Frog: "Hey, did any of you guys notice the water get a couple degrees hotter?"
Other Frogs: Already boiled alive
Frog with hacked firestick and a pirate subscription: huh?
Frog who downloads media himself and hosts it on his own server: you guys are in water?
You are not immune to propaganda
And in particular, even if you avoid being exposed to it, you are still affected by other people being exposed to it.
Why come we are affected by what other douchebags are exposed to?
Because they vote too.
But to adverts. :-p
Hacked how?
I dunno exactly, I just know many people have "hacked firesticks" that basically run Kodi, then they pay some dodgy dude on WhatsApp like 30 euro a year and get e v e r y t h i n g as a streaming service. Sometimes the service gets shut down, but apparently they're pretty decent at referring you to their new operation with credit - and even if not, you've paid far less than a full legit TV package.
I'm honestly a little jealous, as they even get live sports streams. Meanwhile, if I try and get them I have to go to very dodgy websites, and often the stream cuts off at key times. However, I just can't bring myself to pay for piracy.
I met a guy in the city that supported himself selling cracked firesticks, I shit you not. 40 bucks a pop and it'd be plug and play all the way supposedly, and that's all he did, sell those via word of mouth.
As an old, I have to chuckle at the whole thing as it reminds me of the '80s when (if you knew who to talk to) you could pay a guy to open up your 13 channel, wood paneled cable box, move a few things around, and give you free Home Box Office. It was the tits, let me tell you.
Fuck, I'm getting old.
For me, it was the guy in the pub selling bootleg cigarettes and tobacco. Then, for a time, they would sell CDs and DVDs. Although now that I think about it they did VHS back in the day also.
These days I'm pretty sure all hacked firesticks have moved to a subscription model. There's a game of whack-a-mole being played with rights holders and streamers, particularly with sports, so there is some back end work being done keeping it seemless for the user.
Frog who downloads media himself and hosts it on his own server: you guys are in water?
And when that frog realizes that all the other frogs in the water have been caught and eaten already, where do you think the predators are going to turn to next?
You're right! People should stand against this NOW by not paying for these shitty services!
Wait a minute...
59... 58... 57 ...
(Piracy means you are not giving these shitty services your money. Actively not supporting them.)
If someone could explain to me why that comment is getting downvotes?
The point I'm making is that just looking out for yourself is never enough, sooner or later its your turn.
I dunno why the downvotes, but I think your analogy doesn't quite work. If anything, piracy keeps prices down for paying users - so long as piracy is an option, media services cannot raise their prices to such an obscene level, as the more they do it the more people will turn to piracy. So really pirates are on the front line.
Also, a lot of piracy is still done by torrents, which inherently helps others to pirate themselves - especially if you leave it to seed.
It's just kind of sad that fewer people do it these days. Just like it's sad how few people use ad blockers.
If someone could explain to me why that comment is getting downvotes?
It's absurd. You've strained the metaphor by pushing it too far and it makes no sense.
The boiling frog analogy has nothing to do with predators. Predators do not put live frogs in pots of slowly heating water.
How exactly do you think ads are going to be forced on people who pirate their media?
Telling people "stop giving money to trashy companies" is looking out for them. When companies get too greedy and start being shitty towards paying customers, the reaction absolutely should be "we're going to pirate it instead" so that these practices actively hurt profits.
It’s absurd. You’ve strained the metaphor by pushing it too far and it makes no sense.
And when that frog realizes that all the other frogs in the water have been caught and eaten already, where do you think the predators are going to turn to next?
The point I was trying to make is that at some point it'll be impossible or nearly impossible to do piracy, that you have to do more than just look out for yourself, you have to vote people into office that'll pass fair laws for consumers.
I'm not passing judgment on piracy, just that someday there will be a point where DRM will be too much, so you need to fight by other ways than just piracy, like getting the right laws passed.
The point I was trying to make is that at some point it’ll be impossible or nearly impossible to do piracy
Piracy has always been illegal, and has always happened anyway. There is no way to make it impossible. Even Denuvo, the currently best anti-piracy measure, can be cracked and makes the experience worse for paying customers.
you need to fight by other ways than just piracy, like getting the right laws passed.
I don't live in the country that needs to pass those laws.
Piracy has always been illegal, and has always happened anyway. There is no way to make it impossible
I hope you're right, but I wouldn't be so confident in that. As time goes on, and they bake more of the DRM into the hardware directly, it'll be harder to circumvent (for the common person at the very least).
For example, the Sony PlayStation used to be very hackable, now it's not (last time I checked).
I don’t live in the country that needs to pass those laws.
I would imagine that, as the world gets more International and interconnected, that might change, at some point the future. If it doesn't, then good for you.
I hope you’re right, but I wouldn’t be so confident in that. As time goes on, and they bake more of the DRM into the hardware directly, it’ll be harder to circumvent (for the common person at the very least).
This is talking about a Fires TV: TV shows and movies. I've yet to experience a streaming service with required hardware and baked in DRM.
For example, the Sony PlayStation used to be very hackable, now it’s not (last time I checked).
PS1 required acquiring a physical chip and making physical changes to the device. PS5 can be jail-broken through software alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSJ8DKijRzA
It's why I'm struggling really, really hard not to feel to annoyed with the average consumers that still buy this trash instead of supporting less oppressive alternatives.
Like, yeah, people should just be able to buy what they like and not have to concern themselves with the overall market trends they're helping to entrench... But holy shit is it becoming a serious problem. The customers are what drive the direction of the market, but the customers base isn't just tech enthusiasts anymore, it's literally everyone, and they are sleepwalking us all off a god damn cliff. By the time they wake up to start complaining about it, we will already be halfway down.
By the time they wake up to start complaining about it, we will already be halfway down.
They'll be at the "too big to fail" point, where to try to reverse the trend would crash the economy that's based on selling customer privacy and information.
I'm still alive.
But only because I ditched Amazon Prime at the end of the month.
Of course you are. Frogs jump out if the water gets too hot regardless how slowly the temperature is rising.
I left when they started charging $10-11 for whole food deliveries. It used to be included.
They also used to have Amazon fresh and Amazon pantry delivery, but they exited my suburban area, too.
So now Walmart+ gets my money.
I will absolutely employ a 0 tolerance policy on forced ads.
If I have paid for a service to be ad free and you throw me an ad, I won't pay for your service.
Hell, I'll back-charge through my creditor and say I paid for a service that was not delivered.
Careful of backcharging large companies. They'll remove your account from all their services. Looking at you Google.
That product tying is reason #3821 we need to start enforcing anti-trust law again.
They don't delete anything, though. They just deny YOU access to it.
Not your computer, not your data. The cloud is just a buzzword for someone else's computer. Always run local backups.
You get banned retrospectively too. I got banned from Adsense in 2003 and magically got demonetised from YouTube in 2006.
Stop, I can only get so erect
I’d look through the fine print if it says that they won’t serve ads. Cause I doubt that.
'we reserve the right to change..... (this, that, and everything else)'
The fine print didn't say I won't do a chargeback either. Two can play this game.
I'd try to get a refund first unless you never plan to shop on Amazon again.
I meant it as a counterpoint, not something I'd actually do. Especially considering I don't shop in such places in the first place. But yes, you're obviously correct.
Meh, could be fun to play with. Keep it on a DMZ lab segment.
I'm surprised it wasn't showing ads before. The fire tablets are discounted if they show ads on the lock screen.
A great solution is just to stop buying from Amazon. Like, anything.
Chances are you did survive before Amazon was a thing. It’s possible.
I gave them 1 star and left a bad review for each of the fire tvs...they called me about the revie and then did nothing...buy a roku and throw out your $800 fire tv...it is worth it to take the loss for your own sanity
I recently bought a Roku and was surprised to find they force ads on their home screen. It's obviously not as terrible as a fullscreen ad but its still very annoying.
Wait, what? A Roku has more ads than a fire TV. 1/3 of the screen is always an ad. For new releases they'll sell the entire screen as an ad. ( Disney's Seeing Red was a full screen splash ad on my Roku.)
OK open to any other options and I mean any....there has got to be someone who can wite hacks to fix issues like this...they are doing it for chrome?
Roku is more closed than Amazon fire. I've read about rooted Fires.
Apple TV seems the least intrusive right now but I've never used one personally.
I've had an AppleTV for about five years+ now and have yet to see an ad placed on the main screen.
the ads on roku do not impact my experience, they go away as soon as i open anything.
*do not yet
Only a matter of time
i will give you that one. 😮💨
Lol the Roku has far more invasive ads. Get a Chromecast, or best yet, an Nvidia Shield.
You pay the Amazon tax indirectly often enough regardless. Huge chunks of the Internet run on AWS. And if it's not AWS, then it's Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure. Shareholders win again.
As for not buying shitty products, returning them when you realise how shitty they are, cancelling contracts when services turn shitty, etc. Yes, do that.
It's true you can't really control who uses AWS and you'll end up on sites that use it. But it's so easy to not buy anything from Amazon directly or from other stores.
Their shipping services aren't even that good any more from what I hear (I haven't bought from them in years).
It's also a terrible site now. It's nothing but Alibaba crap marked up 700% and counterfeit products.
Before amazon existed all the companies they killed for their monopoly existed.
I to this day have proudly never bought anything from Amazon (unless you count the one ebay purchase that was shipped from Amazon without my knowledge). However I have run into a couple of products, namely quality name brand USB4 cables (Plugable and Ugreen) that I for the life of me cannot find anywhere but Amazon in Australia.
So yes I have proudly survived without Amazon until very soon. I will try to continue to not use Amazon however with some sellers opting to exclusively sell on Amazon, I feel I am being left with no choice. It seems not enough boycotted Amazon when it mattered to the point that there are an increasing amount of items that are only available through them.
Facebook and Amazon are on my shit list due to their shear contempt for their customers/products and employees.
I would but at that point it would be very difficult to get some of the specialty tools I use. I have a whole catalog and it takes ages to get anything from it. Granted I don't use their fire TV or whatever and so I'm not actually seeing these shitty ads.
Naw, it didn't stop any other company i boycotted, and thinking it does is actually a silly idea to consider if you give it a minute to be in the ol' noggin.
If it did make a difference there'd be a bunch of astroturf campaigns against voting with your wallet, wouldn't there?
The only thing that stops this is something we're not ready for yet.
EDIT: wimps.
It doesn't make a difference unless enough people boycott. The problem is not enough people care enough to actually stop going there to hurt their revenue.
Then there's the problem with the current political division, at least in the US, where if something upsets one side, the other likes to dig in to stick it to them and often winds up giving the boycotted company more money than they'll ever lose.
Experienced this for the first time yesterday. It’s my dad paying for Amazon, and we mutually discovered we couldn’t skip the ad. Asked him, “aren’t you gonna boycott it now?”, and he told me no. “Not too much of an issue”, he said. This is the attitude that enables enshittification.
Fuck that. High seas it is, they can kiss my ass. I will not pay to watch advertisements.
Probably because one ad is like nothing compared to what we used to have to deal with on broadcast TV. Sadly the general public who have only just recently gotten into streaming in the last few years still have those kinds of ad breaks fresh in memory.
I was halfway through reading and thinking that it would be a wholesome ending. I guess not.
You can update the TVs settings to block these new large video ads. However, Amazon is getting more and more intrusive with its ads. I imagine that, similar to the Alexa Shows that I also use, every few weeks they'll tweak the ads, making your previous "disable this" settings no longer applicable. It's technically a new ad type, so they can auto enable it again. Super frustrating.
Largely in response to these new autoplay ads, I replaced my Fire TV with an LG TV. I've got another LG TV from only a few years ago that doesn't really have ads. This one.. does. Damn it. Don't get me wrong, they're much less in-your-face when compared to Amazon's ads. But, damn, does everything just have to be ads now?
For all of Apple’s faults, their Apple TV is pretty decent. A home screen with apps on them; no ads. It’s great
God, if I could just install SmartTube and Kodi/Stremio on an Apple TV, I’d convert in a heartbeat. Until then, I’ll keep my Shield TV Pro.
Install libreelec onto a raspberry pi 4. Its a Linux OS that automatically boots into Kodi.
Kodi has an ad free youtube addon, which you can augment with a sponsorblock addon to skip in video ads.
If you have plex or jellyfin they intergrate really well with kodi. For plex, use plexkodiconnect, for jellyfin, use the jellyfin kodi app.
Flirc has a great remote if you go with the above called the skip.
I used to be into that sort of tinkering and custom install/configuring of all sorts of software. I probably still have 2-3 flircs in a drawer somewhere.
These days I just want to be able to buy something, plug it in, and have it work. The idea of installing a plex/jellyfin server and a custom OS on a pi might as well be the same as getting a 4 year degree at this point. I’m sure it works out great for loads of people, but it’s definitely not something I’m interested in.
Id say youre a handful of YouTube videos away from getting the above done, but if you aren't interested that's no problem.
It’s not the knowledge that I need, it’s mostly the time and desire to set up all that stuff and maintain it and keep it working and constantly needing to track what the latest and greatest version of whatever platform or software that is out there. It’s the same reason I don’t jailbreak my phone or hack my consoles anymore. Sometimes it’s nice to just buy a thing that works out of the box and use it as its intended.
What about the remote?
Flirc has a great remote if you go with the above called the skip.
I used Kodi for almost a decade and switched to firetv because add-ons were breaking constantly. Netflix worked maybe 20% of the time.
Chromecast with stremio is still the perfect streaming setup for me, now if only the voice recognition on the remote was a bit less shit.
Chromecast with stremio
Just so that people are aware, from stremio's privacy policy...
Now you can use it, but guess what is required for future app updates? Later OS updates. It's a trap.
Are you the OP in that post?
This screen comes up when you add an Apple ID. I recently signed out of my Apple TV and got the same screen. I used the physical remote and entered my credentials. I didn’t need to use my phone, even though that was an option. Maybe this was an issue with iOS 16 as the post is a year old.
I don’t know how to fix your problem but I am curious about it.
I assume you have an old iPhone tied to your iCloud account. What happens if you untie that phone and wait like a day (some iCloud stuff is weird and can take about 24 hours to update server side info)
You can enter the credentials manually. I just did it few weeks ago.
Well that's destroyed any interest I may have had in them
That information is incorrect.
My LG TV updated to show ads in the input selection menu. I was pissed for a few months until someone showed me you can disable them in the settings. Maybe you can disable them on yours?
What setting disables the current ones?
You switched from a system that is currently shitty (Fire TV) but easily replaceable (just an HDMI addon) to a system that is currently less shitty (LG TV) but now you are firmly locked in into the LG eco system.
As bad as FireTV currently is, at least you can easily ditch it. Just pull the plug and buy another brand of TV stick.
If you keep relying on your smart TV apps then you will have to endure the slow shittyfication for years to come.
Currently using a Roku Streambar for all of our streaming needs but if they pull this crap, everything we consume will be downloaded, served on my Plex server and streamed using the gaming PC I have under our TV.
Getting beyond sick of these companies using every measure and device they can to shit ads into our eyes.
My Roku is pie holed, I don't Even get the main screen ads anymore.
as soon as services and sites start doing the same thing yt does.. delivering ads via the same servers and hostnames as the content.. pihole and other dns-based solutions lose their effectiveness.
Oh I have my own content. I've also been doing this since we were recording off air broadcast TV breaking out commercials from a live stream is nothing but an inconvenience.
i just uncovered a box with over 100 vhs tapes from the days before i switched to pc-based recording. that'll be a future project after i get done with de-duplicating and consolidating the files i already have.
Coming back from VHS is a bit painful, I've done quite a lot of it at this point. (I think I'm up to a few hundred tapes)
I used to use TiVo to record broadcast and cable, export as MPEG, strip the commercials and then turn that into DivX. There are options out there to automatically strip commercials they're 'mostly' good and work way better with digital sources.
The problem with VHS is another layer of substantial loss. If someone recorded it as SLP (and that's pretty much what we all did back in the day) you're going to spend a very long time with AI video denoising to get something even remotely watchable. Analog CRT hid so many video sins.
Topaz Labs video AI does a reasonably good job under certain circumstances. When you go to rip your content don't just rip it all and then worry about it later. Rip a couple of things and then mess with them until you're happy enough with the results to continue.
Generally speaking the stuff you start with needs to be kind of watchable If you expect it to turn out into something truly watchable. AI is good at cleaning up artifacts in a little snowy grain and straightening out fuzzy edges. But if your source material is coming out as utter disappointment it's not going to fix it.
Do you know what you had to block to stop the Roku ads?
It came free with one of the standardized block lists. Let me go see what my pi hole is blocking.
I can't tell exactly what it's nixing without rebooting it and there's somebody watching it right now.
Here are the obvious candidates from the Stephen Black block list
P.ads.roku.com
Austin.logs.roku.com
Mobile.logs.roku.com
Scribe.logs.roku.com
logs.Roku.com
Interesting. I'm using nextdns on my router, I had manually blocked ads.roku.com and now have the Stephen Black block list enabled too but I'm still getting ads.
Now that I look through my nextdns logs, I don't see my roku at all so something seems to be up with my config. Thanks for the help!
If you can't get it straightened out Hit me up again here and I'll restart my Roku and see if I can figure out what else it's hitting
Thanks! I've just got it working now - something weird is going on with my ddns setup but manually linking my IP to the nextdns profile did it.
Something to be aware of, some devices will straight ignore your DNS settings in DHCP if they can't get to their ads. My iPhone 13 did that. I had to block port 53 udp/tcp for everything but the piholes.
I'm sure eventually we're going to see DNS over https doing the same and I'm 100% ready to mitm all devices that pull that bullshit..
Oh, that's great to hear. I have a pi hole ready to set up, but I'm waiting on a card reader to come in the mail so I can finish it, but I was curious in how effective it would be.
I run a Piehole and don't see any of the ads on my Fire TVs.
It's that or because I'm still running the old gen2 firetv box that's way out of OS support...
Did you order it on Amazon?
Naw, newegg
Noice!
Broke: PiHole and a Roku
Woke: PiHole and a regular-ass computer that doesn’t need to be PiHole just to not see ads they’re not even expensive and and can do EVERYTHING why would anyone use a Roku or Amazon stick this run on sentence does not understand
The run on nature of that sentence is unfortunately the least of its transgressions.
That said, I don't have space or power in the location where my TV is located for anything larger than a Nintendo switch dock. It needs to be silent, low profile, low power.
Roku gives me all that plus it's 60 frames UHD and HDR. It's about the size of a slice of bread and capable of decoding most of the things I throw at it, unfortunately It's a bit picky about 4K streams.
My grown ass PC is in the basement in a rack, It has a 2070 in it but it's old enough that it can't quite keep up with 4K live encoding.
So now to be woke I need a real, silent PC to fit in a tiny space.
Then I still have to deal with some kind of remote. Most of the options out there honestly don't look great.
Idk man my fam isn’t mad rich yet we have computers on every screen it’s not expensive or difficult app run on sentence also a fucking Roku isn’t doing 60FPS you need SVP for that nothing is recorded in 60 the hobbit shitty trilogy was 48 and people were like “aaaaa soap opera” shit like what the fuck no
Edot4: IS IT BETTER THAN AMAZON AD SERVER?
a: yee anything is, your Roku is trash
edit: ur rong
Its sad so many people seem to lack pattern recognition and don't appreciate that Plex is no different than any of these companies, they're just not as far along on the enshitification cycle.
They're for-profit, providing a "free" service. They will fuck you and the platform. It's not an if, it's a when. They're already moving in that direction. They've made many decisions in recent years that are very obviously stepped in trying warp the product into something more profitable. That will not stop, it only gets worse.
Why not get started on the move to Jellyfin now? You will have to in a few years to avoid bullshit, I promise you.
That's this weekends project, moving to Jellyfin with all the discover together fuckery they're pulling. Fuck Plex.
What OS are you using for the gaming pc under your TV? Wanted to do something alike but don’t know what would be the best OS for something like that
The best OS for your HTPC is whatever OS you're comfortable with
I don’t think Windows 3.1 supports .MP4
As I wrote on the other comment, I was looking for something easy and fast to use even if I'm on the couch. Something that i could set to almost look like a smart tv but that could also work with steam link/moonlight. So honestly I'm comfortable with windows but don't think it would be the best OS to use for my case
i mostly use windows on the tv, an old laptop and a wireless kb/trackpad. runs cool, even with the lid closed all the time. reliably wakes up outputting to the external 'monitor' as long as it hasn't 'lost' its connection to the tv (can't unplug that input temporarily for another device--would have to flip open the laptop lid later to re-enable the external-only setting), and it's new enough (skylake) to have decoding in hardware for the formats i've been using.
the other hdmi is a linux sff desktop set up similarly, but i haven't got all the kinks worked out yet.
use firefox (with addons and some userscripts|styles) for online sites, and usb externals or lan connection for 'saved' content. shortcuts on the desktop (to web sites, playlists, lan shares) function as the 'home screen' or 'launch' page.
i do have the tv 'online' atm, though, because a lot of pluto 'live' tv get watched here, and the tv 'app' is faster and more reliable than their web site. the remote has a hotkey for it, too, which goes directly to the last 'channel' it was on.
Thanks for the thorough explanation! So you just use windows on the old laptop, no Kodi or anything else?
yup. just windows (or linux) desktop applications and networking. i don't need a '10-foot' ui; and don't (atm, anyway) need the remote streaming capabilities or other features of a jellyfin or plex.
the keyboard i have is an original logitech k400. it's really the piece that makes my setup usable, otherwise i'd have a full-sized separate kb and mouse sitting on the 'coffee table' (it's really just a low-standing tv shelf on wheels) instead.
Yeah that's a nice keyboard, maybe i'll think about it because it seems really useful and compact at the same time! Thank you again for everything :)
Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 4 is pretty good, and you can run moonlight from within Kodi. Of course, you have to find a reasonably priced Pi…
EDIT: Also, I use this setup in a spare room, but use an Apple TV in my living room for identical purposes. Though I use Infuse and the actual Steam remote play application.
OH! I didn't know i could use moonlight from within Kodi! Thanks!
My HTPC is on windows 11, set to auto log-in and launch steam big picture. Disabled as much of the Microsoft BS as I can, including the nags to use Onedrive or sub to Office 365 every major update.
Using Unified Remote to control things with my phone and also Parsec/Moonlight for game streaming to other devices.
My media is served from my Unraid server to my devices both locally and remotely.
All working well so far. 👍
I think I can try your setup ! Thank you very much :)
Cant say for the other person, but I use linux mint for the gaming pc under the tv (and for every other computer my family uses)
I was looking for something easy and fast to use even if I'm on the couch. Something that i could set to almost look like a smart tv but that could also work with steam link/moonlight
Perhaps kodi might be what you are looking for then
I just read that i could use Moonlight from within Kodi, so I think that would be a nice idea
I can’t believe there isn’t a good HTPC OS that can handle launching Netflix, prime, plex, whatever.
I haven’t used Kodi in a few year but at least then Kodi and the big apps didn’t play well together.
awesome! i love unskippable ads! especially when i pay monthly to even use the service! bezos always getting W's!!!
No end to the greed of these corporations.
You can skip them. It’s more like a screen saver than anything.
Didn't know they made CRTs that support a FireTV stick.
this is just a smidgen of the first-world's self-inflicted punishment. very excited to see what happens next.
The day nvidia shield start doing that shit i'm going straight for Kodi in a mini-pc
To late.
Nvidia Shield is getting Auro 3D audio support, full-screen ads
The simplest solution right now is to uninstall the upgrade to the Google TV Launcher application under the my apps section in settings for the Nvidia Sheild.
At the same time disable automatic updates in the playstore app, this way the specific TV Launcher app won't update.
Currently this is the app responsible for showing you ads on your homescreen and playing you full screen ads.
My recommendation is to also downgrade your Nvidia Sheild to 8.2.3, here is a excellent guide below.
I recently installed ProjectIvy launcher and I've been happy with it so far and there are no ads now.
You can easily change launchers on the Shield, unlike the Fire TV for instance, which actively blocks it, to get rid of the advertising and garbage.
Don't give them ideas!! But I've blocked any update for my shield maybe two years ago, so it's locked in a older version of Android, it works fine and I hope this doesn't change 😬
They don't need me to get that idea. I might block their update too good tip
Don't forget about the playstore app updates, these should be set to not autoupdate.
Currently the android TV Launcher app is what shows you the ads on the homescreen. You can easily uninstall this apps update if you upgrade it accidentally.
Kodi in a mini-pc
That's the way to go. You can even use something like a Raspberry Pi running LibreELEC, a very lightweight Linux distro which does nothing more than run Kodi.
I wonder if the pi 5s are up to the task
Even the Pi 4 runs Kodi just fine.
I need something capable of decoding 4K hevc. I want to try to stay away from my server and needing to transcode army's despecialized edition of starwars
Fair enough. I use an Apple TV and Infuse in my living room on my main TV, so I didn’t even think about how the 4 needed to have things transcoded for it. Infuse natively decodes almost everything I throw at it. How do Harmy’s despecialized compare to 4k77?
4K77 is kind of like a preservation project. They're trying to make it look as close to as it did in the original theater. Harmy is more about trying to make modern high-res copy without all the "enhancements".
They're both fantastic and they both have their place in the world.
All my screens just have computer hooked up. Even a debloated windows 10 install is better than any other stick solution. I don’t even need to do special rules on my PiHole lawl
Also, can’t find the thing I need? I’ll just pop onto AR, OR, IPT, whatever and get it. Can’t do that on a shitty stick or shield
That shit is annoying, Shit starts to blast out loud before I adjusted the audio. It's like going to some old website that would autoplay music obnoxiously.
Well, you get what you pay for. It's very cheap for a reason: you are the product.
I got an Apple TV in 2018 and it's still working perfectly. Yes, it was expensive, but it has no ads, it's still fast and responsive, and it still gets updates.
Ditto, I caved and got an Apple TV around 2020 after getting fed up with Android TV OS being complete garbage and constantly crashing. I'm not even an Apple fan, but the user experience was a night and day difference. Siri ended up actually being really useful in a TV remote, no more typing in passwords manually or typing in search bars.
I bought an Apple TV recently for a secondary TV and it’s a real pleasure to use. Also have a Shield Pro in the theater which is getting annoying with ads and silly UX changes. I used to sing the praises of the Shield and encouraged many friends/family to buy it in the past (even over Apple TV). But not anymore.
Sadly that’s mostly a google issue. They can turn a lot of stuff on and off server side. Nvidia would have to build a new Home Screen and I’m not sure they want to do that.
I have an Nvidia Shield and recently learned about alternative launchers to replace the stock android TV launcher and remove all the ads. I just installed ProjectIvy and it's amazing. Clean and simple and now there are no ads or banners or anything. Highly recommend it.
I still have one of the Apple TV HDs from 2015 on one tv and it’s still fast compared to the built in smart tv on TVs I got last year. I had 2 more that I upgraded to 4K units last year but gave the HDs away and they’re still being used. They really weren’t expensive for me because directv had launched their streaming service and were giving Apple TVs away when paying for a certain amount of months.
This is the way.
Apple TV is an amazing device and I hope it’ll be even better in 1-2 years. Put an M3 inside the Apple TV and you get a console on PS4 level and a multimedia device.
I really hope Apple will do this.
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This is so annoying. It goes into a full screen ad as soon as you turn it on, so I babysit the remote and navigate to an app as soon as it turns on, in order to avoid ads. It also does this if you let the TV idle, which I also hate. I might just throw it away and go back to hooking up a laptop to the TV instead. I paid $70-ish bucks for this stupid thing.
Edit: I just remembered that you can hack these fire sticks, so i’ll probably try that first.
Isn’t there some consumer protection law against this, I mean this is really invasive and not doing what you expected it to do when you bought it.
We stopped getting consumer protection laws in the 50s when they were deemed communism.
Anything less than allowing every corporation to plunge their tentacles into the inner depths of your anus is 100% communism.
Chromecast 2. Very cheap and no hassle. Just stream from your phone or computer. Virtually every video streaming app I have ever seen is compatible. There's a remote app you can use on your phone if you want one of those too.
Does that include the Ultra?
Essentially yes, the Chromecast ultra is basically a more powerful Chromecast 2 that supports 4K (maybe other differences too but idk). I've stuck with the ultra because the next upgrade is one of the Chromecast "with Google TV", which while is nice that you can install / side load apps like SmartTubeNext it also means you get a dedicated remote (I hate having more remotes) and it also has a launcher, which I think is more likely to get ads added to it (not sure if it already does by default or not) compared to the older CC2 / CCUltra which just has a "backdrop" photo slideshow and no launcher UI.
No idea, sorry.
These devices were annoying a decade ago. Comical that people still buy these when Roku and Android TV are so much nicer.
I have an nvidia shield (android TV) and it had 3/4 of my screen dedicated to ads. I was able to swap my launcher, but still frustrating
OK what the hell. This is the platform I was considering jumping into. Is nothing sacred anymore? That thing costs a fortune by TV stick standards.
Yep, everything is fucked. You can put kodi on a raspberry pi though I guess
You honestly got me thinking about the viability of throwing android TV on an RP4. I have one that I was going to use for a magic mirror, but I never got around to building it. I'm guessing I could find a remote and an IR module for the RP4, then just load android TV to it? Time to go down the rabbit hole...
I wouldn't put android TV. Kodi has plex and jellyfin addon and definitely won't have ads ever, or if it does it'll quickly be forked
In case anybody sees this, you can use your normal TV remote with a pi
They all have ads now... But I like our Chromecast with Google TV and our Nvidia Shield TV. Both super easy to use and can side load apps
Xiaomi TV Stick 4k. I got an Amazon Fire TV stick, hated it very much, but luckily for me it malfunctioned after a month, and i managed to get a "refund" that was limited to the amazon store. I spent the money on the xiaomi alternative that came with android tv, as it was about the same price, but you can install (and keep installed) a custom loader without ads, and never have to update anything it if you don't want it. But be careful, some newer models from xiaomi come with google tv instead, which is probably harder to have control over privacy/ads.
Ever since getting a fire stick I've been hooking my laptop up to the tv instead. Now I can play games, watch movies, shows, etc
Etc as in watch porn on the TV? Amiright?
I mean you could do anything you want porn, watch your security cameras, youtube with all your ublock and sponsorblock extensions, possibilities are endless
Our household completely ditched all Amazon products and services 4 or so years ago and never looked back. I shop local and on alternative sites for everything, it took a little adjusting at first. I think we have had to buy something from Amazon maybe once or twice in the last 4 years because I we couldn't get it anywhere else. A few months ago I switched the 1 Amazon product we had owned forever, a Fire Stick to a Roku the first company I had ever used a streaming device from 10-15 years ago, I thought briefly about wiping the Fire Stick and donating it, but decided to toss it with the thought of adding someone else's user data to the Bezos empire.
Can you still hack the shit out of fire sticks or did they clamp down on that?
McDonalds!
My Chromecast is doing it's job fine with app only mode but the day they change it or take away that mode I've got some mini PCs ready to have libreelec thrown up on them.
What's this app only mode you speak of? I am intrigued.
It's a setting that effectively disables all content recommendations from the home screen, leaving you with nothing but app icons.
Can this be done on stock Android TV on a Sony smart TV?
It's in settings > accounts and sign in > your Gmail account > apps only mode . I have to scroll down for it on my Chromecast but if you have it on your Sony it should be in there.
If you don't have it on your Sony TV, I'd recommend installing another launcher like FLauncher which effectively does the same thing and gets rid of the garbage.
I always say ads are a nuisance and need to be eradicated. None of my friends agree with me... whatever, enjoy your ads
I also hate the BS of 30 sec ad of another show before the show I want to watch and can't skip. Looking at you Paramount.
🏴☠️
Skip Skip Skip, you've used up all your skips. Upgrade Now for more skips. No thanks I'll have my mp3s. 1600 fit on a 16G thumb for $3.89/ea. At that price I gift them to friends to hold for backups. I own them. My mp3s will outlive the sun.
Can we start invoicing these companies for the ads they make us watch? They should be paying us.
I noticed this too and will probably switch to something different. I have noch idea where to switch to though. Nvidia is apparently also adding ads. Chinese android boxes are not trustworthy at all. Chromecast also feels a bit icky with all the stuff Google pulled off on YouTube.
I really just want to switch to a Linux bases htpc, but then Netflix will only be 720p and that's not acceptable.
IMHO there currently is no good streaming box
Ironically, last I checked, the Walmart Onn branded box is quite good. They don't seem to have any protections to stop you from installing a custom home launcher.
What are Roku up to these days? I stopped paying attention when they became less of a value option
The Apple TV is the best out there. It’s quick, has a great remote now, and not full of ads. I don’t use android but there’s probably a third party app to use as a remote for pasting passwords.
I recently installed wolf launcher on my android tv.
It works like a charm. I also sideloaded most apps that I regularly use, and for my ease of use I installed f-droid on my Tv.
I would also recommend getting a Bluetooth keyboard with trackpad combo.
Only problem is that Android TVs need to be restarted once in a while or it's prone to crashing, at least mine is.
I did not think aboit the AppleTv at all. This might actually be the first Apple device I buy
You can easily change launchers on the NVIDIA Shield and Chromecasts. Fire TV's are really the only devices that actively prevent changing launchers and try to force you to deal with their advertising.
Personally my recommendation is generally the Shield, or maybe an Apple TV depending on your use case. Expensive but well worth it imo, you really do get what you pay for.
If you need cheaper, then I'd probably go the Chromecast. Lesser of the two evils between like the Fire TV imo.
This. ProjectIvy launcher on the Shield works wonders.
As said above, Apple TV is really the only one that’s good. It’s great honestly. Zero ads, quick, and even the old HD box is still getting the latest OS updates. It costs the most but it’s truly worth it.
Just in time for my laptop's monitor to crap out and await new life as a HTPC.
my parents keep buying Amazon FireTV devices and they are so annoying and underpowered. I want them to just buy an HTPC or something, but they wont listen cuz thats more expensive, even tho they've been through multiple Fire TVs cuz they crap out
There's issues with PCs as well. Most browsers don't play full HD nor 4k. I haven't found a solution for that even though most of our viewing is from an attached gaming PC.
HTPC?
Home theater pc
I think this will be the last year I’m an Amazon Prime customer. Their music streaming is beyond shitty, all the stuff that interests me on Instant Video isn’t free anyway, and I don’t buy enough Prime-eligible products to make the 100-ish euros worth it.
I find it interesting how they can get away with increasing the costs while reducing the service.
Enshittification.
we just got done with a prime 'trial'... they are really pushing the extra-cost subs and rentals in the ui now, which buries the actual free-with-prime content so much that it's much easier to use a third-party site to find stuff.
And Google Tv just did this. Sigh
So they hate their customers now openly.
What a shame.
Crazy how stupid you have to be to buy Amazon Fire products.
I think the general public isn’t stupid in this instance, I think they’re just cheap. I have a friend who filled his house with Echo speakers and bragged that it was less expensive than a couple HomePods or Sonos speakers. When I pointed out that Alexa made shopping suggestions after a request he made, he kinda brushed it off, but a few months later he disconnected them all when he noticed private conversations around the house were influencing his Amazon recommendations. He’s fortunate enough to have learned from his mistake and been able to afford to fix it. A lot of folks see a 4k streaming device for $30, compare it to something like the Nvidia shield or the Apple TV, and think it’s a great deal. When they find themselves frustrated by advertising a couple days, weeks, or months later (or maybe desensitized to it like a frog in boiling water), it’s too late. They’ve already spent their money, and/or assume that this is just what all streaming devices are like, so why spend more for this experience?
Stupidity? Probably not, just cheapness and an ignorance of how low cost hardware stays low cost.
I agree with the cheapness making it a low barrier to choose, but nvidia is Aldo doing the same thing. Full screen ads. Apple on the other hand is just locked/closed off, so no solid choice for a streaming device.
not just cheap but given away when you buy other items
They were dirt cheap last black Friday. Makes sense.
I hope its possible to transform mine into a Kodi TV or something
I’m so happy i went with Roku instead.
Damn, from what i read here watching streams with nearly every solution on your tv sucks ass today. i still have my hardware steam link (and have another one in storage) and 2 steam controllers and just stream my desktop. the setup is ancient by now, but as long as the steam link can get updates or at least can sideload moonlight i'll be set
People who using PiHole/Adguard Home & NextDNS be like what ads ?
Frog: "Hey, did any of you guys notice the water get a couple degrees hotter?"
Other Frogs: Already boiled alive
Frog with hacked firestick and a pirate subscription: huh?
Frog who downloads media himself and hosts it on his own server: you guys are in water?
You are not immune to propaganda
And in particular, even if you avoid being exposed to it, you are still affected by other people being exposed to it.
Why come we are affected by what other douchebags are exposed to?
Because they vote too.
But to adverts. :-p
Hacked how?
I dunno exactly, I just know many people have "hacked firesticks" that basically run Kodi, then they pay some dodgy dude on WhatsApp like 30 euro a year and get e v e r y t h i n g as a streaming service. Sometimes the service gets shut down, but apparently they're pretty decent at referring you to their new operation with credit - and even if not, you've paid far less than a full legit TV package.
I'm honestly a little jealous, as they even get live sports streams. Meanwhile, if I try and get them I have to go to very dodgy websites, and often the stream cuts off at key times. However, I just can't bring myself to pay for piracy.
I met a guy in the city that supported himself selling cracked firesticks, I shit you not. 40 bucks a pop and it'd be plug and play all the way supposedly, and that's all he did, sell those via word of mouth.
As an old, I have to chuckle at the whole thing as it reminds me of the '80s when (if you knew who to talk to) you could pay a guy to open up your 13 channel, wood paneled cable box, move a few things around, and give you free Home Box Office. It was the tits, let me tell you.
Fuck, I'm getting old.
For me, it was the guy in the pub selling bootleg cigarettes and tobacco. Then, for a time, they would sell CDs and DVDs. Although now that I think about it they did VHS back in the day also.
These days I'm pretty sure all hacked firesticks have moved to a subscription model. There's a game of whack-a-mole being played with rights holders and streamers, particularly with sports, so there is some back end work being done keeping it seemless for the user.
And when that frog realizes that all the other frogs in the water have been caught and eaten already, where do you think the predators are going to turn to next?
You're right! People should stand against this NOW by not paying for these shitty services!
Wait a minute...
59... 58... 57 ...
(Piracy means you are not giving these shitty services your money. Actively not supporting them.)
If someone could explain to me why that comment is getting downvotes?
The point I'm making is that just looking out for yourself is never enough, sooner or later its your turn.
I dunno why the downvotes, but I think your analogy doesn't quite work. If anything, piracy keeps prices down for paying users - so long as piracy is an option, media services cannot raise their prices to such an obscene level, as the more they do it the more people will turn to piracy. So really pirates are on the front line.
Also, a lot of piracy is still done by torrents, which inherently helps others to pirate themselves - especially if you leave it to seed.
It's just kind of sad that fewer people do it these days. Just like it's sad how few people use ad blockers.
It's absurd. You've strained the metaphor by pushing it too far and it makes no sense.
The point I was trying to make is that at some point it'll be impossible or nearly impossible to do piracy, that you have to do more than just look out for yourself, you have to vote people into office that'll pass fair laws for consumers.
I'm not passing judgment on piracy, just that someday there will be a point where DRM will be too much, so you need to fight by other ways than just piracy, like getting the right laws passed.
Piracy has always been illegal, and has always happened anyway. There is no way to make it impossible. Even Denuvo, the currently best anti-piracy measure, can be cracked and makes the experience worse for paying customers.
I don't live in the country that needs to pass those laws.
I hope you're right, but I wouldn't be so confident in that. As time goes on, and they bake more of the DRM into the hardware directly, it'll be harder to circumvent (for the common person at the very least).
For example, the Sony PlayStation used to be very hackable, now it's not (last time I checked).
I would imagine that, as the world gets more International and interconnected, that might change, at some point the future. If it doesn't, then good for you.
This is talking about a Fires TV: TV shows and movies. I've yet to experience a streaming service with required hardware and baked in DRM.
PS1 required acquiring a physical chip and making physical changes to the device. PS5 can be jail-broken through software alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSJ8DKijRzA
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=HSJ8DKijRzA
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
It's why I'm struggling really, really hard not to feel to annoyed with the average consumers that still buy this trash instead of supporting less oppressive alternatives.
Like, yeah, people should just be able to buy what they like and not have to concern themselves with the overall market trends they're helping to entrench... But holy shit is it becoming a serious problem. The customers are what drive the direction of the market, but the customers base isn't just tech enthusiasts anymore, it's literally everyone, and they are sleepwalking us all off a god damn cliff. By the time they wake up to start complaining about it, we will already be halfway down.
They'll be at the "too big to fail" point, where to try to reverse the trend would crash the economy that's based on selling customer privacy and information.
I'm still alive.
But only because I ditched Amazon Prime at the end of the month.
Of course you are. Frogs jump out if the water gets too hot regardless how slowly the temperature is rising.
I left when they started charging $10-11 for whole food deliveries. It used to be included.
They also used to have Amazon fresh and Amazon pantry delivery, but they exited my suburban area, too.
So now Walmart+ gets my money.
I will absolutely employ a 0 tolerance policy on forced ads.
If I have paid for a service to be ad free and you throw me an ad, I won't pay for your service.
Hell, I'll back-charge through my creditor and say I paid for a service that was not delivered.
Careful of backcharging large companies. They'll remove your account from all their services. Looking at you Google.
That product tying is reason #3821 we need to start enforcing anti-trust law again.
They don't delete anything, though. They just deny YOU access to it.
Not your computer, not your data. The cloud is just a buzzword for someone else's computer. Always run local backups.
You get banned retrospectively too. I got banned from Adsense in 2003 and magically got demonetised from YouTube in 2006.
Stop, I can only get so erect
I’d look through the fine print if it says that they won’t serve ads. Cause I doubt that.
'we reserve the right to change..... (this, that, and everything else)'
The fine print didn't say I won't do a chargeback either. Two can play this game.
I'd try to get a refund first unless you never plan to shop on Amazon again.
I meant it as a counterpoint, not something I'd actually do. Especially considering I don't shop in such places in the first place. But yes, you're obviously correct.
"Wow, I can't believe these fire sticks are so cheap"
Bought an early one. Used it for less than a year.
I still have it. Can they be flashed with Lineage or something?
It looks like it
That one guy hacked a company with a fire stick lol
What? That's crazy, I've never heard this story. Got anything I should search on?
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/26/gta-6-hacker-found-to-be-teen-with-amazon-fire-stick-in-small-town-hotel-room/
Only old firmwares
Meh, could be fun to play with. Keep it on a DMZ lab segment.
I'm surprised it wasn't showing ads before. The fire tablets are discounted if they show ads on the lock screen.
A great solution is just to stop buying from Amazon. Like, anything.
Chances are you did survive before Amazon was a thing. It’s possible.
I gave them 1 star and left a bad review for each of the fire tvs...they called me about the revie and then did nothing...buy a roku and throw out your $800 fire tv...it is worth it to take the loss for your own sanity
I recently bought a Roku and was surprised to find they force ads on their home screen. It's obviously not as terrible as a fullscreen ad but its still very annoying.
Roku has done occasional full screen ads too.
Wait, what? A Roku has more ads than a fire TV. 1/3 of the screen is always an ad. For new releases they'll sell the entire screen as an ad. ( Disney's Seeing Red was a full screen splash ad on my Roku.)
OK open to any other options and I mean any....there has got to be someone who can wite hacks to fix issues like this...they are doing it for chrome?
Roku is more closed than Amazon fire. I've read about rooted Fires.
Apple TV seems the least intrusive right now but I've never used one personally.
I've had an AppleTV for about five years+ now and have yet to see an ad placed on the main screen.
the ads on roku do not impact my experience, they go away as soon as i open anything.
*do not yet
Only a matter of time
i will give you that one. 😮💨
Lol the Roku has far more invasive ads. Get a Chromecast, or best yet, an Nvidia Shield.
You pay the Amazon tax indirectly often enough regardless. Huge chunks of the Internet run on AWS. And if it's not AWS, then it's Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure. Shareholders win again.
As for not buying shitty products, returning them when you realise how shitty they are, cancelling contracts when services turn shitty, etc. Yes, do that.
It's true you can't really control who uses AWS and you'll end up on sites that use it. But it's so easy to not buy anything from Amazon directly or from other stores.
Their shipping services aren't even that good any more from what I hear (I haven't bought from them in years).
It's also a terrible site now. It's nothing but Alibaba crap marked up 700% and counterfeit products.
True dat. Fuck advertising. Fuck capitalism. Stop buying crap. Eat the rich.
Before amazon existed all the companies they killed for their monopoly existed.
I to this day have proudly never bought anything from Amazon (unless you count the one ebay purchase that was shipped from Amazon without my knowledge). However I have run into a couple of products, namely quality name brand USB4 cables (Plugable and Ugreen) that I for the life of me cannot find anywhere but Amazon in Australia.
So yes I have proudly survived without Amazon until very soon. I will try to continue to not use Amazon however with some sellers opting to exclusively sell on Amazon, I feel I am being left with no choice. It seems not enough boycotted Amazon when it mattered to the point that there are an increasing amount of items that are only available through them.
Facebook and Amazon are on my shit list due to their shear contempt for their customers/products and employees.
I would but at that point it would be very difficult to get some of the specialty tools I use. I have a whole catalog and it takes ages to get anything from it. Granted I don't use their fire TV or whatever and so I'm not actually seeing these shitty ads.
Naw, it didn't stop any other company i boycotted, and thinking it does is actually a silly idea to consider if you give it a minute to be in the ol' noggin.
If it did make a difference there'd be a bunch of astroturf campaigns against voting with your wallet, wouldn't there?
The only thing that stops this is something we're not ready for yet.
EDIT: wimps.
It doesn't make a difference unless enough people boycott. The problem is not enough people care enough to actually stop going there to hurt their revenue.
Then there's the problem with the current political division, at least in the US, where if something upsets one side, the other likes to dig in to stick it to them and often winds up giving the boycotted company more money than they'll ever lose.
Experienced this for the first time yesterday. It’s my dad paying for Amazon, and we mutually discovered we couldn’t skip the ad. Asked him, “aren’t you gonna boycott it now?”, and he told me no. “Not too much of an issue”, he said. This is the attitude that enables enshittification.
Fuck that. High seas it is, they can kiss my ass. I will not pay to watch advertisements.
Probably because one ad is like nothing compared to what we used to have to deal with on broadcast TV. Sadly the general public who have only just recently gotten into streaming in the last few years still have those kinds of ad breaks fresh in memory.
I was halfway through reading and thinking that it would be a wholesome ending. I guess not.
You can update the TVs settings to block these new large video ads. However, Amazon is getting more and more intrusive with its ads. I imagine that, similar to the Alexa Shows that I also use, every few weeks they'll tweak the ads, making your previous "disable this" settings no longer applicable. It's technically a new ad type, so they can auto enable it again. Super frustrating.
Largely in response to these new autoplay ads, I replaced my Fire TV with an LG TV. I've got another LG TV from only a few years ago that doesn't really have ads. This one.. does. Damn it. Don't get me wrong, they're much less in-your-face when compared to Amazon's ads. But, damn, does everything just have to be ads now?
For all of Apple’s faults, their Apple TV is pretty decent. A home screen with apps on them; no ads. It’s great
God, if I could just install SmartTube and Kodi/Stremio on an Apple TV, I’d convert in a heartbeat. Until then, I’ll keep my Shield TV Pro.
Install libreelec onto a raspberry pi 4. Its a Linux OS that automatically boots into Kodi.
Kodi has an ad free youtube addon, which you can augment with a sponsorblock addon to skip in video ads.
If you have plex or jellyfin they intergrate really well with kodi. For plex, use plexkodiconnect, for jellyfin, use the jellyfin kodi app.
Flirc has a great remote if you go with the above called the skip.
I used to be into that sort of tinkering and custom install/configuring of all sorts of software. I probably still have 2-3 flircs in a drawer somewhere.
These days I just want to be able to buy something, plug it in, and have it work. The idea of installing a plex/jellyfin server and a custom OS on a pi might as well be the same as getting a 4 year degree at this point. I’m sure it works out great for loads of people, but it’s definitely not something I’m interested in.
Id say youre a handful of YouTube videos away from getting the above done, but if you aren't interested that's no problem.
It’s not the knowledge that I need, it’s mostly the time and desire to set up all that stuff and maintain it and keep it working and constantly needing to track what the latest and greatest version of whatever platform or software that is out there. It’s the same reason I don’t jailbreak my phone or hack my consoles anymore. Sometimes it’s nice to just buy a thing that works out of the box and use it as its intended.
What about the remote?
I used Kodi for almost a decade and switched to firetv because add-ons were breaking constantly. Netflix worked maybe 20% of the time.
Chromecast with stremio is still the perfect streaming setup for me, now if only the voice recognition on the remote was a bit less shit.
Just so that people are aware, from stremio's privacy policy...
Agree 100% with this, and I’ve tried most all of them.
If only it didn't require me to buy a newer iPhone or iPad to validate my account.
Pretty sure you don’t need one. I’ll look into it later tonight and get back to you though
Edit: tried resetting my Apple TV with a throw away account not linked to other Apple devices. Worked fine
You don’t. I’ve set one up without a single other Apple device in the house.
In order to update my Apple TV, they tell me I have to have a newer phone.
Similar to: https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/ys4z35/apple_tv_is_now_unusable_without_an_iphone/
Now you can use it, but guess what is required for future app updates? Later OS updates. It's a trap.
Are you the OP in that post? This screen comes up when you add an Apple ID. I recently signed out of my Apple TV and got the same screen. I used the physical remote and entered my credentials. I didn’t need to use my phone, even though that was an option. Maybe this was an issue with iOS 16 as the post is a year old.
I don’t know how to fix your problem but I am curious about it.
I assume you have an old iPhone tied to your iCloud account. What happens if you untie that phone and wait like a day (some iCloud stuff is weird and can take about 24 hours to update server side info)
You can enter the credentials manually. I just did it few weeks ago.
Well that's destroyed any interest I may have had in them
That information is incorrect.
My LG TV updated to show ads in the input selection menu. I was pissed for a few months until someone showed me you can disable them in the settings. Maybe you can disable them on yours?
What setting disables the current ones?
You switched from a system that is currently shitty (Fire TV) but easily replaceable (just an HDMI addon) to a system that is currently less shitty (LG TV) but now you are firmly locked in into the LG eco system.
As bad as FireTV currently is, at least you can easily ditch it. Just pull the plug and buy another brand of TV stick.
If you keep relying on your smart TV apps then you will have to endure the slow shittyfication for years to come.
Currently using a Roku Streambar for all of our streaming needs but if they pull this crap, everything we consume will be downloaded, served on my Plex server and streamed using the gaming PC I have under our TV.
Getting beyond sick of these companies using every measure and device they can to shit ads into our eyes.
My Roku is pie holed, I don't Even get the main screen ads anymore.
as soon as services and sites start doing the same thing yt does.. delivering ads via the same servers and hostnames as the content.. pihole and other dns-based solutions lose their effectiveness.
Oh I have my own content. I've also been doing this since we were recording off air broadcast TV breaking out commercials from a live stream is nothing but an inconvenience.
i just uncovered a box with over 100 vhs tapes from the days before i switched to pc-based recording. that'll be a future project after i get done with de-duplicating and consolidating the files i already have.
Coming back from VHS is a bit painful, I've done quite a lot of it at this point. (I think I'm up to a few hundred tapes)
I used to use TiVo to record broadcast and cable, export as MPEG, strip the commercials and then turn that into DivX. There are options out there to automatically strip commercials they're 'mostly' good and work way better with digital sources.
The problem with VHS is another layer of substantial loss. If someone recorded it as SLP (and that's pretty much what we all did back in the day) you're going to spend a very long time with AI video denoising to get something even remotely watchable. Analog CRT hid so many video sins.
Topaz Labs video AI does a reasonably good job under certain circumstances. When you go to rip your content don't just rip it all and then worry about it later. Rip a couple of things and then mess with them until you're happy enough with the results to continue.
Generally speaking the stuff you start with needs to be kind of watchable If you expect it to turn out into something truly watchable. AI is good at cleaning up artifacts in a little snowy grain and straightening out fuzzy edges. But if your source material is coming out as utter disappointment it's not going to fix it.
Do you know what you had to block to stop the Roku ads?
It came free with one of the standardized block lists. Let me go see what my pi hole is blocking.
I can't tell exactly what it's nixing without rebooting it and there's somebody watching it right now.
Here are the obvious candidates from the Stephen Black block list
P.ads.roku.com
Austin.logs.roku.com
Mobile.logs.roku.com
Scribe.logs.roku.com
logs.Roku.com
Interesting. I'm using nextdns on my router, I had manually blocked ads.roku.com and now have the Stephen Black block list enabled too but I'm still getting ads.
Now that I look through my nextdns logs, I don't see my roku at all so something seems to be up with my config. Thanks for the help!
If you can't get it straightened out Hit me up again here and I'll restart my Roku and see if I can figure out what else it's hitting
Thanks! I've just got it working now - something weird is going on with my ddns setup but manually linking my IP to the nextdns profile did it.
Something to be aware of, some devices will straight ignore your DNS settings in DHCP if they can't get to their ads. My iPhone 13 did that. I had to block port 53 udp/tcp for everything but the piholes.
I'm sure eventually we're going to see DNS over https doing the same and I'm 100% ready to mitm all devices that pull that bullshit..
Oh, that's great to hear. I have a pi hole ready to set up, but I'm waiting on a card reader to come in the mail so I can finish it, but I was curious in how effective it would be.
I run a Piehole and don't see any of the ads on my Fire TVs.
It's that or because I'm still running the old gen2 firetv box that's way out of OS support...
Did you order it on Amazon?
Naw, newegg
Noice!
Broke: PiHole and a Roku
Woke: PiHole and a regular-ass computer that doesn’t need to be PiHole just to not see ads they’re not even expensive and and can do EVERYTHING why would anyone use a Roku or Amazon stick this run on sentence does not understand
The run on nature of that sentence is unfortunately the least of its transgressions.
That said, I don't have space or power in the location where my TV is located for anything larger than a Nintendo switch dock. It needs to be silent, low profile, low power.
Roku gives me all that plus it's 60 frames UHD and HDR. It's about the size of a slice of bread and capable of decoding most of the things I throw at it, unfortunately It's a bit picky about 4K streams.
My grown ass PC is in the basement in a rack, It has a 2070 in it but it's old enough that it can't quite keep up with 4K live encoding.
So now to be woke I need a real, silent PC to fit in a tiny space. Then I still have to deal with some kind of remote. Most of the options out there honestly don't look great.
Idk man my fam isn’t mad rich yet we have computers on every screen it’s not expensive or difficult app run on sentence also a fucking Roku isn’t doing 60FPS you need SVP for that nothing is recorded in 60 the hobbit shitty trilogy was 48 and people were like “aaaaa soap opera” shit like what the fuck no
Edot4: IS IT BETTER THAN AMAZON AD SERVER?
a: yee anything is, your Roku is trash
edit: ur rong
Its sad so many people seem to lack pattern recognition and don't appreciate that Plex is no different than any of these companies, they're just not as far along on the enshitification cycle.
They're for-profit, providing a "free" service. They will fuck you and the platform. It's not an if, it's a when. They're already moving in that direction. They've made many decisions in recent years that are very obviously stepped in trying warp the product into something more profitable. That will not stop, it only gets worse.
Why not get started on the move to Jellyfin now? You will have to in a few years to avoid bullshit, I promise you.
That's this weekends project, moving to Jellyfin with all the discover together fuckery they're pulling. Fuck Plex.
What OS are you using for the gaming pc under your TV? Wanted to do something alike but don’t know what would be the best OS for something like that
The best OS for your HTPC is whatever OS you're comfortable with
I don’t think Windows 3.1 supports .MP4
As I wrote on the other comment, I was looking for something easy and fast to use even if I'm on the couch. Something that i could set to almost look like a smart tv but that could also work with steam link/moonlight. So honestly I'm comfortable with windows but don't think it would be the best OS to use for my case
i mostly use windows on the tv, an old laptop and a wireless kb/trackpad. runs cool, even with the lid closed all the time. reliably wakes up outputting to the external 'monitor' as long as it hasn't 'lost' its connection to the tv (can't unplug that input temporarily for another device--would have to flip open the laptop lid later to re-enable the external-only setting), and it's new enough (skylake) to have decoding in hardware for the formats i've been using.
the other hdmi is a linux sff desktop set up similarly, but i haven't got all the kinks worked out yet.
use firefox (with addons and some userscripts|styles) for online sites, and usb externals or lan connection for 'saved' content. shortcuts on the desktop (to web sites, playlists, lan shares) function as the 'home screen' or 'launch' page.
i do have the tv 'online' atm, though, because a lot of pluto 'live' tv get watched here, and the tv 'app' is faster and more reliable than their web site. the remote has a hotkey for it, too, which goes directly to the last 'channel' it was on.
Thanks for the thorough explanation! So you just use windows on the old laptop, no Kodi or anything else?
yup. just windows (or linux) desktop applications and networking. i don't need a '10-foot' ui; and don't (atm, anyway) need the remote streaming capabilities or other features of a jellyfin or plex.
the keyboard i have is an original logitech k400. it's really the piece that makes my setup usable, otherwise i'd have a full-sized separate kb and mouse sitting on the 'coffee table' (it's really just a low-standing tv shelf on wheels) instead.
Yeah that's a nice keyboard, maybe i'll think about it because it seems really useful and compact at the same time! Thank you again for everything :)
Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 4 is pretty good, and you can run moonlight from within Kodi. Of course, you have to find a reasonably priced Pi…
EDIT: Also, I use this setup in a spare room, but use an Apple TV in my living room for identical purposes. Though I use Infuse and the actual Steam remote play application.
OH! I didn't know i could use moonlight from within Kodi! Thanks!
My HTPC is on windows 11, set to auto log-in and launch steam big picture. Disabled as much of the Microsoft BS as I can, including the nags to use Onedrive or sub to Office 365 every major update.
Using Unified Remote to control things with my phone and also Parsec/Moonlight for game streaming to other devices.
My media is served from my Unraid server to my devices both locally and remotely.
All working well so far. 👍
I think I can try your setup ! Thank you very much :)
Cant say for the other person, but I use linux mint for the gaming pc under the tv (and for every other computer my family uses)
I was looking for something easy and fast to use even if I'm on the couch. Something that i could set to almost look like a smart tv but that could also work with steam link/moonlight
Perhaps kodi might be what you are looking for then
I just read that i could use Moonlight from within Kodi, so I think that would be a nice idea
I can’t believe there isn’t a good HTPC OS that can handle launching Netflix, prime, plex, whatever.
I haven’t used Kodi in a few year but at least then Kodi and the big apps didn’t play well together.
awesome! i love unskippable ads! especially when i pay monthly to even use the service! bezos always getting W's!!!
No end to the greed of these corporations.
You can skip them. It’s more like a screen saver than anything.
Didn't know they made CRTs that support a FireTV stick.
this is just a smidgen of the first-world's self-inflicted punishment. very excited to see what happens next.
The day nvidia shield start doing that shit i'm going straight for Kodi in a mini-pc
To late.
Nvidia Shield is getting Auro 3D audio support, full-screen ads
Source: https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1700478955
The simplest solution right now is to uninstall the upgrade to the Google TV Launcher application under the my apps section in settings for the Nvidia Sheild.
At the same time disable automatic updates in the playstore app, this way the specific TV Launcher app won't update.
Currently this is the app responsible for showing you ads on your homescreen and playing you full screen ads.
My recommendation is to also downgrade your Nvidia Sheild to 8.2.3, here is a excellent guide below.
https://florisse.nl/shield-downgrade/
I recently installed ProjectIvy launcher and I've been happy with it so far and there are no ads now.
You can easily change launchers on the Shield, unlike the Fire TV for instance, which actively blocks it, to get rid of the advertising and garbage.
Don't give them ideas!! But I've blocked any update for my shield maybe two years ago, so it's locked in a older version of Android, it works fine and I hope this doesn't change 😬
They don't need me to get that idea. I might block their update too good tip
Don't forget about the playstore app updates, these should be set to not autoupdate.
Currently the android TV Launcher app is what shows you the ads on the homescreen. You can easily uninstall this apps update if you upgrade it accidentally.
That's the way to go. You can even use something like a Raspberry Pi running LibreELEC, a very lightweight Linux distro which does nothing more than run Kodi.
I wonder if the pi 5s are up to the task
Even the Pi 4 runs Kodi just fine.
I need something capable of decoding 4K hevc. I want to try to stay away from my server and needing to transcode army's despecialized edition of starwars
Fair enough. I use an Apple TV and Infuse in my living room on my main TV, so I didn’t even think about how the 4 needed to have things transcoded for it. Infuse natively decodes almost everything I throw at it. How do Harmy’s despecialized compare to 4k77?
4K77 is kind of like a preservation project. They're trying to make it look as close to as it did in the original theater. Harmy is more about trying to make modern high-res copy without all the "enhancements".
They're both fantastic and they both have their place in the world.
All my screens just have computer hooked up. Even a debloated windows 10 install is better than any other stick solution. I don’t even need to do special rules on my PiHole lawl
Also, can’t find the thing I need? I’ll just pop onto AR, OR, IPT, whatever and get it. Can’t do that on a shitty stick or shield
That shit is annoying, Shit starts to blast out loud before I adjusted the audio. It's like going to some old website that would autoplay music obnoxiously.
Well, you get what you pay for. It's very cheap for a reason: you are the product.
I got an Apple TV in 2018 and it's still working perfectly. Yes, it was expensive, but it has no ads, it's still fast and responsive, and it still gets updates.
Ditto, I caved and got an Apple TV around 2020 after getting fed up with Android TV OS being complete garbage and constantly crashing. I'm not even an Apple fan, but the user experience was a night and day difference. Siri ended up actually being really useful in a TV remote, no more typing in passwords manually or typing in search bars.
I bought an Apple TV recently for a secondary TV and it’s a real pleasure to use. Also have a Shield Pro in the theater which is getting annoying with ads and silly UX changes. I used to sing the praises of the Shield and encouraged many friends/family to buy it in the past (even over Apple TV). But not anymore.
Sadly that’s mostly a google issue. They can turn a lot of stuff on and off server side. Nvidia would have to build a new Home Screen and I’m not sure they want to do that.
I have an Nvidia Shield and recently learned about alternative launchers to replace the stock android TV launcher and remove all the ads. I just installed ProjectIvy and it's amazing. Clean and simple and now there are no ads or banners or anything. Highly recommend it.
I still have one of the Apple TV HDs from 2015 on one tv and it’s still fast compared to the built in smart tv on TVs I got last year. I had 2 more that I upgraded to 4K units last year but gave the HDs away and they’re still being used. They really weren’t expensive for me because directv had launched their streaming service and were giving Apple TVs away when paying for a certain amount of months.
This is the way.
Apple TV is an amazing device and I hope it’ll be even better in 1-2 years. Put an M3 inside the Apple TV and you get a console on PS4 level and a multimedia device.
I really hope Apple will do this.
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This is so annoying. It goes into a full screen ad as soon as you turn it on, so I babysit the remote and navigate to an app as soon as it turns on, in order to avoid ads. It also does this if you let the TV idle, which I also hate. I might just throw it away and go back to hooking up a laptop to the TV instead. I paid $70-ish bucks for this stupid thing.
Edit: I just remembered that you can hack these fire sticks, so i’ll probably try that first.
Isn’t there some consumer protection law against this, I mean this is really invasive and not doing what you expected it to do when you bought it.
We stopped getting consumer protection laws in the 50s when they were deemed communism.
Anything less than allowing every corporation to plunge their tentacles into the inner depths of your anus is 100% communism.
Chromecast 2. Very cheap and no hassle. Just stream from your phone or computer. Virtually every video streaming app I have ever seen is compatible. There's a remote app you can use on your phone if you want one of those too.
Does that include the Ultra?
Essentially yes, the Chromecast ultra is basically a more powerful Chromecast 2 that supports 4K (maybe other differences too but idk). I've stuck with the ultra because the next upgrade is one of the Chromecast "with Google TV", which while is nice that you can install / side load apps like SmartTubeNext it also means you get a dedicated remote (I hate having more remotes) and it also has a launcher, which I think is more likely to get ads added to it (not sure if it already does by default or not) compared to the older CC2 / CCUltra which just has a "backdrop" photo slideshow and no launcher UI.
No idea, sorry.
These devices were annoying a decade ago. Comical that people still buy these when Roku and Android TV are so much nicer.
I have an nvidia shield (android TV) and it had 3/4 of my screen dedicated to ads. I was able to swap my launcher, but still frustrating
OK what the hell. This is the platform I was considering jumping into. Is nothing sacred anymore? That thing costs a fortune by TV stick standards.
Yep, everything is fucked. You can put kodi on a raspberry pi though I guess
You honestly got me thinking about the viability of throwing android TV on an RP4. I have one that I was going to use for a magic mirror, but I never got around to building it. I'm guessing I could find a remote and an IR module for the RP4, then just load android TV to it? Time to go down the rabbit hole...
I wouldn't put android TV. Kodi has plex and jellyfin addon and definitely won't have ads ever, or if it does it'll quickly be forked
In case anybody sees this, you can use your normal TV remote with a pi
https://pimylifeup.com/raspberrypi-hdmi-cec/
What Android TV device do you recommend?
They all have ads now... But I like our Chromecast with Google TV and our Nvidia Shield TV. Both super easy to use and can side load apps
Xiaomi TV Stick 4k. I got an Amazon Fire TV stick, hated it very much, but luckily for me it malfunctioned after a month, and i managed to get a "refund" that was limited to the amazon store. I spent the money on the xiaomi alternative that came with android tv, as it was about the same price, but you can install (and keep installed) a custom loader without ads, and never have to update anything it if you don't want it. But be careful, some newer models from xiaomi come with google tv instead, which is probably harder to have control over privacy/ads.
Ever since getting a fire stick I've been hooking my laptop up to the tv instead. Now I can play games, watch movies, shows, etc
Etc as in watch porn on the TV? Amiright?
I mean you could do anything you want porn, watch your security cameras, youtube with all your ublock and sponsorblock extensions, possibilities are endless
Our household completely ditched all Amazon products and services 4 or so years ago and never looked back. I shop local and on alternative sites for everything, it took a little adjusting at first. I think we have had to buy something from Amazon maybe once or twice in the last 4 years because I we couldn't get it anywhere else. A few months ago I switched the 1 Amazon product we had owned forever, a Fire Stick to a Roku the first company I had ever used a streaming device from 10-15 years ago, I thought briefly about wiping the Fire Stick and donating it, but decided to toss it with the thought of adding someone else's user data to the Bezos empire.
Can you still hack the shit out of fire sticks or did they clamp down on that?
McDonalds!
My Chromecast is doing it's job fine with app only mode but the day they change it or take away that mode I've got some mini PCs ready to have libreelec thrown up on them.
What's this app only mode you speak of? I am intrigued.
It's a setting that effectively disables all content recommendations from the home screen, leaving you with nothing but app icons.
Can this be done on stock Android TV on a Sony smart TV?
It's in settings > accounts and sign in > your Gmail account > apps only mode . I have to scroll down for it on my Chromecast but if you have it on your Sony it should be in there.
If you don't have it on your Sony TV, I'd recommend installing another launcher like FLauncher which effectively does the same thing and gets rid of the garbage.
I always say ads are a nuisance and need to be eradicated. None of my friends agree with me... whatever, enjoy your ads
I also hate the BS of 30 sec ad of another show before the show I want to watch and can't skip. Looking at you Paramount.
🏴☠️
Skip Skip Skip, you've used up all your skips. Upgrade Now for more skips. No thanks I'll have my mp3s. 1600 fit on a 16G thumb for $3.89/ea. At that price I gift them to friends to hold for backups. I own them. My mp3s will outlive the sun.
Can we start invoicing these companies for the ads they make us watch? They should be paying us.
I noticed this too and will probably switch to something different. I have noch idea where to switch to though. Nvidia is apparently also adding ads. Chinese android boxes are not trustworthy at all. Chromecast also feels a bit icky with all the stuff Google pulled off on YouTube. I really just want to switch to a Linux bases htpc, but then Netflix will only be 720p and that's not acceptable. IMHO there currently is no good streaming box
Ironically, last I checked, the Walmart Onn branded box is quite good. They don't seem to have any protections to stop you from installing a custom home launcher.
What are Roku up to these days? I stopped paying attention when they became less of a value option
The Apple TV is the best out there. It’s quick, has a great remote now, and not full of ads. I don’t use android but there’s probably a third party app to use as a remote for pasting passwords.
I recently installed wolf launcher on my android tv. It works like a charm. I also sideloaded most apps that I regularly use, and for my ease of use I installed f-droid on my Tv. I would also recommend getting a Bluetooth keyboard with trackpad combo. Only problem is that Android TVs need to be restarted once in a while or it's prone to crashing, at least mine is.
I did not think aboit the AppleTv at all. This might actually be the first Apple device I buy
You can easily change launchers on the NVIDIA Shield and Chromecasts. Fire TV's are really the only devices that actively prevent changing launchers and try to force you to deal with their advertising.
Personally my recommendation is generally the Shield, or maybe an Apple TV depending on your use case. Expensive but well worth it imo, you really do get what you pay for.
If you need cheaper, then I'd probably go the Chromecast. Lesser of the two evils between like the Fire TV imo.
This. ProjectIvy launcher on the Shield works wonders.
As said above, Apple TV is really the only one that’s good. It’s great honestly. Zero ads, quick, and even the old HD box is still getting the latest OS updates. It costs the most but it’s truly worth it.
Just in time for my laptop's monitor to crap out and await new life as a HTPC.
my parents keep buying Amazon FireTV devices and they are so annoying and underpowered. I want them to just buy an HTPC or something, but they wont listen cuz thats more expensive, even tho they've been through multiple Fire TVs cuz they crap out
There's issues with PCs as well. Most browsers don't play full HD nor 4k. I haven't found a solution for that even though most of our viewing is from an attached gaming PC.
HTPC?
Home theater pc
I think this will be the last year I’m an Amazon Prime customer. Their music streaming is beyond shitty, all the stuff that interests me on Instant Video isn’t free anyway, and I don’t buy enough Prime-eligible products to make the 100-ish euros worth it.
I find it interesting how they can get away with increasing the costs while reducing the service.
Enshittification.
we just got done with a prime 'trial'... they are really pushing the extra-cost subs and rentals in the ui now, which buries the actual free-with-prime content so much that it's much easier to use a third-party site to find stuff.
And Google Tv just did this. Sigh
So they hate their customers now openly.
What a shame.
Crazy how stupid you have to be to buy Amazon Fire products.
I think the general public isn’t stupid in this instance, I think they’re just cheap. I have a friend who filled his house with Echo speakers and bragged that it was less expensive than a couple HomePods or Sonos speakers. When I pointed out that Alexa made shopping suggestions after a request he made, he kinda brushed it off, but a few months later he disconnected them all when he noticed private conversations around the house were influencing his Amazon recommendations. He’s fortunate enough to have learned from his mistake and been able to afford to fix it. A lot of folks see a 4k streaming device for $30, compare it to something like the Nvidia shield or the Apple TV, and think it’s a great deal. When they find themselves frustrated by advertising a couple days, weeks, or months later (or maybe desensitized to it like a frog in boiling water), it’s too late. They’ve already spent their money, and/or assume that this is just what all streaming devices are like, so why spend more for this experience?
Stupidity? Probably not, just cheapness and an ignorance of how low cost hardware stays low cost.
I agree with the cheapness making it a low barrier to choose, but nvidia is Aldo doing the same thing. Full screen ads. Apple on the other hand is just locked/closed off, so no solid choice for a streaming device.
not just cheap but given away when you buy other items
They were dirt cheap last black Friday. Makes sense.
I hope its possible to transform mine into a Kodi TV or something
I’m so happy i went with Roku instead.
Damn, from what i read here watching streams with nearly every solution on your tv sucks ass today. i still have my hardware steam link (and have another one in storage) and 2 steam controllers and just stream my desktop. the setup is ancient by now, but as long as the steam link can get updates or at least can sideload moonlight i'll be set
People who using PiHole/Adguard Home & NextDNS be like what ads ?