[misleading headline?] Nvidia Shield is getting Auro 3D audio support, full-screen ads

Otter@lemmy.ca to Technology@lemmy.world – 185 points – Nvidia Shield is getting Auro 3D audio support, full-screen ads
flatpanelshd.com

EDIT:

So according to this thread, this is a Google related change and not Nvidia?

In which case, similar to the banner issue from a previous update, you can get a different launcher (see comments for FLauncher) to avoid it

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShieldAndroidTV/comments/181vh4t/ads_at_full_screen/

86

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):

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?

I already did that a long time ago to my Shield TV... I downgraded to 8.2.3 and turned off auto update plus some debloat.

For me the stock launcher is the best launcher yet.

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’ll have to give that a try! Is there noticeable input delay? With game stream it was fine even over WiFi

Here is a 1440p 120fps HEVC example over wifi. Left screen is my PC. Analyzing it frame by frame it would guess a added delay of 16-32ms on my Galaxy Tab S7, idk how much of that is the response time of the tablet screen. Note this is without the low latency mode which I disabled because I had some frame pacing over wifi with it. image

Im streaming over wifi and it says average encode latency 4-7ms depending on the day, but thats just what the software reports. I haven't had any issues with it.

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.

You regret the most? I've made much worse purchases. I just use a custom launcher, which the fact that it's an option is more than most services can say. It's nice that it's running android so I can install any APK I want (thank you SmartTubeNext). And the fact I can quickly control it/type from my phone is nice. Not to mention, I think every remote should have the "find my remote" button that makes it ring. And while it's decently expensive, and there are certainly other cheaper options, I would say this is far from one of the worst purchases I made.

I’m sure I’ve made worse purchases but tbh I’m struggling to think of any truly bad purchases I’ve made at the moment, even this I don’t consider bad as it still does pretty much everything I want. I just don’t appreciate paying to be treated like shit by a company. And the main reasons I chose the shield over cheaper devices was the lack of ads and game stream, both of which have been taken away (yes the ads can be bypassed with a bit of tweaking but I shouldn’t have to)

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.

🙄 https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher

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.

Same here, one other improvement I would recommend is remapping the Netflix button to something less annoying/more useful in case you press it accidentally. If you have Hue lights, you could make it toggle your lights with this app for example.

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 @looping@jlai.lu

That’s a good point. I didn’t notice but have a ton of ads now from Disney etc…I’ll try flauncher

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?

The person that recommended it to me said they love it and kept recommending other things I could do with it, like install an ARM version of Linux that runs Kodi as the frontend instead of Linux. I don't mind paying the money if it's of equal or greater quality than the Shield.

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.

Thanks - this makes me hate Google TV even more. You shouldn't have to go through that much work to keep your devices useful.

What I posted is a generic Android TV box that you can switch launchers and stuff on. The Shield is so popular and is/was the only good STB that they pumped it full of ads, just like any other popular platform.

IDK the modability of it, but it's gotta be better than what I have currently.

Do you have the playstore on it?

On the TV? Yes, I do.

I haven't tried using adb to install new launchers yet.

Try this one

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.projengmenu&amp;hl=de&amp;gl=US

Been using it for a year now, really happy with it.

Is it easy to set up as the default launcher?

I find LG TVs to have the best user experience. If you care you would want to look into a pi-hole to stop all the usual phoning home activities.

Lol omg LGs user experience is better? It's like it was designed by a toddler infused with meth, liquid capitalism, and hatred for graphic design.

Their settings suck, their remote sucks, their software sucks, their apps and app store sucks. The only thing LG does right is make the actual panel.

My personal experience has been the opposite. I have a C8 so maybe the software is different but I've found the settings to be decent, the remote to be far and away the best (magic remote) as you can use it like a mouse. Especially when you have to input something, rather than furiously mashing directional buttons to navigate the keyboard you just point and click. All the apps I use work great. The UI is responsive especially compared to the typical TV that runs Android which just feels like a massive lagfest. The software store does suck! Luckily I rarely use it after the initial setup. You can put apps in whatever order you want and quickly switch between them.

I'd only disagree that their remote sucks - I like it a lot, but I also don't know others! It especially pisses me off how it doesn't keep the apps in the motherfucking order I put them in.

It's strange because I've never had an issue with the app order changing. It's consistently worked for me since I bought the TV. It's an older C8 but still works perfectly well.

I don't know why it always moves some around randomly after turning off and then on the TV, but I gave up trying.

Maybe you know it, but is there a way to make the home screen the standard view after turning it on? I don't have cable and I cannot find anything to do that, and it's my only real gripe with it left, I just accepted the rest.

I'm mostly happy with it, I just hate that they collect all the fucking data they can about you through the TV and mobile app, and you cannot even use simple speech-to-text "without internet" (I blocked any and all traffic to LG so they can suck my nuts).

Maybe I should also add, regarding your point, that I did not have a TV before for many, many years and mostly only use it when people are over or to listen to Spotify while doing stuff around the house.

Which model do you have? Mine doesn't have a "home screen". It turns on to the last used input. There is a bar that pops up from the bottom with all the apps on it and that opens when you turn it on. Honestly I didn't realise how different the UI may be across different models.

Oh yeah, the UI in yours looks completely different. It's way higher-end though than mine!

Mine is apparently "LG 65UQ80009LB", for whatever it's worth :D I could probably make it better by letting it go to standby but that's not worth it for me. There is an option called "Home Auto Launch" but whether that's on or off it boots to HDMI.

Anyway, it's really not that big of a concern! Thank you for the replies though 😁

My issues with LG TVs is they're 1) still missing support for the ESPN app which is a big deal if you're into sports and 2) only allow casting to them from a white-list of sites. So your can't just stream anything from Chrome on your computer and cast to the TV. If the website isn't white-listed, you're out of luck.

I've also had issues with pihole interfering with the TV too. Not a pihole expert though so I'm trying to figure out how to work around it.

Have you tried casting your computer to the TV? With Win+K you can share everything and click around with your remote.

It's what I do when I do it, but I don't have any kind of device for that stuff.

I wish I could do this but I don't have a Windows OS. I wish it had ChromeCast built in because fucking Pixel doesn't even support MiraCast!

  1. Yes this is a big deal. Some important apps are missing. While I'm not in an area that has ESPN I have noticed the lack of CrunchyRoll.

  2. I can't even get cast support because my TV has MiraCast and AirPlay but my fucking Pixel doesn't support either, only ChromeCast.

  3. I used to have a pi-hole setup working properly with the TV, i.e., blocking tracking but keeping functionality.

Real issues and definitely not perfect but when I've used other TVs it's the every action that is unbearable for me. Using a TV without a magic remote just seems obsolete and especially on the Android based TVs there's sooo much lag.

Get a dedicated streaming device like an Apple TV or Roku that can be swapped or upgraded independent of the TV.

Ironically, Nvidia shield is a dedicated streaking device that can be swapped. Don't kid yourself, Roku is just as bad with the ads. They recently updated their UI to pack more apps into their home grid, so that they could show ads for other apps and shows. Recently mine says "continue watching" Supergirl in one of them constantly.

We've never watched Supergirl and don't even have the app it's on installed.

AppleTV 100%. it’s 2nd really only to the shield when it comes to streaming formats , as the Apple TV doesn’t support some of the edge cases (as far as normal users go). Streams most things on my plex server. No ads , stellar performance. My 2017 4k is still a beast and I like the UI. You also don’t really have to deal with apps or services skipping your device because of some bullshit, and if you do it’s not long( hbomax, YouTube TV come to mind).

The only thing it really doesn’t do well is casting like chromecast or side loading but I haven’t had an app that I’ve wanted to install that I couldn’t so there’s that. It has airplay but it also requires you to have an iDevice/Mac but I generally wasn’t a huge user of the feature when I had my chromecast.

Sorry, you say casting doesn't really work well. Does it work at all from Android? We use that pretty heavily in our home. I guess the TV does have the Chromecast built in, so we could still use it.

I'm not in the Apple ecosystem at all, so I don't know if it is a viable choice. I guess I trust Apple not to put ads on everything, so it might be an option.

To my knowledge no but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone found a way to do it. It’s just that chromecast/Google TVs is a lot more friendly and open. You can cast iOS or android.

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

I still dream about an update similar to 8.2.3 lol

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.

You dodged a rocket lol. I have firetv which is android based. But I only have it Kodi. Roku is probably the best streaming. Unless you have a different smart platform on your TV such as LG or Samsung.

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.

Yeah, not updating the home launcher is usually the fix for all these annoyances, until the oldest version of it that you can rollback has ads though.

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?