WinTubeRelay

A Windows tray app for sending YouTube and YouTube Music playback to a specific audio output device.

WinTubeRelay exists for the case where normal browser playback is not enough:

• you want a small local web API and web UI for remote control from your local network
• you want lightweight transport controls without leaving a browser tab open in the foreground
• you want YouTube audio on one specific output, such as an HDMI monitor, TV, receiver, or dedicated speaker path
• you want that output choice to stay fixed across plays and restarts

In practice, it acts as a small Windows controller around mpv and yt-dlp. The app takes a YouTube URL, starts playback through mpv, forces audio to the selected Windows endpoint, and gives you both a tray menu and a local HTTP control surface.

This version is a tray-resident WinForms app that:

• shows a tray icon with a context menu
• enumerates active Windows audio output devices
• lets you pick the preferred output from the tray menu
• persists the selected output and player settings across restarts in %AppData%\WinTubeRelay\settings.json
• launches and controls mpv directly over JSON IPC
• plays YouTube and YouTube Music URLs
• supports queueing, pause/resume/toggle, stop, skip, mute/unmute, and volume changes
• supports launch-at-sign-in from the tray menu
• keeps a small recent-play history and a favorites menu
• includes the original-style local web UI and HTTP API on port 8765 by default
• exposes favorites and recents through both the tray menu and the web UI

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11
• .NET 10 SDK
• mpv for Windows
• yt-dlp for YouTube playback

Defaults

The app starts with these defaults, which you can change from the tray menu:

• mpv: blank
• yt-dlp: blank
• browser cookies: firefox
• web UI/API port: 8765

Build

dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run

Publish

To create a single-file Windows release build:

.\publish.ps1

That produces:

publish\win-x64\WinTubeRelay.exe

Tray Features

• Play URL...
• Play From Clipboard
• Queue URL...
• Queue From Clipboard
• Open Web UI
• playback controls
• volume controls
• favorites menu
• recent history menu
• audio output selection
• launch at sign-in toggle
• player settings dialog
• open publish folder shortcut

Notes

• The tray icon is generated at runtime from repo code so it stays deterministic.
• Audio device enumeration uses NAudio.
• mpv is started on demand and then controlled over its named pipe.
• Audio output selection is converted from the Windows endpoint ID into the wasapi/{guid} form that mpv --audio-device=help reports.
• The web UI also includes favorites/recent management, backed by the same persisted settings file as the tray app.