Smart TV · Samsung, LG, Android TV
Block ads on your smart TV
Set your TV’s DNS to the computer running AdHole, once. The ads and trackers its apps load from ad servers stop loading, and part of the home-screen ads with them. The ads in the YouTube app stay, and this page explains why.
- Free
- No account
- No ads
- Windows, Linux, Android
- Removed Ads and trackers served from ad servers, in its apps
- Partly Home-screen ads
- Stays Ads in the YouTube app
- Stays Netflix, Prime Video and Twitch ads
What changes
What DNS blocking removes on a TV.
Before it loads anything, your TV looks up a name: the server of the app, of the video, of the ad. Once its DNS points to your computer, AdHole answers those lookups. For a name on its lists, the answer is “nowhere”, and the TV never reaches that server.
That removes the ads and trackers its apps load from ad servers, and part of the home-screen ads. It doesn’t remove what comes from the same servers as the show itself: YouTube’s ads, and those of Netflix, Prime Video or Twitch.
An ad that doesn’t load can leave an empty space: AdHole stops the ad, it doesn’t redraw the TV’s screen.
- No answer samsungads.com AdGuard DNS filter · HaGeZi’s Multi PRO
- No answer samsungacr.com AdGuard DNS filter · HaGeZi’s Multi PRO
- No answer lgads.tv HaGeZi’s Multi PRO
- No answer doubleclick.net AdGuard DNS filter · HaGeZi’s Multi PRO
Set it up
Point the TV’s DNS to your computer. Once.
About two minutes per device, and it stays set. Menu names change with the brand, the model and the year.
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Find your computer’s address.
The dashboard shows it, and so does
adhole status. It looks like192.168.1.20. If your router allows it, reserve that address for the computer, so it never changes. -
Samsung (Tizen)
Settings → Network → Network Status → IP Settings → Manual DNS, then type your computer’s address.
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LG (webOS)
Settings → Network → Connection → Edit, untick “automatic”, then type your computer’s address as the DNS.
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Android TV and Google TV
Wi-Fi → modify the network → static IP, then your computer’s address as DNS 1. Google TV is built on Android TV; its menus may be worded differently.
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Close the IPv6 gap.
If the TV uses IPv6, set its IPv6 DNS to manual and leave it empty, or turn IPv6 off on the TV. Otherwise it goes back to your router’s DNS.
Your computer has to stay on: a TV pointed at it loses internet when the computer is off or asleep. On Windows, the computer’s network must be set to Private. An always-on Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 running AdHole for Linux suits this role well.
If your television runs on Android — a set-top box from an internet provider, a Google TV set — there is a second way in, and it needs no computer at all: install the AdHole app on the box itself, if the box accepts installing a file by hand. It then filters names on the spot, wherever it is plugged in. A Samsung or an LG set doesn’t run Android and installs nothing: for those, the DNS setting above is the way.
Why not set it once in the router? On the router we tested, a Bbox from the French provider Bouygues, the DHCP setting adds your computer after the router’s own DNS instead of replacing it, and the router keeps advertising its own DNS over IPv6, which devices prefer. Setting each device is what works.
YouTube on the TV
Why no network filter can remove YouTube’s ads on a TV.
YouTube’s ads come from the same servers as its videos. There is no ad server to refuse: blocking those servers would stop the videos too. That’s why a DNS filter, AdHole’s, a Pi-hole or any other, lets them through.
The player doesn’t choose its ads: YouTube’s server sends it a list, and it obeys. On your computer, AdHole asks the server, on behalf of your browser’s player, for an answer that holds none. On a TV, that would mean installing a certificate on it and sending its YouTube app through AdHole, which a TV doesn’t allow.
So on the TV, YouTube keeps its ads. On the computer, the same videos start without them.
- No answer doubleclick.net An ad network: on the lists
- Answered *.googlevideo.com YouTube’s video servers: the video, and its ads
The TV’s own settings
Turn off ad personalisation on the TV too.
Your TV has its own privacy settings: viewing information, interest-based ads, an advertising identifier. Turning them off costs nothing and needs no software.
Their names and places change with each brand and each year, and we only describe menus we’ve seen. Look in the settings, under privacy, terms and conditions, or support.
The two add up: the TV’s settings ask it to collect less, and AdHole stops it from reaching the servers on its lists.
Questions
The usual questions.
Does AdHole remove YouTube ads?
On the computer where it’s installed, yes: in your browser, videos start without ads. On a TV, a console or in the YouTube app on your phone, no: there, ads come from the same servers as the video, and nothing on the network can tell them apart. An Android phone with the app is a third case: in its browsers, once page cleaning is on and the root certificate is installed, YouTube video ads go the way they do on a computer — but not in the YouTube app.
Does it protect my TV, console and phones?
Yes, once you set their DNS to the computer’s address in their network settings. They then lose the ads and trackers served from ad servers, but not YouTube’s. The computer must stay on, and on Windows its network must be set to Private. An Android phone has a second way: install the app on it, and it is filtered wherever it goes.
An app on my TV stopped working. What do I do?
Open the dashboard and look at what the TV asked for just before: allow that name with one line in your rules. Or set the TV’s DNS back to automatic: it’s back to how it was.
What happens when my computer is off?
The TV loses internet until the computer is back on, or until you set its DNS back to automatic. An always-on Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 running AdHole avoids that.
Does it work on Roku, Fire TV or other TV boxes?
We haven’t tested them, so we don’t describe them. If a device lets you type a DNS address by hand, the principle is the same, but we can’t tell you what it removes there.
What it doesn’t do
- Remove ads in the YouTube app, or the ads of Netflix, Prime Video and Twitch.
- Set up your TV for you: its DNS is set by hand, once.
- Keep the TV online while your computer is off or asleep.
- Tidy the screen: an ad that doesn’t load can leave an empty space.
Free, for Windows, Linux and Android.
One program on your computer, one app on your phone. No account, no ads, nothing to pay.
- Free
- No account
- No ads
- Windows, Linux, Android