Here’s another post arising from taming my new Opera browser. This one lists some UserScripts and an addon to make the YouTube experience better. This is for my own future reference, mainly, but the list of links and suggestions may also be useful for others on desktop PCs.

Most of the time I just use the ever-reliable 9xbuddy service to download an .M4A audio-only file of the YouTube video, for listening on wireless headphones. I’ve always found the free 9xbuddy download service more reliable than a UserScript that places a “Download .MP3” link on the page itself. Regrettably no-one’s yet made a simple script to pass the YouTube page URL across to the 9xbuddy website, so using their service does require a manual cut-and-paste of the video’s URL.

On first landing at the YouTube video page, having the Disable audio/video autoplay UserScript installed is very useful. There are two types of autoplay on YouTube. This script simply turns off the first of these, the “Autoplay video on page load”.

Also useful, when first landing on a video, is the Chrome addon Hide YouTube Comments. All of the YouTube comments, gone. The Like/Dislike icons are kept.

In some cases I do want to play the video on the page, for example if it’s a software tutorial or a product unboxing/test. In that case the UserScript Disable YouTube 60 FPS (Force 30 FPS) makes playback faster on slow broadband, by forcing 30 frames a second rather than 60. This enables the viewer to step up to a 720p or even higher resolution, and thus to see fine details in the software’s user interface or on the product being tested. It’s especially useful for those who have a bandwidth-metered or throttled connection, or who have relatively slow rural broadband.

The UserScript YouTube Thumbnails is also very handy. Forget hunting along the sliding progress bar, squinting at tiny flickery video frames and trying to find the bit you want. With this script you just click on the word “Thumbnails”, and in pops a simple static storyboard for the complete video. This calls YouTube’s own frame thumbnails, and arranges them along a timeline. Then you click on a frame, and that jumps you to that point in the video.

As I said above, there are two types of Autoplay on YouTube. The second type is the one that autoplays the next video in the list, after you’ve finished watching the current one. Often this is a “suggested” video that YouTube “thinks” you will like. Given the current pitiful state of recommendation algorithms, this means the video is almost certainly unwanted and annoying. In this context the UserScript Disable YouTube autoplay is also useful. It simply automatically turns off the relevant Autoplay slider, just after the YouTube page loads.

There are of course various ways to change the colours on the YouTube interface to your taste, including UserStyles for Stylish. They break often, and may be more trouble than they’re worth.