Everything has ads now, I don’t have a fire TV but surprised Amazon is this late to this bs game.
The Xbox has ads now like with mw3 when you launch the console.
My Visio Tv I spent ~1000 on a few years ago is stuffed with ads when you turn it on.
It’s not new, Amazon just changed their policy allowing ads for non-media. The Fire devices have always been primarily vehicles for ads; they take up the entire lockscreen on the Kindle reader and Fire tablets. On Fire TV, the top 40-ish% of the screen is a giant ad, then you get a tiny carousel of recommendations, then another thinner banner ad, then “your” content like queue and watchlist.
Mine is Roku based so the article doesn’t apply, but yes I’m still assuming they are pulling and selling data to subsidize up front cost and fluff profits
This is why my ‘smart’ TV will never, ever be connected to the internet. It’s an LG so I would expect it to not be onerous, but it’s often nagging me to connect to my router for stuff like AI tools.
No thanks. You’re smart enough already for my use, TV! HDMI only please.
I have a nearly-dumb TV (chosen for that and never connected to the Internet) and a separate little Android TV box I got from AliExpress for 25 bucks were I only use Kodi.
The TV is maybe 4 years old, the little box maybe 1 year (I had a 10 year old similar thing before but it can’t handle newer video formats so I switched).
Have yet to see a single Ad.
Mind you my setup is as is because I’ve long ago learned that you want your fast-changing-cheap-tech bits separate from your expensive-long-life stuff, so in this case I want my digital video file decoding hardware separate from the much more expensive large digital TV screen so that I can switch the former without paying a new of the - much more expensive - latter.
Remember that “deal” always has depth behind it. They are waiting to reach critical mass so they can “throw the switch”. Streaming services, “smart” devices, subscription services… You should only engage with these “deals” if you understand the bigger picture and have a plan to disengage quickly as soon as they pull their bullshit.
Your black Friday TV is NOT the same as the TV that brand typically sells. It’s a different sku, all the parts are deliberately sourced lesser quality versions and it’s literally designed to break/fail earlier than the “normal” version. You’re not getting a deal on the TV you wanted, you’re buying a lesser TV - Not necessarily a bad thing if you know what you’re buying, but you need to know what you’re buying.
There is a big lack of consumer education in the U.S. I don’t know how to solve it in our oligarchical society. The corporations don’t want consumers educated.
I like my Philips, it’s got the cool ambilight and runs android TV. I think they lag slightly behind LG in performance but these don’t have either of those things.
This is sort of what happened with Google Chromecast with Google TV. I bought that on a technicality for my parents over an Apple TV. My mom (who isn’t a native English speaker) was watching another foreign language show on Netflix and whenever she paused on the Apple TV the seek bar would come in and overlay itself on the subtitles. She was frequently pausing just to catch up on the long sentences to read them and then unpausing just as quickly. This wasn’t an issue on the Android-based Netflix, where the subtitles remained in view.
Well OF COURSE because it’s fucking Google they started shoving more and more ads onto the device, to the extent that my parents actually get pretty confused on how to properly navigate the thing. It makes me so mad.
I have a similar situation. Have you thought about submitting feedback to Apple regarding the issue so they can take the scroll bar into consideration and subtitle placement? https://www.apple.com/feedback/
That sounds like a plan. I’d search online for advice from other users beforehand, regarding which solutions/apps are confirmed to work well with the exact device, OS version etc.
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Kind of hard to watch streaming services that way, which is generally why people buy such TVs.
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Everything has ads now, I don’t have a fire TV but surprised Amazon is this late to this bs game. The Xbox has ads now like with mw3 when you launch the console. My Visio Tv I spent ~1000 on a few years ago is stuffed with ads when you turn it on.
It’s not new, Amazon just changed their policy allowing ads for non-media. The Fire devices have always been primarily vehicles for ads; they take up the entire lockscreen on the Kindle reader and Fire tablets. On Fire TV, the top 40-ish% of the screen is a giant ad, then you get a tiny carousel of recommendations, then another thinner banner ad, then “your” content like queue and watchlist.
My Apple TV has no ads.
My tcl doesn’t have ads. Probably because it already knows I’ll ignore them and it’s selling that data
TLC was discussed above https://lemmy.world/comment/5181873
Your comment sounds like you might already be aware, but maybe you were just assuming it’s doing the same spying most smart TVs are probably doing.
Mine is Roku based so the article doesn’t apply, but yes I’m still assuming they are pulling and selling data to subsidize up front cost and fluff profits
This is why my ‘smart’ TV will never, ever be connected to the internet. It’s an LG so I would expect it to not be onerous, but it’s often nagging me to connect to my router for stuff like AI tools.
No thanks. You’re smart enough already for my use, TV! HDMI only please.
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I have a nearly-dumb TV (chosen for that and never connected to the Internet) and a separate little Android TV box I got from AliExpress for 25 bucks were I only use Kodi.
The TV is maybe 4 years old, the little box maybe 1 year (I had a 10 year old similar thing before but it can’t handle newer video formats so I switched).
Have yet to see a single Ad.
Mind you my setup is as is because I’ve long ago learned that you want your fast-changing-cheap-tech bits separate from your expensive-long-life stuff, so in this case I want my digital video file decoding hardware separate from the much more expensive large digital TV screen so that I can switch the former without paying a new of the - much more expensive - latter.
There’s been a lot of articles recently about those cheapo boxes being filled with spyware straight out the factory. Might wanna check that out.
I did.
It’s not on the list.
Yeah, so you may not be seeing ads, but there’s a non-zero chance you have a botnet infested device on your network instead.
An Apple TV box doesn’t have ads.
And you are surprised?
Stuffing ads on streaming services? How could Amazon do such a thing?
Anyway, for your consideration, Barbie (at last!), now available on streaming services everywhere.
Who didn’t see this coming?
How is this surprising?
Remember that “deal” always has depth behind it. They are waiting to reach critical mass so they can “throw the switch”. Streaming services, “smart” devices, subscription services… You should only engage with these “deals” if you understand the bigger picture and have a plan to disengage quickly as soon as they pull their bullshit.
Your black Friday TV is NOT the same as the TV that brand typically sells. It’s a different sku, all the parts are deliberately sourced lesser quality versions and it’s literally designed to break/fail earlier than the “normal” version. You’re not getting a deal on the TV you wanted, you’re buying a lesser TV - Not necessarily a bad thing if you know what you’re buying, but you need to know what you’re buying.
There is a big lack of consumer education in the U.S. I don’t know how to solve it in our oligarchical society. The corporations don’t want consumers educated.
PSA: It is incredibly easy to get an alternative launcher for android TVs. Zero ads. Literally none.
What android TV would you recommend? Even with an alt launcher, can you still control OS/apps well with just a remote controller as input?
Sony is the easiest to change all the settings. Samsung is the worst.
I have no idea what a reddit controller is.
I’ve had a good experience with my Sony. Very easy to change things and sideload stuff.
I like my Philips, it’s got the cool ambilight and runs android TV. I think they lag slightly behind LG in performance but these don’t have either of those things.
Amazon being greedy and bake ads into their devices? Who could see that coming?!
This is sort of what happened with Google Chromecast with Google TV. I bought that on a technicality for my parents over an Apple TV. My mom (who isn’t a native English speaker) was watching another foreign language show on Netflix and whenever she paused on the Apple TV the seek bar would come in and overlay itself on the subtitles. She was frequently pausing just to catch up on the long sentences to read them and then unpausing just as quickly. This wasn’t an issue on the Android-based Netflix, where the subtitles remained in view.
Well OF COURSE because it’s fucking Google they started shoving more and more ads onto the device, to the extent that my parents actually get pretty confused on how to properly navigate the thing. It makes me so mad.
I have a similar situation. Have you thought about submitting feedback to Apple regarding the issue so they can take the scroll bar into consideration and subtitle placement? https://www.apple.com/feedback/
No, because I think the problem belongs to Netflix. But maybe it does belong to Apple? I’m not sure who is responsible, really.
I solved this problem on my Xiaomi Mi Box S 4K by installing FLauncher, and setting it as the default launcher (on my own box as well as my parents’).
LeanbackOnFire is another great option, but FLauncher has better customizability options, and that’s what I prefer.
In this way, I haven’t seen a single system UI ad on my Android TV box for years. For ad-free YouTube, I’m using SmartTube. So far, it’s been amazing.
I’m visiting my parents this winter so it will be a good chance for me to look into trying something like this.
That sounds like a plan. I’d search online for advice from other users beforehand, regarding which solutions/apps are confirmed to work well with the exact device, OS version etc.
I’m pretty sure everybody saw this coming. Well, everybody with any brains in their head.
Whatever it is, I imagine it’s a horrible product that doesn’t work well and consistently disappoints its users.