CleanWatch - Universal Stream Player

Open-source desktop player to watch streams without ads, trackers, or browser lag.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

One evening, while watching Behzat Ç. on PuhuTV, my patience ran out due to unskippable ads and high browser RAM usage. Instead of closing the tab, I opened my IDE. The result is CleanWatch.

CleanWatch Interface: Watching streams ad-free with minimal resource usage.

CleanWatch is an open-source, lightweight desktop player that allows you to watch videos from platforms like YouTube, PuhuTV, Twitch, and Twitter (X) directly on your desktop, bypassing web-based ads and trackers entirely.

Key Features

  • Ad-Free Experience: Bypasses web player ads entirely by extracting the direct raw stream source.
  • Lightweight & Fast: Consumes significantly less RAM/CPU compared to Chrome or Edge web players.
  • Smart Engine: Automatically detects the platform and manipulates HLS/DASH flows to select the best stream format (e.g., m3u8 for PuhuTV, Safe MP4 for YouTube).
  • Modern UI: A dark-mode interface designed with PyQt5, utilizing a threading architecture for a lag-free experience.

Technical Architecture

This isn’t just a wrapper; it’s a stream manipulation tool.

  1. Backend Logic: I modified the yt-dlp library to intercept HLS and DASH streams before they hit the web player logic.
  2. Rendering Engine: Integrated the VLC Media Engine into Python for high-performance video rendering without external codecs.
  3. Concurrency: Implemented a robust Threading structure to separate the UI loop from the stream buffering process, ensuring the app never freezes.
  4. Distribution: Packaged as a standalone .exe using PyInstaller for easy distribution.

Tech Stack

  • Language: Python 3.x
  • GUI: PyQt5 (Qt Designer)
  • Core Libraries: yt-dlp (Customized), python-vlc
  • Build Tool: PyInstaller
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