With a browser python port and youtube-dl (or a js port of youtube-dl), it might be possible to drop the invidio.us dependency

[colons]

If you're interested, I'd like to into this. I know it's possible to get youtube video playback working with youtube-dl without any remote dependencies on iOS, and I know that there are efforts to make lots of Python stuff work in webassembly, and I'm pretty sure you can manipulate media request headers with service workers, so this might be possible?

Edit: Actually, I may have been overthinking this: if ytdl-core works in browsers, this gets a lot simpler.

[pixeldesu]

Invidious is not really a "dependency".

As the main deal of videoline is to manage subscriptions, it's not really meant to be a much of a playing interface. invidious in this case was a good default choice because it fits the general sense of "de-googling", so users don't need to use YouTube as a playback interface. (but it's configurable now if people just want to watch there regardless)

Technically, using the custom link provider option, if there is a YouTube downloader that works with passing it a video ID over a get parameter, you could make the video grid link to downloads instead of a site to play them back.

So while this sounds pretty interesting, I think it's a bit out of scope for this project! :/

[colons]

All I'm looking to do is make a video element rather than linking out to Invidious, so that I can leave videos playing in the background on iOS. Can you point me in the right direction to specifying a custom link provider?

[pixeldesu]

If you open the settings dialog (in the left sidebar on the bottom end), there are three radio buttons to select a video link provider. The third option is "Custom".

Once that is selected, an input will appear offering you to add a custom URL. There is no placeholder system so the video URL will always be appended to what you enter there.