Setting up your External Player for YouTube playback

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Welcome to the community discussion on setting up external players for YouTube playback!

If you're looking to use an external player (such as VLC, mpv, or any other third-party media player) to watch YouTube videos, you've come to the right place. While specific setup instructions will vary depending on the player you're using, this thread is designed to be a space where users can share tips, solutions, and experiences to help each other out.

Threads dedicated to specific external players have been created below this post to help you find relevant discussions and solutions for your player of choice.

What to Share

• What external player are you using (e.g., VLC, mpv, etc.)?
• Any configuration steps you've found helpful.
• Common issues you've faced and how you resolved them.
• Helpful plugins, extensions, or settings you recommend for a better experience.

Note

• This feature is intended for advanced users, and setup instructions will differ based on the external player you choose.
• For detailed setup guides, please refer to the official documentation, user manuals, or relevant forums of the external player you're using.
• Keep in mind that some tips, solutions, and guides shared here may be outdated, as external player software and YouTube’s backend can change over time. Always check for the most recent updates.

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Setting up your VLC Player for YouTube playback on Windows/Mac/Linux

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Setting up your SMPlayer for YouTube playback on Windows/Mac/Linux

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Setting up your Celluloid Player for YouTube playback on Linux

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Celluloid+SponsorBlock
Posted by @rjc3rd in #7321 (comment)

OMG, I should have googled about adding SponsorBlock to Celluloid before commenting above. LOL but I just really didn't think it would exist. But It DOES exist.

https://github.com/po5/mpv_sponsorblock

Now it is specifically created for mpv, which is awesome and would have been good enough for me. But I read in a discussion where someone asked if it could work in Celluloid since Celluloid is just a GTK frontend for mpv.

po5/mpv_sponsorblock#7
po5/mpv_sponsorblock#7 (comment)

I followed the instructions for installing the script for SponsorBlock for mpv and it works perfectly in mpv but not yet in Celluloid. Then I copied the same files to the Celluloid scripts folder and modified the the config file.

In the file In sponsorblock.lua in the Celluloid scripts folder...

Find
scripts_dir = mp.find_config_file("scripts")

Change it to
-- scripts_dir = mp.find_config_file("scripts")
scripts_dir = "/home/[INSERT USERNAME]/.config/celluloid/scripts/"

Be sure to change [INSERT USERNAME] to your username.

The reason I put the script in both scripts folders is so that it would work in mpv or Celluloid at same time. Otherwise I think you could just put it in the Celluloid script folder if you never plan to use mpv directly.

Hope this helps someone.

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Setting up your Clapper Player for YouTube playback on Linux

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Setting up your Haruna Player for YouTube playback on Linux

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Setting up your IINA Player for YouTube playback on Mac

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Setting up your MPC-BE Player for YouTube playback on Windows

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Setting up your mpv Player for YouTube playback on Windows/Mac/Linux

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Posted by @KamelittaOida in #7680

if you need "Custom External Player Arguments" you need to use --ytdl-raw-options=, arguments with --ytdl-format= do not work.
e.g. --ytdl-raw-options=format="(best[height<=400]/bestvideo+bestaudio)"
https://mpv.io/manual/stable/#protocols
https://mpv.io/manual/stable/#options-ytdl-format

mpv ytdl-raw-options= ; ytdl-raw-options ; ytdl-format ; ytdl-format=

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Setting up your PotPlayer for YouTube playback on Windows

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Setting up your MPC-HC Player for YouTube playback on Windows

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Setting up YouTube playback regarding Flatpak

This thread regards to the following subjects

• Flatpak Player with Flatpak FreeTube
• Non-Flatpak Player with Flatpak FreeTube
• Flatpak Player with Non-Flatpak FreeTube

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Non-flatpak FreeTube with flatpak player
Posted by @jn64 in #5501 (comment)

This has worked all along. It can only be a configuration error.

To be clear, you want to use non-flatpak FreeTube + flatpak mpv

[!IMPORTANT]
In non-flatpak FreeTube:

1. Exernal Player: mpv
2. Custom External Player Executable: flatpak
3. Custom External Player Args:
   • run
   • io.mpv.Mpv

---

That's all. The custom executable and args are what you would use to run any flatpak, unrelated to FreeTube:

flatpak run io.mpv.Mpv

You should not change any permissions for io.mpv.Mpv via Flatseal (or flatpak cli) for the purpose of making it work with FreeTube. If you made random changes, you can reset them in Flatseal.

---

For reference, other use cases:

• flatpak FreeTube + flatpak player
• flatpak FreeTube + non-flatpak player

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Posted by @jn64 in #6838 (comment)

To launch non-flatpak mpv, do this: #1735 (comment)

To launch flatpak mpv, do this: #1735 (comment)

Then in Flatseal, add org.freedesktop.Flatpak to Session Bus under Talks (not Owns) (reference)

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Flatpak FreeTube + flatpak player
Posted by @jn64 in #6850 (comment)

In flatpak FreeTube,

• Exernal Player: Haruna
• Custom External Player Executable: flatpak-spawn
• Custom External Player Arguments:
  • --host
  • /usr/bin/flatpak
  • run
  • org.kde.haruna

In Flatseal:

• Select FreeTube
• Reset (button in top right) because you haven't provided any information about what you've changed for anyone to determine if it's correct or not
• Add org.freedesktop.Flatpak to Session Bus under Talks (not Owns)

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flatpak FreeTube with non-flatpak player
Posted by @jn64 in #6850 (comment)

Numbering absidue's instructions for clarity:

1. Custom External Player Executable: flatpak-spawn
2. Custom External Player Args:
   • --host
   • /bin/mpv
3. You'll also need to grant FreeTube permission to use the org.freedesktop.Flatpak D-Bus interface.

---

@xyhbhtt

A. Look at where your mpv binary is located instead of trying /bin/mpv/ or /usr/bin/mpv randomly. Most mainstream distros put it in /usr/bin since 5-10+ years ago.

B. For (2), enter --host and /usr/bin/mpv separately.

C. You haven't done (3):

D. You have done a lot of unnecessary and confusing things:

• Don't change the socket permissions; reset all of them to default.
• Don't add /bin/mpv or /usr/bin/mpv to filesystem permissions.