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After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

arstechnica.com

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Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#51

Post by sharkweek »

ensignavenger wrote: post #44
whalesalad wrote: post #7

The trick is to never give your TV access to the internet and to pair it with an Apple TV. If you buy a TV and it won't even boot or work without an internet connection - return it and get a different one.

Do Apple TVs not display ads? I have Google TV devices, in part because I can install what er I want on them, including 3rd part launchers that don't have ads.

Apple TV advertises its own content when you are on the homepage (even as a non-Apple TV+ subscriber so it's a little more aggressive than like sitting on the Netflix homepage as a subscriber) but as far as I can tell nothing more than that.

Been a user for the last 7-8 years and I love the UX.

Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#52

Post by jampekka »

treypitt wrote: post #20
jampekka wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromecast as well. Everything shall be enshittified.

Chromecast has ads now? I just bought one because it was cheaper to buy a new chromecast 4k plus ethernet adapter, than replace my apple tv remote

Chromecast with Google TV has half of the screenspace for streaming service ads. In some locations they have other ads too. This can't be removed even with the "Apps only" mode.

I was kind of forced to get a Chromecast, because they actively block independent receiver implementations, and the prevalent Cast button in Android apps is used by other inhabitants.

This should obviously be illegal, and probably is, but megacorps are above the law.

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-tv-ads/

Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#54

Post by ceejayoz »

whalesalad wrote: post #7

The trick is to never give your TV access to the internet and to pair it with an Apple TV. If you buy a TV and it won't even boot or work without an internet connection - return it and get a different one.

At some point they're gonna put a cheap cellular modem or something like Amazon Sidewalk in all new TVs.

Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#55

Post by fatherzine »

Not sure why to expect TV-over-Internet be any different than TV-over-cable: 1 minute of ads for every 3 minutes of content. Sure, for some years the industry held back the ads in a capital fueled chase for market share. Yet at some point capital requires returns, and so the ads spigot will eventually be turned wide open.

Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#56

Post by baq »

snoman wrote: post #43
jdminhbg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. People always complain that the AppleTV is too expensive vs the competition, but stuff like this is exactly why.

I’ve had Roku, FireTV, and Chromecast, and I have had hdcp and/or performance issues with everything but Apple TV. I hate that I’ve turned into something of an fanboy but Apple TV follows the same old story from Apple: expensive but it consistently just works.

Same reason I've become an iPhone fanboy - the alternatives were simply unbearable at some point and the iPhone... was ok. Apparently, consistently ok is a high bar.

Can't say that about macOS, though - it's consistently below expectations for me.

Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#57

Post by ace2358 »

sharkweek wrote: post #51
ensignavenger wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do Apple TVs not display ads? I have Google TV devices, in part because I can install what er I want on them, including 3rd part launchers that don't have ads.

Apple TV advertises its own content when you are on the homepage (even as a non-Apple TV+ subscriber so it's a little more aggressive than like sitting on the Netflix homepage as a subscriber) but as far as I can tell nothing more than that. Been a user for the last 7-8 years and I love the UX.

If you count the top-app-row preview as an ad, maybe there are ads. If you move the tv+ app off the top row you don’t see anything by Apple.

There are no app suggestions or notifications on Apple TV (or at least I turned them off about 8 years ago).

I have been happily streaming media off my computer with Apple TV and have never had a single issue with it.

Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#58

Post by troupo »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #50

But can you use the TV as a dumb monitor and just supply HDMI input from some other device? I.e. the input stays selected across powerdowns, and no GUI/ads come up? Other "Fire" devices are a great deal. I have 2021-ish Fire HD8 and HD10 tablets, that merely needed a de-amazonification script from xda-developers to turn into "almost completely normal" vanilla Android tablets, Play Store and all, and have been very sa…

> But can you use the TV as a dumb monitor and just supply HDMI input from some other device

Most "other devices" are also filled with ads

Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#59

Post by RajT88 »

speedgoose wrote: post #12
RajT88 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll notice I did not mention what we do with it when done with it. Point of fact, we use the (many, free) electronics recycling programs available to us in our area. Thanks for making dumb and uncharitable assumptions.

Recycling the TV is better than not doing it, but not wasting it is even better for the environment.

You'll be happy to know we're not wasting it. We use that TV frequently.

Re: After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads

#60

Post by fckgw »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #50

But can you use the TV as a dumb monitor and just supply HDMI input from some other device? I.e. the input stays selected across powerdowns, and no GUI/ads come up? Other "Fire" devices are a great deal. I have 2021-ish Fire HD8 and HD10 tablets, that merely needed a de-amazonification script from xda-developers to turn into "almost completely normal" vanilla Android tablets, Play Store and all, and have been very sa…

There are some TVs with FireOS built in, but this article is mainly talking about the FireTV sticks and such. That's your primary content device, you cannot bypass the ads no matter your TV.
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