Enhancer for YouTube is an add-on for Firefox and Chrome which offers a ton of customization
There are a lot of quirks in YouTube, but we have plenty of workarounds for most issues. Most of these are possible thanks to add-ons.
Today, we take a look at Enhancer for YouTube. It is an add-on for Firefox and Chrome, that can change the way you experience the streaming service.
The extension adds a ton of features including better playback controls, removal of advertisement, and an option to detach and pin the player.
Tip: Check out our guide on fixing choppy video playback on YouTube.
Enhancer for YouTube
When you install the add-on, a settings page (and a help page?) should open. You can always access the settings from the toolbar icon. It has a ton of options and we'll discuss the most important ones here.
Enhancer for YouTube displays a toolbar on every YouTube page, and it has some buttons which let you control the video player. You can use the add-on's settings page to enable/disable the buttons which appear on the toolbar.
The Remove ads button disables advertisements from the videos.
If you're using Ublock Origin or another content blocker, just ignore this setting as ads are taken care of already.
If you wish to support your favorite channel you can whitelist them so that ads are displayed if the channel uses YouTube's monetization options.
The film reel icon is for enabling the cinema mode while the arrows icon is for resizing the video player.
Detach Video Player
This is one of the best features in Enhancer. The "detach video player" option (icon with the 2 squares) opens the video player in a separate window. You can scroll pages while watching the video in the pop-up player, but, if you click inside any window, the pop-up player shifts to the background.
If you want to pin it, i.e. stay on top on other Windows (including another Firefox Window), you will need to use a third-party app, AutoHotKey, to execute a script. This is not the add-on's fault, but because of limitations for extensions. The pinned player's size and position can be customized as well.
(Firefox users, refer to the closing words section for a better option.)
Volume Booster
This option is disabled by default because using this disables another feature (controlling the playback speed). But the volume booster can be priceless when you're watching a video that has low audio levels or when you are used to changing the volume using the mouse wheel.
Themes
Enhancer has many built-in themes to choose from which changes the appearance of the YouTube website. You can also use custom CSS themes: just paste the script in the add-on.
The video player can also be themed but it only works in Cinema mode. To do so just pick a color from the palette and set the opacity.
Automatic video settings
You can set the default playback, volume and resolution that videos should play on YouTube. In fact, you can even set your second, third and fourth choice of resolution and the extension picks the first that is available based on your priority.
The add-on can optionally remove all annotations from a video. You can set the add-on to enable Theater mode, expand video descriptions, and sort comments from recent ones from the settings page.
These settings are all automated once set; there is nothing that you need to do after you enable them in the settings of the extension.
Custom Scripts
The add-on supports custom Javascripts that you want to be executed when YouTube is loaded; this is an advanced feature of the extension and probably only useful to a handful of users who want to add or change functionality on YouTube even more.
Other options
Loop mode can be enabled to replay the same video endlessly. Useful, if you have an ear worm (the musical kind, obviously). You can use Enhancer for YouTube to set the following filters: Gaussian blur, Brightness, Blur, Contrast, Grayscale, Hue rotation, Color inversion, Saturation and Sepia.
Tip: To access the filters, you need to right-click on the filters button.
Keyboard Shortcuts and Mouse wheel
You can hit Space to Play/Pause the video while the tab / video player is active. Use the Up/Down arrow keys to increase/decrease the volume, and the left/right arrow keys or "J" and "I" to rewind/fast-forward. The official support portal lists all the shortcuts (there are far too many to list here) that work with Enhancer.
To change a video's speed, hold the control key while using the mouse wheel. You can play it at 0.1x speed and over 100x. The audio controls aren't enabled be default. So, you need to check the "Control the volume level with the mouse wheel......" option to change the volume quickly using the mouse wheel.
Closing words
Enhancer is really good, and feels like it has the features that YouTube should've had by default.
Mozilla is working on a built-in option for Picture-in-Picture support for videos. It was originally planned to be included in Firefox 68, but a Mozilla engineer has confirmed that it will remain in Beta/Developer Editions and Nightly for the foreseeable future. You can manually enable it from about:config.
How to enable Picture in Picture mode in Firefox
If you're on Firefox 68 or above, you can search for the following keys and set them to true:
media.videocontrols.picture-in-picture.enabled
media.videocontrols.picture-in-picture.video-toggle.enabled
media.videocontrols.picture-in-picture.video-toggle.flyout-enabled
Firefox's PiP mode works on other sites too, like Twitch for example.
Tip: you can check out other YouTube add-ons that enhance your experience. Check out the review of Iridium as a start.
Now you: which YouTube add-ons do you use, if any?
Here is the link if anyone wants to give YouTube enhancer a try – https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-enhancer/ejcniippeghnejiodjkkmndlelbagmah
You should also give YouTube Enhancer a try, though it doesn’t work on Firefox I still like how simple and easy it is to use. Offers pretty much the same features but I love the friendly UI set up.
Hi, this has been a great add-on, but for some reason (updated firefox, windows 10) certain videos repeatedly default to HD, and nothing will stop it. Not sure what is going on, but you cannot stop this behaviour.
I install this addon every time I install Firefox on my PCs. This addon is almost perfect. If it can prevent PLAYLIST autoplay, then it’ll be perfect. But as far as I know, this isn’t possible. You can only prevent suggested videos autoplay, not playlist autoplay.
What is the difference between ‘cinema mode’ and ‘theater mode’ ?
I can’t select ‘cinema mode’ as the icon isn’t displayed but I can select ‘theater mode’ using the ‘t’ shortcut…
Thanks.
Hello,
detach player (it briefly opens a window then the window closes) and cinema mode (no buttons are displayed) aren’t working for me on Firefox 68.02 on Linux Mint Sylvia. And the filter button does nothing.
Iridium is the best one.
Does it run only on youtube site, or on any page wich contains a youtube video?
I almost never visit youtube site.
I think it works only on YouTube
Best youtube plugin of all. Auto-detach player on scrolldown is great to read all the toxic youtube comments :-)
I’ve been done with the youtube/goolag since the mountain view censorship/bannings began
not to mention all the whistle blowers who came forward who have been stalked, threatened and worse
I use ‘Magic Actions for YouTube.’ Always adding features and well respected.
This looks really useful. I don’t watch much youtube because of the spying/advert aspects.
I wonder how long the “First Do No Evil” corporation will allow this to succeed. (That slogan is starting to smell a bit too ripe….)
This one plus ublock origin and you have the ad-free & safe deluxe experience.
Can it remove those giant annotations at the end of every video?
Can you post a sample video, I check it out.
Pretty much any video at this point: https://imgur.com/a/G6H3B9k
I think they’re called cards or something…
I don’t think it does. You can use this guide, however: https://www.ghacks.net/2019/01/03/how-to-block-endscreen-video-recommendations-on-youtube/
Awesome, thanks!