Introducing AdGuard for Android TV

[Ink]

In settings, there is an option to restart. By shutdown, I meant turning the TV off with the remote and the switch.

Troubleshoot by turning off with the remote only.

If Adguard resumes protection by not fully shutting down, then that could be your temporary solution - unless another workaround has been found.

If electricity usage is a concern, there's more tips to lower power consumption in the link below.

2021 Update - OLED and LED TV Power Consumption and Electricity Cost

We noticed another trend with the Max Power Consumption: the 4k TVs that require the most power are also some of brightest, which are all LEDs. Even if you get an LED TV, it doesn't mean it will need less power than OLED if you constantly watch HDR content at its max brightness.

 

[rashmi]

Troubleshoot by turning off with the remote only.

I tested it a few times, restarting, shutting down, and powering off with the remote. AdGuard starts in off mode with the TV (in all tests) if I press the back button on the remote to exit the AdGuard screen. AdGuard's startup with the TV was inconsistent (in all tests) if I pressed the home button on the remote to move from the AdGuard screen.

 

[rashmi]

@SeriousHoax Any browser recommendations for Android TV?

 

[rashmi]

Any browser recommendations for Android TV?

I tried three TV browsers: TV Bro, BrowseHere, and JioSphere. TV Bro is a basic Android TV browser. BrowseHere and JioSphere offer more features. JioSphere is better. It's Chrome-based and includes Secure DNS, ad blocking, and some Chrome settings. The ad blocker uses Adblock Plus. Settings have more filter options.

 

[SeriousHoax]

I tried three TV browsers: TV Bro, BrowseHere, and JioSphere. TV Bro is a basic Android TV browser. BrowseHere and JioSphere offer more features. JioSphere is better. It's Chrome-based and includes Secure DNS, ad blocking, and some Chrome settings. The ad blocker uses Adblock Plus. Settings have more filter options.

I tried TV Bro, but it hasn't been updated in more than a year. So, it's an abandoned project I guess. I tried one or two others but didn't have good experience. AdBlocking is what I'm looking for. I tried Firefox, Brave, Edge but of course they don't support Android TV so couldn't make them work properly.
Thanks for mentioning JioSphere. I will try it out.
If Android TV allowed HTTPS filtering by AdGuard then that would've made life easier.

 

[rashmi]

Thanks for mentioning JioSphere. I will try it out.

I haven't tested JioSphere much, but the ad blocker seems effective, except on YouTube. On YouTube, its ad-blocking capabilities are comparable to an ad-blocking DNS. Let me know your experience with JioSphere. Jio is one of my ISPs.

I reinstalled AdGuard on TV, as my Hotstar (now JioHotstar) subscription started showing ads. AdGuard successfully blocked ads in JioHotstar. I'm currently using AdGuard's ad-blocking servers in its DNS protection module.

 

[SeriousHoax]

I haven't tested JioSphere much, but the ad blocker seems effective, except on YouTube. On YouTube, its ad-blocking capabilities are comparable to an ad-blocking DNS. Let me know your experience with JioSphere. Jio is one of my ISPs.

I reinstalled AdGuard on TV, as my Hotstar (now JioHotstar) subscription started showing ads. AdGuard successfully blocked ads in JioHotstar. I'm currently using AdGuard's ad-blocking servers in its DNS protection module.

I haven't had the time to experiment JioSphere on the tv yet. I will also install AdGuard again since it has its usefulness even without HTTPS filtering. On my Android phone for example, I see that the two sports score checking apps that I use Fotmob and Cricbuzz use (graph.facebook.com) to serve all/some of their ads. As you might know, graph.facebook.com is used for loading non-ad related facebook contents also. So, I can't block it at DNS level but AdGuard can block them at app level which is very useful and could serve similar purpose on the tv as well.

 

[SeriousHoax]

@rashmi I installed AdGuard on the TV again today and also tried JioSphere after that. My main purpose for the browser was to watch sports on stream sites. Previously it was basically impossible to due to constant popup while clicking the play button but today with JioSphere and its adblocker I was able to watch. So NextDNS + AdGuard + JioSphere with AdBlock did the job for me

 

[rashmi]

@SeriousHoax, AdGuard states "VPN" will appear on the top right of the home screen when you install the local VPN. It doesn't appear for me. What about your TV?

 

[SeriousHoax]

@SeriousHoax, AdGuard states "VPN" will appear on the top right of the home screen when you install the local VPN. It doesn't appear for me. What about your TV?

Same, no VPN icon for me.