This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Install ProjectIvy from the app store on your Shield or Chromecast with Android TV as an alternative launcher.
Also not buying a Shield anymore in the future. Putting ads in a product you paid for should be fucking illegal at this point.
Instead of projectivy I use ATV Launcher Pro. It's pretty good. It allows for widgets, though I find many I want to display don't work correct, which is unfortunate. I did spend $3 on it, but I don't mind paying for an app. It just means the developer can make money without displaying ads
I also went for ATV. Fuck the default launcher.
+1 for projectivy. Easy to use, looks good, stays out of the way. I use it on my shield and also use it on my cheap onn pucks.
Is it difficult to install? Like do I need to side load it or can I install it straight from the UI? I am definitely over Google shoving non-stop ads into my paid for experience.
Nope. Just install from the play store.
Is there a way to get it to launch automatically without sideloading anything?
Also not buying a Shield anymore in the future.
Well, that is gonna be easy, I don't think this product will still continue in the future.
thanks <3 I just did this on my shield today and what a breeze this launcher is!
I'm so excited for the new.. reads feature updates.. full-screen ads?
Fuck off. This is why I will never purchased an "embedded" device.
What are you using now if you don’t mind me asking. Had a Roku and moved to this for the quality of sound and video
I have an old RPi2 laying around that runs OSMC. I rarely watch stuff on my TV, most of the time I just watch it on my second monitor while I'm doing stuff.
But I bought the hardware, why do I want full screen ads on bootup and between launching every app?
Imagine a laptop playing a full screen ad every time you closed word to open up your web browser. Just rather thow my laptop at the wall.
Windows 11 (in certain markets anyway):
I don't need to imagine, Windows already has ads lol
YES! FINALLY! i thought something was missing from this expensive piece of hardware and here it is, ads! I love wasting time on ads and they sure know what i love!
/s
These devices are pretty popular, so if you have one it might be time to disable updates
If Google can update the user interface server-side, doesn't that mean that disabling updates still wouldn't work for avoiding these full screen ads?
depends on how they plan on implementing the update and what they already have in place software and firmware-wise
If you read the article, it doesn't sound like the ads and update are related. Some users are seeing ads. There is also an update coming soon.
If the ads are a server side change the update won't do anything?
This is probably one of the purchases I regret the most. First they updated it and put shitty banner ads in the launcher so I had to install a custom one to get round that. Then they disabled game stream which I’ll admit I only used a few times, but it was still one of the reasons I went with the shield over another device. And now this…
I think when I replace it I’ll just get a mini PC instead
You can still game stream with sunlight + moonlight. And the advantage is that it works with any brand GPU.
I would never regret about my Nvidia Shield TV, in fact it is one of the best purchases I have ever done, I have one since 2018 or 2017 perhaps and that unit got busted and Nvidia replaced mine for free (they sent me a power adapter first, which didn't help for my issue, for free too) even when it was outside of the warranty period, and they didn't even replace it for another 2017 unit, they gave me the 2019 pro, perhaps for inventory reasons, (and a ruler as a gift lol) a very pro move if you ask me.
Now the 2019 unit is dated for sure, and the launcher with ads was a dirt move sure, that is why I downgraded the unit and debloated it, this is how my unit looks like now.
I mean I still appreciate they are still supporting hardware from 2015 in 2023.
If my device started showing full-screen ads all of a sudden I'd assume I caught some malware. I guess I'll never update mine past v8.
This is what I’m using. It’s kinda ugly but totally ad-free and does what I want but not one bit more. I installed flauncher, connected to the shield with network adb, disabled the leanback launcher, then hit the home button on the remote. Easy peasy, and much better than remapping buttons IMO
Same for me.
In the current version it was already advertising / recommending shows and movies too me I have no interest in. I just want my plex content and that's it. A custom launcher is great for that.
Would a pihole or something like adguars dns that stops ads be a good solution to this? Or would I be stuck with just full screen black screen?
Depends on how they do it I guess
I remember reading about the newer home screen added a promotional banner. It was showing content from the apps themselves (ex. New shows from Disney+) but it was still annoying and a lot of people switched to a different launcher.
People will probably figure something out
edit: see the comment by @[email protected]
That’s a good point. I didn’t notice but have a ton of ads now from Disney etc…I’ll try flauncher
Downgrade to 8.2.3 and you'll be happy with the shield again. https://florisse.nl/shield/
Is there a good alternative to Google TVs? I recently bought a TV and absolutely hate Google on it.
I have a media server, is there a way to install a launcher for my TV that can access Netflix, YouTube, Plex and other services?
I love(d) my Shield, I first bought the original, and then the updated model. I use it every day, but the lack of hardware updates (still using USB 2, only has 12 GB internal storage, low RAM, etc...) and constant ads and "sponsored content" has made me fall out of love with it.
I asked a few weeks back about a replacement and someone recommended this one to me. It runs on Android 12, supports 4K Dolby Atmos and Vision, and has better hardware than the Shield. It isn't cheap though.
Same price as a shield tho, so might be equally worth it if it is good?
So it could get the same update that makes the launcher an ad-riddled cesspit?
How easy are these devices to root and install alternative roms? Are there alternative roms available to install?
I really wish these devices were more like desktop computers. I want the freedom to install anything I want.
My solution last weekend when I saw this post was to downgrade both my sheilds to 8.2.3, I never liked the adds on the sheilds main homepage tbh but have gotten used to the as time passed.
In this process though once I downgraded I noticed the adds displayed once again on both my sheilds. This was because the android tv launcher app downloads a update. To get around this I disabled auto upgrade of apps on my sheilds and denyed the upgrade of the Google tv launcher and removed the update. No more adds on the launcher.
I have a feeling this is how google will push full screen adds through their launcher app in the play store.
Here is a well written guide how to downgrade to 8.2.3 that I followed.
https://florisse.nl/shield-downgrade/
Took about 30min on my second sheilds once I figured out the first sheild after 2 hours.
Shit like this is why I haven’t updated my Shield in the 2 years I’ve had it and never will.
same, still running the pre-ad stock OS. i do keep it offline though, it only accesses local media
Damn I considered one of these for a little bit when I was working on getting my own home streaming setup going. Decided against it because it looked kinda stupid and I hate Android and a lot of the stuff that comes with it. I guess I dodged a bullet on that one.
To be honest, there is hardly any good competition for the Shield TV Pro even on this day, but that is the fault of the industry completely.
Interesting... I have an OG Shield, also in the Netherlands, but have seen no ads (that being said, companies A/B test and do gradual rollout of this kind of BS).
But I also kept my Android Home in the version without ads by disabling Play Store updates and instead manually going over all apps (except Home!) every month or so (or when I have an issue with any app I use).
I feel confident that I'll be able to hack my way around this new form of ads.
I occasionally see auto-playing ad on my Chromecast with Google TV about twice a year so far. Every time I hit Send Feedback immediately and say something harsh about the ads and they disappear shortly after. I'm considering building a LineageOS Android TV machine based on the ODROID-C4. I'm just unsure what level of Widevine I'd get. I'd be okay with 1080p. 720p would be a bit shit. Anyone tried this route?
