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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

#241

Post by stalfosknight »

graphe wrote: post #195
kkielhofner wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> same old story from Apple: expensive but it consistently just works. Not to mention at least you know where they're hitting you - up front, on the hardware. It's like the people that complain about a Macbook being 20% more (or whatever), buying a PC-something, and then coming back complaining that Windows is loaded with ads or Linux has all kinds of issues on it. I'm with you - I went from being a die-hard Linux de…

Apple works unless you need something specific that every other devices supports but apple doesn't. I've never had a great experience with any laptop but at least I can't say I didn't get screwed on the price most of the time (non apple times). Who remembers how apple didn't admit or fix the Nvidia GPU on their laptop for years but it was easy to just get a new ipod?

That nVidia GPU issue was a design flaw on nVidia's part that nVidia refused to take responsibility for.

The problem is that normal use and wear and tear over time would lead to the GPU physically failing, leading to a non-bootable system and necessitating a whole new logic board.

Apple had a long standing special service program of covering (very expensive) logic board replacements for all of those MacBook Pros that were usually well out of of warranty¹ because Apple gave a damn about making it right whereas nVidia refused to even acknowledge the issue.

Source: I was a Mac Genius at an Apple Store from 2008 to 2013.

1) https://www.macrumors.com/2017/05/20/apple-ends-2011-macbook...

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

#242

Post by disposition2 »

gosub100 wrote: post #217
joezydeco wrote: post #88

If you own a FireTV stick or display you'll notice that the FreeVee streaming app has started to become more and more prominent. It's deceptively simple - they are taking old shows like Murder She Wrote and streaming them non-stop on a "channel" much like the old terrestrial broadcast networks did. They're solving the streaming problem for older customers that don't grok Netflix or Hulu. These shows take pseudo-comme…

I recently bought a "smart TV" and I was pleased to see that it comes with essentially 'cable TV' (IPTV, I guess?) without even needing to run an app or set up an account. You just click CH+/- or guide and you watch another channel. One of the channels plays 21 Jump Street (the 80's show) and a few other 80's classics, another 2 just play 80's/90's music videos exclusively. I think it's kind of neat that the internet…

> I think it's kind of neat that the internet has finally come around to make cable TV obsolete.

As a counterpoint, decisions by the FCC (during the previous presidential administration), are effectively making the internet a requirement for OTA TV in the new ATSC 3.0 spectrum.[1]

Here’s hoping we get more consumer focused considerations in the future. The internet features are nice (if you have internet access) but shouldn’t prevent a consumer from accessing OTA ‘out of the box’

1. https://youtu.be/nClxgUunmeE

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

#243

Post by gumballindie »

What is it with this ad madness creeping into products we paid for everywhere? I own the product, i paid for it, now go away. If amazon sold it underpriced that’s their problem, not mine. This practice should be made illegal.

Anyway if you have a playstation laying around plug your tv into that and use that for online content.

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

#244

Post by phinnaeus »

brightball wrote: post #187
snoman wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm using Roku everywhere at this point and haven't run into any issues. Big fan.

I've found the Roku UI to be pretty laggy every time I used it. It seems to be running at 10 FPS or something. Huge turn-off.

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

#245

Post by joezydeco »

cultureswitch wrote: post #223
joezydeco wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think polluting the data with random shit is the way to go. The mix of ads becomes somewhat entertaining, including the knowledge that I'll never buy any of this stuff.

Get ad nauseam if you want to scale this

I'll have to check that out, thanks

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

#246

Post by gosub100 »

disposition2 wrote: post #242
gosub100 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently bought a "smart TV" and I was pleased to see that it comes with essentially 'cable TV' (IPTV, I guess?) without even needing to run an app or set up an account. You just click CH+/- or guide and you watch another channel. One of the channels plays 21 Jump Street (the 80's show) and a few other 80's classics, another 2 just play 80's/90's music videos exclusively. I think it's kind of neat that the internet…

> I think it's kind of neat that the internet has finally come around to make cable TV obsolete. As a counterpoint, decisions by the FCC (during the previous presidential administration), are effectively making the internet a requirement for OTA TV in the new ATSC 3.0 spectrum.[1] Here’s hoping we get more consumer focused considerations in the future. The internet features are nice (if you have internet access) but…

I just watched that video a day or 2 ago. I was pretty surprised to see that, and I agree it makes no sense for the case of broadcast TV. My guess is it's a push from sports networks (90% NFL) and they'll arrive at some "compromise" to only turn it on during NFL and NBA games. Not only is it oppressive to viewers, but I think it's a terrible move for local broadcasters by actively blocking people who are already leaving/left in droves for the internet.

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

#247

Post by swatcoder »

joezydeco wrote: post #88

If you own a FireTV stick or display you'll notice that the FreeVee streaming app has started to become more and more prominent. It's deceptively simple - they are taking old shows like Murder She Wrote and streaming them non-stop on a "channel" much like the old terrestrial broadcast networks did. They're solving the streaming problem for older customers that don't grok Netflix or Hulu. These shows take pseudo-comme…

Linear streaming is central to PlutoTV, which has been around for a while and is available on many platforms.

It’s not really for people “that don’t grok Netflix or Hulu”. That’s one reason, I suppose, but the stronger reasons are:

1. Licensing and cost nonsense that none of us care about.

2. Channel surfing is an entirely different way to engage with low-attention content and has its own place. You may not “grok it” yourself, but the gist is that it greatly reduces the analysis paralysis of picking movies and episodes and doesn’t make you feel like you’re sitting down to watch something from start to finish. You just surf around and leave something and let it play. The lack of control is intentional and positive, and it can be a great avenue for discovery in a world where every on-demand front page has been lost to poor algorithm recommendations.

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

#248

Post by MBCook »

devbent wrote: post #236
MBCook wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBF that’s a higher end TV. I love mine. The lower the cost, the more likely this crud is. If you buy a $250 55” TV you’re (unknowingly) signing up for ads. Sadly, there isn’t much middle ground anymore. Ads and spying, or a ton of money (and spying).

Sony sells TVs that cost just a bit more than the competition but you can easily not opt-in to ads during initial setup (they are not selected by default!). Sadly Google seems to insist on showing YT recommendations to matter what on Google tvs, but you can just opt into "app only mode" and then you get none of that.

I would put Sony in my second category above. High quality TVs, and a price to match.

The fact they use Google gives me pause. My last TV was a Sony with Google and it was slow as dirt (Sony’s fault, since fixed on newer models). And it was a great TV otherwise. But I don’t trust Google not to find a way to shove ads in later.

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

#250

Post by adamomada »

riversflow wrote: post #41
sneak wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple TVs in the default configuration show large video ads for Apple stuff in the hero unit on the homescreen, same as Amazon is being accused of doing in TFA.

One of my favorite parts of AppleTV is that it has those beautiful screensavers.

I have this screensaver on my Fire TV! It’s kind of a super bitch to set up because there’s no UI for it, but if you can use adb, it’s a one-liner to switch screensavers. I think it guides you on how to enable it, or look up their github

Aerial Views https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4PPSNT6

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