That’s why piracy is back on the menu.
That has nothing to do with piracy or not. Its just a device to play media. You can use a firetv to 100% stream pirated content via kodi or plex and still have to see this shit.
I don’t see it. I have mine blocked from dialing home, receiving updates and autoplays have long been turned off.
Good for you. It does not change my point though that a device which can stream media having ads not really has anything to do with more piracy.
Sure it does. As a pirate I’ve chosen to disable the device’s ability to connect to Amazon to annoy me with ads, and pirate the content they’d usually serve me instead of subscribing to anything. Not that hard to understand. If I could find a way to uninstall all the Amazon apps, I would.
Did you pirate the TV? No, this actually has nothing to do with piracy. What’s hard to understand.
Unbelievable that you could miss the point this much and still ask “what’s hard to understand” lmfao
Evidently it’s too complicated for you.
I didn’t pirate my computer either, but almost all the content on it is.
Also, the original comment I responded to said “and still have to see this shit.” I don’t, because of piracy strats.
Lmao autist
This here is the solution for what you want: https://www.xda-developers.com/disable-system-app-bloatware-android/
You can disable whatever app you want until the system doesn’t work any more. Just install an alternative for what you want to disable (e.g. the launcher) and then disable the Amazon version.
until the system doesn’t work anymore
yeah that’s my worry… accidentally bricking the thing. Can you rollback changes if that happens?
edit:
so be sure you don’t disable anything absolutely critical (use your best judgment)
apparently not
I keep imagining a scenario where it cannot find something and just spins forever looking for it, or disable something that prevents startup entirely, etc.
edit: wait… you can install a new launcher on a fire tv? I need to look into that.
As long as it still boots, you can undo the change with a simple
adb pm enable [packagename].I wouldn’t recomment disableing system critical things like systemui. You can google each package together with “Can I disable X” and you should get decent infos.
Regarding the launcher:
I don’t have a Fire TV but I had a Fire Tablet. So if these two work the same, you can install another launcher without issues. But Amazon removed the setting for default launcher, so it will always pick the stock launcher when you press the home button.
To override that, there are two options.
- Install the Automate app by Llamalab and make a small flow that detects when the stock launcher is the currently active app and then automatically launches the new launcher. This option is completely safe.
- Disable the stock launcher. If Android doesn’t find it’s set default launcher, it will instead open the first launcher it finds. Worked good on the Fire Tablet, but I can’t verify that this doesn’t cause issues on a Fire TV. So this might be a bit risky.
I disagree. I will not under any circumstances be advertised to in my own home.
I’m happy to pay for your goods and services, but if you break that agreement our relationship is immediately concluded. The penalty for breaking the original terms of our agreement is that I will take what I originally paid for in perpetuity. You had your chance.
Same rules apply for attempting to renegotiate the rules whilst the ball is in play: see Amazon’s new trend of attempting to charge an additional monthly fee of the same amount as the initial service to access documentaries etc. They’re finished.
They aren’t finished. Remember that you are in the minority with your outrage, and 95% of the general population loves eating shit popsicles from megacorps. Aka they won’t do anything about it.
If anyone doubts this, simply visit the nearest Apple store for a half hour and watch the lemmings around you. Apple store employees, and the company literally abuse people and treat their customers like shit, yet the place is still packed. The lemmings still line up for an hour for their “appointment,” and put up with people yelling/talking down at them, only to have the privilege of purchasing the latest iPhone.
The general population will take this lying down. CTV is one of the biggest growing advertising channels. It mostly gets bought and sold programmatically too, and nothing is off the table. Not only are we getting fucking hosed with streaming fees, they are going to absolutely bombard us with ads too.
Finished as in they no longer get to be installed on anything in my house. I realise that most people seem to love the taste of shit sandwiches. Not for me.
As soon as streaming services start acting like that, they’re gone. The only one I have left is Netflix, and it is on thin ice - we’ll see what they do with their pricing structure going forward and if they start trying to push ads on higher tiers.
If it wasn’t for the Mrs., I would have turfed Netflix a long time ago. They are the grossest of all the streamers, and they are at the forefront of the greed we face today. I refuse to even use it. I pay for two subscriptions (my wife’s, and one for my parents, who live across the continent). I refuse to use it. I don’t even use it. Who are we turning into as a species?
It can be, in some way. For example when content is exclusive to video streaming platforms which are only available through these devices.
People are desperate to justify stealing stuff, cus no one wants to be the bad guy in their own head.
“Gas prices going up? To the high seas I go!”
Or you know have the sense god gave goats and be able to see the neon sign as they have been blowing out Amazon home devices for years. Now they need to recoup that half decade of losses. Buckle up.
Honestly, this is why we are here. I get it if you use their delivery because getting stuff can be hard depending on the area. But this stuff, where there are half dozen competing options… come on.
I wasn’t specifically talking about this product alone, but about the general trend. I don’t own any Amazon hardware.
A few years ago, piracy was all but dead because or really good offers like Netflix. All the stuff you wanted was there and the price was ok.
Now to get the same that you got for a tenner a month on Netflix, you have to pay for half a dozen of streaming services.
Youtube forces you to watch more ads than actual content. All services are increasing prices while decreasing what you are getting for that money. And all sorts of products are retroactively introducing ads.
I mean seriously, if someone bought that stick, they paid for it. They shouldn’t have to worry about updates actively making the device worse.
It’s an industry-wide trend that sucks, and it’s one that creates resistance. People start pirating, use adblock and some hack their devices. Not because it’s impossible to have a situation that suits everyone, but because they purpously use enshittification to suck more money out of their customers.
Your gripes about inflation are justified.
All I’m saying there were so many red flags on buying these that you’d have to be new to technology to not have seen this coming. I’m actually surprised they weren’t doing or worse from day one 🤷♂️
It’s unbelievable. The dumb fuckers literally figured out a way to beat piracy. High quantity, easily accessible content at an appetizable price. Even one for TV, one for music, $10-15 a month, I had no issue. Everyone made out like a bandit, I was satisfied, and they all made billions.
Now you can’t even use YouTube without being bombarded with ads, and streaming is quickly becoming worse than cable was. Piracy is definitely back on the table, and the fuckers don’t have license to whine about it this time. They literally had it licked, but then got too greedy, so fuck them.
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May we think about one more question also?
Why is this even possible? We should have this thing called software, that should be replecable without changing the hardware, right?
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At this point just get a rasbperry pi, or some similar device, and run it as a regular computer. Firefox, ublock origin, don’t worry about ads, and turn it into a machine that is capable of soooooooo much more. Hell, any PC will work. Steam Deck, NUC, that old laptop you have laying around? Been running little NUCs on my TVs for years and so happy I don’t have to put up with that nonsense.
Which OS is good for this? Which remote can be used? I use my Stick to launch several apps like Plex, Smarttube Next, ARD Mediathek (German TV series). Not needing anything more. But a snappy remote and support for various audio and video codecs is key.
I’m a linux nerd and I jut run stock Fedora. It’s desktop is like a phone UI, so lots of folks are familiar with it.
I then use a wireless keyboard and trackball. T
here are tons of remotes out there,but I don’t have any experience with then. Let me know if you find a good remote though. 😁
Even if there’s no good remote out there (I’ve not looked into it either) I would argue that the drawbacks of not having a remote are vastly less serious than the drawbacks of using one of these “smart” devices.
I’ve been using a $20 air remote off Amazon for years now. The tracking is honestly incredible and the device is built like an old Nokia phone. I’ve launched it off the bed or couch hundreds of times, even had the plastic casing bust open, but when I clicked it back together it still works good as new, and it’s even good enough to play simple point and click/mousepowered games on the TV. The front is all media/TV controls and the back is a full keyboard, with a toggled backlight. It’s honestly so much better than any of the media center remotes I’ve used including the apple tv one or the firestick one.
I run CoreELEC/LibreELEC on all my streaming devices. It only runs Kodi but since Kodi has tons of addons it is fairly easy to customize. Kodi also plays pretty much any codec in existence and has support for various remotes.
If you’re planning to play 4k content you will want something with a little bit more power than a Raspberry Pi 4. For Dolby Vision you need one of the few supported devices.
Very helpful. Tanks!
Agreed. I started out with r-pi for the TV and and refuse to ever go back to just the smart-TV or stick interface. I’ve since moved on to more powerful HTPC/dedicated game server PC so I can host games for our friends but I still have the r-pi.
Honestly as nice as some of the smart TV or smart stick functions are, they’re only nice because they’re zero-effort. For just a slight amount of effort and no technical knowledge you can have a much better and safer setup.
Why do people still use those?
They’re cheap. That’s as far as some people think about it.
I use a fire stick because I’m familiar with them and they are much better than the shitty OS built into my TVs. Is there an alternative you recommend? I’m open to changing, especially with how theyve been pushing ads and paid rentals lately
Roku is pretty nice
Roku is literally chock full of ads, and they send whatever you’re watching back to their ad partners. I thought Roku was good too until I recently bought one of their top of the line boxes and it had ads _everywhere _ compared to my Roku tv. I immediately went out and bought an Apple TV and couldn’t be happier. No ads anywhere, and is way snappier than Roku.
Due to how they made it on scratch based on the Linux kernel, finding apps to install is hard. It doesn’t even have a web browser, let alone SmartTube.
Apple TV. No ads at all, it’s faster than every alternative (unless you’re building your own server), and it is much easier to use than every alternative.
Can you install adfree youtube on it with sponsorblock?
If you have the money, I’d go for an NVIDIA Shield, or maybe an Apple TV. Well worth the money.
Otherwise, for budget, you could get a Chromecast, which gives you more control over it and has generally less garbage than the Fire TVs do for instance, since you can easily change its launcher and debloat with ADB.
I’ll second the Chromecast (specifically the “Google TV with Chromecast” or something like that). It sounds cover-intuitive because it does come with its own home screen full of ads, but putting things like smart tube and a custom launcher on is pretty trivial and it was only £25.
I got a 4K Max one because it was only 35€. I want to upgrade to a shield pro successor which is overdue by now.
If you want to do this because of the full screen ads you may be too late.
Lol yeah the timing of their comment couldn’t have been more ironic
You can easily change launchers on the Shield and remove all of Google’s nonsense through ADB as well though, unlike Amazon who locks down the OS very tight. Plus like another commenter said, you can just flat out install LineageOS and you’re good.
Thanks for the tip, I didn’t know that.
You can run lineageOS on it though; problem solved
Lol, damn.
4k Max is so much faster than the Shield devices, i actually got upset that i invested so much money in two of them.
Interesting. I am not really happy with mine. Pretty laggy and it sometimes crashes. But good to know and makes the wait easier instead of getting that old tech instead.
Easy to sideload apps and use it for streaming, and I’m too lazy to set up my *arr self hosted media server with jellyfin again.
The Fire TV Sticks are getting more unusable with every update.
don’t update them
Most updates are OTA. They don’t give you a choice
I think they’re recommending that you do something like firewall/piehole them
Yes.
So… this leaves Apple as the only mainstream media device vendor not forcing home screen ads (unless you swap the launcher on a Google TV)…?
I’m sitting here watching Nvidia Shield, Amazon, and Windows, etc all cram ads into their shit and really reaaally hoping Apple doesn’t break on this one.
Roku
Roku has tons of Home Screen ads what are you talking about? It was so bad I spent about 5 minutes using it until I went and bought an Apple TV.
Are you talking about the static city scape that scrolls while occasionally showing still ads every once in a while? That doesn’t feel like the same thing at all. Of course I haven’t used my Roku since I hooked up a PS5 so maybe they’ve made it worse.
We were talking about Fullscreen are that you have to skip or watch, which they don’t have (at least not for me)
There’s some ad on the home screen I agree I don’t want but it’s nowhere near as annoying as on Android TV or FireTV. Mostly it just stays out of my way and lets me do things, and that’s it.
Until recently, yeah. Recently, my Roku TV is forcing me to interact with an ad (express interest or disinterest) before I can even launch an app.
That sounds like something that should be illegal. You bought the screen. It belongs to you.
Can you root the TV and be rid of that horrible functionality?
Dunno, I’m too lazy.
I have a bunch of Rokus and never seen that. That sucks
Hopefully it’s some sort of A/B testing that you’ll never see.
Ehhh… Have one of those too.
Still has some advertising but my pihole stopped that… until they bypassed it by hard coding DNS servers. Took longer to block that one.
I’d say they are a better option, but that was still mean of them.
Indeed, though it still doesn’t have a web browser.
Pretty much unfortunately. The good thing is its trivially easy to change launchers on the NVIDIA Shield or Google TV devices, plus you can even go a step forward and debloat them entirely with ADB. Amazon’s really the only manufacturer I’d say that forces home screen ads with no choice around it, since they actively prevent changing launchers and such. But Apple is probably the only one out of the box with no advertising.
Doesn’t its home screen hover on the Music app by default, which shows nearly-fullscreen banners that are almost ads?
I don’t have one, but in every Apple TV from my school, that’s how it starts up
The top banner shows content from whatever app you hover over. You can rearrange your apps.
And I don’t use Music on mine much but I’m pretty sure it just shows your own content?
It shows content from whatever app you have highlighted. If you were recently watching Love is Blind on Netflix and you hover over Netflix it will show a love is blind banner. If you were watching pirated stuff from your home server on Infuse then hovering over infuse will show you the most recent thing you opened. They’re not ads, it’s just a “recent” list.
I’ve shuffled mine around so I have folders on my home row, it just shows static tiles of the apps
Glad I don’t really watch content anymore. Though, between the Roku TV my kid has, and the big Samsung TV in our living room…my pihole is constantly hammered by both of them.
Which is why I just bought an nVidia Shield Pro. Custom launcher coming tomorrow. Time to start torrenting again.
Which launcher are you planning to use?
https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher probably. Not sure yet, but has to be FLOSS.
Isn’t a firestick basically a chromecast? I mean, google is a shitty company in matters about privacy or ethics, but amazon isn’t much better
I can cast to my internet-disabled TV anything to it, including pirate streaming sites with no ads. 20 years ago I ran a hdmi from my desktop and used a wireless touchpad to load downloaded stuff. It truly is the golden age of piracy
They have been built onto android until now, but i read that they wanted to ditch that and make their own os from scratch
They’re more like AndroidTV boxes with a full menu and HDMI-CEC support, only they came out back in the day when Chromecasts were just for casting. They were also dirt cheap; unfortunately that’s because they were made with bargain-basement parts which often failed or started to overheat easily a few months in.
Yeah, Chromecasts are much better than Fire TV’s, due to the more control you have over them and how easy it is change the launcher vs. Amazon actively preventing it. Basically same price and budget as well. Plus Google running a newer version of Android in general vs. Amazon’s, etc. Chromecasts are probably lesser of the two evils imo.
I have a fire tv cube just direct launch into apps to avoid this. For example instead of powering on the fire tv with power button I tell Alexa to open the app I need.
Down side is this doesn’t really work with sieloaded apps like smart tube
Sounds like this can be better avoided by not having an fire TV cube at all
I complained about this to “support” a few days ago. A full screen ad before the home screen with the top 1/3 an ad and the bottom 1/3 ads.
Straight up told them I will pick another manufacturer this weekend.
I’m burned out on protecting myself from smart devices. Maybe just a dumb screen this round.
Edit: I have every single privacy setting set to off, but some update added a new category and defaults to on. Don’t know how long Amazon has been spying on me or what they took.
My device has autoplay off already. It may have stopped a full screen video ad, but there is a full screen picture ad instead.
A full screen ad before the home screen with the top 1/3 an ad and the bottom 1/3 ads.
We’re almost there
Why would support care, this is clearly a feature not a bug. Did you at least demand a refund on the device?
They didn’t whatsoever. I expected that. They said they sent my complaint through so I hope I tickled a 0 into a 1 somewhere in their sea of data, but I don’t expect results.
Oh yeah, they followed up with an offer to buy a new TV. Like, that was a little cold there, dude.
If I hadn’t already disabled autoplays and blocked it from dialing home for updates, this might be a concern.
Lols :)
