📺 Pixel Tube

Your in-editor video player — flip through curated channels while you code. Sits in your Explorer sidebar, remembers your last channel, and shows what's on in the status bar.

What it does

Pixel Tube lives permanently in your Explorer sidebar. Pick a Channel, click a video, and it keeps playing while you code.

• Channels — four curated environments (Music, News, Entertainment, Touch Grass), each with hand-picked 24/7 streams
• Channel Memory — remembers what you were tuned into. Reopen your IDE and a "Last Tuned" banner lets you resume in one click
• Status Bar — shows what's on at all times. Click it to switch channels or stop without touching the sidebar
• Search — filter built-in channels instantly, or connect a YouTube API key to search all of YouTube

Installation

Antigravity IDE

antigravity --install-extension pixel-tube

Or install a .vsix manually:

antigravity --install-extension pixel-tube-1.1.0.vsix

VS Code

Available on the VS Code Marketplace — search "Pixel Tube" in the Extensions sidebar.

Or install a .vsix manually:

code --install-extension pixel-tube-1.1.0.vsix

Open VSX (Gitpod, VSCodium, etc.)

Available on the Open VSX Registry — search "Pixel Tube" in the Extensions sidebar.

Usage

Open the Explorer panel and scroll down to Pixel Tube — or use the keyboard shortcut:

On first launch you'll pick which channels to load. After that, just pick a channel and the TV tunes in.

Channels

Four environments, each with curated 24/7 streams:

Search (recommended)

The search bar filters built-in channels by default. To search all of YouTube, add a YouTube Data API v3 key:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console and create an API key with YouTube Data API v3 enabled
2. Open your IDE settings and search pixelTube
3. Paste your key into Pixel Tube: Youtube Api Key

Your key is stored locally in your IDE settings and never committed to any repository.

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/lucilehan/pixel-tube.git
cd pixel-tube
npm install
npm run compile

To package:

npm install -g @vscode/vsce
vsce package

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.

• Bug reports / feature requests — open an Issue
• Code changes — fork → branch → PR against main

Changelog

1.2.4

• Security & Compliance: Standardized asset metadata and genericized trademarked names to pass VS Code Marketplace security scans.

1.2.3

• Marketplace Asset Update: Optimized icon size (128x128) for marketplace recommendations.

1.2.2

• New Branding: Replaced the extension icon and logo with a custom-designed retro pixel-art television, featuring dark wood grain, V-antennas, and an on-screen menu interface.
• Refined Overview: Updated the README with a side-by-side overview showing both the Setup and Playing screens with pixelated headers.

1.2.1

• Icon tweak: Adjusted brightness, contrast, and saturation of the new dark wood icon for better visibility

1.2.0

• New icon: dark wood exterior matching the in-editor TV, red LED, red antenna tips
• Fix: content no longer bleeds below the screen when the panel is minimized

1.1.3

• Featured Landing: Retro Gaming Radio now appears as a "Featured" banner on first launch
• Smooth Browsing: Toggling channels no longer interrupts your current playback
• Sticky Equalizer: Audio animation now stays on the currently playing video during searches and room switching
• New Shortcut: Call Pixel Tube with Cmd+Shift+Y, T (chord) to avoid debug conflicts
• Visuals: Scaled down README screenshots for better legibility and removed old demo GIF

1.1.2

• Enhanced searchability with new keywords (entertainment, news, stream, video)

1.1.1

• Fixed extension metadata and repository URLs for VS Code Marketplace stability
• Synchronized package-lock configurations

1.1.0

• Renamed to Pixel Tube (removed Dev suffix)
• New channels: Entertainment (Cinema Classics, Fantasy Streams, EarthCam), updated Music (Retro Gaming Radio, K-POP), updated News (Global News Network, Financial Wire)
• API key input added to first-run setup screen
• Setup page redesigned for legibility — channel names, descriptions, amber accents
• TV exterior now fills full sidebar width
• Loading overlay auto-dismisses on timeout

1.0.3

• Bumped version to resolve a publication conflict on Open VSX
• Automated .vsix attachments on GitHub Releases for direct Antigravity installs

1.0.2

• Channels — replaced genre chips with four named channels: 🎧 Music, 📰 News, 🌌 Ambient, 🌿 Touch Grass
• Channel Memory — remembers last tuned; resume banner on reload
• Status Bar — indicator shows what's on; click to change channel or stop
• First-run setup screen to pick active channels
• Refreshed curated channel list organized by category
• Security hardening: CSP nonces, video ID validation, XSS-safe DOM rendering, local server host validation

1.0.1

• Moved into the Explorer sidebar
• Tuning-first design — curated channels, no setup required
• Optional YouTube API key for search
• Local HTTP server for in-editor playback

1.0.0

• Initial release

Made with 📺 by lucile han