PSA: YouTube's new "feature"

[bitflipper]

Thanks to mastering guru Ian Shepard for bringing this to our attention. It's called "Stable Volume", and it applies a primitive leveling compressor to YouTube audio. 

It's supposed to turn itself off when it detects music, but let's recall that YT doesn't have a good track record with such things. What happens when you watch a video that's mostly talking about audio, but with audio examples? Think of your favorite YT educators such as Dave Rat, Audio University, or Dan Worrall. Much of their content would become pointless if you couldn't hear small differences in audio.

To make sure this feature is turned off, click on the gear icon for YT options and make sure Stable Volume is disabled. You cannot disable it globally.

 

 

[craigb]

There are so many features we'd like YouBoob to have, but instead they come up with things we don't want!

Some examples that would be helpful (mostly applies to participating in live streams):

• The ability to set the chat window to default to Live Chat
• The ability to see a list of all who are watching
• The ability to search the chat
• The ability to resize the chat and emoji window

Oh, well...

[pwalpwal]

I guess chats not their main thing just a bolt on

[Shane_B.]

19 hours ago, craigb said:

Some examples that would be helpful (mostly applies to participating in live streams):

• The ability to set the chat window to default to Live Chat
• The ability to see a list of all who are watching
• The ability to search the chat
• The ability to resize the chat and emoji window

I mainly watch YouTube on my TV through a Firestick. The live chat window stays on once I check the box. Even when I close the livestream and go to a different one.

I subscribe to YouTube Premium and maybe thats why? It's the only service I subscribe to. I like the way they handle the music side of the service. I download everything in HQ and it sounds really good to my ears. I have terrible cell service so I download everything and it let's me listen offline.

As for the volume leveling, I swear when I turn it on, the louder I turn my TV the more it kicks in and the lower the overall volume gets. So I just leave it off. I have all of that stuff turned off for the TV, Firestick, and YouTube app. They'll fight each other if I have them all turned on and the sound starts to distort.

I also noticed when watching movies, you can select surround or stereo sometimes, not always. If watching on a 2 speaker TV I always turn the surround off.

[bitflipper]

I recently tried to pull up Netflix on two of my TVs, only to be informed that "Netflix no longer supports this device". One is a smart TV with network features such as a built-in Netflix client, the other is an older "dumb" TV that gets Netflix via a DVD player that has the client built-in. I'm guessing they found some weaknesses in their access control / user validation and have forced manufacturers to put additional security features into their firmware-based Netflix clients to circumvent password sharing. I am not inclined to buy new TVs, as I just don't watch enough television to justify the expense. But I don't subscribe to cable TV, so those sets are now just video monitors for watching DVDs.

Consequently, I am looking into Firestick-type devices so I can  get Netflix back on those receivers. Thanks to Shane's comment, it has just now occurred to me that it would be nice to get YouTube on them as well.  But I haven't actually looked into how (or how well) Firestick works. Does it require a monthly subscription or any other additional costs beyond the initial purchase? Or is it essentially just a little computer with HDMI outputs?

[pwalpwal]

we do all our tv via a pc with vpn and ad blocking in the browser (ff) with a blutooth remote, very nice experience - it's connected to a "smart" tv but we don't stand for no snooping iot

[Shane_B.]

3 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Does it require a monthly subscription or any other additional costs beyond the initial purchase? Or is it essentially just a little computer with HDMI outputs?

It's just a one time charge for the stick.  All the major apps are on it like YouTube, Twitch, Rumble, and most of the subscription based ones.

You can get most of the paid subs monthly through your Prime account if there's a show or series you want to watch, then cancel it. I've done that a few times and aroind Halloween I sub to one or two of the horror movie channels for a month then cancel it. No contracts. Just pay for 30 days and that's it.

The really nice thing is if your TV dies, you just plug it in to a new TV and you don't lose your passwords.

You can upload photos to your Prime account and view them through the stick on your TV. I use the photo app a lot.

I never had one until my first smart TV died and I had to redo all my passwords on the new TV. It's a royal pain. Firestick solves all that. I didn't even have the internet set up on my current TV until I was curious if there was a firmware update. I shut it back off after that. One less thing phoning home on my network.