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

#201

Post by 8ytecoder » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:17 PM UTC

Covzire wrote: post #38

wildrhythms wrote: post #13

It's really incredible how the average American home spends some $116/mo for television[1], and is still subjected to 16 minutes of advertisements per hour of entertainment. [1] https://www.doxo.com/insights/united-states-of-bill-pay-doxo...

I haven't had cable for about 15 years now, and commercials are a big reason. But it's not even just the commercials, I just wasn't interested in the six hundreth special on Nostradamus or aliens on the history channel, or shows purportedly about space exploration that are 50% CGI and 49% speculation masquerading as observations or any kind of "reality shows". Yes and nothing makes me feel like my brain cells are com…

It used to be a uniquely American thing. The Discovery and Nat Geo channels in my home country used to be truly educational. (I don't know/think it's the case anymore, sadly.)

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

#202

Post by casperc » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:17 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #72

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, wh…

I use an ad blocker. On mobile (Safati) this means that I get a blank screen for a while where the af would have been playing. Much better than the ad. I can also just reload and the video starts.

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

#203

Post by cwkoss » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:18 PM UTC

sofixa wrote: post #154

Waterluvian wrote: post #72

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, wh…

The correct thing to do for YouTube is to pay for the ad-free Premium version ( which also supports "content creators" more). A lot of people say they'd pay if they were given the option to remove ads, yet surprisingly few people opt to do it for YouTube ( which you can even share with friends and family up to 5 accounts, so it can be a decent deal). Why?

Because Youtube's kafka-esque content moderation policies frequently penalize the creators I care about, so I feel like paying them for ad free solidifies their monopoly. I hope a competitor starts taking marketshare from them soon.

Ads serve as a reminder to watch less youtube.

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

#204

Post by makecheck » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:19 PM UTC

Not just ads but distractions in general. Who are these people who constantly want their TVs blasting random things while looking at a menu? And who decided that these things need to be playing more loudly than the TV show itself!?

When I am trying to select a show or an episode I DO NOT want it auto-playing even a clip of a show (much less an ad). Just be quiet!

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

#205

Post by phreack » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:19 PM UTC

This was actually the reason I didn't buy a Shield last month. Saw the news and noped right out. I've been having some sort of success with Emby and web browsers instead, it's not the prettiest UX but it works and I see no ads, which is great for my mental health.

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

#206

Post by errantspark » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:25 PM UTC

LoveLeadAcid wrote: post #3

Just imagine for one second that you bought a product with a Google OS thinking there won’t be ads and spyware on the thing. It’s frickin’ 2021, just imagine being completely ignorant of Google’s function in this, our current year. Everybody has the right to buy an ad and spyware laden black box and install it in their home. But is it smart?

They're a company which spends billions of dollars hiring the people who play the game of manipulating others at the highest level. They're doing their absolute best to make sure people are ignorant. The average person is completely outmatched.

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

#207

Post by toxik » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #84

tyingq wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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...…

They'll just delete the bad reviews after the initial PR storm subsides. Various big apps have been "caught" in the past doing it. Apparently if you have Google's ear then everything is possible under the table. This also reminds me of the famous BlizzCon where they announced Diablo Immortal -- where the Chinese exec infamously exclaimed (after the audience started booing): "Do you guys not have phones?" -- when the…

This sort of thing is so sad to hear about, because it’s hard evidence that people won’t stop using a platform even when it’s literally exercising censorship to sway their opinions.

We harp on about Chinese having no freedom of press, yet we let these corporations do these things?

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

#208

Post by radley » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:30 PM UTC

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).

I moved top row apps that show promos to the right end. This way I'm not exposed to promos unless I'm on those apps (instead of seeing the promos on my way to another app).

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

#209

Post by tomatotomato37 » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:31 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #72

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, wh…

Ironically this is why I got a Nvidia shield instead of an Apple TV; so I could sideload an alternative YouTube player that has ad blocking. Luckily the same process can be used to get a new launcher too, but the whole thing is turning into such a faff

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

#210

Post by tomjen3 » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 7:31 PM UTC

wildrhythms wrote: post #13

It's really incredible how the average American home spends some $116/mo for television[1], and is still subjected to 16 minutes of advertisements per hour of entertainment. [1] https://www.doxo.com/insights/united-states-of-bill-pay-doxo...

It isn't just spending the money.

I installed a adblocker that stops commercials on youtube and sponsorblock, which skips the sponsored segments and everything becomes so much calmer. Like I can focus on whatever the video is about, but there is also just less stress - and yes I normally skip over both segments but even that isn't close to the same.

Of course we should remember that things sponsored by ads aren't free, we are expected to pay for the product advertised, the cost of the marketing campaign on both sides and it destroys the quality of the product. So in reality the ads are much more expensive.