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gabe565 committed Aug 15, 2023
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# sponsorblockcast-go

A Go program that skips sponsored YouTube content and skippable ads on all local Google Cast devices, using the [SponsorBlock](https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock) API. This project was inspired by [sponsorblockcast](https://github.com/nichobi/sponsorblockcast), but written from scratch to decrease memory and CPU usage, and to work around some of its problems (see [Differences from sponsorblockcast](#differences-from-sponsorblockcast)).

This program will scan for all Google Cast devices on the LAN, and runs a Goroutine for each one to efficiently poll its status every minute. If a Cast device is found to be playing a YouTube video, the poll interval is increased to once every second, sponsored segments are fetched from the SponsorBlock API and stored in memory. Whenever the Cast device reaches a sponsored segment, the program tells it to seek to the end of the segment.

Additionally, sponsorblockcast-go will look for skippable YouTube ads, and automatically hit the skip button when it becomes available.

## Installation

### Docker Image
You can [install Docker](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/) directly or use [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/) (Or use Podman, Portainer, etc). Please note you *MUST* use the 'host' network as shown below for CLI Docker or in the example for `docker-compose`.

#### Docker
Run the below commands as root or a member of the `docker` group:
```shell
docker run --network=host --name=sponsorblockcast-go ghcr.io/gabe565/sponsorblockcast-go
```

#### Docker Compose
First you will need a `docker-compose.yaml` file, such as the [one included in this repo](docker-compose.yaml). Run the below commands as root or a member of the `docker` group:
```shell
docker compose up -d
```

### Manual Installation
#### Instructions

Download and run the [latest release binary](https://github.com/gabe565/sponsorblockcast-go/releases/latest) for your system and architecture.

## Usage
Run `sponsorblockcast-go` from a terminal or activate the service with `systemctl enable --now sponsorblockcast-go`.

## Configuration
You can configure the following parameters by setting the appropriate command line flag or environment variable:

| Flag | Env | Description | Default |
|----------------------|---------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|
| `--paused-interval` | `SBC_PAUSED_INTERVAL` | Time to wait between each poll of the Cast device status when paused. | `1m` |
| `--playing-interval` | `SBC_PLAYING_INTERVAL` | Time to wait between each poll of the Cast device status when playing. | `1s` |
| `--categories` | `SBC_CATEGORIES` (or `SBCCATEGORIES`) | Comma-separated (or space-separated) SponsorBlock categories to skip, see [category list](https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock/blob/master/config.json.example). | `sponsor` |
| `--interface` | `SBC_INTERFACE` | Optionally configure the network interface to use. | |

To modify the variables when running as a systemd service, create an override for the service with:

```shell
sudo systemctl edit sponsorblockcast-go.service
```

This will open a blank override file where you can specify environment variables like so:
```
[Service]
Environment="SBC_PAUSED_INTERVAL=1m"
Environment="SBC_PLAYING_INTERVAL=1s"
Environment="SBC_CATEGORIES=sponsor,selfpromo"
```

To modify the variables when running as a Docker container, you can add arguments to the `docker run` command like so:

```shell
docker run --network=host --env SBC_PAUSED_INTERVAL=5m --env SBC_PLAYING_INTERVAL=2s --name=sponsorblockcast-go ghcr.io/gabe565/sponsorblockcast-go
```

When using `docker-compose.yaml`, you can simply edit the `environment` directive as shown in the example file.

## Differences from sponsorblockcast
- Compiles to a single binary.
- Scan interval less often when a YouTube video is not playing, resulting in lower CPU and less stress on the Cast device.
- Written Go, which is the same language as `go-chromecast`. This means `go-chromecast` functions can be called directly instead of relying on shell scripts, child commands, or string parsing.
- `go-chromecast` only needs to be loaded once within a single Go program, resulting on lower memory usage.

I own 12 Google Cast devices, and have compared CPU and memory usage of the two programs. Note that CPU usage is measured in "milliCPU", meaning that 1m is equal to 1/1000 of a CPU. Here are the averages:

| Program | CPU | Memory |
|---------------------|-----|--------|
| sponsorblockcast | 75m | 70Mi |
| sponsorblockcast-go | 1m | 10Mi |

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