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

hackertv.org

488 points by dsalzman 5 days ago

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.

spditner 4 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.
  • ozim 3 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.

    • TomGarden 3 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.

      • ada1981 3 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.

        • ozim 3 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.

        • demberto 3 days ago

          SaaS is not dead.

          • rickydroll 3 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.

  • feearent 2 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.

  • maaaaattttt 3 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.

  • hdb2 3 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.

pacoverdi 6 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

5555watch 4 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

  • kreelman 3 days ago

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

vavooom 3 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.

smokel 4 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 :)

  • freedomben 4 days ago

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

  • wmchen 4 days ago

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

    • pwython 4 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..."

  • jdthedisciple 4 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

asimjalis 3 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.

ks2048 4 days ago

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

thechairman12 4 days ago

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

Bluestein 2 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.-

cs02rm0 3 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_punk 4 days ago

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

  • freakynit 4 days ago

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

dsalzman 4 days ago

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

  • oever 3 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.

  • richardw 4 days ago

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

looksjjhg 3 days ago

I appreciate the little sound when you change the channel.

nomilk 4 days ago

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

tesnorindian 3 days ago

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

gavmor 4 days ago

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

jimmiles 4 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!

heysrb 3 days ago

This is cooler than Karpathy's!

ciex 3 days ago

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

nunclieh 3 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.

sportsracersss 3 days ago

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

thoughtpeddler 3 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?

iAMkenough 4 days ago

Now we need HackerRadio to run in the background.

  • frangonf 4 days ago

    It's on channel 24.

    • iAMkenough 4 days ago

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

tudorw 3 days ago

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

imzadi 4 days ago

Now turn the comments into an MST3K style overlay

flanked-evergl 4 days ago

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

TuxedoBuddy 4 days ago

No channel ⁶ ⁷ highly disappointed

ajairaj 4 days ago

now i need a apple tv app for this

  • roguemonkey1976 4 days ago

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

cpan22 4 days ago

now we just need this on Google TV!

init0 4 days ago

[flagged]

ls-a 3 days ago

[dead]

i_love_retros 4 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.

  • mesh 4 days ago

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

  • MarchApril 3 days ago

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