I’ve been posting a lot of links to Youtube lately as you may have noticed.  It did occur to me that perhaps not everybody is as addicted to familiar with Youtube as your scribe.  If you know all about Youtube you can stop reading now but for those who could use a few hints here goes.

General stuff: Youtube works with channels and accounts.  If you set up an account (free) it will let you subscribe to channels.  Generally, if you are watching a video and you “pause it” a tool bar appears that allows you to subscribe to the relevant channel.  It also allows you to select “closed captioning” for the video you are watching.  Many opera and concert channels use this for English language subtitles.  Youtube remembers what channels you are subscribed to and also creates a library of what you have watched.  This propagates across devices.  There’s also a search function.

Watching on a computer: PC, Mac, laptop, desktop doesn’t much matter.  Open a browser.  Type in Youtube and there you are.  This lets you watch on the computer or, if you have the necessary gear, mirror it to your TV or Home Theatre via Chromecast or AppleTV.

Watching on a phone or tablet:  There is a Youtube app for both Android and iOS.  It works as you would expect and you can mirror to a TV just like off a computer.

Watching on a TV or Home Theatre set up:  Most modern TVs and Blu-ray players have Wifi andYouTube built in.  It’s usually found on the “Home” screen.  This is called “Smarthub” on Samsung gear but it’s just “Home” for Sony.  If you use Netflix or any other streaming service you will know where it is on your gear.  The on-screen navigation is intuitive, and exactly the same on TV or a Blu-ray player, but searching usually involves “point and peck” (unless you have a Bluetooth keyboard connected).  Choice of whether to use your Blu-ray player or TV direct will depend on what you use for sound and how it’s connected and on which device can access your 5G network (assuming you have a dual band modem).  I’ve found Youtube, especially HD content, works much better on 5G.

The issue of whether to mirror from a device with a keyboard or watch using TV/Home Theatre (assuming you have the choice) is simply one of convenience.  My partner thinks that the Home Theatre route is complicated and prefers to mirror (actually she usually just watches on her laptop).  I find mirroring from the laptop is a hassle because it is docked in a different room and running backwards and forwards between two rooms making sure the settings are right on both ends is the bigger PITA.

Final note: Most of the free content being offered is on Youtube but the ticketed/passworded shows usually use something else like Vimeo.  In those cases you are probably stuck with mirroring unless your TV or Blu-ray player lets you install additional apps or includes a web browser.  Even if there is a web browser, unless you have a keyboard connected I wouldn’t other!

Hope this helps somebody!