ChillTube

Lightweight Chrome extension that offloads YouTube video playback to MPV player using hardware-accelerated H.264.
Ideal for older laptops where VP9/AV1 decoding is not hardware-accelerated.

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🔧 Why use this?

Modern YouTube videos use VP9 or AV1, which often lack hardware acceleration on older systems. This leads to:

• 🔥 High CPU usage
• 🌪 Loud fans
• 🔋 Reduced battery life

This extension:

• 🧊 Keeps your laptop cooler
• 🔇 Runs quieter
• 🔋 Improves battery life
• 🎞 Uses MPV with H.264 fallback (hardware-accelerated)

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✅ Features

• Adds a toolbar button and right-click menu
• Sends current YouTube video URL to native Python script
• Plays video in MPV with a format string that prefers H.264
• Works out-of-the-box on Linux

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⚠️ System Requirements

• ✅ Supported: Linux (x11/Wayland)
• ❌ macOS: not yet supported (due to app sandbox and MPV launch issues)
• ❌ Windows: not yet supported

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🛠️ Installation

1a. Download the zip archive

from here and extract it locally, or...

1b. Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/klimanek/ChillTube

2. Load the extension in your browser

• Go to chrome://extensions/
• Enable Developer Mode
• Click Load unpacked and select the extension folder
• Copy the extension ID

3. Install native messaging host

cd ChillTube

# ChillTube package structure
├── install.sh
├── README.md
├── extension
└── yt_h264.py

Open install.sh in your favorite text editor and insert the copied extension ID:

EXT_ID="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" # change that

Then run:

sh install.sh

🌍 Localization

Currently supported:

• 🇬🇧 English
• 🇨🇿 Czech

Feel free to contribute translations in your language!

📌 Roadmap

• Add macOS support (via IINA?)
• Optional in-video button
• Preferences/config panel
• Windows support

📜 License

MIT

🔍 Related keywords

YouTube overheat, loud fans, battery drain, MPV player, H.264 fallback, yt-dlp helper, external player for YouTube, Chromium extension, older laptops, fanless playback, AV1 problem, VP9 decoding issues