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

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

#161

Post by crooked-v »

jader201 wrote: post #147
djrogers wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is seems almost as bad too. There's recommendations that I don't want. The main AppleTV UI doesn’t have any recommendations for streaming apps you don’t own - the only thing that’s even close are when you highlight one of the apps in the top bar.

My “Up Next”, which is Apple’s integration to show shows you’ve been watching when the Apple TV app is selected in the top bar, is polluted constantly with MLB games that I’ve not figured out how to disable. Sometimes I have to skip 3 or 4 games in the bar to find a show I watched yesterday. And I never watch MLB games nor do I have the app installed (clicking the games brings me to install the MLB app).

Settings -> Apps -> TV, turn off the sports recommendations in there. Those are off by default, so you must have turned them on at some point.

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

#162

Post by tristor »

I have the highest-end version of the nVidia Shield on my bedroom TV and I bought one for my parent's RV and their apartment, because it was a simple and straightforward device to use streaming services which was more privacy respecting than a smart TV. With this change, I've had my parents return the one I just recently got for their apartment and I've bought them an Apple TV instead.

There is no excuse for this, and the fact nVidia allowed this Google-originating change to be pushed without any concept of Product ownership or focus on the experience tells me that nVidia doesn't care about the Shield brand and it's not even worth trying to keep these around. They'll be slowly phased out in every use case I've recommended them to numerous people by Apple TVs or other devices which respect their users.

Good UX is not a choice, it is mandatory when you design and curate a product, and users will walk away if you screw it up. Showing ads to me on something I paid for with a silent update is atrocious and unethical.

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

#163

Post by swiley »

syntheticnature wrote: post #65
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.

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

This is what I do. Many streaming services artificially degrade the quality and sometimes refuse to work at all when I do this.

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

#164

Post by criddell »

tyingq wrote: post #71
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.

>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...…

> Nobody is going to pay for a premium device that shoves ads in your face.

I have a Sony Bravia TV and it uses Android TV as well. It's had the homescreen ads for a while now and I really dislike it.

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00225587

The funny thing about that page is that the image used to be animated. The first ad is for some crime show and has blood splatter in the background (you can still see it if you look closely) and the next ad is for Elmo. If you look, you can see the word Elmo where the next ad was fading in.

Who thought it was a good idea to advertise a bloody crime show on the same screen that you are going to target the Elmo audience and then use that for promotion?

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

#166

Post by jader201 »

crooked-v wrote: post #161
jader201 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My “Up Next”, which is Apple’s integration to show shows you’ve been watching when the Apple TV app is selected in the top bar, is polluted constantly with MLB games that I’ve not figured out how to disable. Sometimes I have to skip 3 or 4 games in the bar to find a show I watched yesterday. And I never watch MLB games nor do I have the app installed (clicking the games brings me to install the MLB app).

Settings -> Apps -> TV, turn off the sports recommendations in there. Those are off by default, so you must have turned them on at some point.

Yeah, I’ve done that plus one other remotely related setting. Doesn’t help.

E.g. “Show sports scores” is off, “Games in Up Next” is off, and “Exciting Games” is off.

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

#167

Post by revscat »

sdflhasjd wrote: post #158
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Apple's fault how?

Not that it's Apple's fault that YouTube has ads. But Apple don't seem to allow any alternative YouTube clients on the store.

Hm. My immediate counter to your point was “that is because YouTube doesn’t allow anyone to use their api,” but now that I think about it I’m not so sure.

Is it Apple keeping non-Google-produced YouTube clients off the App Store, or is it Apple? Maybe both?

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

#168

Post by Teledhil »

tyingq wrote: post #71
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.

>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...…

The Android TV Launcher is this one app, with an even worse score: 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

#169

Post by mumblemumble »

munk-a wrote: post #160
mumblemumble wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose it's the price of convenience? For my part, I pay a lot less for just Internet, borrow DVDs from the public library, and occasionally pay a la carte to stream specific shows I particularly want to watch. It's definitely less expensive in the long run, but my real motivation is that I really hate ads, enough so that I'm willing to put up with lower definition (the library doesn't do as much in the way of blu…

I don't know if it's fair to describe cable TV as convenience. Netflix costs about a tenth as much as cable TV (though it does require Internet so if you'd otherwise not have Internet maybe bump it up to half the cost) and provides a generally better service. People are paying out of laziness.

The thing about Netflix is that it's become very homogenous. If you don't like the kind algorithmically-optimized stuff that the people who produce Netflix Original Series are doing, then it's good for about as much time as it takes to finish binging the first couple Star Trek series and The Great British Baking Show, and then you're just sort of done with it.

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

#170

Post by tomc1985 »

ossusermivami wrote: post #74

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.

I did this with odroids instead of RPI and got sick of dealing with issues. Shield TV has been great as a kodi-and-netflix-and-nothing-else box up until now.
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