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
