Discussion
pwr1: Love it, but when I clicked another show in the guide, nothing happened.
realityfactchex: Original HN post 2 days prior (0 traction then): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47336100Recent 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...
shellfishgene: You have to click on the channel number in the first column.
zoklet-enjoyer: You need to click on the channel number. Clicking in the title of the show doesn't do anything.
pwr1: Ahh, now I see it. So cool! Bookmarked.
thebiblelover7: 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.
epiccoleman: 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).
downsplat: 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.
epiccoleman: Sometimes, it's nice to just sit down and watch something without needing to make repeated decisions about what's on.I typically share your mindset, but I can see the appeal. There was something nice about the TV that just, ya know, already had something going when you turned it on. I spent many happy evenings in hazy basement rooms enjoying whatever Adult Swim decided was going to be on the TV that night.
TheSkyHasEyes: Any way to toggle full screen?
Minor49er: 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 interactivehttp://hypertext.tv
zoklet-enjoyer: I was getting my hair cut the other day and one of the guys at the barbershop was talking about how his wife bought a radio and it's nice to just have NPR going all the time instead of searching for a podcast or playlist. I love radio too but haven't listened much outside of my car since 2019. Back then I had a different work schedule and would regularly tune in to Science Friday and just have the radio going much of the day. Since 2019, I've moved 4 times, had roommates most of that time who wouldn't want the radio playing all day, and just never fully unpacked and haven't set up my stereo system. Mostly I've listened to podcasts on my phone and a Bluetooth speaker or earbuds. Radio is nice, I like it better than TV because it's less distracting to me. Those moving pictures mesmerize me and I find it difficult to look away, which was why I didn't even have a TV for half my adult life.
rusakov-field: That is really creative.
spudlyo: 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.[0]: https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed[1]: https://github.com/karthink/elfeed-tube
wonger_: See also https://ytch.tv/
joegahona: I prefer searching too, but sometimes it's nice to just "put TV on." I do this now with Amazon Prime Video, which has a "Live" feature that mimics a guide akin to Channel Surfer. Also my dad (age 85) struggles with Youtube on our TV because of the decision paralysis.
madrox: Not the author, but did a LOT of research on this during my time at Disney while working on Disney+ prior to its launch.This is, effectively, no different than a carousel of algorithm-recommended content. However, UX studies have found users reluctant to watch something recommended to them. It requires making an affirmative decision on time investment. Most people have the experience of a friend recommending a movie or book and still being reluctant to dive in.The problem is very similar to dating apps, if you think about it. This is why Tinder's innovation on "swipe left/right" took off the way it did. In UX terms it's better to drop users into something and make the cognitive effort be choosing to get out of it rather than choosing to get into it. It's a big part of why TikTok works.The reason this isn't more common in video apps has more to do with UX norms at this point. Another important thing I learned about streaming at Disney was that no one really cares how innovative the browsing experience is. They just want to watch Frozen. They're used to carousels now, and they're easy to program. This, I think, speaks more to your sensibilities.
wonger_: Decision fatigue
