Search “VPN for smart TV” and most guides quietly assume you own a Fire Stick or an Android TV, where you install an app and move on. Samsung and LG owners, which is to say the majority of TV owners, get no such app: Tizen and webOS simply don’t support VPN clients.
You still have three real options, and one provider happens to do all three well.
Why your TV can’t just run a VPN app
Samsung’s Tizen and LG’s webOS are closed platforms whose app stores have never admitted VPN clients. There’s nothing to sideload that changes this. So the VPN has to live somewhere else in the chain: in your router, in your DNS settings, or on another device that shares its connection. Each route has a distinct trade-off profile, and picking by trade-off beats picking by habit.
If you do own an Android TV, Apple TV or Fire Stick alongside, the app route is easier and covered in our Android TV and Apple TV guides.
Option 1: Smart DNS, the 5-minute solution
Smart DNS is the feature built for exactly this situation. Your VPN provider gives you DNS server addresses; you enter them in the TV’s network settings; geo-checks now resolve through the provider’s infrastructure, and US Netflix, Peacock or HBO Max open on a TV in Lisbon or Lagos.
What it does: changes your apparent streaming location, with zero speed loss, since no encryption is involved. What it doesn’t: privacy. Traffic is unencrypted and your ISP sees everything; this is a streaming tool, not a security one. (For why that distinction matters, our piece on what your ISP can see is the explainer.)
NordVPN’s SmartDNS, included in every plan, registers your home IP and unblocks US services on the TV in a few minutes of settings work. For most Samsung/LG owners whose actual goal is “American catalog on the big screen,” this is the right tool and the whole project.
Option 2: VPN on the router, the full solution
Install the VPN at the router and every device behind it, TVs included, rides the encrypted tunnel. This is the only route that gives a Samsung or LG TV real VPN treatment: encryption, IP masking and location change at once, plus coverage for consoles and IoT gear as a side effect.
Costs of the route: you need a compatible router (or one flashed with OpenWrt/ASUS Merlin firmware), setup takes an evening the first time, and the whole house shares one exit location unless your router does policy routing. Speed depends on the router’s CPU; modern WireGuard-capable hardware sails past 4K requirements, while a 2015 ISP box won’t. Our router setup guide walks through the whole process.
This is the right choice when privacy matters as much as catalogs, or when several non-VPN-capable devices need covering at once.
Option 3: share a connection from a laptop
The duct-tape method: run the VPN on a Windows laptop or Mac, share its connection over a mobile hotspot or Ethernet, point the TV at it. It works with any VPN, needs no special hardware, and is perfect for a hotel room or a one-evening experiment.
As a permanent setup it’s nobody’s favorite: a computer stays on whenever the TV runs, and wireless-shared bandwidth can dip below 4K needs. Use it to validate that the VPN unlocks what you want before committing to the router project.
Step by step: Smart DNS on Samsung and LG
The concrete version, since TV menus bury everything. On a Samsung TV: Settings, then General, then Network, then Network Status, then IP Settings; switch DNS setting from Automatic to Manual and enter the provider’s two DNS addresses. Restart the TV fully (unplug ten seconds). On an LG TV: Settings, All Settings, Network, your connection, Edit, untick automatic, enter the DNS pair, save, restart.
Before either, activate Smart DNS in your VPN account dashboard, which registers your home IP with the service; this step is what makes the DNS answer for you specifically. After restart, open a US app and verify. Total honest time including finding the remote: ten minutes, once. When your ISP rotates your home IP later, re-validation from the provider dashboard takes one click, which is the entire maintenance burden of the route.
Which VPN to do this with
The provider needs three things at once: top streaming ratings (the TV is for streaming), Smart DNS included, and solid router support with guides and config files. From our comparison, NordVPN is the cleanest fit: Excellent on Netflix, Peacock, HBO Max and Prime in our data, SmartDNS in every plan, OpenVPN and WireGuard router configs, and 5/5 speed so the router route stays fast. Get NordVPN here.
Surfshark is the value alternative with the same three capabilities and unlimited devices, useful when the TV project is part of covering a whole gadget-heavy household. ExpressVPN’s Aircove router is the premium shortcut: a pre-configured VPN router you buy instead of build.
Want to compare all VPNs side by side? Check our full VPN comparison table with scores across 18 criteria.
One more route exists for completeness: casting or AirPlay from a VPN-equipped phone or laptop. It works for a quick session, with the usual casting quirks (some apps block casting of DRM content, and the caster must stay awake). Treat it as the guest-room solution rather than the living-room one.
Common problems and their boring fixes
The smart TV routes fail in predictable ways. Smart DNS suddenly stops unblocking: your home IP changed (most ISPs rotate them), and the provider’s DNS whitelist needs the new one; NordVPN re-validates from your account page in a minute. Router VPN slows everything: check whether the router is doing OpenVPN on a weak CPU, and switch the config to WireGuard, which routinely triples throughput on the same hardware.
Apps on the TV still detect the wrong region after a router change: the TV cached its location, and a full power-cycle (unplug, count to ten) clears more than the menu’s restart option does. And one platform-specific quirk: Samsung TVs tie their app store region to the account’s country, so changing catalogs sometimes requires a separate Samsung account region adjustment, a one-time annoyance no VPN can perform for you. None of these is a reason to abandon a route; they’re the complete list of what goes wrong, which is its own comfort.
Quick decision guide
Just want US catalogs on the TV: Smart DNS, done in five minutes. Want real privacy or whole-home coverage: router. Testing or traveling: laptop sharing. Whichever route, set it up before the match or the season premiere, not during; DNS changes and router reboots have a sense of comedy about timing.
Last word on hardware shopping: if you’re buying a new TV anyway and VPN flexibility matters, an Android TV or Google TV model dissolves this whole article into “install the app.” The workarounds above are for the excellent screens you already own.
Samsung and LG TVs can't run VPN apps, and pretending otherwise wastes evenings. NordVPN is the best VPN for both brands in 2026 because it makes all three workarounds painless: SmartDNS for the quick catalog fix, first-class router support for the full treatment, and Excellent streaming scores so either route actually unblocks what you came for. Pick the route by your goal, not by what a Fire Stick guide assumed you owned.