How to turn off Android TV's homescreen ads, 'staff picks' | Hacker News Reader

How to turn off Android TV's homescreen ads, 'staff picks'

9to5google.com

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I have said this before. Few reasons why I prefer dumb TVs, just a flat LED panel:

1. You have control over bullshit like this

2. You can make them smart by attaching the external box (like Raspberry PI with osmc)

3. You don't have to throw the TV because your Software is now old, just change the box.

4. There's new format which requires hardware support (av1 is coming), change the box.

5. Want to add new hardware? Upgrade the box.

> You can make them smart by attaching the external box

The problem is that if the box is Android TV, it's now displaying ads.

Android TV (Shield) is now the last remaining Android device in my household. I've transitioned to Apple devices over the last couple of years as my frustration with the google "ecosystem" grew. I guess I'll give Apple TV a go next.

Much cheaper to throw out that box and setup an RPi or whatever than buy a new TV, no? Seems like a better problem to have.

My point was that if you're buying a box to work around the problem of having a TV with ads, but now the box has ads too, things have gotten pretty bad.

The problem with RPi solutions as far as I'm aware, is that the content services now have DRM that prevent content from running on RPi. Is that no longer the case? Can I use RPi to watch Netflix and YoutubeTV for instance?

A cursory search tells me that it is possible to use a version of Chromium that's been modified to enable WideVine DRM support to watch DRM-protected content on an ARM device such as the RasPi.

At least when I considered it a year ago, it was a huge hassle to get it working, so not really a solution for everyone.

Smart TVs are the worst thing ever invented. Every TV I came in contact started lagging after +/- 2 years (I live in a 3rd world country, so they may hit the market already outdated). The user experience is terrible. And some of them stopped supporting certain apps pretty early as well.

I'm very satisfied with a Chromecast, but I'd prefer to plug a TV box or even a laptop over having a Smart TV any day, and I advise everyone I know to do the same.

> I'm very satisfied with a Chromecast

you might be more satisfied with:

https://github.com/MayaPosch/NymphCast

Can you even buy those any more? I looked into it and there's nothing of quality available.

I think the only truly dumb screens that you might be able to buy are designed for commercial use. But yeah, consumer oriented TVs all have their own smart features.

Is there a way to hack a smart TV into a dumb one?

Yup. Don’t connect it to the internet.

I can't back this up, but I've read stories on Reddit of smart TVs actively scanning for open access points and connecting anyway.

There seem to be a lot of dark patterns in this product space.

I think that connecting it and locking it down with Pihole or router rules might get better behaviour.

If that even works today (open wifi? Xfinity, AT&T, etc. hotspots?), it surely won't work in a few more years when cellular radios get cheap enough to just stick them in every TV.

What happens if you simply don't connect it to the internet? Can't you just use it as a dumb TV? I don't have experience with a smart TV so I cannot say.

I have heard that some TVs will simply look for open WiFi. Barring that, how long will it be before they just throw a cell modem in there, a la Kindle?

So TVs technically work today without wifi? That should be doable for most privacy-conscious people. Sick some literal tinfoil on the back of the TV where the antenna is to weaken the range, or block the TV requests on the network level for the more technically inclined using pi-hole. (Even as I type this, I am realising how insane it is that buying a TV is so hostile to the end customer!!) Hopefully my old dumb TV and dumb projector lasts for many more years...

I have an older Kindle, you can simply turn on airplane mode permanently and sync only using Calibre on your PC. So it's not as user-hostile as newer TVs.

I have a Samsung smart TV for work that has never been connected to a network. It insists on an identification check whenever a new device is connected to an input. It doesn't have access to the Samsung database so it just spins its wheels until you clear the overlay.

It does that even with network access (I didn't see any additional traffic when it happens in a packet capture). I have to use a programmable HDMI splitter that presents an EDID when the real input is off just to get rid of that behavior. My computer resuming from sleep triggers it.

Our hardware has valid EDIDs. Just nothing that Samsung would know about.

Part of the problem is that they'll have a lot of the smart features still enabled and have horribly slow interfaces for everything to switch inputs or bug you for a wifi password every time they're turned on. It's not a fun experience sometimes.

> Can you even buy those any more? I looked into it and there's nothing of quality available.

Yes, you can buy large monitors or commercial displays. They might not be “TVs” because they don't have built-in tuners, but if you are getting content through an external network-connected device on an HDMI port, who cares about a built-in tuner?

Any thoughts on the sound options with those suggestions? Just get a cec sound bar?

I hate remotes and will tolerate one maximum. I don’t want an Apple TV, amplifier and some other one.

Roku TVs are a one remote solution with a minimally invasive OS. They have an interest in not killing their user base with dark patterns. It also won't be treated as abandonware two years later.

what about "monitors"? i'm not sure if the specs are the same league - i'm guessing monitors are priced at sizes vastly different than TVs - but surely they don't come with android TV

The closest thing to absurdly big monitors would probably be digital signage, since you can get 55+ inch screens that have proper DVI inputs.

I don't know exactly what you mean by "quality" but there are certainly still a few non-smart models around, i.e. Sceptre U515CV-U for a $200 50" 4K model.

Or there are a couple of very large displays available that are advertised as monitors rather than TVs. i.e. the 43" Asus PG43UQ or 65" HP OMEN X Emperium.

Then there's the whole world of commercial displays, examples include the NEC E657Q or Samsung QB65R.

Everything you're saying makes sense, though I'll offer our personal experiences. We got a big LG 'smart' TV a year or so ago, and we use it for exactly four things: youtube, netflix, xbox and (primarily) to watch content I put on USB sticks. The first two are native apps. Outside of what's going on in the specific apps, there's nothing distracting happening.

So, honest question: do you think this 'TV' will be viable for at least three or four years? LG's WebOS seems to update pretty well in the background, and, as I said, it hasn't thrown up anything annoying.

So, honest question: can we expect the TV to get slower?

My 9 year old and 3 year old LG smart TVs still work fine.

The only apps that don't work on the older TV are the Yahoo apps.

> We got a big LG 'smart' TV a year or so ago, and we use it for exactly four things: youtube, netflix, xbox and (primarily) to watch content I put on USB sticks.

Are you okay with the content you watch, and the filenames on the USB sticks being sent back to LG? https://grahamcluley.com/lg-smart-tv-can-spy/

Not crazy about that. I do effectively randomize the file names played from the stick.

As stated elsewhere, I don't really want the 'smart' part, but the screen is large, good quality and was relatively inexpensive.

A hash fingerprint of each file could be sent, in addition to the filename.

Yup, could be.

You could get Netflix and YouTube directly on your Xbox, probably the usb sticks too. What are you gaining out of having the TV be smart?

> What are you gaining out of having the TV be smart?

Very little if anything. Mostly I just wanted a big, nice and relatively inexpensive screen, which it definitely is.

This. Unfortunately, it seems hard to find dumb but quality TVs?!

Look at digital signage. The high-end ones are the same kind of display hardware as consumer TVs, but designed for 24/7 operation and overall greater durability, as well as generally having much higher maximum brightness. Of course, you'll also pay a premium for that quality bump.

We have a Samsung smart TV. The smart TV features have never been activated. There are no apps, and it has never been connected to the internet. For connectivity, we use a roku, a laptop, and whatever board I feel like playing around with. For all intents and purposes, the TV is a dumb TV with a somewhat decent screen.

Unfortunately there is almost no dumb 4K TVs available in the market. Computer displays are small and expensive.

Buy a smart TV, but don't connect it to your wifi.

Or do but get a Pihole and lock that TV down.

You may also need a firewall rule that redirects any port 53 traffic that wasn’t from the Pihole, back to the Pihole. There is some sneaky stuff that happen and while I’ve only seen a Google Chromecast do it, I assume they all do.

Can you elaborate?

Ya that’s what I am doing now but I still don’t feel safe.

Why not?

Look at digital signage / business TVs, if you're willing to pay a premium for it. For example, there's stuff like this: https://amazon.com/dp/B08651PB1J

I order a conferncing/advertising panel direct from the manufacturer. Usually the same panels without the software

This works, but I feel like I get "staff picks" on Netflix or Amazon right away too...

Everyone has an opinion about what I should watch, and it's usually a horrible shallow opinion.

A dumb flat LED panel sounds perfect, but where can I get a 65" one, and how many Tesla Model 3s is it going to cost?

Just don't hook it to the Internet?

Seriously - it isn't that hard. I guess I'm old school - I have an AV receiver (it serves as an amp for my speakers too!) and it let's me pick between the few devices I have. Xbox for games/BluRay, Tivo or Apple TV - there aren't very many services that aren't on one of those three. I would NEVER hook a TV up to Internet. Maybe long enough to do a firmware update, but that's it.

How can I be sure it won't hook itself to the Internet? For instance, using a nearby Xfinity or AT&T hotspot? Or simply coming with an LTE radio built in?

Connect it to your network but block it's network access. Then it's "connected" but the connections fail.

That said, I haven't seen any evidence of smart TV's autonomously connecting to open hot spots without permission.

It's even worse. Some of them can already connect over HDMI to a device that has network access.

The selling point for this is "simplify cabling". Yeah right

The HDMI Exploit Channel.

A big part of the push for 5G was very very cheap low-bandwidth IoT cellular connectivity. Guess what they'll be using that for.

If you have the right situation for it, consider a projector. A decent projector and a much bigger than 65" fixed screen can be less than $1,000 combined. You won't be top of the line (maybe 1080p instead of 4k, and a "decent" quality screen), you need more darkness than a TV would require, you'll have to replace the bulb eventually, and installation is more involved.

But, for our needs (a handful of hours a week of focused watching or game playing), it's perfect. I wouldn't want this for casual TV watching or background TV watching, but that's just not how we consume (laptops or phones fill that role).

The projector is as dumb as can be, too, meaning nothing to connect to the internet, and nothing to update.

I had a 100" projector screen earlier. If you mostly settle down to watch movies & more "theatrical" shows later at night, I highly recommend a projector. Also great for FPS gaming, the huge screen activates your peripheral vision in a very different way.

If you're looking to catch 20 minutes of a show every now and then, while doing other things, with lights on, or you're trying to fill a void with daytime television, look elsewhere.

Good call, I've actually been using projectors since about 2002 :) I will have to change the lamp in mine any day now. It more or less suits me, but my partner still asks for an actual TV occasionally.

Yes, I also agree. I want to put in my own software, and it can just as well be something external. There are neverthess some considerations, such as picture setting (including backlight controls), volume controls (if you are not using external speakers), input select (if there is more than one), OSD suppress, etc. Connect devices together with IMIDI cables when wanted to program one device to command another (e.g. for date/time synchronization, VCR recording, to transmit captions independently from the picture, to affect volume/input using a unified interface, etc). You could add a separate computer with your own software and then use the existing display, to display its output, and deal with remote control even turn it on/off automatically, or if the display has its own IR receiver, using that to control the computer, using IMIDI to do it either way (IMIDI-over-IR from the remote control, then send to the IMIDI cable connected to the computer, and the computer may send back a command to switch the input or whatever, or forward the command to another device such as a VCR, etc).

If you can use your own computer instead with your own software, then you can program it for the feature you like, such as what I might like to include would be numbered menus, caption scrollback, OSD suppress, etc. This can then be implemented, including the exact way of how you want the captions rendered (font, opacity, etc), the OSD timeout and position, the type of command input (e.g. if you want it like Vim), if you want it to include Viewdata, and everything else you will want.

Since, if it is a dumb display then it will not render captions by itself, nor most of the menus you might use, so you can instead do it by yourself, and it may well be designed better than what everyone else does.

But, well, I would also like a 4:3 display, and without HDCP, and with the possibility to add a full side panel with the channel/mode display separate from the TV screen (like some old TV sets do).

These homescreen ads are really interesting because in the future of television, they might be the only thing viewers are guaranteed to see a glimpse of.

In the era of linear TV, the masses had to watch what the networks put in front of them. People had to watch whatever was available in the broadcast medium of their choice (air/cable/satellite). Channel flipping meant that the networks had a brief moment to expose themselves to viewers, and maybe even hook them with those repetitive post-commercial recaps.

But non-linear television means that the network execs can fuck right off because people will watch whatever they want, whenever they want, on the subscription service they want. The fragmentation is real.

The homescreen ads present themselves as a rare chance for channel producers to say "hey! come look at our amazing content!". Right before a viewer fires up Netflix or whatever.

(On a personal note, those overly loud and obnoxious homescreen ads are fucking annoying and usually turn me off from whatever the hell is being advertised. Turning on my TV should be a source of joy and relaxation, not a a desperate desire to pull up Netflix as fast as humanly possible. I'm also certain that in the future when all of our smart TVs have 128-core RISC-V CPUs with 16GB of RAM and can run k8s, TV software producers will intentionally slow down the loading of apps so viewers are forced to watch the homescreen ads.)

> Channel flipping meant that the networks had a brief moment to expose themselves to viewers

Offtopic, but modern TVs are terrible at channel flipping. I don't know if it's the TV or the cable box or the DRM, but something makes it take 3-5 seconds to change a channel. This feels like something they could fix.

There not being a reasonable way to opt-out of the homescreen ads tells me that Google knows they are garbage. Google has 20+ years of data from many of us. They promised us that sharing our data with them would let them produce targeted ads that we would value. The ads on my TV homescreen feel less targeted than the ones I see during a baseball broadcast.

> Offtopic, but modern TVs are terrible at channel flipping. I don't know if it's the TV or the cable box or the DRM

A combination of digital video encoding chocies and a UX decision that nothing is better than the artifacts from not waiting for a full frame to start display.

Feels like they could have a bunch of decoders and make a guess at what my next channel will probably be and keep a few streams ready to go.

> Feels like they could have a bunch of decoders and make a guess at what my next channel will probably be and keep a few streams ready to go.

If you have a multichannel cable box (usually, to support simultaneous DVR and viewing), some of them I think do do that (or at least camp on the last-used for each tuner that isn't needed for active display or recording) and give a fast switch if you hit one that it's on, but the ratio of decoding streams to available channels tends to be very low. And I would imagine that video decoding is the biggest use of horsepower in a cable box or smart TV, so there's probably a non-negotiable cost (including in power usage, heat, and component lifetime) in malign a significant change there.

It's your cable box. For many digital channels you are essentially getting streamed VOD and their backend equipment is slow. Modern ATSC tuners are reasonably fast with a clear signal. You can legitimately surf like on analog.

> These homescreen ads are really interesting because in the future of television, they might be the only thing viewers are guaranteed to see a glimpse of.

I don't know, I almost never see the homescreen of my Android TV. Once you have it initially setup, it normally goes straight to the current input and most functionality is accessed through the remote without navigating through the homescreen, including Apps, etc., being accessible through overlay menus without returning to the homescreen.

FWIW, we have an LG smart TV and I've never seen ads on it because our standard use case is a) turning it on and b) immediately pressing the built in Prime/Netflix button. I barely even know what the home screen looks like.

Does anyone have a proper replacement for a "smart" TV interface that runs on plain Linux instead of some random Chinese Android box?

My TV is relatively old and the Netflix app just can't keep up anymore. I was considering running some Android TV box but if those show ads now I'm not interested anymore.

Right now my TV is hooked up to my server running Kodi, but I'd like something that plays YouTube at full resolution (as opposed to Kofi's 720p limit because of some obscure dependency issue) and is also capable of running Netflix.

I'll probably have to cave eventually and get myself a Chromecast but if there's an option that doesn't rely on Google, I'd like to hear about it.

Kodi runs fine on a Fire TV Stick.

Which is also littered with ads and prevented side loading of kodi before iirc*

Like a few other people in this thread I tried roku, firetv box/stick and landed on an nvidia shield to get away from ads. At the time of writing (now that shield/androidtv are showing ads) I don't believe a decent ad-free box exists.

> Which is also littered with ads and prevented side loading of kodi before iirc

I use it just fine. Not sure what adverts you are referring to past the tv season suggestion on the home screen, but I use a pihole.

You can use a recent Pi if you want plain Linux. It evens works with CEC. No idea about YouTube though (I share the video to the Fire TV Stick and it plays).

Idk if pihole blocks these but here you can see the ads https://advertising.amazon.com/resources/ad-specs/fire-tv

It also requires signing in at all times (not 100% sure on this) to use the device so I don't consider it a viable alternative to a "dumb" android box which has a plain experience throughout

From a comment above about OSMC this looks like it counts: https://osmc.tv/vero/

I don't have one or use OSMC (although it looks interesting, not sure how i missed it).

I currently use an Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspbian and have Kodi installed for the media centre experience and use Chromium with a "hack" which copies the ARM widevine plug-in from Chrome OS so DRM streaming works.

You can just use Netflix, BBC, whatever through their website in most cases. Streaming is fine for me at 720p, and i think 1080p also works well enough. More than 1080 and an RPi 4 doesn't have the decoding power right now i think.

It is a clunky setup though, OSMC and their hardware is probably much slicker, but you would loose the ability to watch streaming services (that require DRM at least).

I've been using a Vero 4K+ for a couple years now and it works perfectly for local content.

That said: I thought I would be fine using it for local content and the TV for streaming content however over time having to use different devices for different content is definitely starting to get annoying, and I'm considering picking up an Apple TV because of this.

A big problem with Kodi is that it lacks official things like Netflix, Hulu, etc. Hell you can't even cast to it properly. It's great for local content, and for a while a few years back there were really good pirate services for streaming basically anything, but overall it is very disappointing and you end up having to bolt Chrome and struggle through a shitty browsing experience to watch a lot of stuff.

I use Netflix on the Fire TV Stick (not through Kodi).

Apple TV is the only box that does everything. Even my Roku can’t play HBO Max. It’s not Google, runs Linux technically, and so far passed the wife test.

I was a Roku user for years until they started randomly installing new "channels" from paid advertisers. That week I bought a Chromecast. Now I'm transitioning to Apple TV.

That might explain the stupid game that magically showed up on mine. Talk about a short sighted money grab. Owning the interface on a TV has to be worth a ton of long term value which is going to settle around $0 if they pull crap like that (at least from me).

> plain Linux

> Netflix app

Choose one.

Intel NUC?

Is there a reason a standard computer can't work? You have linux and firefox with proper adblocking. Youtube runs at full resolution, netflix always works in the browser, as well as other services. I havent watched an ad in years and can't imagine going back.

Wanted to add there are all kinds of interesting remote controls for computers in image search. With a non-desktop style gui it seems like a viable smart tv replacement.

A number of streaming services won't let you recieve 4K on PC.

Currently my TV is hooked up to a computer but it's hard to use the interface as a TV.

I want to use the TV as a TV, not just as a remote desktop. I've tried using KDE connect with mouse pad + keyboard remote control but the experience isn't great.

I think there's a Plasma based SmartTV UI in development. Maybe you could try that. It's currently only for the Raspberry Pi 4 though if I remember correctly.

> My TV is relatively old and the Netflix app just can't keep up anymore

You might be locked out of HD content because TV doesn't support the newest DRM.

I can't play anything HD on my 4K tv anymore because it doesn't support HCDP 2.2

Nvidia Shield (I think it's considered an AndroidTV). It isn't as cheap as a chromecast and it isn't plain Linux but my wife and I are thinking about getting one for our TV because of the convenience/ease-of-use. You can still cast to it if you need to, but you can get all of the streaming apps you need and I don't think I've seen an ad at all (other than in a streaming app such as Prime).

Ehh Nevermind. I hadn't made it through all the comments and I see other people are seeing these ads on the Shield.

The Android Debugger is best for wrangling these unfortunate creations. Here are some random notes I took while beating my Sony Bravia into submission.

# Enable Develepor Tools TV > Home menu > Settings > About.

Click the build number 7 times to activate the developer tools menu item.

Open it and click on "enable ADB debugging."

# Default ADP Port TCP - 5037 and 5555

adb connect 192.168.x.xx

A popup will appear on your TV. Use your remote to check the box to always allow connections from your PC

# Sideload app

TV > Settings > Security & restrictions > Unknown Sources

adb install apkname.apk

# List all apps

adb shell pm list packages -f > bravia-tv-packages.txt

# Uninstall an app.

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 tv.samba.ssm

adb uninstall tv.samba.ssm

# Reinstall (example only)

adb shell pm install -r --user 0 tv.samba.ssm

# Disable an app if uninstall fails

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 <package_to_disable>

# Re-enable a disabled app

adb shell pm enable <package_to_enable>

# Safe Mode

Unplug or Reboot (Settings > About)

Press and hold volume down

# Factory Reset

Unplug

On lower left (ports side)

Press and hold bottom two

Plug back in

# Filter to only show system packages.

adb shell pm list packages -f -s

# List including uninstalled packages.

adb shell pm list packages -f -u

# List all disabled apps

adb shell pm list packages -d

# Force stop app

adb shell am force-stop com.netflix.ninja

adb shell top

adb shell ps > android-processes.txt

adb shell dumpsys wifi > dumpsys_wifi.txt

adb shell logcat > logcat.txt

adb shell dumpsys package com.foo.bar > dumpsys_com.foo.bar

adb shell pm [grant|revoke] [package] android.permission.CAMERA

When done, turn off ADB debugging on the TV for security.

I've been wanting to replace my Android box with a Linux box for a while, and I think this signals my Android TV exit. The main reason I have an Android TV box is because of its easy to use UI. I haven't found a suitable desktop environment or web browser configuration that supports a TV-scale UI on Linux. Does anyone have a Linux HTPC setup they're happy with? I really don't want to need a mouse and keyboard to watch Netflix, etc.

Kodi + Kore on the smartphone might be a replacement? Though I mostly just stream files that I already have on my NAS, it should be more than capable of streaming straight from YouTube and others.

[0] https://kodi.tv/

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.xbmc.kore

[2] https://kodi.tv/addons

I've run this for a while, but Kodi seems to be focused on the "old" way of having your UI run on your TV, whereas I would like to be able to browse through my content on my phone. Yes, Kore can do this, but it feels much more like an afterthought.

Prior to this I was running Windows (Vista I think) MCE with a dual channel analog cable capture card. That was truely the pinacle of home theater. Easy TV recording + easy local content.

Raspberry Pi + Kodi (+ NAS) feels underpowered, and a bit dated.

I haven't properly tested something like Plex.

NVidia Shield seems like it would do, but now ads might be coming...

Are modern smart tv's somewhat capable of local content browsing? Or is it like very basic file browsing?

VLC on Android can stream from an NAS to a Chromecast.

> I've run this for a while, but Kodi seems to be focused on the "old" way of having your UI run on your TV, whereas I would like to be able to browse through my content on my phone.

It's been years since I used it, so I don't know if it's still any good, but the (paid) Yatse app was pretty good for this.

I've been happy with my Nvidia Shield, which so far has not received this update. The HTPC that it replaced ran on Ubuntu and automatically booted into Kodi. This worked okay, but having the hardware setup to support the latest audio/video features (eg. HDR, Dolby Vision, Atmos) can be a frustrating experience. The Shield has been great because it "just works", and also makes it easy to switch between streaming services and local media. So depending on your viewing habits, and must-have features, it can be very difficult or impossible to replicate the experience.

KDE has a tv environment. I’m not sure how good it is though, I use an Apple TV.

https://plasma-bigscreen.org/

https://dot.kde.org/2020/03/26/plasma-tv-presenting-plasma-b...

I don't like the voice control, but I suppose some people do like, OK, but ensure it will work without Mycroft and without a microphone, too.

Better might be assign a numeric code to each file, and then you can key in those numbers on the remote control to select them. The remote controls they show there isn't very good. Put numbers, play, pause, rewind, fast-forward, stop, previous-track, next-track, high-volume, low-volume, mute, main-menu, and perhaps a few more, rather than what they have there it isn't very good I think.

Is there such a better remote control that you can use instead? Instead of up/down/left/right/enter, you can have the numbers and the playback controls.

I find voice control helpful when entering text. Instead of trying to arrow in "The Simpsons season 6 episode 3" on a remote, you can just get it transcribed.

Yes, that is one reason why you might like it (especially if you do not know how to spell the name of the show you want to watch, although voice recognition can also get it wrong sometimes). However, I would ike numeric input. Key in some ID number of the show (after you can first figure out what that ID number is), and optionally the season number and episode number. If you omit the season number, it will list them; if you omit the episode number, it will list the episodes with descriptions; you might also search by the original broadcast date. Of course, that doesn't help if you do not know the ID number of the show, so text search (and voice, if you have a microphone and voice recognition software) is still useful too, and then you can learn what is the ID number. For text entry, I would like Hollerith chording (or a full keyboard if you happen to be using one, which some people do), but that won't work if the remote control doesn't support chording, so other methods may also be used. Category numbers (in various classification schemes) may also be helpful, if you do not even know the name of the show, or what show you want, perhaps.

not what your asking, but I've found the Roku interface on my TV to be really easy to use by all my household members. Solid enough and low impact.

Of course, it does have ADS on the start page for content on services, which might defeat the whole point.

Try https://osmc.tv/

Not sure if it will fulfill all your requirements though.

Note that there is no open source version of Android TV like there is for phones. You can't just throw on a custom ROM with the modifications you want. This was a purposeful choice by Google to enable anti-features like this and prevent any kind of ad blocking or customizations that would help make TVs into an open platform.

This is not true, see here for example: https://www.google.com/search?q=aosp+android+tv+devices

There are vendors shipping aosp devices, particularly in cost sensitive markets.

Not sure about currently, but I'm the past there were quite a number of options for running Android on a set top box, but very few options for running Android TV on one. You need to make sure the device you're looking at is actually running Android TV, not the standard version of Android.

How much does it differ from mainline AOSP? Do targets not exist for those devices at all?

This ticks me off. I have an Nvidia Shield TV and it's supposed to get this "update" also. I can live with some ads in apps (as long as I didn't "pay" for the app). But I HATE the idea of ads in my OS. This industry and the pressure to turn everything into a money grab is digusting?

Yeah, I'm pretty irate as well. I finally gave in and got a Shield a couple weeks ago to reduce complexity. Now this?

Maybe it's not too late to mail it back to Nvidia. Perhaps wrapped in this week's snailmail spam catalogs.

I bought a Sony XBR65X950G (great name) a year ago and the hardware is nice but the software is terrible. I noticed the ads a couple of days ago and tried to find a way to hide them but there's nothing.

The ads combined with the shitty Android TV software is making me think I need to unplug the TV from the internet and buy an Apple TV or similar device.

Either that or get a Homekit power outlet so that I can power cycle the TV every night.

I'm missing your point... What would power cycling the TV daily do?

It usually fixes the software glitches. The longer the TV runs, the less reliable it is. All of the software problems seemed to be fixed by rebooting the TV.

Wow! That's awful.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. Netflix having no sound, the TV mode having no video, and Spotify hanging are the worst offenders for me. A nightly reboot would be excessive, but if I'm going to automate it, might as well do it daily.

It's bad enough that I set up my Sony Android TV on a "smart outlet" that power cycles each night. And I can yell at my Google Assistant to restart it when it breaks down on occasion

The TV has a built in Google Assistant. I wish they would add a phrase like "hey google, reboot the tv" to save me time from navigating through the menus looking for the restart command (it's under "about" for some reason).

I have a Sony Bravia too. I managed to hide the ads by blocking then on the router level on a raspberry pi with pihole. It's easy to setup and pretty cheap at under $30

Can you share the block rule?

You might be able to get the ads to disappear by using PiHole (so DNS look-ups for the ad hoster return an IP like 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0).

And consider forcing any non Pihole port 53 traffic back to the Pihole. I use a cheap Edgerouter from Ubiquiti and it works well.

You can probably set your pi up as a gateway itself, and proxy everything though it. I've never seen any device that doesn't trust the default gateway given by the router, nor have I seen any that try other addresses if the default gateway doesn't exist.

I don't have any more information on that, though. I would like to set up a caching proxy as a gateway, but iirc squid doesn't like https in any form. I've had too many times where some app needs to download the same large file on every run, or I want to use some massive webapp in private browsing mode.

Send it back, demand your money back.

First, I'm out of the return period.

If I were to take it back because it's defective, they would turn it on and it would work perfectly. How do you demonstrate a problem that happens after a week or so of switching between cable TV, PS4, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and MLB?

Technically, you paid for product A and now you suddenly have B.

They should either restore it to A or give your money back.

I think a lawyer could turn this into a class action issue if they refused.

I bought a Mi TV 2 months ago. Worst thing ever. I was much better off just using my chromecast. I was hoping a much richer ecosystem of apps for android tv, but they pretty much suck. Dumb tv + chromecast is perfect, or plug a pi for something more complex.

Block everything on your router or via PiHole. Setup and forget

I don't see the outrage. This looks pretty similar to the design of every streaming service these days? Netflix, Prime, etc. The top bar is the largest and displays the newest/trending things to watch.

The only difference is what they might display on the top bar. On Netflix they just show you the newest/trending stuff regardless of I'm interested in it based on my viewing habits. Netflix really wants me to watch Tiger King. So if these streaming services were smart they would pay Google for this ad space based on my viewing habits, or it'll be the newest/trending stuff from these services and it's basically the same/useless then.

I paid good money for a Nvidia Shield in part because I liked the simple interface. Would you like it if in the next Android update you had "trending stuff" occupying a third of your smartphone home screen?

I wouldn't mind it if it were optional, but it seems that it will not be.

I agree this is shity design, but is it "ads"??

To be clear: I don't like been forced "recommendations" that some AI algorithm digged up for me.

But this is still far far from the consumer product ads you see will on traditional TVs.

Next up: Chromecast

(We desperately need an alternative to Chromecasts, they are becoming too dominant)

What's the best external tv hardware box these days? It needs to be something easy enough for my non-technical family to use, that's also stable enough that I don't have to worry about upgrading or debugging it, and provides all of the popular providers controlled by a remote -- or is at least compatible with a universal remote.

Up until recently, my Roku ticked all of the boxes -- Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO Now/Go, Plex, CNN, Hulu, all controlled by a Logitech universal remote. But as of August 1st, HBO has pulled their apps from Roku.

Is one of these a better option?

- Android TV

- Amazon Fire

- Apple TV (without other iOS devices?)

- something else?

The nice thing about Android TV and firetv is that you can sideload apps like NewPipe (better YouTube client without ads) and Kodi. Android TV has been better than FireTV until now, as it has not had an annoying homescreen littered with ads, like the FireTV.

I'd switch to an AppleTV, if I could sideload things like NewPipe, but for now I'm sticking with my Nvidia Shield, which runs Android TV.

Seeing all this hate about smart TVs here

I have a smart Samsung TV, I don't remember the exact name, and it's... fine? I changed my opinion on Smart TVs

It does its job, the 3 apps I have there work fine, there are no annoying ads. There is also working AirPlay for iOS (funnily enough, it's easier to stream from iPhone than from Samsung Galaxy on Samsung TV). The UX is great overall.

The "browser" there is horrible, but you won't be doing much browsing on TV anyway

Are there any FOSS alternatives for the operating systems on current smart tvs?

I haven't heard of any, but it's certainly something I'd be interested in.

I'm guessing it's not possible to just write an app that replaces the homescreen? :/

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