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Youtube on smart TVs

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PeterLiljedahl

Occasional Visitor
Does anybody know how these built-in youtube apps work in smart TVs?.
I have an almost 10 year old Sony TV and it doesn't like being blocked using Diversion
but I have to add an extra pixelsrv instance IP which TheLonelyCoder nicely provided to bypass filtering
and therefore can reach whatever it wants to reach.
If trying to use the built-in youtube app without this bypass it will close down and generate an internal browser error.
On some forum they claimed it needed to reach some ad server and if not it generates this error.
I havent used any tool to inspect what it is it wants to connect to yet since my experience is somewhat limited.
I dont know how diversion nor adguard home works, but is it not possible for the router to trick the TV into
thinking it has contacted the ad server?
Is the problem that this communication is encrypted from the beginning and therefore hard to interprete
for both diversion and adguard home?
If this communication is encrypted from the beggining, it means the TV needs to download some certificate
to be able to encrypt/decrypt the communication with the server which means the router could serve this
certificate to the TV instead of the certificate server.
The TV has network setup such that DNS1 and DNS2 could be setup but that doesn't seem to work
when the traffic runs through diversion.
Maybe I am overcomplicating things, maybe the communication is not encrypted at all but instead the
TV wants to reach an ad server which is included in the block list but if this is the case why cant the router
pretend to be this server and just have a keep alive pulse with the TV?

Have a nice weekend
 
Problems with built-in apps happen to most older devices (once they stop receiving firmware updates).
Tips: Sign out from any consent(s) that are not required - they can cause issues by trying to connect to defunct servers!
Try the most innocuous DNS servers (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4) you can for the TV even if everything else is running through Diversion (or similar).
Use the TVs inbuilt DNS server options, but if they are not working then you can try forcing them by setting a DNS in the DHCP Options for the specific device. Or if you just want to address the TV by it's MAC rather than IP by using LAN>DNS Filter (try not to use any of the nuclear functions in there if possible) to forcefully point the TV to a specific DNS.
Also sometimes you may just need to use a smaller (alternate blocking list in diversion) for TVs and the like.
 
Thanks for the reply
I am thinking the youtube app uses its own DNS mechanism outside the TVs DNS settings since whatever I put in these
DNS fields, youtube either works with ads or generates internal browser errors.

In the router settings LAN - DHCP Server - DNS Server (Optional), if I enter for example 9.9.9.9 will this override diversion filtering for this specific device?
Normally I enter 192.168.1.1 in DNS fields so that it goes through diversion.
I think we need to think differenty about blocking ads from now on.
Instead of blocking hard coded requests from various devices, we need to spoof this communication into thinking
they are in contact with their servers otherwise devices could just refuse to operate.
In my case I am thinking youtube will not cooperate since it can not reach/resolve a specific server and therefore quits.
I must admit in my haste I have not yet tried out AMAGHI, maybe it uses other methods to spoof ad-server requests.
Thanks for you answer, I will try some of your suggestions and see if they work out together with AMAGHI.
Regards Peter
 
Whatever the TV is doing its DNS lookups should be showing up in System Log> Active Connections.
Historically I've found Quad9 to cause problems on the Samsung TVs here, but I would probably have been paying more attention to BBC iPlayer (totally paranoid about its DNS) and Netflix than to YouTube. As a result I currently use Cloudflare's 1.0.0.2 & 1.1.1.2 (DoT) or my ISPs filtering DNS servers (I can hear the hyper-security conscious booing and hissing already).

*The living room TV here connects to US Netflix while the GoogleTV plugged into it connects to UK Netflix - using nothing more than a SmartDNS service.
 
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have you tried running a DNS server (unbound) on your router for your network with DNS Filtering?

SmartTVs are only smart for so long, by design. it is better to have a smart part (HTPC) and a display, indvidually as components to be replaced as they are obsoleted.
If you're savvy (as you've indicated - setting up entware/diversion) with making computer things work (a bit of command line), you might consider abandoning the TvOS and building a smart interface for the display part of your TV. I'm building my own little intranet of my (open source) things...it's kinda cool when you dive in a little.

kodi is in active development - I'd wager your TV's OS has been abandoned...I'm a RasPi kodi guy, running xbian. It's been 2+ yrs of relative bliss, but I know that my RasPi 4 will be superceded eventually, and then I'll replace it when kodi has caught up and I wager my plasma display will still be going strong.
Of course, I may develop the taste for 4k content by then, so I'll have to make the move to the much more energy efficient O/LED technology eventually too...also easy.

This path is just like needing to upgrade your router for the more modern/faster devices you've accumulated...consistent progress, one thing leapfrogging and then being lept over...ever forward.
 
Thanks for reply, yes I will look into "Active Connections" - looks like something I have missed, well I havent played around so much to be honest - if it works reasonable, it works :)
Reason is mostly to get rid of these midroll ads in utube reallly.
Preroll ads dont bother me so much and its fair to let these play for the good channels at least.
I am currenly using 9.9.9.9 and 149.112.112.112 for DNS1 and DNS1 but will try some others as well.
I honestly think the built-in youtube doesn't like some IP(s) to be blocked/filtered and so therefore
I will continue to investigate this.
Thanks for the ideas.
 
Does anybody know how these built-in youtube apps work in smart TVs?.
I have an almost 10 year old Sony TV and it doesn't like being blocked using Diversion
but I have to add an extra pixelsrv instance IP which TheLonelyCoder nicely provided to bypass filtering
and therefore can reach whatever it wants to reach.
If trying to use the built-in youtube app without this bypass it will close down and generate an internal browser error.
On some forum they claimed it needed to reach some ad server and if not it generates this error.
I havent used any tool to inspect what it is it wants to connect to yet since my experience is somewhat limited.
I dont know how diversion nor adguard home works, but is it not possible for the router to trick the TV into
thinking it has contacted the ad server?
Is the problem that this communication is encrypted from the beginning and therefore hard to interprete
for both diversion and adguard home?
If this communication is encrypted from the beggining, it means the TV needs to download some certificate
to be able to encrypt/decrypt the communication with the server which means the router could serve this
certificate to the TV instead of the certificate server.
The TV has network setup such that DNS1 and DNS2 could be setup but that doesn't seem to work
when the traffic runs through diversion.
Maybe I am overcomplicating things, maybe the communication is not encrypted at all but instead the
TV wants to reach an ad server which is included in the block list but if this is the case why cant the router
pretend to be this server and just have a keep alive pulse with the TV?

Have a nice weekend
I can't answer your question but I have tried blocking YouTube on my Sony smart tv too and the only way is by blocking it from my WLAN! I am not interested in blocking ads but blocking access so it won't be a constant source of distraction for my daughter.

It doesn't seem to follow DNS changes on the routers I have used and when I give it a fixed IP using the TV config and change the DNS settings with that still no way it will stop working.
 

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