You can use a program on your computer, VideoLAN VLC media player, to watch most YouTube videos. This seems to avoid the advertisements and other content on YouTube.


  1. Copy the YouTube website address (URL) from the address bar
  2. Open VLC media player
  3. Press Control + N (or Media > Open Network Stream)
  4. Paste the URL and click play

You can watch in the VLC media player, or you download the video to your computer. Once downloaded, you can watch it offline. 
To download it:
  1. Press Control + I (or Tools > Media Information) while the video is playing 
  2. Copy the Location at the bottom.
  3. Paste the Location in Google Chrome and 
  4. Click the 3 dots in the bottom right and click Download


You can also open the downloaded MP4 file with the VLC media player and use Control + R to convert to other video formats or audio (MP3) formats.