YouTube tests server-side ads to make your coveted blocker obsolete
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YouTube has been spotted testing server-side ads, which could pose a problem to ad blockers.
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If you’ve ever used yt-dl, you’ll know that YT vids are all split into multiple files. Presumably, this is where the ads get injected.
No, they're not split. Each one of those results you get from yt-dlp is a different version of the same video. I.e. different resolutions, different codecs. Some of them are the audio, some of them are the video, but they're not split.
They are also that. But when you watch YouTube-dl download a video, it downloads several parts, then ffmpeg recombines them into a single output file.
That may be to speed up the download using multiple connections. Other downloaders do it on other sites as well, doesn't mean the files are split on the server.
I mean, you can sit here and make up a bunch of different reasons, but the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.