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Nelson Gaske

Nvidia Shield TV Pro (Now with Less Ads)

·408 words·2 mins
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Getting Rid of Launcher Ads on Nvidia Shield TV Pro
#

A few years ago, Android on the Nvidia Shield starting putting ads directly in the launcher (even if you rolled back to earlier android versions). They are using hard-coded addresses (so DNS blocking like Pihole doesn’t work) so it was proving not trivial to stop the stock app launcher from showing ads.

Recently the ads have gotten a bit worse so I decided to check online if there was a viable solution to get rid of ads on the home screen.

Happily there are a few launchers that could replace the stock Android launcher (I ended up going with Projectivy Launcher), there are just a few steps to ensure that the stock launcher does not come back. Install your desired launcher before moving on.

Install Projectivy Launcher now before moving on. We are going to turn off the default launcher, which can cause ‘interesting’ behaviors if there is not another launcher

Following along with this reddit post, I made a quick direnv setup for NixOS to pull the android tools and quickly turn off the stock launcher and recommendations.

.envrc
# 

if grep -q "NixOS" /etc/os-release; then
  use nix
fi

shell.nix
# 

{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
pkgs.mkShell {
  buildInputs = [
    pkgs.android-tools
  ];

  shellHook = ''
    echo "Android tools environment activated!"
  '';
}

Once you activate the direnv with ‘direnv allow’, you follow the reddit post to enable debug mode and run these commands

adb connect x.x.x.x

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tvlauncher

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tvrecommendations

If you have another launcher installed, it should just pop up now and you are in the clear!

Side Quest to defeat the Shield TV remote Netflix Button
#

I don’t know about you, but the hardware bloat of the Netflix button on the Nvidia Shield remote does not inspire me.

Since the remote does not have a mute button, I had a thought about how I could repurpose the Netflix button to be a mute button.

Turns out it is super easy:

  • Download Button Remapper, enable accessibility for it (critical to allow it to remap buttons)

  • Add Buttons - Add the Netflix button (my shield says it is remote button_12), then Select Media -> Mute as the single tap option

Now the Netflix button with be the mute button, and Netflix won’t pop up and make you sad. Win, win, win imo.