Hacker News

dsalzman
Show HN: HackerTV – HN's most-recommended Youtube videos as 24/7 TV channels hackertv.org

I saw HackerTube (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50319510) a few days ago, the YouTube videos HN keeps recommending, pulled from 19 years of comments. It made me want to flip through them instead of picking, so I built a TV for it. I have Algo fatigue.

Each topic area is a channel (DEVTV, SOLDER, RETRO, ORBIT, ...), plus HN Prime (the top 400), a music channel, and Late Night on ch 99, which only broadcasts 11pm-5am your local time and shows color bars otherwise.

Similar to HackerTube it was built with Claude Code in a few hours.

All credit for the data goes to HackerTube. Happy to hear channel ideas.


spditner4 days ago

What I would like to see for vibe coded novelty apps that are not realistically going to see updates are the prompts-as-source. For instance, I one-shotted a Roku app to play the HackerTube listings, and it works good enough:

  Build a sideloadable Roku channel/app for browsing and playing videos from
  https://hackertube.org/. Inspect HackerTube's API or video pages and use Roku
  BrightScript/SceneGraph. Deliver a complete zipped Roku channel with source,
  setup instructions, and any necessary metadata/proxy details. Aim for Roku
  Developer Mode sideloading.

ozim3 days ago

I would rather have it the other way around.

Source for one-shotted apps so LLM gives you repo back and template to build on instead of burning electricity on ideations from scratch.

I imagine 90% of stuff could be just that.

But I also imagine people just cloning repo don’t feel it truly belongs to them, but when agent slops out code for them somehow they feel like they did the work themselves.

TomGarden3 days ago

Agreed! We desperately need an OSS framework of basic modular building blocks for the new generation of vibecoders, if nothing else just to stop the massive waste of resources of having all the models build the same thing hundreds of thousands of times.

ada19813 days ago

A good rule for agents is to 1. Search GitHub for existing or related projects to pull from and 2. Publish code as share a like.

It’s also good practice since SAAS is dead anyway, so it helps kill the fantasy your vibe coded app is somehow going to live on code alone.

ozim3 days ago

SaaS is only dead if you believe you paid only for software there is still part “as service” because running and maintaining software still takes time even if slopping out software is virtually free.

demberto3 days ago

SaaS is not dead.

rickydroll3 days ago

This Saas is no more! It has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to github 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is CI/CD processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-SAAS!!

mh-3 days ago

It'd be neat if (for web stuff) people put them at like /.well-known/prompt.md.

orbis-tertius2 days ago

[dead]

feearent2 days ago

I think it's the future for prompt-based engineering honestly. I employ it myself too. I Keep a prompts file, either for sharing or looking back at it. I think Open Source Software should adopt it in their repos for a. transparency and b. learning material for the future.

maaaaattttt3 days ago

I'm thinking that if somehow we could force temperature to 0, it could even be "prompt as compressed source". In the sense that you know if you run a given prompt through a given model version you would get the exact same results. This could have some space applications. You send a powerful model to space, iterate with the same model on earth and once the results are good only send the prompt to the remote model... Well, now that I'm typing it, I guess if the model is good enough you don't even need that and only give it a goal before leaving.

hdb23 days ago

I hadn't thought of that, but that's a really good idea - prompts as source code. you're right, most of them will never see a formal update, so the prompt is a great way to hand off some control.

invaliduser3 days ago

Yes. Open prompts.

pacoverdi8 hours ago

I really wanted this on my TV, so I (ahem, Claude Sonnet 5.5) wrapped it in an Android TV app. It works great on my Sony/Google TV, the remote control buttons are correctly mapped (color buttons, guide, channel +/- etc).

https://github.com/pcdv/hackertv-androidtv

5555watch4 days ago

Oh damn this is much cooler than I expected! For some reason skimming through channels is more enjoyable than click a video I'd probably wouldn't click on

kreelman3 days ago

Indeed... Only problem is that it's so entertaining and diverting.

richardw4 days ago

Love the multitude of ideas! Upvoted. I did repo’s a couple days ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50342272

It has some cool stuff if you click around some. Feedback very welcome!

vavooom4 days ago

This did scratch a nostalgic itch honestly! Great execution of interluding into the middle of episodes as well to feel organic and live.

smokel4 days ago

Is someone working on HackerTldr? Three sentences that describe the target page would save me a lot of time.

Edit: HackerTV looks great, well worth the click :)

freedomben4 days ago

I'm looking forward to hacker games personally. I'd love to see what games are commented on here, other than factorio

duck4 days ago

Here is one version someone already made: https://hnarcade.com/

nomilk4 days ago

This is cool. It would be better if it linked to the hn comment/s and showed some gameplay on hover (also the splash page is unnecessary, ideally https://hnarcade.com/games/category/games should be the home page)

duck4 days ago

Speaking of... I should of linked to the actual Show HN page instead: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46793693

iltk3 days ago

This sent me down a rabbit hole which led to 3 in-game days spent as a peon wageslave.

https://cauldron.itch.io/wageslave

smokel4 days ago

I can highly recommend the board game, not the programming language, Go.

dreambigwrkhard4 days ago

Someone made that already...... Was on Show HN last month.

LelouBil4 days ago

All Zachtronics games

Barbing3 days ago

wmchen4 days ago

HackerSentiment, which tracks current sentiment of the frontpage of HN, coming soon, which will show total ambivalence to AI.

pwython4 days ago

I've had the idea for years for a browser extension that showed positive/negative sentiment scores next to each post, based on comments. Mostly because often the top comment on posts are "ackchyually..."

jdthedisciple4 days ago

you don't need an app for that anymore

your dot or muse will happily do it for you and in fact even send you a notification about it right on your phone

s_dev3 days ago

Oh I built something recently like this as well. I was inspired by this HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41247023 so made it in to a Jellyfin plugin.

https://xn--teilifssen-04a4l.ie/

Channel surfing your own Jellyfin library.

pentakkusu3 days ago

Installing it rn

asimjalis4 days ago

Nice. I like this. One minor usability issue I saw. In the guide, the channels start with the lowest on top and then go down to the higher ones. But the up and down arrows work the opposite way. For example, the down arrow moves me to a lower channel, which is the opposite direction of the guide. Maybe there is no elegant solution to this.

surya_waters4 days ago

Love it ! Thank you for creating this. I am in the process of minimizing my digital consumption and was looking for something like this to live like if it's the 70s. Shameless plug: i have two chrome plugins to reduce digital distractions if anyone is interested. Sanctum : https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sanctum-its-time-to...

FlowTube : https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/flowtube-%E2%80%93-...

ks20484 days ago

Does Youtube try to block third-party front-ends, or no?

thechairman124 days ago

Okay, this is the best one I have seen. Thank you.

Bluestein2 days ago

This is great for discoverability, untightening the bounds of the algos.-

PS. Only nit, there might be a reason for this though: The "info" function shows a salient comment for each feature, which should be attributed to a particular user and not just "HN, [year]" as is now - methinks.-

cs02rm03 days ago

I'm tempted to leave a TV on with this for my kids. Force them to learn a thing or two. :)

low_tech_punk4 days ago

I'm wondering how come there is no ads? Why would YouTube allow this type of embedded player?

freakynit4 days ago

Google runs on ads. Ads need data. Embeds give data.

dsalzmanop4 days ago

Creator here - thankful and appreciative of all the positive comments. I hope people enjoy!

oever3 days ago

I think it's weird to limit the chosen content by publication site instead of by content type: video.

My personal HackerTV is media.ccc.de and I always appreciate when good content is hosted with simple <video/> tags or peertube.

richardw4 days ago

Very cool! I love the effort to give it a personality.

dsalzmanop4 days ago

Thanks!

unquietwiki4 days ago

This reminds me of https://spelunkr.tv/, except without the 90s channel guide. That effort is using Internet Archive videos to populate channels.

boltzmann643 days ago

https://ytch.tv/

reminds me of

indigodaddy4 days ago

This is amazing!

redbell4 days ago

Well done, love it. It, somehow, reminded me of this Show HN from two years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41247023

flavius373 days ago

Here comes the hacker of hackers of hackers... : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50362372

orbis-tertius3 days ago

[dead]

looksjjhg3 days ago

I appreciate the little sound when you change the channel.

nomilk4 days ago

A version of this that's only live videos would be cool.

tesnorindian3 days ago

Looks really cool. Got me back to my old TV days.

gavmor4 days ago

Yup, exactly what I wanted as soon as I saw Hackertube

jimmiles4 days ago

This one is the best of the bunch so far (I loved the books one, too, though!). This one has potential! May it never be vibe-abandoned!

heysrb3 days ago

This is cooler than Karpathy's!

ciex3 days ago

Oh that's nice, would like to have that as a webOS app without the TV chrome around it.

nunclieh3 days ago

Maybe I didn't see it, but have you published the source code? If so, where can I find it?

Amazing idea btw.

sportsracersss3 days ago

This is great! Can you get it onto the LG App Store? I'd actually tune in.

thoughtpeddler4 days ago

I kept flipping channels until I got to a clip of Zuck in 2005 saying:

> "We're trying to figure out what to do with Apple. We're obviously sensitive to people's privacy."

Wow.

the_sleaze_4 days ago

I would like to get this up and running on my Roku, does anyone know how I could manage that?

joaobotelho4234 days ago

I found it a very cool concept

letmeindude3 days ago

Nice. I like this.

sebastianconcpt4 days ago

I love the skeumorphism you put on it!

krat0sprakhar4 days ago

Haha this is so well done! Love it!

iAMkenough4 days ago

Now we need HackerRadio to run in the background.

frangonf4 days ago

It's on channel 24.

iAMkenough4 days ago

I was expecting talk radio, but I'm enjoying the music too!

101rakibulhasan4 days ago

Finally a competitor

minimaxa4 days ago

Love it, you missed a real opportunity with channel 42?

We did a combo books/video HN remix a few days ago: https://vektormemory.com/blog/v2-0-4-hacker-news-books-video...

tudorw4 days ago

can you add a Micheal Levin channel, no 42 :)

entropie4 days ago

Very well done.

sourcecodeplz3 days ago

how come i dont get youtube ads?

thefourthchime4 days ago

Hah, nice

imzadi4 days ago

Now turn the comments into an MST3K style overlay

flanked-evergl4 days ago

History channel (ch11) has Joe Rogan. Must be some kind of joke, but it's not a funny one.

TuxedoBuddy4 days ago

No channel ⁶ ⁷ highly disappointed

ajairaj4 days ago

now i need a apple tv app for this

roguemonkey19764 days ago

Oh my god yes please! YouTube is a bad time waster for me. That would at least ensure a level of quality

cpan224 days ago

now we just need this on Google TV!

slukmbr2 days ago

[flagged]

init04 days ago

[flagged]

howtageek4 days ago

[flagged]

ls-a3 days ago

[dead]

autoventure4 days ago

[dead]

RetardedBastard4 days ago

[dead]

irfanhasnani4 days ago

[flagged]

[deleted]3 days agocollapsed

i_love_retros4 days ago

I guarantee all these vibe coded hacker* sites will be abandoned in a few months. Easy to make, easy to get bored of maintaining and paying for.

Gonna be a wasteland of vibe coded shit that meant nothing.

mesh4 days ago

Apps are just becoming content. Get your 15 seconds of engagement, and then move on to the next thing.

MarchApril4 days ago

No doubt. I just checked my bookmarks and removed tons of bloat.

[deleted]3 days agocollapsed

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