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

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211–220 of 302 posts

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

#211

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…

> Apple is seems almost as bad too.

This is a frankly ridiculous comparison.

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

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to sideload anything. Just remove all updates of the Android TV launcher in the settings and disable auto updates. You'll get the good ol' launcher.

No unfortunately that may not work. Even if you revert all updates, the old launcher now has the ad. It appears they are doing this from their service side somehow. I removed all updates and disabled updates, but it didn't work. Mine required side-loading a launcher.

You have to also revert the play services app and then disable it, in addition to reverting the launcher app.

I've got some other apks disabled as well, but I think these two are the critical ones.

I haven't had the ads pop up again in over 2 weeks.

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

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an iOS user, there's a couple weird ones: Apple prohibits apps from putting ads in notifications, but sends a notification ad for every new Apple TV+ show. "Rules for thee, but not for me"

Apple no longer prohibits ads in notifications as of March last year https://9to5mac.com/2020/03/04/apple-now-allows-push-notific... Good way to get your notification privileges revoked though. I wish Apple would add granular notification categories within apps so that you could approve particular types of notifications while denying others. A quick google says Android 8 did this in 2017. Apple's policy on this is to…

Essentially, Apple blocked it until they needed it to promote their services in more channels.

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

#214
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.

That's right. I couldn't stream very well from my RPi3, but I can easily play local 1080p videos. We've actually got it hooked up to an old tube TV, so I get 480p when I can.

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

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FWIW, I have all those things on and have never seen anything sports-related. I have changed the settings for the TV app to only show what's in "Up Next" instead of "What to Watch", though. Maybe that's the difference?

Yeah, I’ve had that set to show “Up Next” for a while. I use it mainly as quick access to series I’m watching. Which is why having MLB games show up in the middle of them is frustrating.

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

#216
post #203
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes and no. Paying for Premium and being subscribed for specific content creators gives them money, and isn't impacted by them being demonetised for whatever reason.

Indeed you fuel the whole machine and enable their monopoly though. Content creators don't have much choice anyhow.

That's why personally i pay for Premium ( split between multiple people), have Nebula and force myself to use it for creators on it, and support some on Patreon directly. YouTube is a monopoly and are deeply entrenched - i highly doubt any competitor could dislodge them, but i try to help them nonetheless.

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

#217
post #185
post #52

As soon as the ads appeared I voted with my wallet and ditched my Shield for an Apple TV. So far I don’t have any complaints.

You didn't vote with your wallet, you already bought the shield. Then you bought another device with closed firmware from another company with their own ad service.

Sure I did. I stopped using the device that was displaying ads for services that I don’t subscribe to. Google will no longer receive ad revenue from me.

So far on my Apple TV I’ve only seen promos (“ads”) for movies/shows on services that I already subscribe to. That is within my personal comfort zone.

I wish that I could replace it with a little computer running Linux, but it’s difficult to find compatible hardware and I don’t have the time or patience to fuss around with it right now.

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

#218
post #49

Ads were the main reason why I stopped using my FireTV and switched to an AppleTV. If I pay for the device, and then I also pay for Amazon Prime, I expect atleast the main UI to be Ad-free.

Does prime still have these inbetween episode ads for their other shows? I have been considering going back but I don't want to pay for a service that does that.

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

#219
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Yes there is. Absolutely no closed software ever. That's the rule you use. Even the modem on the phone I'm typing this on is running FOSS firmware. Don't compromise your freedom for convenience, you always end up with neither when you do.

>Yes there is. Absolutely no closed software ever. That's the rule you use. Even the modem on the phone I'm typing this on is running FOSS firmware. Don't compromise your freedom for convenience, you always end up with neither when you do. I don't think I understand fully the point you're trying to make. How does free and open source software prevent a software developer from inserting the code necessary for behavior…

And on the other side, how does not being open-source stop people from patching the bits anyway (maybe not legally, but no one can stop you writing to a storage device you own)? If anything, I think OSS is just a distraction from the real issue, which is companies trying to lock out users from the hardware they own in the name of "security".

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

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I have all those things on and have never seen anything sports-related. I have changed the settings for the TV app to only show what's in "Up Next" instead of "What to Watch", though. Maybe that's the difference?

Yeah, I’ve had that set to show “Up Next” for a while. I use it mainly as quick access to series I’m watching. Which is why having MLB games show up in the middle of them is frustrating.

Is the MLB app installed? Is it in the top row?
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