# Channel Surfer

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Channel Surfer and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People like its curated, human-picked discovery and retro TV-guide feel that avoids the algorithm. The most common caveat is that some guide clicks do nothing and the UI is disliked.

## Why people recommend it

- Human-curated video discovery (2 comments): "I especially love being able to discover new videos and channels that are hopefully curated by humans." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47366721)) "It is human curated. :-) Actually, there's zero AI with this one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47367049))
- Nostalgic TV guide aesthetic (2 comments): "I grew tired of the algorithm and wanted traditional TV, but for YT." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210720)) "This is super cool, I love the aesthetic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47366720))

## What people warn about

- Clicking other guide shows does nothing (1 comments): "Love it, but when I clicked another show in the guide, nothing happened." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47366622))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Retro TV Guide](https://hackerapproved.com/p/retro-tv-guide-for-youtube-subscriptions.md): 33 recommend
- [ytch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ytch.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Channel Surfer", https://hackerapproved.com/p/channel-surfer/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).