this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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I wish if ad blockers were on option on things like Smart TVs and smartphone, not just on my browser.
If your smart tv is android based you can try side loading Smart Tube, which integrates ad block, sponsor block and a whole pile of QoL settings you can tweak to suit you.
https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube
You can even add android to any tv with a chromecast with google tv, it's a much nicer OS and runs faster than a lot of smart tv OSs
After looking to solve this exact issue I ended up grabbing an Onn 4k streaming box (Google/Android TV) for $20 from Walmart. Not on sale, just full retail is $20, compared to the 4k Chromecast with Google TV at $50 msrp. It's fast enough and even got better performance out of streaming games through Moonlight than I did from my Steam Link.
Oh cool, that's actually really useful to know. Thanks!
Doesn't really solve the issue, I have one but could never find a way to cast YouTube to it and not have ads, since both Vanced and New pipe can't do it.
Yeah slightly annoying that, the default YouTube app should be able to cast to smart tube and you still won't have ads though. Vanced used to be able to cast to it, before it was killed and revived.
I just don't cast to it and use the remote.
I don't recommend the chromecast. It's incredibly slow and underpowered.
Go for a shield TV, or even a fire stick. Google is selling crap to people, per their usual.
on android it's possible. i use firefox with ublock origin, and revanced.
And for ad-free YouTube specifically on Android-based smartphones, LibreTube is my personal fav but there are plenty of other options such as NewPipe, Clipious, and YouTube Revanced.
depends on if you want to sign in to your account. to my knowlege, only revanced can do that.
This may be an entirely separate conversation but I end up sticking with Firefox+uBlock because I can never get any decent performance out of other front ends.
You can set custom DNS to block ads and whatnot on androids and most smart TVs AFAIK. It should just be a setting somewhere. I use
base.dns.mullvad.net
For TV you might need IP address in which case it's 194.242.2.4.
Source and more info about this here: https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
This doesn't work for most streaming services. The ads and the actual video come from the same server. I know this is the case on Hulu (probably YouTube, too).
Yeah, it used to not be like this but they have taken measures to not use separate domains to serve ads because of dns filters.
Yeah it doesn’t block YouTube ads, because YouTube hosts the ads locally. No reason to have the ad provider host their own, when YT already has the infrastructure built to host them. Trying to use DNS to block YT ads would also block the videos themselves, which sort of defeats the entire purpose of using the site.
@McDropout
How to block #ads on #Android
Block ads on the web: Firefox + uBlock Origin.
A must have, if you want to browse the web without ads, trackers, malware and more. There are other browsers you could use, but with #firefox, you can install add-ons to help you mitigate all the tracking and ads. You can even install desktop only add-ons now, and supporting a engine which is not #chromium (controlled by Google) like every other major browser.
There are multiple forks available on the F-droid if you don't want to use plain firefox. This works on desktop too, I recommend #LibreWolf.
Block ads on any app with: #TrackerControl.
My favorite way of blocking ads, you have control over which domain the app can connect. It works like a VPN, but it does not make any outgoing connection. The bad thing is, if you want to use an actual #VPN, you can't have both at the same time and you need to disable your custom DNS.
I recommend to enable in settings > advanced options > block system apps, and individual domains too. When you open the app for the first time, it asks you if you want to block essential request for the apps to work, I recommend to enable this if you don't want apps breaking.
You android vendor may be killing the app, for this reason is necessary to add the app in the list of apps not be optimized by the system. If this issue keeps happening follow the guide from dontkillmyapp.com (advanced)
Official website: TrackerControl.org
Set a custom #DNS in the settings.
A DNS works like a translator, computers are good with numbers, but we are not good at memorizing long numbers. Computers communicate with each other using the Internet Protocol (IP), which are pure numbers. For example, your instance #IP is 104.26.8.209 but is easier to us just type lemmy.world.
A DNS is like a table where it has a relationship between keys pointing lemmy.world to 104.26.8.209, so your computer knows where is the computer is trying to connect.
Let's imagine an app is trying to connect to "https://ads-from.company.com", if you are using a DNS which blocks known domain ads it will redirect that request to "0.0.0.0" which is like sending it to a black hole. There are multiple DNS available, which different purposes, for ads, malware, porn, gambling, etc.
#Mullvand VPN has a guide in how to use their DNS for multiple devices.
Alternative front-ends.
Have in mind that these are not full bulletproof protections, one may work better than the other, and can break from time to time. With popular services with ads, like social media, you could use alternative front-ends to their official client or website.
Here is a list of alternative front-ends and an add-on to automatically redirect to them, you have to use it with a browser and you can add as a shortcut to the home screen, better if it works like a #PWA https://libredirect.github.io
Alternative apps
@TheFederatedPipe
#RethinkDNS allows blocking/analysing of traffic via VPN app, actual VPN (Wireguard), AND custom DNS over HTTPS
@corbin @Isoprenoid @McDropout
if you’re using an iphone, you can sideload uyou+enhanced through Altstore. it comes with an adblocker, shorts blocker, sponsorblock, a downloader and more.