Yeah, because everyone is asking for that. They will force ads into everything they can, because Google is an Ad company.
FLauncher is another great option — and open source!
Upvote this to heaven
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!
Thank you so much!
Where was this all my life?
You
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…
Settings -> Projectivy Launcher Settings -> General -> Override current launcher
https://youtu.be/bK8MAnc7Ico?si=Zs1otJfixHXz6DNJ I think explains
Thanks! I needed to go back to the accessibility settings 👍🏻
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…”
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 😑
Thanks…It seems like the Apple TV is the best option if you need DRM… 😥
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.
Or just install a new launcher
There are other issues with it, so I just decided to ditch it completely. I mainly use it for Kodi.
I have yet to find one that isn’t lacking basic features like being about to put the device to sleep.
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.
Go away! Batin’!
Water… like from the toilet??
This guy talks like a fag!
Best comedy ever made.
*documentary
Fucking uber have ads, my bank app have ads, everything have ads now. It’s a Fucking nightmare.
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.
Gas station pumps have fucking ads while you pump
Uber has ads in the cars?
The app, sometimes cars have ads too.
Wtf. Uber is not even cheap.
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.
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.
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 doesn’t have presence in China even though Android is very popular there. Google execs are probably cursing their predecessor for pulling out of China.
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
Might as well just get/make a home theater pc
I hope Flauncher or other alternatives are here to stay…
looks like it’s time to never buy anything from google ever again!
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.
I thought fast food TV adverts were illegal in the UK?
Not until at least October 2025.
Google TV? What is that?
Sounds like a product they’re gonna kill off soon.
Kinda doubt it as a lot of smart tv manufacturers use it for their TV’s OS.
It’s actually been around for about a decade…
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?
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.
How well AppleTV works with Android? Can you cast stuff from Android or is it strictly for AirPlay?
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.
