torttube/README.md

torttube — RETIRED 2026-05-23

This addon has been retired. We reinvented an existing wheel.

Use these instead, both via official sources:

• plugin.video.youtube — playback. Has years of work on multi-Innertube-client fallback and proper DASH MPD construction.
• script.service.sponsorblock — SponsorBlock skips for ALL YouTube playback in Kodi, including phone-cast. Polished settings UI, multi-backend support (pv.youtube, Invidious, Piped, sendtokodi), works silently in the background.

What torttube was

A LibreELEC Kodi addon for the home TVs — Rust sidecar (rustypipe + yt-dlp + SponsorBlock client) + Python plugin UI for browse/search/channels/subscriptions/watch-later. Built across 2026-05-23 in response to YouTube blocking anonymous playback on Kodi via plugin.video.youtube.

The architecture peaked at v1.0.4:

• Bundled plugin.video.youtube 7.4.3 zip + auto-install on first run
• Service-level SponsorBlock for all YouTube playback (including phone cast)
• Rustypipe-backed browse UI (search / channels / subs / WL)
• Native DASH MPD path (parked — audio-sync drift on long videos)
• yt-dlp progressive 360p fallback

By the time v1.0.4 shipped, every job we did had an existing addon doing it better:

• Playback: pv.youtube (we were already delegating to it 100% of the time)
• SponsorBlock-for-all-YT-playback: script.service.sponsorblock (we wrote essentially the same code as their Monitor + PlayerCheckpointListener)
• The only piece we built that wasn't a duplicate was the rustypipe browse UI — which we only used when navigating torttube on the TV remote, not when casting from the phone

Lessons in the v1.0.0 → v1.0.4 commits and closed PRs.

Repo state

• Latest tag: v1.0.4
• Build artifact: plugin.video.torttube-1.0.4.zip at smb://lucy/downloads/torttube/
• Sidecar Rust source: sidecar/crates/torttube-sidecar/ (aarch64-musl cross-compile)
• Vendored: plugin.video.youtube-7.4.3.zip

Repo archived on Gitea 2026-05-23.