Yeah, because everyone is asking for that. They will force ads into everything they can, because Google is an Ad company.
Go away! Batin’!
Hell.
God damn it Google.
When I turn on the TV, it’s fine if the masthead is a banner advertising a new show. I’m literally using the product to find things to watch.
But fast food? That can fuck right off.
I’ve had an Nvidia Shield since they came out, about 6 months ago when I started seeing a car ad I was like “it’s time to switch to something else…”
Or just install a new launcher
There are other issues with it, so I just decided to ditch it completely. I mainly use it for Kodi.
Google and Roku primarily make money from ads.
Apple does some stuff that isn’t great, but the Apple TV doesn’t have ads like their competitors. Apps can advertise what’s inside of them when they’re selected, but that’s it on the Home Screen.
I almost completely stopped going to the movies once the pre-roll stuff was ads for cars, food, etc instead of just movie trailers.
The more inconvenient Google makes avoiding ads on their platforms and services, the less of Googles platforms and services I will use.
For now I have a third party launcher setup on my CCwGTV in my living room, but the Apple TV 4k I have in my bedroom sure is looking nice these days with how well it performs and how much less trouble it is to setup and reset should I need/want to do that.
Going the HTPC route is less desirable to me since services like Amazon and Netflix go out of their way to restrict resolutions offered to things like a Debian box running Firefox. I could use Windows and Edge, but that would mean hitching myself to another company that seems more interested in selling me to advertisers than selling things to me.
Serious question, does 4K resolution even really make that much of a difference to you? I have like 30 TB of shows and movies at 1080p and I’ve never had any users complain about resolution.
My hardware supports it and I am paying for the premium Netflix tier for the extra screens, so I like to use the 4k resolution when I can.
If you have a CCwGTV, you should be using Apps Only mode. Sucks that Google hides this, because I’ve found that this is the best streaming device for my needs, but they just keep pushing ads like this. Makes me want to do a homebrew chromecast device.
But switching to Apps Only mode is a decent workaround… for now. https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en
Can’t you install a custom launcher?
Yes, but you can’t change the default launcher in the settings. You have to configure the custom launcher to automatically launch everytime, which does require a some adb commands, if I recall correctly.
Otherwise, setting it to apps mode is the only alternative. Aside from disabling ads, it does disable a few other useful features, but the trade-off is worth it.
But honestly, now that AppleTV allows VPNs and proxy apps, I’ve mostly stopped using my Google TV boxes.
It’s a shame that this turns off the ability to use the google photos screensaver too, to the point it’s a deal breaker for us.
Has there been a company that has experienced such a fast fall from grace as Google?
Mere years ago they were viewed as the bastion of intellectuals in tech. They worked on stuff that was deemed “not evil”, people that worked there were deemed the best and brightest, and their culture was celebrated so highly that literal movies have been made about working there.
Obviously, the reality is different from the vision, but in a short amount of time they’ve implemented URA, have had multiple mass layoffs where people were locked out overnight with no more than a sentence in an email after a decade of work, have doubled-down on enshitification of their services, and have alienated a significant chunk of their workers through RTO and cost cutting.
Anyone who bought into the don’t be evil story / marketing is being willfully naive. Like all the big tech companies they’re basically intelligence fronts. Big tech is big brother. You don’t even have to look hard to see how intertwined with the CIA / NSA Google had been from the beginning. Furthermore, Snowden’s exposure of PRISM made it clear that it wasn’t just a few grants early on, it was setup by design to limit govt liability yet allow mass surveillance to go on unabated and the entire launch of Gmail is yet a single token example. Don’t trust big tech.
Maybe, but I do believe at least then being aspirationaly not evil made it a much different company. It made people try to be better both in and outside google even if at some level it was still a big corp doing big corp things.
Whatever it is now is a boring husk of what it was and I think you can draw a line from that to those naive people and their belief in that principle trying to make awesome things and a better world.
Maybe that’s just me looking back with rose colored glasses though.
URA? Ironically, Google doesn’t define it in regards to themselves.
Unregretted Attrition. It’s basically stack ranking, where the company plans to fire a percentage of its staff every year.
pats his Apple TV good boy
Google is, and always has been, an advertising company. Thats their bread and butter
If you have a pi-hole or other way to block access to your network, I’ve found these useful to block:
androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com
I thought fast food TV adverts were illegal in the UK?
Not until at least October 2025.
Might as well just get/make a home theater pc
My MCPC is a micro PC that’s at least 10 years old. It plays h.265 at 2k just fine. I’m excited to see things move back to media computers.
That’s amazing. I do have an old computer laying around, so I may be able to do that. May I ask what specs your MCPC has?
i7 (mobile processor) with the built in Intel gpu. 16G ram. 120G ssd. It’s an optiplex. They’re pretty cheap on Amazon / ebay as refurbs. I bought it for the processor. Bought and upgraded the ram and ssd separately. I just have kodi on it (on Linux Mint). Everything is stored on my synology, which has an m.2 ssd cache. My TV is only 2k, so I haven’t tried pushing any higher res stuff. I was surprised a few years ago when I started playing h.265 videos. No issues playing it at all. I didn’t upgrade the ssd at first, but noticed the box got pretty hot by the end of a movie. That upgrade dropped the temp in the box a good bit. I don’t think I’m pushing it much. It just gets warm a little and utilization remains under 50%. The box is really snappy too.
