Amazon is now automatically playing fullscreen video ads on Fire TV

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?

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.

Careful of backcharging large companies. They'll remove your account from all their services. Looking at you Google.

I’d look through the fine print if it says that they won’t serve ads. Cause I doubt that.

And that's the exact reason that less and less people are taking credit cards and only taking debit and ACH.

Bought an early one. Used it for less than a year.

I still have it. Can they be flashed with Lineage or something?

I'm surprised it wasn't showing ads before. The fire tablets are discounted if they show ads on the lock screen.

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

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 also a terrible site now. It's nothing but Alibaba crap marked up 700% and counterfeit products.

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.

Before amazon existed all the companies they killed for their monopoly existed.

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.

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.

For all of Apple’s faults, their Apple TV is pretty decent. A home screen with apps on them; no ads. It’s great

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.

My Roku is pie holed, I don't Even get the main screen ads anymore.

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.

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

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.

No end to the greed of these corporations.

You can skip them. It’s more like a screen saver than anything.

To late.

Nvidia Shield is getting Auro 3D audio support, full-screen ads

Source: https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1700478955

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 😬

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

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

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.

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.

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.

... RAID SHADOW LEGENDS. RAID Shady Legions is the new exciting RPG PVP for NPC that you've all been waiting for. It's got last generation graphics, an "immersive" "story", and integrated mobile upsell offerings unlike some other things on the market.

I've been playing PAID Shadow Legends ever since they sent me $20,000, and now I have an unmitigated addiction to laxatives, so I can escape from my wife and kids on the porcelain gaming throne, and spend time with my favorite hero, WHICHEVER ONE WAS JUST ADDED THIS WEEK. Get that limited time premium champion with the link in my bio.

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.

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.

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

What Android TV device do you recommend?

Etc as in watch porn on the TV? Amiright?

Can you still hack the shit out of fire sticks or did they clamp down on that?

What's this app only mode you speak of? I am intrigued.

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?

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.

What are Roku up to these days? I stopped paying attention when they became less of a value option

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.