Channel Surfer
Watch YouTube like it’s cable TV
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I know, it's a very first-world problem. But in my house, we have a hard time deciding what to watch. Too many options!So I made this to recreate Cable TV for YouTube. I made it so it runs in the browser. Quickly import your subscriptions in the browser via a bookmarklet. No accounts, no sign-ins. Just quickly import your data locally.
HN · launched Mar 11, 2026 · 604 upvotes (top 1%) · 0 views
Niche: streaming media players and tools · 723 launches, 456 in the last 7 days ▲ +1371% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Media & entertainment
- B2C
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 723 launches in streaming media players and tools →
Could you build this?
Yes It is a straightforward frontend application that parses YouTube channel exports via a bookmarklet and controls a YouTube iframe embed player.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: ytch.tv, freetvz.com, tv.garden, The Trees Network
Concerns raised: Google might not like scraping their product / legal issues, Shorts still appear despite recommendations being off, Missing VCR functionality
Feature requests: Community channels / live chat features, Android TV app / sideloadable version on GitHub, Channels curated by specific creators to filter quality content, Cast to TV with sponsors blocked
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 367 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #1 of 368 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 72 days after the earliest competitor.
- MyTube · ph · 2026-09-30 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- Plainfeed · ph · 2026-11-10 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- Channel Timeline Viewer · ph · 2026-09-23 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- Turn your favorite YouTube channels into a streaming experience · hn · 2026-04-13 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- HackerTube for Apple TV. Videos HN Recommends, on Your TV · hn · 2026-11-02 · 8 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- RewatchKit · ph · 2026-11-14 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Instant MP4 · ph · 2026-10-13 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- YT Conversion · ph · 2026-11-06 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.45
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