Pi-hole, nvidia shield, custom launcher = less ads for the whole family
Which custom launcher are you using?
Flauncher here, and its great
How did you set it as the launcher? Adb?
Wasn’t even needed. Just downloaded the app with another downloaded app and then installed it. Then it props you what launcher you want. Plenty of videos on yt about this.
Do you know of a good tutorial on how to do all that? I’m planning on buying a new TV towards the end of this year and want to have the pi-hole, etc working first
Pi-hole is super easy. Literally just install it, and set your dhcp on your router to push out that IP as your dns server. Configure pi-hole to use an upstream dns server.
There’s a bunch of launchers out there. I did mine a whole back and used Wolf launcher, but later found out it was a “hacked” version of some other paid launcher. I used launcher manager to “enable” it on boot. Right out of the box, it has all apps and no ads. I suspect any launcher you go with will be similar.
That’s why I love projectors, they almost never have “smart” features built in. A Raspberry Pi can serve as a great HTPC running FOSS software like Kodi, connecting to a local, self-hosted Jellyfin server full of pirated content.
I don’t really get the whole projectors thing when you easily just the do same thing for a TV that’s offline 😆
Sure, that’s another option, but I would have bought a projector anyway, and the fact that they haven’t been hit by enshittification is a nice bonus on top
Problem with projectors is they don’t work very well in bright spaces
My TV doesn’t get connected to the internet.
If I connect it then eventually it will update to a version of the OS that is slow, buggy and all the apps will be out of support regardless.
If I airgap the TV and use a computer it is good until too many pixels burn out or someone yeets something into it.
Didnt noticed ads on youtube with smarttube https://smarttubeapp.github.io/ or https://github.com/polymorphicshade/Tubular ;)
Even when you are paying for the product you are still the product.
I only connect to internet if my tv needs an update. Generally hardware inside TVs are super slow too.
Do I have Nvidia shield connected that been debloated with a simple launcher, which is connected to my router that’s running a VPN + DNS filter.
First thing I thought of, Idiocracy, love that movie.
I wish the programming we got was that good
Instead we get reality tv where as soon as someone says they like it. I find them unattractive
It’s not a movie, it’s a documentary. :(
Have an Insignia tv and having to click out of a full screen ad after boot up will never not annoy me
The cheapest 40" Bestbuy TV is a solid “dumb” TV. No software at all.
I bought a cheap 55" 4k. The “smartest” functions are menus for color correction, sound and choice of input source. It runs perfectly fine on my desktop as an additional 4k monitor with 60hz. And it doesn’t try to phone home.
And it’s driving up the price of commercial flatscreens.
When our last TV which was ‘smart’ died, we just bought a big lcd monitor at the pawn shop. We already were only using Kodi on an Android box, so a monitor with external speaker is fine. (Seemed spyware free last time I checked, but beware no-name android media boxes on=from eBay etc., use a tiny or old spare PC instead if you wish).
One must ‘sail the high seas’ tovget content, of course…
That’s one reason I ditched cable years ago. Why the hell should I pay Comcast for the “privilege” of watching commercials?
Fun fact, Mythbusters episodes have a longer international edit length because America has substantially longer commercial breaks.
My attitude is if I’m paying, I’m not watching a single ad.
If it’s free you can send me ads.
Disconnected my TV from the Internet. I stream media from a PC on my lan to Kodi running on a fire stick. Setup openwrt to drop all packets to wan from the fire stick. These companies can get fucked and if they ever figure out a way to stop me from owning my devices, I’ll just take up some new hobbies and be done with it all.
Your TV may still search for open network and send telemetry back home this way. Connect it somewhere and drop all packets here too if you want to fix this.
Didn’t think about that, thanks.
That’s great for you, but people like you vastly underestimate how much hassle people are willing to go through as far as setting up tech goes.
I connected my PC to the TV via HDMI. i use Firefox with ublock.
This is the only way for me.
No Amazon or Google or Nvidia stuff. Just an old PC, a cheap wireless keyboard with a touchpad and you are good to go.
See, that’s more realistic.
I’d need a dedicated computer, because my PC doesn’t live in the lounge, but I’m seriously considering doing it. My Chromecast has been pissing me off lately.
You can buy small PCs for cheap now. A lot of them don’t even need active cooling
Look at some n95 NUCs on Amazon, or any mini pc really. Often less than 200$ for a full windows PC that can stream anything you throw at it.
You can get decently capable machines for under $100 if you go used
Overestimate
Yep. LG OLED disconnected from all web connections - literally has its MAC address blacklisted from my router, changed the launcher from stock Google for my NVIDIA Shield to a non ad-riddled launcher called WOLF, side-loaded SmartTube for ad-free YT, and Plex = non-dystopian media experience.
My next experiment will be to install a glue-tun bound Invidious instance on my NAS, and then point Yattee on my iPhone to it for a mobile version of YT that’s not filled with non-stop ads.
Yep, same here.
Samsung TV cannot reach the internet. Nvidia Shield is running Flauncher as the default launcher. I watch all my content through Jellyfin and SmarttubeNext.
I have not seen an ad in years.
There is a certain unfortunate irony in the realization that one of the easiest ways to avoid this kind of thing is to buy a commercial digital signage panel intended for advertising instead of a consumer TV.
Or just don’t connect it to wifi and use hdmi media players that don’t have ads in the OS.
imho adb works wonders debloating many smartTVs. mine shows zero ads outside of commercial tv breaks. not even suggestions for amazon shows or anything in the dashboard. smarttube,kodi etc are just great!
You’ve gotta realise the average joe doesn’t know how to do any of that stuff though. Even trying to explain it to most people is too much. The frustration I find is, most people don’t actually want to learn, and they’d rather stay ignorant, and basically take pride in it.
