I have a simple bookmarklet does does something similar:
javascript:(function(){document.querySelectorAll("video").forEach(((e,o)=>{console.log(`VideoFixer: Processing <video> #${o+1}:`,e),e.style.position="relative",e.style.zIndex="999999",e.controls=!0,e.style.pointerEvents="auto";const t=[],i=[];["disablePictureInPicture","disableRemotePlayback"].forEach((o=>{e.hasAttribute(o)&&(t.push(o),e.removeAttribute(o))})),e.hasAttribute("controlsList")&&(i.push(...e.getAttribute("controlsList").split(/\\s+/)),e.removeAttribute("controlsList")),t.length&&console.log(`VideoFixer: Removed attributes: ${t.join(", ")}`),i.length&&console.log(`VideoFixer: Removed controlsList restrictions: ${i.join(", ")}`),t.length||i.length||console.log("VideoFixer: No restrictions found to remove.")})),console.log("VideoFixer: All videos processed.");}());
It just re-enables all controls on all <video> elements and uses z-indexing to push them to the top. Works on instagram but needs to be re-ran for new video elements.
Ah that's a good idea! Similar effect to this but I guess packaging it in a chrome extension lends itself to "set it and forget it". I also have some customization options.
It's also a security risk though, as in someone could take it over and push a bad update at any time... I have a few extensions installed but I'm terrified of adding more, even though there are parts of my browsing experience that could be significantly improved.
I really wish there were a middle ground, like an external extension manager where you could opt into updates, with reproducible builds, changelogs, etc.
You could add it from source which is pretty easy to do but you lose chrome’s syncing feature.
Having said that I haven’t developed a chrome extension in years. They are so strict now. I know they can’t manually inspect each line but I do hope it helps solve the problem of extensions going rogue.
Relatedly, I have a greasemonkey script that makes Snapchat on web much more usable. I just included this video fixer logic into it as well so now it's easy to navigate videos and even download them.
uses the MutationObserver API to just 'fix' any <video> element added to the page. Really I should just copy you and make a version of it that just does the video fixing but runs on every site. It's crazy how browser's have a nice built in pro-user video element, that every site intentionally overrides and degrades..
YouTube shorts does have its own progress bar, but it's proprietary and kept out of view and so it doesn't allow the user to tell the length of the video at a glance.
Tiktok used to do it based on length, is it something like that? I've noticed having it on desktop more often than mobile on YouTube shorts, maybe never on mobile browsers.
mpv understands URLs to these websites and uses yt-dlp to download them.
On KDE, I assigned an action to open some URLs with mpv, which means I can play then from the clipboard manager or the copy menu that is displayed when copying if it's enabled.
It seems a bit flakey on mobile, but it was a nice addition to the other enhancements. I haven't been able to make the mobile web as useful as the desktop web version, but didn't want to spend too much time on it either.
Thanks for releasing it! Whats the chance of this getting shipped to Firefox users? A future improvement might be to add the ability to change the playback speed :)
And perhaps allow 3x playback speed. It's too fast for me to understand speech on most videos but not all. But some videos are so long winded that it can be tremendously helpful.
You actually can control playback speed! You can find this on the bottom right of the videos. It doesn't go to 3x though and you can't access it on youtube unless it's in fullscreen for some reason. Will try to figure that out.
My pleasure! It was fun to build and didn't take too much time to do the individual platforms. So, if it breaks for one then patching it up should be pretty quick. Please leave a review if it's helpful to you.
Yeah - that extension seems to just update <video> elements to have the showcontrols attribute if they're missing. Doing that isn't enough for insta, youtube etc because you need to mess with their propriatary html.
Adding a progress bar back might cause people to just skip to the part they want to see instead of watching the whole thing again though, and I'm worried that might not be in the best interests of the content creator or advertisers.
Without a license your repo is technically not open-source, only source-available. A license says what people are allowed to do with the code, so if you don't add a license, they're not allowed to do anything.
Having a license clarifies what permissions are you giving to someone who downloads your code. The practical benefit is that others can clearly contribute back or build on your work without any legal concerns.
Something like MIT gives them permission to do anything as long as attribution is maintained, while avoiding liabilities.
Without a license, legaly nobody can do anything with the code. The license is essentially the way that you communicate what you will allow people to do with it.
For a project like this, I would strongly recommend an MIT license. That will essentially allow people to use the code and modify it, contribute back to it, and otherwise distribute their changes.
Instant download. Works great. Perhaps on Instagram you can make it save the audio level when the video is muted? If I mute a video then scroll to the next one, the audio still plays. Otherwise, thanks for making this, it's something I've wanted for a long time.
I really wish there were a middle ground, like an external extension manager where you could opt into updates, with reproducible builds, changelogs, etc.
Having said that I haven’t developed a chrome extension in years. They are so strict now. I know they can’t manually inspect each line but I do hope it helps solve the problem of extensions going rogue.
Relatedly, I have a greasemonkey script that makes Snapchat on web much more usable. I just included this video fixer logic into it as well so now it's easy to navigate videos and even download them.
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/468156-unbreak-snapchat-we...
uses the MutationObserver API to just 'fix' any <video> element added to the page. Really I should just copy you and make a version of it that just does the video fixing but runs on every site. It's crazy how browser's have a nice built in pro-user video element, that every site intentionally overrides and degrades..
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GqkmtcirwYA -> https://www.youtube.com/watch/GqkmtcirwYA
But actually I see that seek bar is already available in youtube shorts. Maybe it's a recent change?
https://libredirect.github.io/
https://libredirect.codeberg.page/
> A web extension that redirects YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok and other websites to alternative privacy-friendly frontends.
https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
https://github.com/digitalblossom/alternative-frontends
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/frontends/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36146076
On KDE, I assigned an action to open some URLs with mpv, which means I can play then from the clipboard manager or the copy menu that is displayed when copying if it's enabled.
tiktok.com##sharing-main-video-el:watch-attr(controlslist):remove-attr(controlslist)
It seems a bit flakey on mobile, but it was a nice addition to the other enhancements. I haven't been able to make the mobile web as useful as the desktop web version, but didn't want to spend too much time on it either.
I've never done a Firefox extension before but I could definitely give it a go.
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/video-scrubber-for-...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-scrubbe...
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/video-controls-for-...
https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/video-cont...
My heart bleeds for them.
Something like MIT gives them permission to do anything as long as attribution is maintained, while avoiding liabilities.
But there are others you can pick: https://choosealicense.com/
For a project like this, I would strongly recommend an MIT license. That will essentially allow people to use the code and modify it, contribute back to it, and otherwise distribute their changes.
That way not only do you get the seek/pause controls back, but other stuff like volume, comments, keyboard shortcuts etc. now work as usual too.