Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV • Hacker News Board

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#61

Post by beerandt » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:29 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #35

gpspake wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of ad conscious users have been glad to pay the premium price for the Shield because of the ad-free experience. I've had the device for years and this is the first time I've been subjected to ads that I can't remove.

I suspect this took nVidia by surprise as well. I'd be fine if Google just had an opt-out option for these "ads". I can't believe it isn't an option.

Nvidia had been opting out of this launcher update for at least a year, so they knew it was there.

They may have been less aware of the timing of Google over riding it, but they should have at least known enough to be working on an alternative (assuming they wanted to).

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#62

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:30 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #11

sdflhasjd wrote: post #6

My shield updated to this the other day. I'm pretty furious about it, it's not a cheap device, and it's certainly not Google's. To be adding these "features" without asking, irrespective of whatever agreement between me, Nvidia or Google exists, is ridiculous. I know it's in whatever terms I, uh, "accepted", but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Fortunately, I know how to use ADB and just installed ano…

You don't have to bend over and take it, you can throw the device in the garbage. This is what I did with my Alexa hardware the instant it suffixed a routine response to a unit conversion or the weather or something with an ad for some unrelated Amazon service.

[deleted]

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#63

Post by Despegar » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

swiley wrote: post #59

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Apple's fault how?

Pushing people to use "apps" instead of the web where poor behavior just makes your own product crappier.

Websites are unregulated. iOS apps have to abide by Apple's terms. This is exactly why developers are mad about any number of things: paying Apple's commission, but also complying with their privacy dictates.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#64

Post by Bayart » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

sdflhasjd wrote: post #6

My shield updated to this the other day. I'm pretty furious about it, it's not a cheap device, and it's certainly not Google's. To be adding these "features" without asking, irrespective of whatever agreement between me, Nvidia or Google exists, is ridiculous. I know it's in whatever terms I, uh, "accepted", but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Fortunately, I know how to use ADB and just installed ano…

Wouldn't a hosts file or a local DNS[1] or VPN[2][3] with hosts file support solve that without having to switch software ?

I'm using Netguard on Android devices I don't want to root and it's been good. Plus it does per-app firewalling as well.

[1]: https://www.zenz-solutions.de

[2]: https://netguard.me

[3]: https://blokada.org

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#65

Post by syntheticnature » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

swiley wrote: post #59

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Apple's fault how?

Pushing people to use "apps" instead of the web where poor behavior just makes your own product crappier.

If you want a computer connected to your TV instead of a streaming box, you know where to find it.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#66

Post by moepstar » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

I wonder if a Pi-hole with a good adlist could stop those ads from appearing - sadly/luckily i don't own a NVidia Shield.

Maybe someone else can weigh in if that approach does work (maybe with additionally setting up your router to redirect everything DNS back to the Pi-hole)?

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#67

Post by sergiotapia » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:36 PM UTC

What's a better device that plays literally everything with subtitles and doesn't require a transcode from Emby/Plex?

I've had apple tv, roku ultra, and shield. Shield is the only one that plays everything direct streaming.

It sucks that they are butchering this great product.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#68

Post by swiley » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

Despegar wrote: post #63

swiley wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pushing people to use "apps" instead of the web where poor behavior just makes your own product crappier.

Websites are unregulated. iOS apps have to abide by Apple's terms. This is exactly why developers are mad about any number of things: paying Apple's commission, but also complying with their privacy dictates.

Apparently Apple's terms aren't that great for some users.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#69

Post by loosescrews » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

sdflhasjd wrote: post #6

My shield updated to this the other day. I'm pretty furious about it, it's not a cheap device, and it's certainly not Google's. To be adding these "features" without asking, irrespective of whatever agreement between me, Nvidia or Google exists, is ridiculous. I know it's in whatever terms I, uh, "accepted", but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Fortunately, I know how to use ADB and just installed ano…

One aspect of modern hardware products which contain a lot of software is that they need a steady stream of software updates in order to remain useful and functional.

Security updates are essential. Not only is a device full of unpatched vulnerabilities dangerous to use, but as we saw with the recent Western Digital scandal, is a serious risk to the continued functionality of the device.

Because the Shield is a streaming device, interoperability with streaming services is required for continued functionality. The set of useful streaming services changes over time and existing streaming services change their APIs.

Most hardware devices these days get a fairly short software update window and then the device is useless. Would you rather Nvidia/Google abandoned your device? Is funding continued updates with ads such a bad thing?

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#70

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

lucioperca wrote: post #18

Stallman told you so.

Stallman actually helped bring this about. The ad companies all run their massive data farms on open source software.

Stallman and open source helped drive a lot of paid software out of the market because they could not compete with free versions.

For the most part, the paid consumer software market is dead.

Companies will always want to make money, so they “gave away” free software funded by ads and then used free open source software to run their servers serving and targeting ads.