Thanks to someone on Reddit I was able to ad block using OpenWrt the home screen ads on our TVs that run the Android TV app. (blacklisted androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com)
Our newer TV runs the Google TV app instead and the ads aren't blocked on that. Can anyone recommend a URL or block list that would work?
Not related to Openwrt, but you can try this one https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en...it works on my GTV
But it is the only thing I have enabled on AdBlocker on my OpenWrt router.
Seriously. No block lists. Just a single blacklisted URL from Google.
DNS doesn't block URLs, it blocks sites...
See if you can figure out what to block, based on the DNS requests GTV is making.
Well, what I offer you do not involve Openwrt. You need to enable this setting in GTV and you will hide the recommendations and the ads in the home screen. Here is a video if that's what you want to achive https://youtu.be/SW1S68w4Uvc
If you want to use adblock look at @frollic suggestion.
Kr
K
Yeah. I know about app only mode, but that completely removes recommendations.
The android TV app was more configurable. I like having my YouTube subscriptions come up on the home screen. Apps only mode removes that... but the ads in the top banner are still there.
Then go for frolic solution. Instal Adblock from opkg - https://github.com/openwrt/packages/blob/master/net/adblock/files/README.md
Then install the required packages for the DNS Query Report, look what your GTV queries as DNS and start blocking them one by one until you find the correct one.
Good luck
Kr
K
Is it possible with OpenWrt if a device has a fixed IPv4 address to monitor it's activity?
Like I said, AndroidTV App got it's ads from the URL in the first post, but apparently Google TV App is a different address I can't find.
Theoretically, yes - you can dump the whole communication (all packets passing through).
However, >90% of all traffic these days is encrypted, so while you can dump the traffic, you cannot actually read it (and companies are pushing hard to make the remaining vestiges of cleartext communication (e.g. DNS queries) extinct as well). So in practice, there isn't much to monitor, DNS queries at best (but browsers are increasingly pushing for DoH), everything else (ads and content) ends up being delivered by the same data centres anyways (and as it's all going to be encrypted, you can't really distinguish between them).
Well, in theory one can use MITM certificates and proxy server (Squid) to block more than just DNS queries. Of course, if device supports certificate installation and proxy of some kind. AFAIK, Android supports both.
There is even more esoteric way to get rid of nasty ads... Use VPN to change your IP to one of numerous countries' under US sanctions. Google still delivers content (Netflix doesn't) but with no ads... Movies and music from Google catalogue are accessible too.
For Youtube on Google TV, try https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
Been there done that. Was using STN before it was STN.
What I mostly want to do is kill the ad banner and maybe the everything under the Sony tab.
I have had them on my Shield TV Pro (runs Android 11) for years too. I read about Pi-hole being able to do some more complex blocking and can block youtube too but never looked into it further. Just using Adblock-fast on OpenWrt, and SmartTube on my Shield TV.
One option is to change the default launcher, but haven't bothered, I just accepted the ads are probably here to stay. Good luck in your search I was unable to get rid of them.