Channel Surfer: Watch YouTube Like Cable TV

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🛠️ Channel Surfer

What it isBrowser app that wraps YouTube in a 2000s cable TV guide
PlatformAny modern browser; TV apps planned
PriceFree
Linkchannelsurfer.tv

I open YouTube with a specific video in mind and twenty minutes later I’m watching a guy restore a tractor I will never own. The homepage is a slot machine. Channel Surfer fixes the mood, not the catalog: London developer Steven Irby built it to recreate cable TV for YouTube. It runs entirely in the browser. You import subscriptions through a bookmarklet. No accounts, no sign-ins. Your data stays local.

  1. The grid kills choice paralysis. You get a channel guide with themed rows (music, science, cooking, whatever Irby curated) instead of an infinite recommendation feed. Pick a number, tune in. Videos start at the point they’d be at if the channel were broadcasting live right now, which is weirdly satisfying.

  2. Subscription import is a bookmarklet, not OAuth. Drag the bookmarklet to your bar, open your YouTube subscriptions page, click it. JSON lands on your clipboard. Paste into Channel Surfer and your channels join the lineup. No YouTube API key, no Channel Surfer account. Irby said it plainly on Hacker News: “Just quickly import your data locally.”

  3. The nostalgia layer is real but not fake. Scan lines and interlace are CSS, not a filter slapped on for Instagram. Comments and sidebar junk disappear. What remains feels like flipping through a hotel TV at 11pm. Irby told TechCrunch he built it because he misses channel surfing and “not having to decide what to watch next.”

  4. You still get YouTube’s embed player, which means YouTube ads unless you have Premium. Some reviewers got ad-free playback; your mileage depends on how YouTube serves that embed. The curated channels are Irby’s taste. Great if you trust a human editor. Less great if you want full control from day one without importing your own list.

  5. Mobile and TV are getting there. It works on tablets today but feels built for a couch setup. Irby has talked about Fire TV and Google TV apps. For now, a laptop plugged into the TV does the job.

Import your subscriptions

  1. Open channelsurfer.tv and choose Import Your Channels from the menu.
  2. Drag the Channel Surfer bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar.
  3. Go to your YouTube subscriptions page (must be logged into YouTube in that browser).
  4. Click the bookmarklet. Wait for the JSON to copy.
  5. Return to Channel Surfer, paste, hit Import.

That is the whole setup. No install, no config file.

Worth your time if: you have a fat subscription list and want to watch YouTube without the algorithm picking your mood for you.

Also try: YTCH

Before Channel Surfer blew up on Hacker News, YTCH was the project people kept linking in the comments. Same idea, different execution. Hadi Safa built a lean broadcast simulator: open the site and a video is already playing on a random channel. You cannot pause. You cannot scrub. Switch channels with the number keys (or the on-screen pad). Leave channel 4 and it keeps running without you, so you might miss the good part. That is the point.

YTCH ships about a dozen curated channels, not hundreds. No subscription import. What it wins on is simplicity and keyboard control. HN commenters run it in Chromium kiosk mode on a Raspberry Pi with a TV remote. If Channel Surfer feels like a full cable package, YTCH is the old TV in the garage with twelve working channels.

Settings let you toggle channel names, captions, and video titles. Support links point to Buy Me a Coffee and Patreon if you want to tip the creator.

Pick Channel Surfer if: you want your own subscriptions in the guide and a proper TV listing layout.

Pick YTCH if: you want zero setup and do not care whose channel is on. Just flip until something catches.

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