No, this is not a video of a duck!

i've been using DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a very long time.  Recently I downloaded the DuckDuckGo browser for my devices.

One of the features in the browser you can enable is called Duck Video.  It removes the Google/YT ads from videos you watch without paying the extortion fee YT demands from you for the same ad removal.

Thought I'd share that. 

Just go to the DuckDuckGo.com downloads and install the browser, then open the browser settings and turn on Duck Video.

Update:

There's no app that I can find for the Samsung Smart TV yet, and my FireTv stick died.  I've been okay using the Samsung's apps for everything else without a fireTV stick, so that's been a good thing.

There are tools for installing Android apps onto the FireTv stick.  i did that before for some movie server app -- can't recall the name.  There are instructions online for installing the DuckDuckGo browser (from now on "DDG").

Anyway, I'm able to use my Samsung Galaxy phone's Smart view in settings to display my phone on my TV.  I launch the DDG browser, navigate to the YT site, find the video I want, and just play as normal in the Duck Player.

If I want to interact with the YT video (likes, comments, etc.) there is the normal YouTube logo on the bottom bar on the right.  When I want to go back to the video, I just hit the phone's back button 1 or 2 times.

Every single video I've watched the last 2 days were 100% ad-free!!

I can't use the TV remote to control the player on the phone -- I use it for volume only.  The phone is within reach, so not a biggie.

Brave browser also blocks YT ads, but you need to update it every couple of weeks to get the latest workaround

Brave browser also blocks YT ads, but you need to update it every couple of weeks to get the latest workaround

i didn't have very good experiences with Brave blocking the ads.  That's been my primary browser up until last week.

The support forums are saturated with a huge number of threads complaining of the browser no longer blocking YT ads.  Sometimes it takes downloading the latest version, often a beta version, or jumping through hoops to clear cookies and history, reinstalling extensions, and deleting/reinstalling the same version fixed it in most cases.

The one glitch I don't accept the fix for is launching the browser in administrator mode.  Giving any application administrator rights is a risk, but giving a browser that accesses almost every server on the Internet relevant to your needs full control of your operating system is crazy.

That's the IT Security person in me saying, "You're kidding me!"  That's not a fix or work-araound.  That's a huge user-created problem in the name of making the application function.

i don't know if Brave browser advertises this feature or not, but the DDG browser doesn't allow any cookies for Google, YT and Amazon to use to track your interests and buying habits.

That's a bonus.