alt Hacker NewsShow HN: Channel Surfer – Watch YouTube like it’s cable TV
I know, it's a very first-world problem. But in my house, we have a hard time deciding what to watch. Too many options!
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.
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It just so happens I'm right in the middle of trying to change how I watch YouTube at my computer. Despite my best efforts, I find myself getting sucked into shorts, so I'm starting investigate if I can take advantage of YouTube RSS syndication. I recently build yt-dlp and got all the dependencies sorted out, so I can bring videos to my machine locally. I'm also checking out elfeed[0] which is an Emacs based RSS reader, and elfeed-tube[1] which further customizes the elfeed experience for YouTube as well as adding an mpv integration that lets you control video playback directly from Emacs.
It took me a minute to realize you are recreating the cable menu too. It's a nostalgic hit. All it's missing is a chunky remote and annoying siblings to fight with.
Reminds me of https://ytch.tv/ which I really like for its simplicity.
I really like this. Often I just want to watch something but YouTube insidiously steers me towards doom videos, even after clearing cookies. I like that this bypasses the algorithm and lets me just watch stuff, and if there's nothing interesting playing, I can just go do something more productive.
This is so weird because yesterday, or the day before I was trying to think of some sample code to work on, and I did want to simulate a TV set with youtube. Not exactly like yours, no channel guide, but the basics and I think there is a weird reason besides inside knowledge why prediction markets "work"!!
Looks great!
This reminds me of a similar project called Hypertext.tv, but instead of YouTube videos, it shows websites. It's an interesting take on channel surfing since each airing is interactive
There's a nice interview with Stallman where he's asked about this: what are people's motivation for contributing to Free software.
https://youtu.be/ucXYWG0vqqk?t=1889
I find him speaking really soothing.
I'll plug a similar project that I found last week, its an emulated TV Tuner (HD Homerun) of your Plex/Jellyfin content. Its great having an easy option to throw something on for background noise.
This is super cool, I love the aesthetic. The biggest thing I want out of something like this is curation (and it seems like there's at least some degree of that happening here among the various categories).
This reminded me of Ersatz TV [1], which on checking appears to have gone into maintenance mode a few weeks ago.
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.
Original HN post 2 days prior (0 traction then): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47336100
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...
Similar to the ytch.xyz project
My first impulse was when pressing the channels that it wasn't working. I then realized I had to hold down my thumb for it to then give me a prompt to tune to the channel. That user experience needs to be improved.
Other than that, this totally fits the nostalgia of old school cable channel surfing!
Well done!
I wonder how cool it would be to have a live ephemeral chat for each channel?
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.
This is the kind of thing I used to tell myself that I needed to exist before I'd be able to drop cable. The ability to just mindlessly turn on the TV and drop yourself right into the middle of something and leave it on throughout the day was... habit-forming, I guess.
Though ultimately it was not that difficult of a habit to drop.
I like the idea of everyone getting fed the same content. But I also especially love being able to discover new videos and channels that are hopefully curated by humans.
It might be better to just turn this on when I'm wanting to watch something than open YouTube and look at my homepage.
My initial reaction to the headline was, "cable TV is terrible, why would anyone want to watch YouTube like it's cable?!" But I actually love this!
Ah, it's interesting but if you really want the cable TV experience, there is pluto.tv which works in a browser, and is generally installed on most streaming boxes/sticks/TVs.
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.)
I love how 'Music 80s' is channel 29, which was MTV on cable when I was growing up in the tri-state area in the 80s ;)
Why would you want to do that? I'm so happy I can search exactly what I want among heaps of long tail stuff, I would never want to go back to a "live tv" interaction model.
Similar project: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41247023
A similar site used to exist that had really high quality curated content called neverthink, it was acquired in 2021 and eventually killed but I always thought it was a great idea.
I really like this. Old formats are comforting.
this is so good ! Great idea, not going to use it a lot but great concept
Any way to toggle full screen?
This is a really interesting idea.
i want to be try this but I am unable to import my subscriptions like the directions you give, it just brigns me to the my feed when i follow your directions
THis rules
Love it, but when I clicked another show in the guide, nothing happened.
That is really creative.
When yesterday I wondered the best approach to keeping slop off elderly seniors' feeds, I suppose the universe heard me. Thank you!
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