Google TV's homescreen video ads now include fast food too

SVcrossDO@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 355 points – Google TV's homescreen video ads now include fast food too
9to5google.com

Yeah, because everyone is asking for that. They will force ads into everything they can, because Google is an Ad company.

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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.projengmenu&pcampaignid=web_share is an easy install

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Have made my day, most likely my week. Ads aside, I friggin HATE the Chromecast UI

Now, let's pretend that I'm 5 yrs old. How do I get this to. Be the default launcher? I've already combed through the settings options and can't seem to figure it out...

This is incredible, I've been annoyed at the home screen ads for years but I never thought to look at the chromecast app store. Super easy to set up and it looks really clean, thanks for the recommendation!

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God damn it Google.

When I turn on the TV, it's fine if the masthead is a banner advertising a new show. I'm literally using the product to find things to watch.

But fast food? That can fuck right off.

I've had an Nvidia Shield since they came out, about 6 months ago when I started seeing a car ad I was like "it's time to switch to something else.."

Or just install a new launcher

I have yet to find one that isn't lacking basic features like being about to put the device to sleep.

I've been using Sideload Channel Launcher since they started putting ads on the home screen. It's a simple clean layout that is easy to set up and get everything you want on it. It even has a icon you can add for power settings.

You can block ads on the NVIDIA shield launcher using Pihole of adguard DNS. Just need to go into settings for your wifi network on your shield, change dns1 and dns2, then reset the home app. It won't be able to download new ads, so the banner on the home page will stay the default ad for several of Google's own apps like play store and YouTube or whatever.

I too was not able to find a third party launcher that looked as nice as the original.

There are other issues with it, so I just decided to ditch it completely. I mainly use it for Kodi.

What did you switch to?

My shield has always been laggy... I'd like to find a TV "OS" that can run apps and is actually fast.

The Zidoo Z9X Pro, it's about the same price and supports Dolby Vision and Atmos in Kodi (they have their own build called ZDMC) and is generally faster then the Shield (USB 3, SATA, 4 GB RAM, etc.... ).

It doesn't seem to support the DRM protected streaming apps that use Widevine though (Netflix and the like) since I can't find them in the Google Play Store, which sucks, but I can just use the smart apps on my LG TV for that.

It seems that it's really difficult to find a STB that supports everything these days and doesn't come with shitty specs/is years old 😑

my TV responds to button presses on the remote in 10 seconds or less. That thing is like 3 years old, for a 1024 TV, you should probably aim for sub 8 second response time.

Fucking uber have ads, my bank app have ads, everything have ads now. It's a Fucking nightmare.

And, no kidding, sometimes ads have ads.

I have to admit, I'm curious. I've never seen adception.

It's called "browsing American news websites with internet explorer and no addblocker"

I had to shake my head and rub my eyes, for a second I thought you wrote "doing bareback with a trick you picked up at a shelter"

That still has less consequences than unprotected internet.

We were all fed the lie that ads were a necessity to "pay" for services that were otherwise free to the consumer. Of course, it was always the plan to charge for anything that really took hold, and it was concurrently the plan to throw more and more ads on everything anyway -- it's just now, they're considered normalized.

If you have a CCwGTV, you should be using Apps Only mode. Sucks that Google hides this, because I've found that this is the best streaming device for my needs, but they just keep pushing ads like this. Makes me want to do a homebrew chromecast device.

But switching to Apps Only mode is a decent workaround... for now. https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en

Will this really remove the ads? From your link:

In Apps only mode, you don't get personalized recommendations on your home screen. You’ll find a list of installed apps that you can open to find something to watch. You'll also find sponsored content and teasers for popular movies and shows.

There's still a single banner at the top, but it's not a giant scroll of ads, and you only have to click down once to get to the apps, instead of scrolling past a whole page of "suggestions"

Yes, It turns the home screen to a grid of app icons and nothing more.

Can't you install a custom launcher?

Yes, but you can't change the default launcher in the settings. You have to configure the custom launcher to automatically launch everytime, which does require a some adb commands, if I recall correctly.

Otherwise, setting it to apps mode is the only alternative. Aside from disabling ads, it does disable a few other useful features, but the trade-off is worth it.

But honestly, now that AppleTV allows VPNs and proxy apps, I've mostly stopped using my Google TV boxes.

There are now food ads in Apps Only mode on my TCL Google TV.

It’s a shame that this turns off the ability to use the google photos screensaver too, to the point it’s a deal breaker for us.

Google and Roku primarily make money from ads.

Apple does some stuff that isn’t great, but the Apple TV doesn’t have ads like their competitors. Apps can advertise what’s inside of them when they’re selected, but that’s it on the Home Screen.

Ya, so... They didn't GIVE me the Google TV device, I had to buy it. Therefore they got their money from me for that hardware. I'm not using other 'free' google products that cost them money on that device so why would they be showing ads? What cost are the recouping?

For the record, I have not seen this and we do have a number of google TV's in our house. However our primary TV uses an Nvidia Shield.

I’m a product designer who has worked on a lot of products that have been monetized with ads.

It’s pretty common for a company to split their revenue targets between register sales and monetization deals. You break even on the hardware, and make profit on the ads.

I sure would like the option to pay for the HW/profits up front and not have perpetual ads.

Agreed, this tends to be why I keep going back the Apple. It’s performant, will be supported for a decade, and can be configured as a minimally annoying app launcher.

Biggest problem is that a lot of the setup and security stuff isn’t as nice if it’s not paired to an iPhone.

Ya I'm an android user but my wife/kid use iPhones and I actually have a MacBook. I hate iPhones, and don't love apple but I do really like my mbp :)

Yeah, we’re also a “blended family” with regards to platforms. Some of the stuff in my house is in Google’s ecosystem, some is in Apple’s, and I have a Pi in the house that plays mediator between the platforms.

I have a box of chrome cast devices in many different flavors. I mostly only use them for traveling. Home media I keep on the bulkier AppleTVs.

Oh, we're all in google here (because of me) except the two outcasts (even though I'm outnumbered)

We have 6, and about to have 12 chromecast audios that run speakers all through the house. All tv's have google TV dongles except the main tv that has Shield TV (still android) Google mini's in every room

You say "Pi" to mediate? What do you mean there? (Raspberry pi?). I run Pihole in our house for ads,trackers etc.

For example, things like home bridge running on a pi so Google products can be controlled like HomeKit products for the Apple-verse family members.

How well AppleTV works with Android? Can you cast stuff from Android or is it strictly for AirPlay?

That’s the one problem. Apple pushes AirPlay, and Google pushes casting. Neither company supports each other's protocols by default.

There are a few applications that allow you to airplay from Android. That said, my TV has both AirPlay and casting support built in, so I haven’t looked into the third party apps in a while. And before that, I used to have a vanilla chrome cast behind the TV in addition to my Apple TV.

Fun fact: Amazon actually have you this option with the original Kindle. They sold two different versions where the only difference was that the cheaper one would show ads.

Typically they'd be recouping the cost of the tv they sold at a loss. They sell it at a loss because they know they'll make more money in the long run via the ads.

In this case, these are not TV's but small HDMI plug in devices. $30 device that I'd be surprised if they're selling at a loss https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv

And personally, If they are doing that, I want two versions, one I can pay the actual cost w/some profit for them, and no ads. The ads keep making them money long after they recoup any hw costs as they continue to profit off users. When I bought an amazon Kindle way back when, I chose the one without ads for the same reason. I'm ok paying for a product vs. being the product.

I worked on the original Chromecast and I was told the price point at launch was specifically set at the break even point.

I still use The audios, and just got 5 more unopened from Japan (eBay) that are tested/setup for the second 6 zones of audio as we finish our basement :)

It's fairly easy to block Roku ads with a Pihole. I've got all mine in a special group and all I see is a nice, empty space where the ad should be.

True. Just saying there is a reason why Google and Roku’s stuff is dirt cheap. The real money is in the ads and selling your data.

Yep, which makes that empty void where an ad should be feel even better

Agreed. Although even if you’re blocking the loading of ads, they’re still capturing and selling behavioral data. Also, I have remotes that advertise video services that don’t even exist anymore.

I don't know about Roku but Google doesn't sell data, just ads. You can't go to Google and buy data about users.

They “sell” it in the sense that, as a marketer, you buy the ability to target behavioral and demographic cohort of users. You’re not actually buying a database of names and numbers.

Right, so the "sell" it in the sense that they don't sell it. I get the same response every time. I don't understand why people think it's ok to just lie, and then when they're called out try to argue that lying is fine you said something that feels true.

I almost completely stopped going to the movies once the pre-roll stuff was ads for cars, food, etc instead of just movie trailers.

The more inconvenient Google makes avoiding ads on their platforms and services, the less of Googles platforms and services I will use.

For now I have a third party launcher setup on my CCwGTV in my living room, but the Apple TV 4k I have in my bedroom sure is looking nice these days with how well it performs and how much less trouble it is to setup and reset should I need/want to do that.

Going the HTPC route is less desirable to me since services like Amazon and Netflix go out of their way to restrict resolutions offered to things like a Debian box running Firefox. I could use Windows and Edge, but that would mean hitching myself to another company that seems more interested in selling me to advertisers than selling things to me.

Serious question, does 4K resolution even really make that much of a difference to you? I have like 30 TB of shows and movies at 1080p and I've never had any users complain about resolution.

My hardware supports it and I am paying for the premium Netflix tier for the extra screens, so I like to use the 4k resolution when I can.

Has there been a company that has experienced such a fast fall from grace as Google?

Mere years ago they were viewed as the bastion of intellectuals in tech. They worked on stuff that was deemed "not evil", people that worked there were deemed the best and brightest, and their culture was celebrated so highly that literal movies have been made about working there.

Obviously, the reality is different from the vision, but in a short amount of time they've implemented URA, have had multiple mass layoffs where people were locked out overnight with no more than a sentence in an email after a decade of work, have doubled-down on enshitification of their services, and have alienated a significant chunk of their workers through RTO and cost cutting.

Anyone who bought into the don't be evil story / marketing is being willfully naive. Like all the big tech companies they're basically intelligence fronts. Big tech is big brother. You don't even have to look hard to see how intertwined with the CIA / NSA Google had been from the beginning. Furthermore, Snowden's exposure of PRISM made it clear that it wasn't just a few grants early on, it was setup by design to limit govt liability yet allow mass surveillance to go on unabated and the entire launch of Gmail is yet a single token example. Don't trust big tech.

Maybe, but I do believe at least then being aspirationaly not evil made it a much different company. It made people try to be better both in and outside google even if at some level it was still a big corp doing big corp things.

Whatever it is now is a boring husk of what it was and I think you can draw a line from that to those naive people and their belief in that principle trying to make awesome things and a better world.

Maybe that's just me looking back with rose colored glasses though.

Still, they completely pulled out of China to protect their users' privacy the moment China asked for full access to their data. Google back then was completely different than today. Google today will never pull out of China and give up revenue from the most populous country in the world. In fact, I think Google will reenter chinese market the moment Chinese government let them. Out of all big tech, only Google not having any presence in China even though Android is very popular there. Google execs are probably cursing their "don't be evil" predecessor for pulling out of China now.

URA? Ironically, Google doesn't define it in regards to themselves.

Unregretted Attrition. It's basically stack ranking, where the company plans to fire a percentage of its staff every year.

Google is, and always has been, an advertising company. Thats their bread and butter

I understand putting ads on a free service like Google search or YouTube. But I bought this fucking Chromecast. I even suggested it to friends and family.

Another case that pisses me off is having bought a pixel watch at premium price and they want me to pay a monthly shitty Fitbit subscription to provide me with some trivial computations.

Same thing with their Google home screen. You pay a good price and you need a subscription to use the fucking sleep sensor that you paid for.

Another one is having a premium pixel pro and they still want me to buy a Google one subscription to get useless photos filters with Google photos.

I love that Android is open source (mainly) but fuck you Google you are an embarrassment to your former self.

There is a reason why these things are under $50, and the boxes without ads cost 3x more. This is always Google’s playbook. Start with limited ads on a free or cheap service, then open things up to a monetization team to milk it.

That's how they started. Small, tasteful, text only ads. It's how they got all their market share. Everyone loved them because at the time the internet was a nightmare of pop up ads, toolbars, and seizure inducing flashing boxes.

It's like when the big box stores come in with lower prices to drive smaller shops out of business then jack up their prices once they're the only game in the area. It happens less now because they used those tactics years ago to push out Main Street, but you can still see it from time to time.

Tbh I don't know if they would cost 3x as much without ads. The hardware is kinda shit. It's slow are barely working.

Start with limited ads on a free or cheap service, then open things up to a monetization team milk it.

Yeah that is probably they plan all along to lock us in and then enshitify it as time go on but even if they sell them at loss, we consume a lot of YouTube (I even rent movies from Google). They can make their money without ads, if they actually cared about having a great product and not just milk us.

The Fitbit subscription also includes

Emergency Sharing, Fall Detection, Safety Check, and reach emergency services and contacts

So some safety features don't work without it!

Checkout Projectivy or any other 3rd party launcher on the app store. I installed it on a chromecast and an Nvidia Shield the moment they started showing ads.

Also won’t be buying these anymore in the future. Rather setup a Raspberry Pi and use that.

Yeah I already use Projectivy. It's pretty nice. Thanks.

I'll also check other alternatives. I hope there is way to use the Chromecast protocol with Foss servers.

pats his Apple TV good boy

Apple is not your friend.

Google is an advertising company. Apple is a hardware/software company. They have very different incentives from one another. Neither are my friend, but one’s entire business model runs on psychological manipulation, the other sells iPhones.

I like that even if Google does something I don't like I can install my own launcher. Or buy a different device, apple is apple and you better be happy with what they want you to want.

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I hate to be the one to break it to you, but Apple uses a ton of psychological manipulation in order to sell those phones.

We all just learned about the green text bubble thing. It was hilariously infantile

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I wish Kodi had a more intuitive UI and support for Netflix, etc. We need an option powered by the people, for the people.

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If you have a pi-hole or other way to block access to your network, I've found these useful to block:

androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com

androidtvchannels-pa.googleapis.com

androidtvlauncherxfe-pa.googleapis.com

This is ridiculous. I would understand if this is subsidized devices where you pay less in exchange for having ads. You already bought the device and suddenly it got shittier. Might as well get a free, big brotherly tv with ads from Telly.

It always has been a device that is primary subsidized by ads and selling your behavioral data.

There is a reason why an Nvidia Shield or AppleTV costs a lot more. They’re making more from the price at the register than the ads and data sales.

Yeah but Google started putting these home screen ads on Nvidia shield also.

Not super up to date with that though because the second they did I switched to a custom launcher.

People in this thread said their Nvidia shield has ads too now. I guess costing a lot more doesn't guarantee the device won't be updated in the future to include ads.

As for apple tv, is it usable in a household that's primarily use Android? Can you cast stuff from Android apps to it? Or is it only supports airplay from apple devices?

Nvidia didn't push the ads. Nvidia got their pound. Google is pushing the ads onto the shield.

So, the price of the hardware is not an indication whether the device will have ads or not later down the line? Even if you spent your money on the top of the line models it'll eventually got ads if it's running Google TV OS?

Correct. GoogleTV is completely owned by Google. Nvidia has no say in what google pushes to the platform. If you don't want Ads... stay away from google/android TV.

I own 3 shields (pre-ad-gate purchases). I was a huge advocate for it. It was a great device that did everything I wanted a tv console to do. I would not buy a new one. And will not buy a shield 2 if it has the same OS on it.

The best you can do is stop the upgrades... or use a custom launcher. But the OS itself is going to find a way to get ads because that's what google programmed it to do.

It's actually in Google's best interest to do this anyway. Nvidia likely didn't pay google anything to have the OS on the device. This is google's way of extracting money out of you in this process.

I'm pretty sure OEMs pay Google for including Play Store in their device, and they still decided to show ads. My Chromecast with Google TV shows no ads at the moment, not sure if it's due to using Adguard in my home network or if Google simply hasn't roll out ads in my country yet.

Same for cheap TVs these days btw, their home page ads are why they're able to sell you a decent quality 85" TV for under $2k.

On the Nvidia shield side, they've started adding more and more ads lately, which is completely unexcusable. Thankfully it's not hard to use alternative launchers.

I guess it needs to be said again: “smart TVs” are cheap because of post-purchase monetization. That is: they gather your viewing and UI interaction behaviors (and, in some cases, ambient sound) for analysis and sale by the manufacturer.

The TV is a product, sure, but so are you when you use a “smart TV” like that without mitigating its connectivity by not letting it on your network and just using a discrete streaming peripheral of some sort instead.

Cheap? I must have missed that part.

Dude, do you remember how expensive a 65” 4k TV was when the technology debuted? Paying $1000 nowadays for what’s basically cutting-edge display tech is nothing - they were in the neighborhood of $10k or more when they were first produced. And you can get one with older tech from TCL or whatever for like $3-400 now, which is embarrassingly cheap for a 65” 4k.

A lot of technology is expensive when it's first introduced and it has not reached mass market yet. Bigger TVs were already gaining popularity before Smart TVs. Getting cutting-edge display tech from a couple decades ago ain't all that.

Nah, this stuff is not nearly cheap enough to justify all the spyware and ads.

Signage TVs are basically as cheap but without the slow as balls UI filled to the brim with ads.

Pre-purchase is monetized as well. Those streaming services that are featured on the box, and on the remote featured on the box, those are also paid placements.

Might as well just get/make a home theater pc

My MCPC is a micro PC that's at least 10 years old. It plays h.265 at 2k just fine. I'm excited to see things move back to media computers.

That's amazing. I do have an old computer laying around, so I may be able to do that. May I ask what specs your MCPC has?

i7 (mobile processor) with the built in Intel gpu. 16G ram. 120G ssd. It's an optiplex. They're pretty cheap on Amazon / ebay as refurbs. I bought it for the processor. Bought and upgraded the ram and ssd separately. I just have kodi on it (on Linux Mint). Everything is stored on my synology, which has an m.2 ssd cache. My TV is only 2k, so I haven't tried pushing any higher res stuff. I was surprised a few years ago when I started playing h.265 videos. No issues playing it at all. I didn't upgrade the ssd at first, but noticed the box got pretty hot by the end of a movie. That upgrade dropped the temp in the box a good bit. I don't think I'm pushing it much. It just gets warm a little and utilization remains under 50%. The box is really snappy too.

Google TV? What is that?

IDK if you're being sarcastic, but it's the Set-top/Ten Foot Interface version of Android that's largely only used for Smart TVs and STBs.

Sounds like a product they're gonna kill off soon.

It's actually been around for about a decade...

And I believe technically it's a layer on Android TV (the thing that's been around for a decade+), but their branding on stuff is pretty crap and inconsistent so I'm not sure

They keep switching the name, which does make it confusing. IIRC it was originally called Google TV back when Smart TVs became a thing (early 2010s) because I remember it being built into Sony TVs and thinking "wow this is awesome! It's Android on a TV!". That product eventually died because it was stupid expensive and clunky, and then they morphed it into the " layer on top of Android" like you said so other manufacturers could use it.

Kinda doubt it as a lot of smart tv manufacturers use it for their TV's OS.