Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

gizmodo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 302 posts

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

#71

Post by tyingq »

gpspake wrote: post #12
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…

My hope is that Nvidia will just develop a launcher. I think a lot of people will jump ship to third party launchers because of this, though, and the damage will be done. Then we just wait for an HN post about thousands of Shield devices being hacked because users installed launchers from who knows where.

>My hope is that Nvidia will just develop a launcher

I don't see that they have a choice. Nobody is going to pay for a premium device that shoves ads in your face. Roku has ads, but they are less aggressive, so I imagine they would start picking up Nvidea customers.

The bad review bombing hit both nVidea apps and Google's AndroidTV launcher pretty hard:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nvidia.teg...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

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

#72

Post by Waterluvian »

Speaking of this, YouTube changed recently for me and now unskippable ads are 15 seconds and if you watch them on a chromecast you can’t skip them from your phone anymore. You have to go into “remote control mode” and navigate the on-screen UI.

Nothing grinds my gears worse than stuff you buy and integrate into your life unnecessarily degrading in performance/behaviour.

I might actually be about done with YouTube, which was. Shocking realization.

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

#73

Post by j45 »

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…

I’d love a link on how to replace the launcher. I have enjoyed my shields and it is now gaudy like ads results on search.

Apple TV is less intrusive with ads in the interface and during the viewing experience.

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

#74

Post by ossusermivami »

I switched over kodi+torrents over an RPI because of this, I would have been an happy with android tv and whatever streaming service. Companies spend their times screwing their customers, so if you screw me I screw you! and I have my conscience for me.

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

#75

Post by gmfawcett »

loosescrews wrote: post #69
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 strea…

> 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?

Personally, I'd rather that consumers didn't buy into false dichotomies such as this one. You should expect more from your vendors.

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

#76

Post by xenihn »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #70
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 o…

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

>they “gave away” free software funded by ads

Proprietary software isn't free software. Free doesn't just mean free as in no cost to use.

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

#77

Post by pdimitar »

I might be the dumbest observer on these trends around here but does it seem to somebody else that this is a normal part of the end-of-life lifecycle of many devices and that it usually goes like this...

- "Sir, sales are falling... we actually haven't had new sales in months".

- "How much does it cost to support the infrastructure for these devices?"

- "X million a month".

- "Feck it. Cram ads into them, we're not supporting those things for free!"

...or is it just me?

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

#78

Post by agloeregrets »

moepstar wrote: post #66

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)?

I can answer this, I have a piHole and Chromecast with Google TV The article is mixing up the types of banners seen here. The recommendation hero row is full of recommendations tailored to you based on watch history. Google however can fill the first slot with a targeted content ad (notably lately, Black Widow on Disney+). My piHole absolutely blocks the first slot and leaves it with an unsightly blank space, the rest of the content remains.

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

#79

Post by slownews45 »

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…

I use apple TV all the time and I've yet to see an ad. Meanwhile both the TV itself (gone) and other devices seem to push ads all the time.

When we say Apple is as bad - what are we talking about?

Inside the individual apps obviously developers do push things.

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

#80

Post by TingPing »

Scaevolus wrote: post #20
gpspake wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hope is that Nvidia will just develop a launcher. I think a lot of people will jump ship to third party launchers because of this, though, and the damage will be done. Then we just wait for an HN post about thousands of Shield devices being hacked because users installed launchers from who knows where.

Supposedly part of the Android TV certification requirements include only using their launcher.

Is that required for the play store, or just branding as "Android TV"?
Post reply on HN