YouTube ad countdown weirdness

atxcyclist · May 2

I'm wondering if this is something other people have noticed.

So, we've all experienced the ad countdown at some point in time, but there's a new annoying thing that I've been experiencing the last week or so: On my smart TV or XBOX, an ad gets down to zero where it looks like in the next instant I'll be able to skip, but what happens is the ad continues to play for an additional few seconds and I end up pausing the ad trying to skip. Can YouTube seriously not put an accurate timer on ads? This seems like it shouldn't be an issue for the largest video platform online, unless it's on purpose, to make advertisers think people are pausing to look at their products. I am pretty OK with ad revenue being a necessity for creators, but YouTube shouldn't be janky with something as simple as a countdown until an ad ends.

OhYou_ · May 2

just get a cheap android tv box and install firefox, then install ublock origin on firefox. problem solved

atxcyclist · May 2

19 minutes ago, OhYou_ said:

just get a cheap android tv box and install firefox, then install ublock origin on firefox. problem solved

I do like this concept, but I'd probably not go through all of that just to skip a few YouTube ads (I also really appreciate fast-switching games and other apps on my Series X). I will say though, that I'm considering finally rolling-out an opnsense router build and wonder if there's some way to run an adblock through there. Again, I'm not against ad revenue for creators, but I know most don't really rely on the small amount that it gives them, and also if YouTube is going to make skipping and viewing them annoying with apps built-in to standard hardware, I'd consider options at a router-level if possible.

AndreiArgeanu · May 2

30 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

I do like this concept, but I'd probably not go through all of that just to skip a few YouTube ads (I also really appreciate fast-switching games and other apps on my Series X). I will say though, that I'm considering finally rolling-out an opnsense router build and wonder if there's some way to run an adblock through there. Again, I'm not against ad revenue for creators, but I know most don't really rely on the small amount that it gives them, and also if YouTube is going to make skipping and viewing them annoying with apps built-in to standard hardware, I'd consider options at a router-level if possible.

You can use a pi-hole instead. All you need is a raspberry Pi SBC, could be a Pi Zero 2W if you want to save some money. They're only 15$, and are useful for other things(you'll also need some other accessories but they aren't particularly expensive, mentioned in the video).

Then set it up, there's probably newer guides on this but the LTT video is worth a watch. Then, once set up, it'll filter all the ads on all devices on the network, be it your xbox, smart TV or smartphone, as long as it's connected to your home network.

It's also configurable, if you want to block ads only on certain devices, or block ads only from certain sources you can.

OhYou_ · May 2

16 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

You can use a pi-hole instead. All you need is a raspberry Pi SBC, could be a Pi Zero 2W if you want to save some money. They're only 15$, and are useful for other things(you'll also need some other accessories but they aren't particularly expensive, mentioned in the video).

Then set it up, there's probably newer guides on this but the LTT video is worth a watch. Then, once set up, it'll filter all the ads on all devices on the network, be it your xbox, smart TV or smartphone, as long as it's connected to your home network.

It's also configurable, if you want to block ads only on certain devices, or block ads only from certain sources you can.

piholes are old tech, these days just make a free cloudflare account and do the filtering on their servers, the traffic never even hits your internet connection then.
https://github.com/slashtechno/cloudflare-gateway-adblocking