn't contain any sponsored material. Fantastic stuff.
The video in question was the new Technology Connections video about freeze dryers.
Sponsorblock is amazing, as it lets you skip not only sponsored segments, but so much more: intros, self promotion, non essential parts of videos, and tons of other things.
As for SponsorBlock, it'll block all kinds of things. It's up to you, the user, to not expect software to read your mind, and to learn how your software works so you can configure it the way you want. With SmartTube, you can configure the SponsorBlock functionality to only skip things you want skipped, and not skip things you don't want skipped (such as intros, outros, self-promotions, etc.), or you can even just turn it off altogether if you want. It's really quite simple.
If this SmartTube thing is anything like Invidious, then it will work great until it falls flat on its face, and then I'll have to spend an hour figuring out if my stuff is broken or if SmartTube is broken. It will inevitably be SmartTube, and I'll have to have this conversation with my wife:
"Why isn't the TV working?"
"oh you have to use the normal YouTube app for a while, the other thing broke"
"oh, can you fix it?"
"I can't, we have to wait for someone else to fix it"
"When will it be fixed?"
"No idea."
And then, 2 weeks later, it'll start working again, but it will be extremely unreliable, and we'll both find it so annoying that we'll both stop using it. I did this shit with Invidious, I did this shit with my own fork of Signal, etc etc. I have enough needy computers, I don't need my TV to become another one.
Obviously, you haven't tried it. Any moron could use SmartTube, it's no more difficult than the official client (probably easier, in fact).
The initial setup is probably a bit beyond a typical totally non-technical person unless they're dedicated enough to just read the directions (most people these days aren't), but once it's installed, it's a breeze.
>"oh you have to use the normal YouTube app for a while, the other thing broke"
This happens from time to time because YouTube makes some change which breaks things. In my two years of usage, every time this has happened, there was already an update waiting for me in the main menu. I just applied the update and all was well again.
I've only been using SmartTube about a year and YT changes have caused it to (partly) break only once in that time and all I needed to do was update to the latest version (which is one-click inside the app itself) and it was fixed. Also, I was a several months out of date on versions and the fixed version had been available for weeks already.