I don't know if this is the correct community to post this. I have a Smart TV from a Greek manufacturer named TurboX. Not Android TV, Smart TV. This means that it has Internet access, has some pre-installed apps, but I can't install any other apps on it. The menus thankfully don't have any ads. However, the Youtube app has. I highly doubt there is any way to remove those, but if you guys know or found any, can you let me know?
If you can not install anything, your only choice is probably to set up a pihole or something similar on your network.
Edit: Some models seem to have advanced settings, where you can change the DNS - you could try to use adguard dns servers, or any DNS adblocker you want to use.
Weird how people are saying it should work, lol. Blocking YouTube ads with pihole most definitely does not work. Cannot work even, it's just how YouTube works.
I'm afraid that using something like a googletv stick (or nvidia shield etc) and installing smarttube is your best bet.
Probably a smoother experience than the built in OS too. Hoping for a new Shield with the upcomming Switch so I can leave yet another Google product behind
Check your blocklist and keep in mind that YouTube is testing server side ads muxed into the media streams, which will not be blocked by traditional adblocking techniques.
My pi-hole has almost 1.4mil+ domains blocked. It doesn't work on most streaming services. At least in my configuration. It absolutely works everywhere else. And I do have a Roku device in one of the kids rooms. It's one of the biggest offenders with blocked requests. Telemetry I'd assume, attempted at least.
Maybe not with your default lists enabled, you may need to expand. You could also try AdGuard and see if you get any better results with their defaults if you already have the Pihole in place.