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Comment by kardianos | Hacker News Reader

This is not the same thing. My Chromecast dedicated device would put a default nice picture, then wait for a cast.

Google TV and this new device displays advertisements, store, and more. I hate it.

It's the last google thing in my house. When it dies, google will be gone from my house.

Google TV does roughly the same thing. It's called "Ambient Mode"[1]. The default timeout takes a while though so I changed my timeout value to be much lower. It does feel like they're kind of hiding ambient mode though, which makes me think it's days are numbered, but on my current Google TV it works great. I set the timeout value very low so it will enter that mode after being idle for 60 seconds.

There may be a way to do it through the settings, but I enabled dev mode and used (wireless) adb to configure the timeout:

    adb shell settings put system screen_off_timeout 60000

I have a ton of handy bash functions and aliases to essentially have a CLI remote using adb that I can share if anybody is interested. It's really a pretty neat device and a lot more "open" than most people think thanks to developer mode.

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/os2z6q/chromecas...

I’d love to see your collection of bash functions and aliases for adb. Thanks!

I have Google TV on my Sony TV and found that I was able to disable the ads and crap.

There was a setting to toggle. They tried to make it unattractive by saying I wouldn't be able to use the Google Assistant feature but this just seemed like a win for me.

I don't need my TV to be fancy, it just needs to accept signal from my consoles and HTPC.

I do kinda miss seeing all the suggested dogshit movies sometimes tho XD

Do you mind sharing the guide? I am already on the "Apps Only Mode", but I still get the full banner ads on the home screen.

The only “google” thing in my home is a nest. That’s only because G acquired the company years back. Only thing they added was forcing users to migrate Nest account to G.

Honestly might disconnect the nest from the network. But only keep it connected and segmented from rest of network for remotely changing the temp from my phone.

One of these days I’ll “hack” (explore) the device so it doesn’t rely on Nest/Google APIs. There’s absolutely no reason why I need a Google auth token to access the Nest other than for Google to collect whatever data and feed to their beast

Last I looked, there was essentially no good programmatic route into local Nest control, unlike most home automation devices which use wifi/bluetooth/zwave/zigbee. I replaced my Nests with a couple of $25 Centralite Zigbee thermostats and drive it via HomeAssistant running on a Raspberry Pi, and I'm significantly happier with it than I ever was with the Nest.

I have a Shield Pro, Onn and a Chromecast. All have Projectivity Launcher. Good bye Google ads.

Aww man, this sucks. I had mine connected to a google photos album. I loved that feature.

You can either have it display from a Google Photos photo album, and get the version of the interface which constantly displays ads to you, or you can switch the interface to "apps only" mode which will only show you one big ad on the home screen. In "apps only" mode, the thing won't display your photos, either as a screensaver or anything else. You still need to be logged into your Google account, of course; as far as I can tell, not displaying photos is just a way of punishing you for trying to reduce the ads you see.

Is there different version for EU? I see either list of apps and bunch of shows from streamings that I have (home view) or just basically play store, with installed apps on top.

None contains ads. If I leave it alone it will switch to Screensaver in a few minutes. Photos in my case. Bit sad they have hidden 3rd party screens savers, which were better, but there definitely isn't anything I can call "constant ads".

You can still get third party screen savers if you use adb

Serious question: do you actually leave the TV on when not watching contents? Aren't you worried about your electricity consumption?

> When it dies, google will be gone from my house.

In case you're looking, I have a friend with a set of special skills that can help with this. This friend is very discrete, and there will be nothing left that traces it back to you. It will look like natural causes. I think you can find an ad in the back of an issue of Solder of Fortune.

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