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I have a Fire TV 4K. When I used to switch it on, right up until a few weeks ago, it would show a half-screen banner ad, and the "Home" icon on the row below wo

I have a Fire TV 4K. When I used to switch it on, right up until a few weeks ago, it would show a half-screen banner ad, and the "Home" icon on the row below would be selected by default. I would simply press the right button on the remote a few times to reach the app I wanted (usually Nebula). Since a few weeks ago, they silently changed the default focus to the ad banner carousel! Now when I press the right button (because of muscle memory) it switches between the ads! So ridiculous and outright user-hostile!

echelon 3y ago
This is what happens when a giant tech conglomerate expands into every business without regulation. You should only expect for this to get worse. I miss the days of "owning" a VCR or DVD player or TV.
- ta1243 3y ago
  On the other hand I watched an old DVD the other day, took 3 minutes from putting it in to the film started with various unskippable "features", warnings, accusations of me pirating it, etc. Moral of the story -- torrents give the best service.
  - graypegg 3y ago
    This is always the thing people forget about the state of physical media post-VHS but pre-streaming. You still didn’t own it! You definitely owned a piece of plastic, but one with magic legal powers to grant you a revocable license to watch it in only in certain ways and only after being subjected to unskippable content. At least it was technically feasible to get around those, but it’s not like physical discs were some universally user-respecting media during that time.
    - rchaud 3y ago
      Physical media can't spy on you (Sony rootkit notwithstanding). The standard for respecting the user isn't very high.
  - loloquwowndueo 3y ago
    Once I decided to go all legit and shit, and went to buy a handful of DVD instead of trying to pirate the movies. Two years later all the dvds had rotted and were unreadable, so it was a ton of money down the trash.
    - ska 3y ago
      I've never really heard of that being a thing except for ones you burn yourself. Optical media is pretty stable unless (re) writable, so I'm surprised. I've played 20 year old DVDs without issue, fwiw.
      - loloquwowndueo 3y ago
        Yep, nope, these were “pressed” discs - quite puzzling.
terminous 3y ago
Set it to Store Mode and it'll become very close to a classic display panel. You can't use streaming apps, it just lets you change HDMI inputs, volume, and picture settings, but that's a feature for me. Plus no spying.
- timenova 3y ago
  Oh I meant the Fire TV 4K streaming stick, not their actual Fire TVs. Their naming has become really confusing. They used to call the previous ones Fire TV Sticks, but I think they dropped the "Stick" from the name in the recent versions. Although I should look into the Store Mode setting for the Samsung TV which is connected to the Fire TV. Thanks for the suggestion!
mcpackieh 3y ago
The abuse will continue until you wise up and throw it away.
grammers 3y ago
That sounds awful, why would one get such a TV in the first place?
butz 3y ago
Can it be returned under warranty, as they literally broke it?
Corrado 3y ago
Ok, I thought it might just be me. I have a FireTV Cube attached to my old plasma TV and I recently changed the "Ad Personalization" settings for it. When the full screen ads for "Monday Night Football" started appearing I thought it was something I did. We have an Apple TV upstairs and I'm replacing the FireTV Cube next week with an Apple 4K+ unit. The FireTV Cube was supposed to be Amazon's premier video streaming device, but it's still not Matter certified and probably never will be. The Apple unit (with Ethernet) has Thread capability and should be future proofed. Bye Alexa / Amazon!

echelon 3y ago

This is what happens when a giant tech conglomerate expands into every business without regulation. You should only expect for this to get worse. I miss the days of "owning" a VCR or DVD player or TV.

ta1243 3y ago
On the other hand I watched an old DVD the other day, took 3 minutes from putting it in to the film started with various unskippable "features", warnings, accusations of me pirating it, etc. Moral of the story -- torrents give the best service.
- graypegg 3y ago
  This is always the thing people forget about the state of physical media post-VHS but pre-streaming. You still didn’t own it! You definitely owned a piece of plastic, but one with magic legal powers to grant you a revocable license to watch it in only in certain ways and only after being subjected to unskippable content. At least it was technically feasible to get around those, but it’s not like physical discs were some universally user-respecting media during that time.
  - rchaud 3y ago
    Physical media can't spy on you (Sony rootkit notwithstanding). The standard for respecting the user isn't very high.
- loloquwowndueo 3y ago
  Once I decided to go all legit and shit, and went to buy a handful of DVD instead of trying to pirate the movies. Two years later all the dvds had rotted and were unreadable, so it was a ton of money down the trash.
  - ska 3y ago
    I've never really heard of that being a thing except for ones you burn yourself. Optical media is pretty stable unless (re) writable, so I'm surprised. I've played 20 year old DVDs without issue, fwiw.
    - loloquwowndueo 3y ago
      Yep, nope, these were “pressed” discs - quite puzzling.

terminous 3y ago

Set it to Store Mode and it'll become very close to a classic display panel. You can't use streaming apps, it just lets you change HDMI inputs, volume, and picture settings, but that's a feature for me. Plus no spying.

timenova 3y ago
Oh I meant the Fire TV 4K streaming stick, not their actual Fire TVs. Their naming has become really confusing. They used to call the previous ones Fire TV Sticks, but I think they dropped the "Stick" from the name in the recent versions. Although I should look into the Store Mode setting for the Samsung TV which is connected to the Fire TV. Thanks for the suggestion!

mcpackieh 3y ago

The abuse will continue until you wise up and throw it away.

grammers 3y ago

That sounds awful, why would one get such a TV in the first place?

butz 3y ago

Can it be returned under warranty, as they literally broke it?

Corrado 3y ago

Ok, I thought it might just be me. I have a FireTV Cube attached to my old plasma TV and I recently changed the "Ad Personalization" settings for it. When the full screen ads for "Monday Night Football" started appearing I thought it was something I did. We have an Apple TV upstairs and I'm replacing the FireTV Cube next week with an Apple 4K+ unit. The FireTV Cube was supposed to be Amazon's premier video streaming device, but it's still not Matter certified and probably never will be. The Apple unit (with Ethernet) has Thread capability and should be future proofed. Bye Alexa / Amazon!