51–60 of 103 posts
Or even a nice appliance-tier solution. I want to buy an HDMI splitter that when it sees an ad coming through Input 1, switches to Input 2. Switches back to Input 1 when its over.
For folks still stuck with cable TV this is Nobel Prize territory.
While I fully believe Amazon to be capable of making such an atrocious product it could also be that the "mute" function is broken in it's entirety (i.e. unmuting after a couple of seconds). The person just hasn't noticed because they only use the mute function during commercials.
Would be good to know if this is actually true. From a comment in the thread: > Assuming that you tested that this happening only during commercials. When you google the issue, it seems like a lot of other people are saying that it unmutes in general after 5 seconds, which matches what happened to you from the video.
> But if I press the mute button real hard, it mutes. Same with unmute: if I press it real hard it unmutes. If I press the button normally, it mutes for 2-3 seconds and then unmutes on its own.
Another issue when a soundbar is connected:
https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D56Q0000DkFJCFSQ4/fi...
> Same behavior. None of my FireTVs will stay muted when hooked to a soundbar via HDMI/earc. This is software related to a FireTV update in the last year as it is happening on all firetvs despite the soundbar bar and did not have this behavior when initially set up.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's still not good. If I mute the TV, it shouldn't unmute itself. It should stay muted until I unmute it.
There's a big difference between a bug that slipped through during a release or two and an actively user-hostile design decision
So: Is it a bug, or is it a deliberate "feature"? Is there any evidence, one way or the other?
I'm surprised we haven't seen the "AI-powered" uBlock Origin of video yet. Not blocking by the web request but rather by analyzing the video signal itself. Or even a nice appliance-tier solution. I want to buy an HDMI splitter that when it sees an ad coming through Input 1, switches to Input 2. Switches back to Input 1 when its over. For folks still stuck with cable TV this is Nobel Prize territory.
There is a tool available for chromecast that works very well, but my ideal solution would be an app I can load onto the shield that auto-mutes during ads and un-mutes when the ads are finished.
If I didn't already have my hands full with side projects, I'd dig into this on my own time.
Advertising is a virus. It will take over all ecosystems.
If it wasn’t effective it would go away. Enough people out there are actually clicking on these things to be profitable. Who are they? I’ve literally never clicked on an ad in my life. I’m pretty sure no one I know has also (I hope) so who are these people clicking and paying.
Pretty soon we'll be seeing McDonald's product placement in the next shitty Lord of the Rings season.
I'm surprised we haven't seen the "AI-powered" uBlock Origin of video yet. Not blocking by the web request but rather by analyzing the video signal itself. Or even a nice appliance-tier solution. I want to buy an HDMI splitter that when it sees an ad coming through Input 1, switches to Input 2. Switches back to Input 1 when its over. For folks still stuck with cable TV this is Nobel Prize territory.
I've looked multiple times for something like this that I could load onto my nvidia shield, but nothing seems to exist. There is a tool available for chromecast that works very well, but my ideal solution would be an app I can load onto the shield that auto-mutes during ads and un-mutes when the ads are finished. If I didn't already have my hands full with side projects, I'd dig into this on my own time.
People used to hack on this stuff decades ago. I suspect it's not as common now because for those who care (said hackers) they already cobble together some ad blockers and pi-holes. But ad delivery has stained so much daily life now they've sweetened the pot for a new generation of, not ad blockers, but... video shields?
I might have talked myself into tinkering on this. Curious what tools HN recommends.
ProTip: If you download Prime video content and then watch it downloaded, it doesn't have commercials. Not sure if you can do that on their TVs, but seems to work fine on my Android phone and Fire tablet. Note: I haven't tried it for ~3 months, I just stopped watching Prime content. With as easy as this is, it's easier to use other providers that don't do this, and their user experience was already pretty bad. Search…
ProTip: If you cancel prime then you don't see any prime adverts. I love paying for content. I'm not going to support double-dipping.