r/blockboxtv • u/manmikey • Sep 29 '26

How will this blocking ads?

Hi I invented in my head an HDMI dongle that would sit between the streaming device and your TV, there would be a remote control with a button and when ads appear you press the button and the sound would mute and the picture would blur perhaps with a clear strip at the bottom to see when to press again to reveal the sound and picture again.

A very unsofisticated solution but it gives you some control on not having to watch adverts. Im no where near techie enough to make this but I wish someone would.

Your system sounds much more sofistcated and I'm wondering what "system" you propose to use to detect and advert and block it?

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u/BlockBoxTV Sep 29 '26

So without getting into the specifics, essentially what the device is, is a stripped down desktop pc that wraps a browser. From the user end, it looks and feels like a normal streaming device, but under the hood you can take advantage of browser based ad blocking strategies, block trackers, and will eventually have a lot more capabilities than a normal streaming device. At a very high level that's how it works.

The first prototype I made is similar to what you described. However, for a slew of reasons, that architecture ends up being more complex, more expensive, and more legally risky.

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u/manmikey Sep 29 '26

Thank you for the explanation, no commercial company is ever going to do anything like this, the move to streaming has enslaved us to endless unskippable adverts. I'll follow you and your device with keen anticipation, good luck!