For better or worse, it's like `yt-dlp` — constant race against CF, so it's not reliable. It's probably for better.

yt-dlp works when ever I try it. I do not use it much but ever few weeks when I need to download a streamed youth ringette game, it works great. So while it may be in a constant race, it seems reliable to periodic end users like me.

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dannyw 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

yt-dlp works fine for low-volume requests from high-reputation IPs.

But if you try to download in significant volume, their systems know it's automated and probably have signatures specifically for yt-dlp.

I think it's a bit of an escape hatch: they know they can't close the hole (after all, there is always the "analogue hole", or now AI doing browser control); and probably prefer leaving a small monitored and rate-limited door than trying to patch everything.

See: Google changing their sponsored link DOM/CSS/classes matchers every (few weeks - few months) to break ad blocker lists, but they're certainly capable/smart enough to do it daily or hourly, etc.

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varenc 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Honestly, that's exactly how I want it to work. The people doing it en-masse are the ones Google really wants to stop. It would be sad if yt-dlp broke for casual users just because Google wants to stop a small subset of people downloading terabytes of video training data. This feels like the perfect arrangement and yt-dlp can keep working for 99% of users.

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Gigachad an hour ago | parent [-]

They kind of want a small amount of downloading to work because legitimate YouTubers use clips from other videos to make their own fair use reactions and responses.

They likely want to block alt clients that strip adverts while allowing the small amount of downloading to still work.

	▲	edoceo 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		There is a massive "clipping" universe. Not a golden goose but I'm sure a significant revenue driver (like in Shorts)

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paaloeye 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Depends on the effort from the team. Very good testimony for yt-dlp's one.