If you are regularly watching YouTube videos on your browser, there are ways you can make your watching experience better. For Firefox users, these YouTube add-ons are able to optimize your viewing experience on this browser.
Content
- 1. Enhancer for YouTube
- 2. Improve YouTube
- 3. YouTube High Definition
- 4. AdBlocker for YouTube
- 5. Turn Off the Lights for Firefox
- 6. YouTube Nonstop
Tip: for Chrome users, check out these extensions to improve your YouTube experience.
1. Enhancer for YouTube
If I could only use one Firefox add-on to do everything, like resizing the video player size, changing playback speed and volume, and fixing buffering, Enhancer for YouTube would be my top choice. There are many customization options on the Settings page, with the main highlight a Control Bar that makes YouTube on Firefox more pleasing and aesthetic. It also has a Google Chrome option that does the same for that browser.
If you don’t like how every element on a YouTube page fights for your attention, you can minimize their impact. To my delight, I found that it could hide info cards, end screens, comments, and the annoying user chat, and automatically pause the playback of foreground tabs and videos opened in the background.
What I like most is how it ensures smooth playback for customized screens, overriding default mouse speeds by as little as 1% to 5%. Another great option is Cinema mode, which allows me to adjust the mini player size based on my device’s dimensions.
2. Improve YouTube
Unlike Enhancer for YouTube, which crams many different functions into a single package, Improve YouTube does the opposite. It removes all the untidy distractions on YouTube video pages. From General settings, you can enable simple changes that lead to using the site in a very different way.
I was able to easily remove the biggest bottlenecks to a distraction-free YouTube experience: related search results, short reels, and short videos in my subscriptions, trending, and history. Additionally, it hides animated thumbnails and watched videos. If you enable the last option, every video you have already watched that keeps showing up in your feed will disappear.
As a bonus, Improve YouTube hides and collapses empty sections on YouTube’s pages (like “Today,” “Yesterday,” etc.) to offer a cleaner experience while using the site. Many YouTube channels have a sidebar filled with user comments, which can be slow to scroll. Hide those and auto-pause anything unnecessary. You can even hide the YouTube logo.
Other great aspects of this Firefox add-on are the screenshot button that saves important video frames and the ability to reshuffle items in a lengthy playlist without having to go back to your YouTube account settings.
Tip: check out some of the best YouTube downloaders to view YouTube videos offline.
3. YouTube High Definition
YouTube High Definition is a simple add-on that allows you to convert any YouTube video to a preferred resolution format in Firefox. Just change the Video Quality parameter up to 8K resolution, or keep it at the highest resolution setting. The improvement isn’t always apparent if the original video is set to Full HD or above.
Try it on classic movies, sports footage, or videos taken with old camcorders or digital cameras in low light. The haziness may not disappear, but the pixels will be sharper, and you can clearly notice a difference between the default and higher resolutions. If a video is too bright and hurts your eyes, you can lower the resolution to make it dimmer.
To truly appreciate the video quality, change the Video size setting of this add-on to theater mode or full size, and adjust the video volume to match the enhanced picture quality. You can also change the playback speed, but Enhancer for YouTube does it better.
Related: upgrading to a YouTube Premium account gives an ad-free experience, with many additional benefits.
4. AdBlocker for YouTube
While YouTube cracks down on ad blockers, this Firefox add-on by AdBlockLite does a decent job of removing all advertisements. It is simpler to use and does what it promises without altering the “pure” YouTube experience. Enjoy your ad-free experience for as long as you want.
However, there are a few issues. When you go to a new video in the same tab, you may encounter blank screens with many videos hidden from view. You also face these blank screens when reloading a page.
But there’s a way around that in Firefox. Open each new video in a separate tab or window, or refresh the page just before the video starts. These extra steps may be annoying, but the result is worth it. However, the video experience with ad blockers can be inconsistent, as YouTube keeps changing its code, which affects video quality.
Good to know: check out all the ways to cast YouTube videos from your phone to a PC.
5. Turn Off the Lights for Firefox
Although this functionality is included in Enhancer for YouTube, if you have no need for the extra features, you may like Turn off the Lights for Firefox. Watching videos on the popular streaming site will become a more “cinematic” experience by merely “dimming” everything around them, creating a proper night view on your screen.
The add-on is very easy to use, as you only need to press the light icon to dim or brighten the screen. Read on to learn how to enable dark mode on YouTube.
FYI: find out how to turn off Restricted mode to view the YouTube videos that are restricted by age, administrator settings, and more.
6. YouTube Nonstop
While browsing several videos on YouTube, you could encounter an error that says, “Video paused. Continue watching?” While this problem can be fixed with a screen refresh and is closely linked to screen buffering problems, it can be very annoying if you’re watching a live event. The YouTube Nonstop Firefox add-on helps you bypass the annoying screen by auto-clicking it so that your video doesn’t get paused.
After going through the best Firefox add-ons for YouTube, if all you want is a better viewing experience, watch YouTube video playlists in VLC, and skip all the advertisements and distractions.
Image credit: DALL-E 3. All screenshots by Sayak Boral.
Sayak Boral –
Staff Writer
Sayak Boral is a technology writer with over eleven years of experience working in different industries including semiconductors, IoT, enterprise IT, telecommunications OSS/BSS, and network security. He has been writing for MakeTechEasier on a wide range of technical topics including Windows, Android, Internet, Hardware Guides, Browsers, Software Tools, and Product Reviews.
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