How to make YouTube true black on an OLED screen
Updated · tested in Chrome
Short answer
YouTube’s dark theme paints the page dark grey, so OLED pixels stay lit. To get pure #000 black, turn on “True black” in ytbud for YouTube. It sets YouTube’s surface colors to black on every page while buttons and chips stay visible.
Add to Chrome — it’s freeYouTube’s dark theme
Appearance → Dark theme gives a very dark grey background, not black. On an OLED laptop or monitor those pixels still glow, and grey bars show around a letterboxed video.
With ytbud, step by step
- Add ytbud to Chrome. Dark theme is on from the start.
- Open Tools (toolbar icon → Tools) and turn on True black.
- Home, watch, search, channel and Shorts pages turn pure black. Buttons keep a faint layer so you can still see them.
Good to know
- No white flash
- The dark attribute lands before YouTube’s first paint, so pages don’t flash white between videos.
- Pair it with Cinema mode
- Cinema mode dims everything around the player after 5 seconds without mouse movement.
Questions
Does true black save battery?
On OLED and AMOLED screens, black pixels are switched off, which uses less power than dark grey. On LCD screens it looks darker but saves nothing.
Why does True black need Dark theme?
True black is built on YouTube’s dark mode. The switch stays disabled with “Turn on Dark theme first” until Dark theme is on.