How do I completely disable HTML5 Video playback on Safari?

Question

I am so sick & tired of HTML5 videos, that I just want to completely disable them. I don't want em playing at all. Even if I click on them or whatever.

I found this extension for Chrome, which does the trick. Looking for something like this on Safari

PS: I did try converting this extension, but the resulting extension while appearing to work, is unable to actually block videos

Answer 1

My prev attempt at fixing this with AdGuard failed miserably. However, I just found an option in-built in Safari that solves my problem.

My initial frustrations were relating to HTML5 videos, mainly relating to the fact that they continue to auto-play even when Safari was set to not let them. And so I figured let's just disable them altogether. But maybe that was too extreme of an option. This one is a lot better!

The solution

1. Enable Safari Debug Menu

Run this in a Terminal window. To disable the menu replace the 1 with a 0

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

2. Restart Safari

3. Open the Debug Menu, and head over to Media Flags

4. Enable the Video Needs User Action & Audio Needs User Action

5. Restart Safari

6. Now laugh at the puny websites trying their futile attempts to auto-play videos BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

PS: If you are a reddit user, you might just wanna head over to their website and just try it out with these options enabled

Tested on Safari Version 14.0.2 (16610.3.7.1.9)