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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

#221

Post by murph-almighty »

Teledhil wrote: post #171
Bayart wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm using pihole and blocking Google DNS and yet my tv was showing that awful banner. I think google serves the ads using some not-only-ads domain.

It could be that you haven't added the domain they're served from onto your blacklist.

A weird side story: I had a situation where an app on my Roku TV would crash if it failed to serve an add from a blocked domain (there were several but they mostly pointed to google ad domains). I actually _had_ to allow ads from the domains they called.

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

#222

Post by salamandersauce »

ipaddr wrote: post #194
munk-a wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Netflix is worth 10 times less. Netflix thinks a season is 10 episodes or less. Popular shows get cancelled a few get kept but seasons take years to come out. The availability of content goes down every year. I'm not sure it's worth what they are charging for compared to Prime, etc With cable you get to pick a channel and let them broadcast to you. You don't select the next episode you select a channel. The benefit o…

Local channels can be had for free with a decent antenna usually. And you can get TV tuners that record to external HDDs for about $30. Live content for free!

Netflix also now has a "play something" mode that's basically shuffle but takes into account what you've already been watching/watched.

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

#224

Post by babypuncher »

swiley wrote: post #68
Despegar wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How so?

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

#225

Post by sneak »

emodendroket wrote: post #179
ipaddr wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some cases you be forced to. Discovering a hidden camera that takes random photos and send them for audience verification might be one reason I would drop a product.

Well, maybe, but that's a different claim.

Google, the vendor in question here, has been previously busted putting hidden microphones in their hardware.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a264489...

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

#226

Post by Aissen »

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.

What makes you think NVIDIA did not opt into those ads, and is getting a cut of the revenue?

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

#227

Post by thewebcount »

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?

I refuse to because in this case removing the ads doesn't solve the other half of the problem, which is tracking you to show you ads in other services that you can't pay for. I don't want ads anywhere, but if I pay for YouTube, Google will absolutely use the information I give them about videos to show me ads when I use search or maps, or any other of their products. I'm not interested in any of their ads anywhere and I'm not interested in having my activities tracked. I get no value from it. (And as such, I've stopped using their services entirely except when someone sends me a link to something they want me to see. When that happens, I use a quarantined browser with ad blocking.)

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

#228

Post by dahart »

toxik wrote: post #207
pdimitar wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Do we have a free press? ;)

One thing to remember here is that reviews on an App Store are not public speech, they are always subject to censorship rules and always have been, because they are using a private for-profit service under a license agreement. It would be a different thing for the corporations you’re talking about to be able to censor criticism in the newspaper or on other people’s websites, but that’s not what’s happening here.

There’s also a legitimately difficult question here too. It has in fact happened that apps have gotten unfairly review-bombed, in response to public opinion, for third party reasons outside the seller’s control (Nvidia shield?), and also because of businesses playing dirty (look at Amazon and Chinese sellers for many examples of nasty review shenanigans). It is fair, and I would even say necessary, for the hosting company of a marketplace to be able to exercise discretion and editorial powers. It will always depend on the specifics of each case.

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

#229

Post by bserge »

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…

I am beginning to go insane from YouTube ads, but in this case I'll say those reviews should be considered illegitimate.

It is rather easy to start a negative review campaign, but no one ever participates in a good review campaign. There's no rage in that, that's why.

Inciting people to give 1 star reviews quickly snowballs into even people who never used the app doing it. Where's the fairness in that?

I am watching one of these social meltdowns with a Chinese game that just launched. After successfully bringing it to 2.6 points on Google Play, people are now calling for everyone to stop (because it's not that bad) and remember to change their reviews if devs address the problems.

Now the latter is never happening. People did the hormone let go all over the app on Play store, they're not cleaning that up.

All because of a reduced amount of rewards compared to the Chinese version.

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

#230

Post by thewebcount »

makecheck wrote: post #204

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!

This drives me so crazy. Glad to see I'm not the only one. When Netflix finally gave the option to turn it off, I did it within minutes of learning of the feature. I understand droves of others did the same.
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