Frog: “Hey, did any of you guys notice the water get a couple degrees hotter?”
Other Frogs: Already boiled alive
Frog with hacked firestick and a pirate subscription: huh?
Frog who downloads media himself and hosts it on his own server: you guys are in water?
You are not immune to propaganda
But to adverts. :-p
I’m still alive.
But only because I ditched Amazon Prime at the end of the month.
It’s why I’m struggling really, really hard not to feel to annoyed with the average consumers that still buy this trash instead of supporting less oppressive alternatives.
Like, yeah, people should just be able to buy what they like and not have to concern themselves with the overall market trends they’re helping to entrench… But holy shit is it becoming a serious problem. The customers are what drive the direction of the market, but the customers base isn’t just tech enthusiasts anymore, it’s literally everyone, and they are sleepwalking us all off a god damn cliff. By the time they wake up to start complaining about it, we will already be halfway down.
I will absolutely employ a 0 tolerance policy on forced ads.
If I have paid for a service to be ad free and you throw me an ad, I won’t pay for your service.
Hell, I’ll back-charge through my creditor and say I paid for a service that was not delivered.
Careful of backcharging large companies. They’ll remove your account from all their services. Looking at you Google.
They don’t delete anything, though. They just deny YOU access to it.
Not your computer, not your data. The cloud is just a buzzword for someone else’s computer. Always run local backups.
That product tying is reason #3821 we need to start enforcing anti-trust law again.
And that’s the exact reason that less and less people are taking credit cards and only taking debit and ACH.
not really. it’s that credit cards usually cost a lot more per transaction in fees to the merchant.
I’ve never seen a merchant that doesn’t take a credit card. wtf are you talking about
People, or businesses?
For the rare business where it’s (unfortunately) standard practice e.g. gyms, I just setup a new (free) checking account with my existing bank.
Other than those rare, and “standarized” cases, they’d have to be critical to my ability to keep breathing for me to even consider using a check, or another payment method linked directly to bank, including a debit transaction that requires my PIN, or ever using my debit card online.
I’d look through the fine print if it says that they won’t serve ads. Cause I doubt that.
‘we reserve the right to change… (this, that, and everything else)’
The fine print didn’t say I won’t do a chargeback either. Two can play this game.
I’d try to get a refund first unless you never plan to shop on Amazon again.
I meant it as a counterpoint, not something I’d actually do. Especially considering I don’t shop in such places in the first place. But yes, you’re obviously correct.
A great solution is just to stop buying from Amazon. Like, anything.
Chances are you did survive before Amazon was a thing. It’s possible.
I gave them 1 star and left a bad review for each of the fire tvs…they called me about the revie and then did nothing…buy a roku and throw out your $800 fire tv…it is worth it to take the loss for your own sanity
I recently bought a Roku and was surprised to find they force ads on their home screen. It’s obviously not as terrible as a fullscreen ad but its still very annoying.
Roku also does not work well with Crunchyroll at all.
You can’t get any dubs, and if you get subtitles - they only seem to be in the language the show is. E. G. Japanese subtitles only for Japanese Audio.
It’s so dumb that neither Crunchyroll nor Roku will budge.
If you don’t care about anime. Roku is better than the alternatives.
What do you mean they won’t budge? Is this a conscious decision they’re both making to spite one another?
Roku controls Subtitles/Language as a system level which means Crunchyroll can’t fix it. Other systems allow the language/subtitles to be within respective apps.
Roku won’t budge that subtitles must match language spoken and that each content should be in its primary language (Japanese).
Crunchyroll is “fixing” the issue by creating duplicate seasons - one for each language - but that is a very slow process and it only fixes the dub
Netflix doesn’t use Roku’s system level language / subtitle settings so I assume there’s a way around it for other apps as well.
Yeah, there’s definitely foreign language English subtitled content on Netflix that can be watched on Roku. I don’t think apps are required to use the Roku system subtitles. I’m more inclined to think Crunchyroll just isn’t supporting their Roku app properly.
Once again I’m reminded that piracy offers a better user experience than the paid options.
It does. But it’s difficult to obtain 1000+ episodes of One Piece.
Roku has done occasional full screen ads too.
You pay the Amazon tax indirectly often enough regardless. Huge chunks of the Internet run on AWS. And if it’s not AWS, then it’s Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure. Shareholders win again.
As for not buying shitty products, returning them when you realise how shitty they are, cancelling contracts when services turn shitty, etc. Yes, do that.
It’s true you can’t really control who uses AWS and you’ll end up on sites that use it. But it’s so easy to not buy anything from Amazon directly or from other stores.
Their shipping services aren’t even that good any more from what I hear (I haven’t bought from them in years).
Naw, it didn’t stop any other company i boycotted, and thinking it does is actually a silly idea to consider if you give it a minute to be in the ol’ noggin.
If it did make a difference there’d be a bunch of astroturf campaigns against voting with your wallet, wouldn’t there?
The only thing that stops this is something we’re not ready for yet.
EDIT: wimps.
And what is that one thing?
It doesn’t make a difference unless enough people boycott. The problem is not enough people care enough to actually stop going there to hurt their revenue.
Then there’s the problem with the current political division, at least in the US, where if something upsets one side, the other likes to dig in to stick it to them and often winds up giving the boycotted company more money than they’ll ever lose.
The enshittification will continue until moral improves.
You can update the TVs settings to block these new large video ads. However, Amazon is getting more and more intrusive with its ads. I imagine that, similar to the Alexa Shows that I also use, every few weeks they’ll tweak the ads, making your previous “disable this” settings no longer applicable. It’s technically a new ad type, so they can auto enable it again. Super frustrating.
Largely in response to these new autoplay ads, I replaced my Fire TV with an LG TV. I’ve got another LG TV from only a few years ago that doesn’t really have ads. This one… does. Damn it. Don’t get me wrong, they’re much less in-your-face when compared to Amazon’s ads. But, damn, does everything just have to be ads now?
For all of Apple’s faults, their Apple TV is pretty decent. A home screen with apps on them; no ads. It’s great
God, if I could just install SmartTube and Kodi/Stremio on an Apple TV, I’d convert in a heartbeat. Until then, I’ll keep my Shield TV Pro.
Chromecast with stremio is still the perfect streaming setup for me, now if only the voice recognition on the remote was a bit less shit.
Install libreelec onto a raspberry pi 4. Its a Linux OS that automatically boots into Kodi.
Kodi has an ad free youtube addon, which you can augment with a sponsorblock addon to skip in video ads.
If you have plex or jellyfin they intergrate really well with kodi. For plex, use plexkodiconnect, for jellyfin, use the jellyfin kodi app.
Flirc has a great remote if you go with the above called the skip.
If only it didn’t require me to buy a newer iPhone or iPad to validate my account.
Well that’s destroyed any interest I may have had in them
Pretty sure you don’t need one. I’ll look into it later tonight and get back to you though
You don’t. I’ve set one up without a single other Apple device in the house.
Agree 100% with this, and I’ve tried most all of them.
What setting disables the current ones?
My LG TV updated to show ads in the input selection menu. I was pissed for a few months until someone showed me you can disable them in the settings. Maybe you can disable them on yours?
“Wow, I can’t believe these fire sticks are so cheap”
Bought an early one. Used it for less than a year.
I still have it. Can they be flashed with Lineage or something?
Currently using a Roku Streambar for all of our streaming needs but if they pull this crap, everything we consume will be downloaded, served on my Plex server and streamed using the gaming PC I have under our TV.
Getting beyond sick of these companies using every measure and device they can to shit ads into our eyes.
Its sad so many people seem to lack pattern recognition and don’t appreciate that Plex is no different than any of these companies, they’re just not as far along on the enshitification cycle.
They’re for-profit, providing a “free” service. They will fuck you and the platform. It’s not an if, it’s a when. They’re already moving in that direction. They’ve made many decisions in recent years that are very obviously stepped in trying warp the product into something more profitable. That will not stop, it only gets worse.
Why not get started on the move to Jellyfin now? You will have to in a few years to avoid bullshit, I promise you.
That’s this weekends project, moving to Jellyfin with all the discover together fuckery they’re pulling. Fuck Plex.
What OS are you using for the gaming pc under your TV? Wanted to do something alike but don’t know what would be the best OS for something like that
The best OS for your HTPC is whatever OS you’re comfortable with
I don’t think Windows 3.1 supports .MP4
As I wrote on the other comment, I was looking for something easy and fast to use even if I’m on the couch. Something that i could set to almost look like a smart tv but that could also work with steam link/moonlight. So honestly I’m comfortable with windows but don’t think it would be the best OS to use for my case
i mostly use windows on the tv, an old laptop and a wireless kb/trackpad. runs cool, even with the lid closed all the time. reliably wakes up outputting to the external ‘monitor’ as long as it hasn’t ‘lost’ its connection to the tv (can’t unplug that input temporarily for another device–would have to flip open the laptop lid later to re-enable the external-only setting), and it’s new enough (skylake) to have decoding in hardware for the formats i’ve been using.
the other hdmi is a linux sff desktop set up similarly, but i haven’t got all the kinks worked out yet.
use firefox (with addons and some userscripts|styles) for online sites, and usb externals or lan connection for ‘saved’ content. shortcuts on the desktop (to web sites, playlists, lan shares) function as the ‘home screen’ or ‘launch’ page.
i do have the tv ‘online’ atm, though, because a lot of pluto ‘live’ tv get watched here, and the tv ‘app’ is faster and more reliable than their web site. the remote has a hotkey for it, too, which goes directly to the last ‘channel’ it was on.
Thanks for the thorough explanation! So you just use windows on the old laptop, no Kodi or anything else?
yup. just windows (or linux) desktop applications and networking. i don’t need a ‘10-foot’ ui; and don’t (atm, anyway) need the remote streaming capabilities or other features of a jellyfin or plex.
the keyboard i have is an original logitech k400. it’s really the piece that makes my setup usable, otherwise i’d have a full-sized separate kb and mouse sitting on the ‘coffee table’ (it’s really just a low-standing tv shelf on wheels) instead.
Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 4 is pretty good, and you can run moonlight from within Kodi. Of course, you have to find a reasonably priced Pi…
EDIT: Also, I use this setup in a spare room, but use an Apple TV in my living room for identical purposes. Though I use Infuse and the actual Steam remote play application.
OH! I didn’t know i could use moonlight from within Kodi! Thanks!
Cant say for the other person, but I use linux mint for the gaming pc under the tv (and for every other computer my family uses)
I was looking for something easy and fast to use even if I’m on the couch. Something that i could set to almost look like a smart tv but that could also work with steam link/moonlight
Perhaps kodi might be what you are looking for then
I just read that i could use Moonlight from within Kodi, so I think that would be a nice idea
I can’t believe there isn’t a good HTPC OS that can handle launching Netflix, prime, plex, whatever.
I haven’t used Kodi in a few year but at least then Kodi and the big apps didn’t play well together.
That shit is annoying, Shit starts to blast out loud before I adjusted the audio. It’s like going to some old website that would autoplay music obnoxiously.
Well, you get what you pay for. It’s very cheap for a reason: you are the product.
I got an Apple TV in 2018 and it’s still working perfectly. Yes, it was expensive, but it has no ads, it’s still fast and responsive, and it still gets updates.
Ditto, I caved and got an Apple TV around 2020 after getting fed up with Android TV OS being complete garbage and constantly crashing. I’m not even an Apple fan, but the user experience was a night and day difference. Siri ended up actually being really useful in a TV remote, no more typing in passwords manually or typing in search bars.
I bought an Apple TV recently for a secondary TV and it’s a real pleasure to use. Also have a Shield Pro in the theater which is getting annoying with ads and silly UX changes. I used to sing the praises of the Shield and encouraged many friends/family to buy it in the past (even over Apple TV). But not anymore.
Sadly that’s mostly a google issue. They can turn a lot of stuff on and off server side. Nvidia would have to build a new Home Screen and I’m not sure they want to do that.
I have an Nvidia Shield and recently learned about alternative launchers to replace the stock android TV launcher and remove all the ads. I just installed ProjectIvy and it’s amazing. Clean and simple and now there are no ads or banners or anything. Highly recommend it.
The day nvidia shield start doing that shit i’m going straight for Kodi in a mini-pc
To late.
Nvidia Shield is getting Auro 3D audio support, full-screen ads
Source: https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1700478955
The simplest solution right now is to uninstall the upgrade to the Google TV Launcher application under the my apps section in settings for the Nvidia Sheild.
At the same time disable automatic updates in the playstore app, this way the specific TV Launcher app won’t update.
Currently this is the app responsible for showing you ads on your homescreen and playing you full screen ads.
My recommendation is to also downgrade your Nvidia Sheild to 8.2.3, here is a excellent guide below.
I recently installed ProjectIvy launcher and I’ve been happy with it so far and there are no ads now.
You can easily change launchers on the Shield, unlike the Fire TV for instance, which actively blocks it, to get rid of the advertising and garbage.
Don’t give them ideas!! But I’ve blocked any update for my shield maybe two years ago, so it’s locked in a older version of Android, it works fine and I hope this doesn’t change 😬
They don’t need me to get that idea. I might block their update too good tip
Don’t forget about the playstore app updates, these should be set to not autoupdate.
Currently the android TV Launcher app is what shows you the ads on the homescreen. You can easily uninstall this apps update if you upgrade it accidentally.
Kodi in a mini-pc
That’s the way to go. You can even use something like a Raspberry Pi running LibreELEC, a very lightweight Linux distro which does nothing more than run Kodi.
All my screens just have computer hooked up. Even a debloated windows 10 install is better than any other stick solution. I don’t even need to do special rules on my PiHole lawl
Also, can’t find the thing I need? I’ll just pop onto AR, OR, IPT, whatever and get it. Can’t do that on a shitty stick or shield
I wonder if the pi 5s are up to the task
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This is so annoying. It goes into a full screen ad as soon as you turn it on, so I babysit the remote and navigate to an app as soon as it turns on, in order to avoid ads. It also does this if you let the TV idle, which I also hate. I might just throw it away and go back to hooking up a laptop to the TV instead. I paid $70-ish bucks for this stupid thing.
Edit: I just remembered that you can hack these fire sticks, so i’ll probably try that first.
Chromecast 2. Very cheap and no hassle. Just stream from your phone or computer. Virtually every video streaming app I have ever seen is compatible. There’s a remote app you can use on your phone if you want one of those too.
Does that include the Ultra?
No idea, sorry.
Isn’t there some consumer protection law against this, I mean this is really invasive and not doing what you expected it to do when you bought it.
We stopped getting consumer protection laws in the 50s when they were deemed communism.
Anything less than allowing every corporation to plunge their tentacles into the inner depths of your anus is 100% communism.
Ever since getting a fire stick I’ve been hooking my laptop up to the tv instead. Now I can play games, watch movies, shows, etc
Etc as in watch porn on the TV? Amiright?
My Chromecast is doing it’s job fine with app only mode but the day they change it or take away that mode I’ve got some mini PCs ready to have libreelec thrown up on them.
What’s this app only mode you speak of? I am intrigued.
It’s a setting that effectively disables all content recommendations from the home screen, leaving you with nothing but app icons.
Can this be done on stock Android TV on a Sony smart TV?
It’s in settings > accounts and sign in > your Gmail account > apps only mode . I have to scroll down for it on my Chromecast but if you have it on your Sony it should be in there.
If you don’t have it on your Sony TV, I’d recommend installing another launcher like FLauncher which effectively does the same thing and gets rid of the garbage.
I always say ads are a nuisance and need to be eradicated. None of my friends agree with me… whatever, enjoy your ads
