How to remove ads from NVIDIA Shield TV and other Android TV devices

Since a few weeks ago devices with Android TV system as the popular NVIDIA Shield TV and others have received an update of its home screen that includes advertising, let’s see how we can remove it.

With the progressive update of the classic Android TV launcher without advertising to the new Google TV launcher we have seen how content ads have been introduced in video mode, something quite annoying if we are only interested in this launcher to launch certain apps. We have several ways to tackle this problem, from options to mitigate it to others to eliminate it completely by performing certain steps, read on to know them.

MINIMIZE ADVERTISING ON ANDROID TV

If we are not bothered by advertising multimedia content, but if we are bothered by the automatic playback of videos on our home screen we have a simple method to avoid this behavior, we just have to change a few settings.

• We go to: Settings > Device preferences > Home screen.
• Disable:
  – Customize channels > disable everything or what we are not interested in.
  – Disable “Enable video previews“.
  – Disable “Enable audio previews“.

RESTORE THE CLASSIC ANDROID TV LAUNCHER

If our device did not come standard with the Google TV launcher, we can return to the classic launcher by deleting the update, the process is simple. The disadvantage is that we will have to update all the apps manually from time to time.

1. Go to: Google Play > User icon > Settings > Auto update apps > NO update.
2. Go to: Settings > Apps > View all apps > Show system apps.
3. Go to “Android TV Home” app and click on “Uninstall updates“.

USE ALTERNATIVE LAUNCHER

As a definitive alternative method, we can completely replace the Google TV launcher and use our own launcher without advertising. This method requires some knowledge and is not as simple as the previous ones.

1. Install the app Launcher Manager para Android TV / Chromecast TV
2. Install the alternative launcher Leanback Launcher
3. We go to: Settings > Device Preferences > Information / About….
4. We go to the “Compilation” section and click 7 times on this text to activate the “Developer Options“.
5. Go back and go to: “Developer options“.
6. Activate the option “Network Debugging“.
7. Run the Launcher Manager app and click on “Enable custom Launcher“.
8. In the message that appears check “Always allow from this computer” and OK.
9. Press the “Home” button on the controller and select the new Launcher as “Always“.
10. Now we will be able to use the alternative launcher normally.

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