I don’t know if this is the correct community to post this. I have a Smart TV from a Greek manufacturer named TurboX. Not Android TV, Smart TV. This means that it has Internet access, has some pre-installed apps, but I can’t install any other apps on it. The menus thankfully don’t have any ads. However, the Youtube app has. I highly doubt there is any way to remove those, but if you guys know or found any, can you let me know?
That’s a really hard problem to solve. But my advice, and what was working for me last time I tried, was using the Pi-hole as an exit node and forcing as much traffic through it as possible. The only downside to this is that your Pi-hole dashboard will be less interesting because your devices will show as the Pi-hole itself. If you’re already doing that, then my only guess is getting obsessive about domain blocking until it stops, and even that will have its limits.
I already have a Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB of RAM lying around. Can I somehow connect it to the TV and use it via the TV remote? If so, what OS would I need to install to it, and what software would I use?
People around here like to pretend Netflix, Hulu and the like don’t exist. A HTPC will be neither user-friendly or remotely good quality in this fashion. Most programs will be limited to 720p if you use linux. No you cannot control it with a remote, you’ll need a keyboard and mouse.
LibreELEC with a FLIRC dongle and a cheapo infrared remote. If you have any bluetooth console controllers laying around, you can use those too so long as they have good Linux support. There’s Kodi addons for popular streaming services and LibreELEC also offers an SFTP addon in case you want a local media server setup instead.
If you can not install anything, your only choice is probably to set up a pihole or something similar on your network.
Edit: Some models seem to have advanced settings, where you can change the DNS - you could try to use adguard dns servers, or any DNS adblocker you want to use.
Maybe not with your default lists enabled, you may need to expand. You could also try AdGuard and see if you get any better results with their defaults if you already have the Pihole in place.
Check your blocklist and keep in mind that YouTube is testing server side ads muxed into the media streams, which will not be blocked by traditional adblocking techniques.
My pi-hole has almost 1.4mil+ domains blocked. It doesn’t work on most streaming services. At least in my configuration. It absolutely works everywhere else. And I do have a Roku device in one of the kids rooms. It’s one of the biggest offenders with blocked requests. Telemetry I’d assume, attempted at least.
Weird how people are saying it should work, lol. Blocking YouTube ads with pihole most definitely does not work. Cannot work even, it’s just how YouTube works.
I’m afraid that using something like a googletv stick (or nvidia shield etc) and installing smarttube is your best bet.
Probably a smoother experience than the built in OS too. Hoping for a new Shield with the upcomming Switch so I can leave yet another Google product behind
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