I recently became frustrated with my Samsung TV showing adverts and flicking between multiple apps. Having recently set up a UK VPN on my router, I was also looking for a way to watch iPlayer on my TV rather than through the computer.
- Sideload the iPlayer app onto Android TV/NVidia Shield
- Route the required domains and DNS requests through the UK VPN
- Watch iPlayer content
Install the iPlayer app onto Android TV/NVidia Shield
This is relatively easy to do. I used the iPlayer APK, specifically version 0.4.7. I used the Downloader app to download the APK and install. Reddit users reported more recent versions of the app did not work.
Route iPlayer traffic via your UK VPN
I have a Ubiquiti dream machine which has a VPN Client built in. I use this VPN Client to connect to a UK VPN. Since I don’t want to use a UK VPN for all my internet traffic, I am able to use the traffic routing feature to route certain traffic via this VPN Client.
Create a traffic route, matching the following domains;
- bbc.co.uk
- bbci.co.uk
- bbc.com
- a1.api.bbc.co.uk
- mybbc-analytics.files.bbci.co.uk
You will also need to make sure your DNS settings on the Android TV/NVidea shield route via the VPN. To do this, I set my Android DNS to my router’s IP. You can do this by;
- Settings
- Wi-Fi
- Advanced Options
- IP Settings
- Switch to Static
- Enter your IP, Gateway (router), network prefix length (24 most likely) and then enter the DNS of your router.
