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I also bought a Sony Android TV for this reason. Then last month Google pushed an update for the "Android TV Home" app and now there are many people complaining

by foepys 6y ago

I also bought a Sony Android TV for this reason. Then last month Google pushed an update for the "Android TV Home" app and now there are many people complaining about ads on the home screen [1]. This is not really Sony's fault but rather Google's but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth… https://9to5google.com/2020/08/18/android-tv-homescreen-ads-turn-off-staff-picks/ https://9to5google.com/2020/08/18/android-tv-homescreen-ads-...

auggierose 6y ago
Just buy an Apple TV, and then whatever TV you like.
- nicolas_t 6y ago
  Apparently according to other comments a lot of TVs still do ACR on content received by the apple TV (or any hdmi signal) so we still need dumb tvs...
  - ah88 6y ago
    That's my current setup. TV with the network connection disabled running Apple TV.
  - ziml77 6y ago
    Disable the TV's network connection. Or if you really need it connected, decline as many of the ToS & privacy agreements as possible
- jiggawatts 6y ago
  I just got one today. It's so much better than the "Smart" Samsung TV it is plugged into that it's not even funny. The remote control has touch. I can use my phone to type text input. It's fast. It's elegant and slick. It has no ads. It has options that I care about. It doesn't waste my time with options I don't care about. The Samsung TV on the other hand was a flagship model. Top of the line. Best of the best. Just a few years ago. Now? It is unusable. It is beyond slow. Two to three second response time. Text input is just torture. Netflix crashes. YouTube mangles HDR in some weird way that makes people look like they were drawn by a kid with crayons. It's shocking to me that you can pay thousands of dollars to Samsung and have them destroy your investment with "updates", whereas you can pay a few hundred dollars to Apple and have a slick product that improves over time. What I don't understand is the executives at other companies. Companies that aren't the #1 biggest in the world. How do they not get it!? Just copy Apple! Stop fucking over your customers, and maybe they'll give you more money! I know I give Apple more money every year! It's not that hard. It really isn't.
  - Swenrekcah 6y ago
    There is one thing Apple TV has so backwards that I can't even. Text input. All the letters lined alphabetically with only left-right movement allowed. Takes ages to input anything. Also no corrections allowed. I actually exit appleTV and use the built in TV apps for when I need youtube and the like, because their input mechanism is not insane. I know there is a remote app for iPhones, but you do provide an actual remote, make it work ffs.
    - remote_phone 6y ago
      Use voice dictation. It works remarkably well for entering text
      - Swenrekcah 6y ago
        Well, thanks for the suggestion, I didn't know it was an option. But what if I need to input a language that's not supported or I just don't want to yell at my TV to search a video?
        quickthrowman 6y ago
        If you have an iPhone, you should get a prompt to enter text on your phone when you’re in an Apple TV search field.
        piva00 6y ago
        Then my iPhone pops up a "Keyboard Input" notification with a text input that I can type from the phone without unlocking it. Of course, if you don't have your phone nearby it might suck but let's be realistic, how often you don't have your phone close by when watching TV? P.S.: Yes, I know, if you are an Android user there is no way out and Apple sucks for that, not defending them at all.
        Swenrekcah 6y ago
        This is a company supposedly famous for great user interfaces and usability. Why not try to live up to it? There are actually many times I don't have my phone with me while watching TV. I carry it with me everywhere all day, but I try to keep it on the table most of the time when at home.
- brulard 6y ago
  I have ads on my Apple TV, don't you? Some movie trailers running in the background that I really don't want to see. And every time I miss-swipe somehow the Apple TV remote in an application, I get to that "home" screen watching another movie trailer :|
  - sjs382 6y ago
    No. I don't use the "TV" app though, so that may be the difference. Unless you mean trailers for whatever the cursor is on, inside of an app like Netflix? If so, some of those can be disabled, but I actually like them—they're "ads" for content that I already have access to but may not have known about otherwise.
  - quit32 6y ago
    As mentioned at the end of the original article, you can disable the apple TV recommendations.
  - ascagnel_ 6y ago
    There are two ways to disable this: - Remove the “TV” app from the top bar. - You can change the behavior from the “Settings” app to show your “TV” app’s watch queue instead of trailers. You can’t disable the Music app videos, though.
    - radley 6y ago
      I can agree that the ads are dependent on the apps in your top bar. I hve Plex, Prime, Netflix, Disney, & YouTube in mine and I don't see any ads.
  - fluffything 6y ago
    No, I don't have those. Maybe they can be disabled? I don't recall disabling them.
- nelaboras 6y ago
  Well, try to buy a high end non-smart TV. Near impossible
  - quit32 6y ago
    Just don't connect it to the internet. Also great solution for cheap subsidized TVs where they are banking on your connecting to your network so only charge $100. Plug in an apple TV and you are set.
    - ascagnel_ 6y ago
      > Just don't connect it to the internet. Smart TV manufacturers are relying on the ongoing revenue from their software side nowadays, so they’ll usually mandate setting up an internet connection as part of the device setup process, and then only give you the option to change networks instead of disabling it outright. If you’re tech savvy, you can take measures against this, but it’s not going to be simple for most folks. You also have to worry about ethernet-over-HDMI unintentionally exposing the TV to the wider internet.
      - coldpie 6y ago
        How "usually" is this, actually? I bought an LG TV about a year ago, and it did not force me to connect to the Internet. I just turned it on, skipped the crap, and it works fine over HDMI.
        nickflood 6y ago
        Can confirm that both Samsung and LG cheap LCD panels (~$400) that I got this year do not force a network setup and work without it.
        ascagnel_ 6y ago
        I set up a TCL Roku TV in 2019 for my parents; it presented no option to skip connecting to WiFi.
- robszumski 6y ago
  And (this important) never hook the TV with Android up to a network connection. Only the Apple TV can get to the internet.
- davidwparker 6y ago
  Or my preference is a Chromecast, whatever TV you like. Then you don't have to deal with Apple's UX or Google's. At that point your phone is the remote.
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    I tried that, but didn't like how the Chromecast phoned home all the time to make sure I was authorized to play the phone was also authorized to be played on a TV. I was surprised that some apps specifically disallowed this. I ended up with an AppleTV. So far, if it plays on my phone, it will play on the TV, too.
- criddell 6y ago
  That doesn't seem like an acceptable solution. The ads weren't there when I bought the TV. I found the support article from Sony on this: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00225587 https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00225587 If this is a TV that is used by very young children, ads with blood splatter as shown in their example seem pretty tasteless. Google's page on the introduction of ads has the same thing - an ad for Sesame Street followed up with the ad containing blood splatter. https://blog.google/products/android-tv/find-new-faves-faster/ https://blog.google/products/android-tv/find-new-faves-faste...
  - RHSeeger 6y ago
    > Subscriptions in a snap makes it easier for you to watch a must-see show from an app that you haven't subscribed to. Honestly, that's the thing I hate most about the Fire Stick, and why I don't use it's discovery feature at all... I don't want to see promotions for 4,000 services I don't subscribe to. Sure, if I search for a specific show, I don't mind results from those services ... but as general adverts for shows? No thank you.
  - hyperbovine 6y ago
    > Q3: Can I remove these suggestions? > A3: No, the suggestions cannot be removed. I keep hoping someone will file a class action over this. These dumbfuck ads just appeared one day on my Bravia X900E, about a year after purchase. I didn't opt in to this and I wouldn't have bought the damn thing if this "feature" existed at the time. Sign me up for the class!
- glennpratt 6y ago
  So, buy a device that has ads to avoid a device that has ads? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208511 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208511
jlv2 6y ago
My Sony TV from 2014 has ads in the TV Guide that gets content from the Internet.
dilippkumar 6y ago
I bought a Sony Android TV in June. I refused to connect it to the internet and I skipped past the Android setup screens. I plugged in my Apple TV instead. Every now and then the Android TV pops up when I turn the TV on and asks me to complete the set up. I always tell it to fuck off. So far, no ads. It'll stay that way till the TV eventually dies - without ever connecting to the internet.

by foepys 6y ago

auggierose 6y ago

Just buy an Apple TV, and then whatever TV you like.

nicolas_t 6y ago
Apparently according to other comments a lot of TVs still do ACR on content received by the apple TV (or any hdmi signal) so we still need dumb tvs...
- ah88 6y ago
  That's my current setup. TV with the network connection disabled running Apple TV.
- ziml77 6y ago
  Disable the TV's network connection. Or if you really need it connected, decline as many of the ToS & privacy agreements as possible
jiggawatts 6y ago
I just got one today. It's so much better than the "Smart" Samsung TV it is plugged into that it's not even funny. The remote control has touch. I can use my phone to type text input. It's fast. It's elegant and slick. It has no ads. It has options that I care about. It doesn't waste my time with options I don't care about. The Samsung TV on the other hand was a flagship model. Top of the line. Best of the best. Just a few years ago. Now? It is unusable. It is beyond slow. Two to three second response time. Text input is just torture. Netflix crashes. YouTube mangles HDR in some weird way that makes people look like they were drawn by a kid with crayons. It's shocking to me that you can pay thousands of dollars to Samsung and have them destroy your investment with "updates", whereas you can pay a few hundred dollars to Apple and have a slick product that improves over time. What I don't understand is the executives at other companies. Companies that aren't the #1 biggest in the world. How do they not get it!? Just copy Apple! Stop fucking over your customers, and maybe they'll give you more money! I know I give Apple more money every year! It's not that hard. It really isn't.
- Swenrekcah 6y ago
  There is one thing Apple TV has so backwards that I can't even. Text input. All the letters lined alphabetically with only left-right movement allowed. Takes ages to input anything. Also no corrections allowed. I actually exit appleTV and use the built in TV apps for when I need youtube and the like, because their input mechanism is not insane. I know there is a remote app for iPhones, but you do provide an actual remote, make it work ffs.
  - remote_phone 6y ago
    Use voice dictation. It works remarkably well for entering text
    - Swenrekcah 6y ago
      Well, thanks for the suggestion, I didn't know it was an option. But what if I need to input a language that's not supported or I just don't want to yell at my TV to search a video?
      - quickthrowman 6y ago
        If you have an iPhone, you should get a prompt to enter text on your phone when you’re in an Apple TV search field.
      - piva00 6y ago
        Then my iPhone pops up a "Keyboard Input" notification with a text input that I can type from the phone without unlocking it. Of course, if you don't have your phone nearby it might suck but let's be realistic, how often you don't have your phone close by when watching TV? P.S.: Yes, I know, if you are an Android user there is no way out and Apple sucks for that, not defending them at all.
        Swenrekcah 6y ago
        This is a company supposedly famous for great user interfaces and usability. Why not try to live up to it? There are actually many times I don't have my phone with me while watching TV. I carry it with me everywhere all day, but I try to keep it on the table most of the time when at home.
brulard 6y ago
I have ads on my Apple TV, don't you? Some movie trailers running in the background that I really don't want to see. And every time I miss-swipe somehow the Apple TV remote in an application, I get to that "home" screen watching another movie trailer :|
- sjs382 6y ago
  No. I don't use the "TV" app though, so that may be the difference. Unless you mean trailers for whatever the cursor is on, inside of an app like Netflix? If so, some of those can be disabled, but I actually like them—they're "ads" for content that I already have access to but may not have known about otherwise.
- quit32 6y ago
  As mentioned at the end of the original article, you can disable the apple TV recommendations.
- ascagnel_ 6y ago
  There are two ways to disable this: - Remove the “TV” app from the top bar. - You can change the behavior from the “Settings” app to show your “TV” app’s watch queue instead of trailers. You can’t disable the Music app videos, though.
  - radley 6y ago
    I can agree that the ads are dependent on the apps in your top bar. I hve Plex, Prime, Netflix, Disney, & YouTube in mine and I don't see any ads.
- fluffything 6y ago
  No, I don't have those. Maybe they can be disabled? I don't recall disabling them.
nelaboras 6y ago
Well, try to buy a high end non-smart TV. Near impossible
- quit32 6y ago
  Just don't connect it to the internet. Also great solution for cheap subsidized TVs where they are banking on your connecting to your network so only charge $100. Plug in an apple TV and you are set.
  - ascagnel_ 6y ago
    > Just don't connect it to the internet. Smart TV manufacturers are relying on the ongoing revenue from their software side nowadays, so they’ll usually mandate setting up an internet connection as part of the device setup process, and then only give you the option to change networks instead of disabling it outright. If you’re tech savvy, you can take measures against this, but it’s not going to be simple for most folks. You also have to worry about ethernet-over-HDMI unintentionally exposing the TV to the wider internet.
    - coldpie 6y ago
      How "usually" is this, actually? I bought an LG TV about a year ago, and it did not force me to connect to the Internet. I just turned it on, skipped the crap, and it works fine over HDMI.
      - nickflood 6y ago
        Can confirm that both Samsung and LG cheap LCD panels (~$400) that I got this year do not force a network setup and work without it.
      - ascagnel_ 6y ago
        I set up a TCL Roku TV in 2019 for my parents; it presented no option to skip connecting to WiFi.
robszumski 6y ago
And (this important) never hook the TV with Android up to a network connection. Only the Apple TV can get to the internet.
davidwparker 6y ago
Or my preference is a Chromecast, whatever TV you like. Then you don't have to deal with Apple's UX or Google's. At that point your phone is the remote.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  I tried that, but didn't like how the Chromecast phoned home all the time to make sure I was authorized to play the phone was also authorized to be played on a TV. I was surprised that some apps specifically disallowed this. I ended up with an AppleTV. So far, if it plays on my phone, it will play on the TV, too.
criddell 6y ago
That doesn't seem like an acceptable solution. The ads weren't there when I bought the TV. I found the support article from Sony on this: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00225587 https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00225587 If this is a TV that is used by very young children, ads with blood splatter as shown in their example seem pretty tasteless. Google's page on the introduction of ads has the same thing - an ad for Sesame Street followed up with the ad containing blood splatter. https://blog.google/products/android-tv/find-new-faves-faster/ https://blog.google/products/android-tv/find-new-faves-faste...
- RHSeeger 6y ago
  > Subscriptions in a snap makes it easier for you to watch a must-see show from an app that you haven't subscribed to. Honestly, that's the thing I hate most about the Fire Stick, and why I don't use it's discovery feature at all... I don't want to see promotions for 4,000 services I don't subscribe to. Sure, if I search for a specific show, I don't mind results from those services ... but as general adverts for shows? No thank you.
- hyperbovine 6y ago
  > Q3: Can I remove these suggestions? > A3: No, the suggestions cannot be removed. I keep hoping someone will file a class action over this. These dumbfuck ads just appeared one day on my Bravia X900E, about a year after purchase. I didn't opt in to this and I wouldn't have bought the damn thing if this "feature" existed at the time. Sign me up for the class!
glennpratt 6y ago
So, buy a device that has ads to avoid a device that has ads? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208511 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208511

jlv2 6y ago

My Sony TV from 2014 has ads in the TV Guide that gets content from the Internet.

dilippkumar 6y ago

I bought a Sony Android TV in June. I refused to connect it to the internet and I skipped past the Android setup screens. I plugged in my Apple TV instead. Every now and then the Android TV pops up when I turn the TV on and asks me to complete the set up. I always tell it to fuck off. So far, no ads. It'll stay that way till the TV eventually dies - without ever connecting to the internet.