So I made this to recreate Cable TV for YouTube. I made it so it runs in the browser. Quickly import your subscriptions in the browser via a bookmarklet. No accounts, no sign-ins. Just quickly import your data locally.
- How did you achieve the grainy cable TV style texture on your videos ?
- Are the videos curated ? Sometimes I waste a lot of time looking for quality content, or sometimes its good quality but you just don't vibe with the presenter or their style - so you continue to click around.
The grainy interlace effect is just good old-fashioned CSS. :)
It is curated! I will seriously do a lot more work on making it better. Especially the music, it's a bit redundant right now.
I haven't had time to get to that. This has really blown up and even been in the news, so it's been hectic.
Similarly, there used to be this place called The Trees Network which essentially had a very similar “watching TV” feel, except it also had a community feature (live chat, content recommendations, etc). It was mostly meant for people getting stoned and wanting to “watch TV” together with other, but has since shut down (presumably because of copyright related issues or something)
Are you by chance planning to include any “community channels” or stuff like that by chance?
Now I worry there’s too many “interests” forcing curated and sanitized content on us with no room for outliers.
I believe Brave too, has this feature.
Also, mpv supports lua scripts for a variety of actions on YouTube (or other streaming) videos, such as showing you YouTube's recommended videos in the video player, clipping and downloading videos, sponsorblock and submitting sponsorblock segments, and so on.
I've been doing this for almost a decade, and I do recommend it. In my experience, just importing my YouTube subscriptions into a feed reader was a positive experience. I've had a daily digest of mostly interesting videos and rarely (if ever) the urge to browse YouTube.
But with YouTube's recommendation algorithm out of the picture, it does mean that you'll have to find some other way of discovering new channels.
https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/media-subscriptions-prefpane
I've been using a version of this for five years, although until recently the PrefPane was built via janky Applescript. I rewrote it in proper Objective-C last summer.
As it is, I can do that somewhat manually and it makes for a nice interface where I'm sure what the kids are watching.
Did it in ~300 lines of node.js, was trying to learn how to use JS for server stuff, seemed like a good idea at the time. It still works 5 years later, but it stands as a reminder to me to never use async/await.
What issues did you face with async/await?
Of course you can go full sync if your app wouldn’t do anything useful during the time it’s blocked waiting for network or I/O.
It used to be one time purchase, looks like they turned it into a subscription.
Such as ... ?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41247023
I like that this one adds a classic blue cable guide though.
(I couldn’t be trusted with TikTok so I have to be careful with shorts etc).
With TikTok I avoided it for years then one week when sick I installed it and within a couple hours it had an algorithm for me that was crazy addictive.
I started messing with it and looked up and 4 hours had gone by and it felt like minutes.
Severe ADHD and short form video do not mix.
This would definitely be useful for gyms. My gym has a tier of basic cable so low that their current programming is mostly a choice of "Walker, Texas Ranger", old episodes of "NCIS", Fox News, K-pop, or the Jewelry Channel.
1. You can share a channel with a friend and know that they see the same thing as you. What's on at 5:03pm on channel 4 is the same for everyone.
2. The decision of what to watch is topical and greatly simplified. It extracts the decisions from "the algorithm" and gives you agency again.
3. There's a lot of stuff you never see on Youtube's recommendations because the algorithm doesn't show you those videos. Ever.
Actually I really wish this had existed while my father was still alive! Toward the end of his life, he had developed pretty debilitating Alzheimers, but he still liked to watch TV. The problem was, modern TVs were way too complex for him to use. My mom had to come in the room and put on DVDs for him pretty much all day. I'm sure he could have figured out how to channel surf by himself if that had been an option.
Recent media coverage:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/12/channel-surfer-watch-youtu...
https://www.theverge.com/tech/893598/this-is-immediately-my-...
https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/this-web-app-...
https://hackaday.com/2025/10/17/channel-surfing-nostalgia-ma...
Normally I'd leave your comment in the original thread as a pointer, but since the other links are of interest, I've moved it too.
(the other thread was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47366400)
This is, effectively, no different than a carousel of algorithm-recommended content. However, UX studies have found users reluctant to watch something recommended to them. It requires making an affirmative decision on time investment. Most people have the experience of a friend recommending a movie or book and still being reluctant to dive in.
The problem is very similar to dating apps, if you think about it. This is why Tinder's innovation on "swipe left/right" took off the way it did. In UX terms it's better to drop users into something and make the cognitive effort be choosing to get out of it rather than choosing to get into it. It's a big part of why TikTok works.
The reason this isn't more common in video apps has more to do with UX norms at this point. Another important thing I learned about streaming at Disney was that no one really cares how innovative the browsing experience is. They just want to watch Frozen. They're used to carousels now, and they're easy to program. This, I think, speaks more to your sensibilities.
I typically share your mindset, but I can see the appeal. There was something nice about the TV that just, ya know, already had something going when you turned it on. I spent many happy evenings in hazy basement rooms enjoying whatever Adult Swim decided was going to be on the TV that night.
I chalk it up to overwhelming choices. Sometimes I just want to watch something but don't want to go through dozens of options and having decision anxiety.
Bonus is sometimes I discover something I never thought I would have liked.
Good: I choose to when and what to change the channel to. The channel never stops.
Bad: YouTube video ends and I'm prompted to do something every 5 to 15 mins and even autoplay chooses to show me content from another channel.
/s in case it's not obvious
And if you do this, please add 3 cartoon channels just for an option of 3 for kids. Because I remember that it was 3 cartoon channels for me but mostly Cartoon Network, Some disney xd and an niche cartoon channel that I used to watch by. Maybe even have it between Anime (Shinchan/Doraemon/Kitretsu) and Normal animations (Avengers/Spiderman etc.) and Cartoon Network (Regular Show/Adventure Time/Steven Universe)
But the reason why I discovered it and why I feel like young kids nowadays can't find is that I used to go to my TV after coming from school and watch these nice shows for example, whereas now its all youtube.
So in a way, your website can help kids and also parents to better help moderate what their kids watch.
Also even aside from kids, this is something really cool in it of itself that I imagine myself using as well :) Nice project! I just hope that if possible you can add something so that kids could watch it too maybe as well as I find it to be nice possibility to add
I am also curious how you curate the Content for Cable TV in the first place.
Edit: But once again, I want to say that this is a project that I want to use for myself too for these channels as I also go through the same problem where I get the problem of too much choices and overstimulus and feeling of overwhelm.
What ytch does better is that it is mostly keyboard navigable (with minor annoyances), which also makes it usable with a remote control, unlike this.
I actually do use ytch (alongside Kodi and YT Leanback mode) on my Raspberry Pi HTPC that is controlled by remote only. Works fine. Chromium, kiosk mode, entry in ~/.local/share/applications/ytch.desktop, and you're good to go.
I guess you could use this with a remote if your remote can emulate mouse, mine doesn't. Mine is just some old otherwise useless remote recycled from the junk drawer, and made useful again by a cheap IR receiver diode from Amazon.
I'm not too crazy about the UI of Channel Surfer in general, but others have noted that it reminds them of cable services they used, I guess that was the goal.
I'll check out Channel Surfer in a few months. I wish you luck and lots of users :)
Arrow Up / Down: Change channel
G: Toggle guide
M: Mute
I: Import channels
?: This menu
Esc: Close modalThough ultimately it was not that difficult of a habit to drop.
Other than that, this totally fits the nostalgia of old school cable channel surfing!
Well done!
It might be better to just turn this on when I'm wanting to watch something than open YouTube and look at my homepage.
One thing I love(d) about live TV (or even live radio) was the community around knowing other people were watching the exact same thing I was watching (and then the watercooler chat around it afterwards).
If there was live chat attached to each of these "stations", it could spark some interesting chatter/community.
I know this already exists OOTB with YouTube Live, FB Live, etc.
But this would be for things that were simply uploaded, and now streamed live like you're doing here.
Obviously, that only works if there's enough viewership/participation.
I had wanted to use something that lets me set up an EPG with all of the YouTube channels I watch, to see their live streams in a TV guide and see their upcoming streams in a nice grid format. It's probably harder to do this with live stuff than it is to have a set of videos like this site uses.
Anyone know of good alternatives for setting up your own iptv channels?
Does this avoid YouTube ads or pass them through? I somewhat wonder if this kind of thing is the reason that YouTube wants to progressively lock down their platform. (They don't want users avoiding their algorithms and their ads.)
There's something to be said about tuning into some program that is already "on", instead of requiring on-demand decision about what to watch (or listen to!)
Looks great!
This + that was what my dad asked me for last week.
…and he’d be willing to pay for the luxury!
Just wants to flip up and down between stuff he has a chance of wanting to be seeing.
I wouldn’t mind working on that, if someone else was into it, too!
https://youtu.be/ucXYWG0vqqk?t=1889
I find him speaking really soothing.
Apart from on freetvz you can create your own channel and cast to tv with sponsors blocked
> Quickly import your subscriptions in the browser via a bookmarklet
I don't see any mention of bookmarklet anywhere on the page
Which has folks from The History channel, Pawn Stars, etc
Any idea if this is possible without having to query the YouTube API?
Source: me. I built it with some folks.
<https://old.reddit.com/r/InterdimensionalCable/top/?sort=top...>
e.g: <https://youtu.be/qCJJbo8cvzI?si=ivsYh9QviAIpj5GB> [probably NSFW "Tifa Lockhart Show You Her Worms" it'd be so difficult to explain...]
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See also <http://www.ytch.tv>, made by a fellow /hn/er.
Comparing the two, his channel selection is much more diverse, but your layout is much more informative (e.g. old "channel guide" overlay).
I love it, its now my homepage. Very relaxing.. I have one suggestion, if there was a way to stop the feed when I want to take a break, because if I pause the video, it starts again after a few moments.
You did a great job, and I hope you expand this project, also I love the 'your advertisment here'
Edit: One thing that would be great is to have channels per curator so we have someone that filter quality content from the sea of trash out there.