
How to turn off Android TV's homescreen ads, 'staff picks' - radus
https://9to5google.com/2020/08/18/android-tv-homescreen-ads-turn-off-staff-picks/
======
rohan1024
I have said this before. Few reasons why I prefer dumb TVs, just a flat LED
panel:

1\. You have control over bullshit like this

2\. You can make them smart by attaching the external box (like Raspberry PI
with osmc)

3\. You don't have to throw the TV because your Software is now old, just
change the box.

4\. There's new format which requires hardware support (av1 is coming), change
the box.

5\. Want to add new hardware? Upgrade the box.

~~~
throwaway123x2
Can you even buy those any more? I looked into it and there's nothing of
quality available.

~~~
radus
I think the only truly dumb screens that you might be able to buy are designed
for commercial use. But yeah, consumer oriented TVs all have their own smart
features.

~~~
kleiba
Is there a way to hack a smart TV into a dumb one?

~~~
patrickk
What happens if you simply don't connect it to the internet? Can't you just
use it as a dumb TV? I don't have experience with a smart TV so I cannot say.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
I have a Samsung smart TV for work that has never been connected to a network.
It insists on an identification check whenever a new device is connected to an
input. It doesn't have access to the Samsung database so it just spins its
wheels until you clear the overlay.

~~~
chenxiaolong
It does that even with network access (I didn't see any additional traffic
when it happens in a packet capture). I have to use a programmable HDMI
splitter that presents an EDID when the real input is off just to get rid of
that behavior. My computer resuming from sleep triggers it.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Our hardware has valid EDIDs. Just nothing that Samsung would know about.

------
intsunny
These homescreen ads are really interesting because in the future of
television, they might be the only thing viewers are guaranteed to see a
glimpse of.

In the era of linear TV, the masses had to watch what the networks put in
front of them. People had to watch whatever was available in the broadcast
medium of their choice (air/cable/satellite). Channel flipping meant that the
networks had a brief moment to expose themselves to viewers, and maybe even
hook them with those repetitive post-commercial recaps.

But non-linear television means that the network execs can fuck right off
because people will watch whatever they want, whenever they want, on the
subscription service they want. The fragmentation is real.

The homescreen ads present themselves as a rare chance for channel producers
to say "hey! come look at our amazing content!". Right before a viewer fires
up Netflix or whatever.

(On a personal note, those overly loud and obnoxious homescreen ads are
fucking annoying and usually turn me off from whatever the hell is being
advertised. Turning on my TV should be a source of joy and relaxation, not a a
desperate desire to pull up Netflix as fast as humanly possible. I'm also
certain that in the future when all of our smart TVs have 128-core RISC-V CPUs
with 16GB of RAM and can run k8s, TV software producers will intentionally
slow down the loading of apps so viewers are forced to watch the homescreen
ads.)

~~~
criddell
> Channel flipping meant that the networks had a brief moment to expose
> themselves to viewers

Offtopic, but modern TVs are terrible at channel flipping. I don't know if
it's the TV or the cable box or the DRM, but something makes it take 3-5
seconds to change a channel. This feels like something they could fix.

There not being a reasonable way to opt-out of the homescreen ads tells me
that Google knows they are garbage. Google has 20+ years of data from many of
us. They promised us that sharing our data with them would let them produce
targeted ads that we would value. The ads on my TV homescreen feel less
targeted than the ones I see during a baseball broadcast.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Offtopic, but modern TVs are terrible at channel flipping. I don't know if
> it's the TV or the cable box or the DRM

A combination of digital video encoding chocies and a UX decision that nothing
is better than the artifacts from not waiting for a full frame to start
display.

~~~
criddell
Feels like they could have a bunch of decoders and make a guess at what my
next channel will probably be and keep a few streams ready to go.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Feels like they could have a bunch of decoders and make a guess at what my
> next channel will probably be and keep a few streams ready to go.

If you have a multichannel cable box (usually, to support simultaneous DVR and
viewing), some of them I think _do_ do that (or at least camp on the last-used
for each tuner that isn't needed for active display or recording) and give a
fast switch if you hit one that it's on, but the ratio of decoding streams to
available channels tends to be very low. And I would imagine that video
decoding is the biggest use of horsepower in a cable box or smart TV, so
there's probably a non-negotiable cost (including in power usage, heat, and
component lifetime) in malign a significant change there.

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jeroenhd
Does anyone have a proper replacement for a "smart" TV interface that runs on
plain Linux instead of some random Chinese Android box?

My TV is relatively old and the Netflix app just can't keep up anymore. I was
considering running some Android TV box but if those show ads now I'm not
interested anymore.

Right now my TV is hooked up to my server running Kodi, but I'd like something
that plays YouTube at full resolution (as opposed to Kofi's 720p limit because
of some obscure dependency issue) and is also capable of running Netflix.

I'll probably have to cave eventually and get myself a Chromecast but if
there's an option that doesn't rely on Google, I'd like to hear about it.

~~~
yummypaint
Is there a reason a standard computer can't work? You have linux and firefox
with proper adblocking. Youtube runs at full resolution, netflix always works
in the browser, as well as other services. I havent watched an ad in years and
can't imagine going back.

~~~
jeroenhd
Currently my TV is hooked up to a computer but it's hard to use the interface
as a TV.

I want to use the TV as a TV, not just as a remote desktop. I've tried using
KDE connect with mouse pad + keyboard remote control but the experience isn't
great.

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nominated1
The Android Debugger is best for wrangling these unfortunate creations. Here
are some random notes I took while beating my Sony Bravia into submission.

# Enable Develepor Tools TV > Home menu > Settings > About.

Click the build number 7 times to activate the developer tools menu item.

Open it and click on "enable ADB debugging."

# Default ADP Port TCP - 5037 and 5555

adb connect 192.168.x.xx

A popup will appear on your TV. Use your remote to check the box to always
allow connections from your PC

# Sideload app

TV > Settings > Security & restrictions > Unknown Sources

adb install apkname.apk

# List all apps

adb shell pm list packages -f > bravia-tv-packages.txt

# Uninstall an app.

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 tv.samba.ssm

adb uninstall tv.samba.ssm

# Reinstall (example only)

adb shell pm install -r --user 0 tv.samba.ssm

# Disable an app if uninstall fails

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 <package_to_disable>

# Re-enable a disabled app

adb shell pm enable <package_to_enable>

# Safe Mode

Unplug or Reboot (Settings > About)

Press and hold volume down

# Factory Reset

Unplug

On lower left (ports side)

Press and hold bottom two

Plug back in

# Filter to only show system packages.

adb shell pm list packages -f -s

# List including uninstalled packages.

adb shell pm list packages -f -u

# List all disabled apps

adb shell pm list packages -d

# Force stop app

adb shell am force-stop com.netflix.ninja

adb shell top

adb shell ps > android-processes.txt

adb shell dumpsys wifi > dumpsys_wifi.txt

adb shell logcat > logcat.txt

adb shell dumpsys package com.foo.bar > dumpsys_com.foo.bar

adb shell pm [grant|revoke] [package] android.permission.CAMERA

When done, turn off ADB debugging on the TV for security.

------
kevlar1818
I've been wanting to replace my Android box with a Linux box for a while, and
I think this signals my Android TV exit. The main reason I have an Android TV
box is because of its easy to use UI. I haven't found a suitable desktop
environment or web browser configuration that supports a TV-scale UI on Linux.
Does anyone have a Linux HTPC setup they're happy with? I really don't want to
need a mouse and keyboard to watch Netflix, etc.

~~~
gen3
KDE has a tv environment. I’m not sure how good it is though, I use an Apple
TV.

[https://plasma-bigscreen.org/](https://plasma-bigscreen.org/)

[https://dot.kde.org/2020/03/26/plasma-tv-presenting-
plasma-b...](https://dot.kde.org/2020/03/26/plasma-tv-presenting-plasma-
bigscreen)

~~~
zzo38computer
I don't like the voice control, but I suppose some people do like, OK, but
ensure it will work without Mycroft and without a microphone, too.

Better might be assign a numeric code to each file, and then you can key in
those numbers on the remote control to select them. The remote controls they
show there isn't very good. Put numbers, play, pause, rewind, fast-forward,
stop, previous-track, next-track, high-volume, low-volume, mute, main-menu,
and perhaps a few more, rather than what they have there it isn't very good I
think.

Is there such a better remote control that you can use instead? Instead of
up/down/left/right/enter, you can have the numbers and the playback controls.

~~~
gen3
I find voice control helpful when entering text. Instead of trying to arrow in
"The Simpsons season 6 episode 3" on a remote, you can just get it
transcribed.

~~~
zzo38computer
Yes, that is one reason why you might like it (especially if you do not know
how to spell the name of the show you want to watch, although voice
recognition can also get it wrong sometimes). However, I would ike numeric
input. Key in some ID number of the show (after you can first figure out what
that ID number is), and optionally the season number and episode number. If
you omit the season number, it will list them; if you omit the episode number,
it will list the episodes with descriptions; you might also search by the
original broadcast date. Of course, that doesn't help if you do not know the
ID number of the show, so text search (and voice, if you have a microphone and
voice recognition software) is still useful too, and then you can learn what
is the ID number. For text entry, I would like Hollerith chording (or a full
keyboard if you happen to be using one, which some people do), but that won't
work if the remote control doesn't support chording, so other methods may also
be used. Category numbers (in various classification schemes) may also be
helpful, if you do not even know the name of the show, or what show you want,
perhaps.

------
Sargos
Note that there is no open source version of Android TV like there is for
phones. You can't just throw on a custom ROM with the modifications you want.
This was a purposeful choice by Google to enable anti-features like this and
prevent any kind of ad blocking or customizations that would help make TVs
into an open platform.

~~~
kmonsen
This is not true, see here for example:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=aosp+android+tv+devices](https://www.google.com/search?q=aosp+android+tv+devices)

There are vendors shipping aosp devices, particularly in cost sensitive
markets.

~~~
efreak
Not sure about currently, but I'm the past there were quite a number of
options for running Android on a set top box, but very few options for running
Android TV on one. You need to make sure the device you're looking at is
actually running Android TV, not the standard version of Android.

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HumblyTossed
This ticks me off. I have an Nvidia Shield TV and it's supposed to get this
"update" also. I can live with some ads in apps (as long as I didn't "pay" for
the app). But I HATE the idea of ads in my OS. This industry and the pressure
to turn everything into a money grab is digusting?

~~~
heroprotagonist
Yeah, I'm pretty irate as well. I finally gave in and got a Shield a couple
weeks ago to reduce complexity. Now this?

Maybe it's not too late to mail it back to Nvidia. Perhaps wrapped in this
week's snailmail spam catalogs.

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criddell
I bought a Sony XBR65X950G (great name) a year ago and the hardware is nice
but the software is terrible. I noticed the ads a couple of days ago and tried
to find a way to hide them but there's nothing.

The ads combined with the shitty Android TV software is making me think I need
to unplug the TV from the internet and buy an Apple TV or similar device.

Either that or get a Homekit power outlet so that I can power cycle the TV
every night.

~~~
chrisjc
I'm missing your point... What would power cycling the TV daily do?

~~~
tbeseda
It's bad enough that I set up my Sony Android TV on a "smart outlet" that
power cycles each night. And I can yell at my Google Assistant to restart it
when it breaks down on occasion

~~~
criddell
The TV has a built in Google Assistant. I wish they would add a phrase like
"hey google, reboot the tv" to save me time from navigating through the menus
looking for the restart command (it's under "about" for some reason).

------
nunodonato
I bought a Mi TV 2 months ago. Worst thing ever. I was much better off just
using my chromecast. I was hoping a much richer ecosystem of apps for android
tv, but they pretty much suck. Dumb tv + chromecast is perfect, or plug a pi
for something more complex.

~~~
ffpip
Block everything on your router or via PiHole. Setup and forget

------
Kique
I don't see the outrage. This looks pretty similar to the design of every
streaming service these days? Netflix, Prime, etc. The top bar is the largest
and displays the newest/trending things to watch.

The only difference is what they might display on the top bar. On Netflix they
just show you the newest/trending stuff regardless of I'm interested in it
based on my viewing habits. Netflix really wants me to watch Tiger King. So if
these streaming services were smart they would pay Google for this ad space
based on my viewing habits, or it'll be the newest/trending stuff from these
services and it's basically the same/useless then.

~~~
radus
I paid good money for a Nvidia Shield in part because I liked the simple
interface. Would you like it if in the next Android update you had "trending
stuff" occupying a third of your smartphone home screen?

I wouldn't mind it if it were optional, but it seems that it will not be.

~~~
panpanna
I agree this is shity design, but is it "ads"??

To be clear: I don't like been forced "recommendations" that some AI algorithm
digged up for me.

But this is still far far from the consumer product ads you see will on
traditional TVs.

------
panpanna
Next up: Chromecast

(We desperately need an alternative to Chromecasts, they are becoming too
dominant)

------
blackrobot
What's the best external tv hardware box these days? It needs to be something
easy enough for my non-technical family to use, that's also stable enough that
I don't have to worry about upgrading or debugging it, and provides all of the
popular providers controlled by a remote -- or is at least _compatible_ with a
universal remote.

Up until recently, my Roku ticked all of the boxes -- Amazon Prime, Netflix,
HBO Now/Go, Plex, CNN, Hulu, all controlled by a Logitech universal remote.
But as of August 1st, HBO has pulled their apps from Roku.

Is one of these a better option?

\- Android TV

\- Amazon Fire

\- Apple TV (without other iOS devices?)

\- _something else?_

~~~
drewg123
The nice thing about Android TV and firetv is that you can sideload apps like
NewPipe (better YouTube client without ads) and Kodi. Android TV has been
better than FireTV until now, as it has not had an annoying homescreen
littered with ads, like the FireTV.

I'd switch to an AppleTV, if I could sideload things like NewPipe, but for now
I'm sticking with my Nvidia Shield, which runs Android TV.

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shp0ngle
Seeing all this hate about smart TVs here

I have a smart Samsung TV, I don't remember the exact name, and it's... fine?
I changed my opinion on Smart TVs

It does its job, the 3 apps I have there work fine, there are no annoying ads.
There is also working AirPlay for iOS (funnily enough, it's easier to stream
from iPhone than from Samsung Galaxy on Samsung TV). The UX is great overall.

The "browser" there is horrible, but you won't be doing much browsing on TV
anyway

------
lvturner
Are there any FOSS alternatives for the operating systems on current smart
tvs?

I haven't heard of any, but it's certainly something I'd be interested in.

------
e12e
I'm guessing it's not possible to just write an app that replaces the
homescreen? :/

