nVidia Shield Home Screen Ads

[moviefan 183]

Just wanted to come here and vent about the annoying new home screen ads that Google/nVidia are shoving down our throats.  I've spent decent money on 4 different Shields, and loved the experience until this.

I have disabled the auto updates and it is fixed for now, but Netflix whines about it when I try to play anything there, can't sign into YouTube, and I am sure there is going to be some future system update that disables this workaround.

Is anyone else as incensed by this as I am?  Reddit crowd clearly upset.  Haven't even been to nVidia's forums since they tend to just ignore everyone in my previous experience there.  Feel like this is almost warranting of a class action lawsuit regarding degrading the use of a device users have already paid for.  I know it is wishful thinking but I think it is ridiculous they can shove these worthless ads down our throats and not give us any way of opting out.

[Happy2Play 8270]

Pretty sure this is discussion here also.

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/99218-nvidia-shield-tv-is-getting-a-google-tv-like-facelift

 

[moviefan 183]

Yah I missed that one.  Looked in the nVidia shield forum and didn't see anything recent so I missed it.  Was kinda surprised.  Thanks for pointing out.

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

I have zero ads on my Shield's home screen. It is an easy matter to go into settings/home screen/customize channels and turn off every channel that you do not want to present content on the home screen. It only turns of the home screen crap. The app will still work fine but the home screen will be clear of the crap.

On your way out you can also turn off "Enable video previews" and "Enable audio previews" and you can get to a home screen that is just a row of apps to choose from without anything else.

I like a clean screen and I do not want anything or anyone making "suggestions" as to what I should watch and I really do not like a lot of clutter on my home screen.

For that reason I have mostly stopped using my Fire TV as Amazon does not seem to allow any real customization.

With a customized home screen the Shield shows the cleanest interface of all my clients. I may start using it even above my Rokus simply because the Shield's screen is so clean and elegant.

[moviefan 183]

2 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

I have zero ads on my Shield's home screen. It is an easy matter to go into settings/home screen/customize channels and turn off every channel that you do not want to present content on the home screen. It only turns of the home screen crap. The app will still work fine but the home screen will be clear of the crap.

On your way out you can also turn off "Enable video previews" and "Enable audio previews" and you can get to a home screen that is just a row of apps to choose from without anything else.

I like a clean screen and I do not want anything or anyone making "suggestions" as to what I should watch and I really do not like a lot of clutter on my home screen.

For that reason I have mostly stopped using my Fire TV as Amazon does not seem to allow any real customization.

With a customized home screen the Shield shows the cleanest interface of all my clients. I may start using it even above my Rokus simply because the Shield's screen is so clean and elegant.

If this worked it would be a great solution.  Unfortunately, these new ads do not show up as a channel.  They can't be removed.  You must have Google play services turned off if this is working for you.

If not, I'd love to see screen shots of your settings and which "channel" you are turning off to disable this.  MANY people would love for this to work as you have described. 

Edited June 29, 2021 by moviefan

[Chyron 221]

Per some suggestions I found from googling, I tried disabling "Google Play Services", which worked, but Youtube would no longer let me log into it.

So I instead installed ATV Launcher Pro and then disabled the default Android TV Home Launcher. Problem solved.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Chyron

[moviefan 183]

Just now, Chyron said:

Per some suggestions I found from googling, I tried disabling "Google Play Services", which worked, but Youtube would no longer let me log into it.

So I instead installed ATV Launcher Pro and then disabled the default Leanback Launcher. Problem solved.

I've read about using different launchers but almost all of the ones I've seen pictures of were substantially uglier than the stock launcher.  Do you have pictures of your setup?

[Chyron 221]

23 minutes ago, moviefan said:

I've read about using different launchers but almost all of the ones I've seen pictures of were substantially uglier than the stock launcher.  Do you have pictures of your setup?

I'm not at home currently, but I can post a screenshot later. Sure. I'm pretty happy with it. It took some customizing to get it to come out fine, but I'm satisfied.

Most screenshots I can find on Google show widgets. I don't use widgets. Essentially, ATV Launcher lets me split apps into separate "Sections" if I so choose. (Imagine the stock launcher, but each row has a group of app icons instead of suggested videos).

• The default "Applications" section is at the top (the section title is hidden), with Emby, Plex and Youtube in it;
• then a "Streaming Services" section, which has Prime Video, Disney+, Noggin, and PBS Kids;
• "Games", which has Steam Link, Nvidia Games, and Google Play Games;
• "Music" which has Amazon Music, Youtube Music, and Spotify;
• and "Misc." which has a Weather app, the Google Play Store, an "Inactive" folder with streaming services for which my subscription is inactive, and a "System" folder that has system-related apps (like Button Mapper) that I would prefer not to hide outright.

and that's it. I'm pretty happy with it. I told my wife the reason why I switched launchers is because the default launcher updated to include ads, and she made a sour face. I paid $200 for this device, so I damn well am not going to have ads on it.

 

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Chyron

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

1 hour ago, moviefan said:

If this worked it would be a great solution.  Unfortunately, these new ads do not show up as a channel.  They can't be removed.  You must have Google play services turned off if this is working for you.

If not, I'd love to see screen shots of your settings and which "channel" you are turning off to disable this.  MANY people would love for this to work as you have described. 

I do NOT have Google Play turned off, at least I do not think I do because Google updates apps just fine and I can add apps via the Play Store. If what you say is even partially true then I have done something "special" and I was not aware that I was doing anything like that. Maybe it is that I have the "Enable video previews" and "Enable audio previews" turned off as well. I do not know what screen shots you think you need to see but I really do not wish to spend much time on this as it is working the way I want and I do not want to, even by accident, corrupt what I have.

If it is "Google Play services" turned off then I have no idea how I accomplished that and I see no reason for them being on as my Shield works perfectly other wise.

BTW: I always accept "upgrades" when they are offered because I do not want the glitches that can happen if an upgrade to the Shield is skipped or ignored.

I probably should not have posted about this because it clearly seems to be working differently for me than it is for others and the way it is working for me is MUCH better for me than the alternative. If the adds do start showing on my Shield it will be easy for me to abandon the Shield and watch most of my content on my Roku where the ads are at least passive and you have to actually try to reach them.

Also I only "use" Android but I do not understand it. I am forced into it because the kids seem to mostly program in it and there are no good phones or tablets that use other operating systems except Apple's and I have been forced to use one Apple device and it is so bad that I only use it for watching Spectrum's TV content because Spectrum does not have an app for the Shied or the Fire TV both of which are so much better than Apple's piece of crap.

[Chyron 221]

With regard to the Shield TV (Pro) itself, one reason I bought it is because I could install Kodi on it and tell Kodi to use Emby as a backend.

But it turns out I hate Kodi (lol). When I was customizing it, I found myself merely trying to recreate the Emby UI. So I gave up on Kodi and just use the Emby app instead.

 

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

48 minutes ago, Chyron said:

With regard to the Shield TV (Pro) itself, one reason I bought it is because I could install Kodi on it and tell Kodi to use Emby as a backend.

But it turns out I hate Kodi (lol). When I was customizing it, I found myself merely trying to recreate the Emby UI. So I gave up on Kodi and just use the Emby app instead.

 

Yes, finally someone that does not worship at the alter of Kodi. I tried it in the past and found that it just was "pretty" but not really very functional for my use. It was complicated and made quite hard to use by the very things it gets praised for.

I do not like everything in the Emby interface but it is, for me, much much better than anything in Kodi.

I like the simple in interfaces and Kodi is not simple but then again Kodi might make Plex usable. God knows the Plex developers can't or won't do that. I may have to look into that as I keep a Plex server running for occasional use. It would be good to, when I use it, not find Plex almost unbearable to use.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Gilgamesh_48

[jachin99 82]

I haven't updated my shield past 8.3.3 I think and I still have the old style home screen

[Chyron 221]

On 6/29/2021 at 11:48 AM, Chyron said:

But it turns out I hate Kodi (lol). When I was customizing it, I found myself merely trying to recreate the Emby UI. So I gave up on Kodi and just use the Emby app instead.

On 6/29/2021 at 12:35 PM, Gilgamesh_48 said:

Yes, finally someone that does not worship at the alter of Kodi.

I remember the second (and probably real) reason I dumped Kodi. IT DOESN'T. SUPPORT. AUDIOBOOKS. It has no better support for audiobooks than Plex. So nope. That's a non-starter for me.

Fortunately, there are other advantages to having a Shield TV (Pro). Native Chromecast, Steam Link, a top-tier 4K upscaler, and support for more media codecs/formats than the competition, to name a few.

Turns out one thing I like a lot about Android is the ability to customize it. So I'm glad I have the ability to switch to a different launcher after this recent update.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Chyron

[Chyron 221]

On 6/29/2021 at 9:54 AM, moviefan said:

I've read about using different launchers but almost all of the ones I've seen pictures of were substantially uglier than the stock launcher.  Do you have pictures of your setup?

As I said, I'm pretty happy with it.

Edited July 2, 2021 by Chyron

[ebr 14910]

8 hours ago, Chyron said:

As I said, I'm pretty happy with it.

There's a bug in your apps row.

[vdatanet 1549]

5 minutes ago, ebr said:

There's a bug in your apps row.

Plex? 

[Chyron 221]

5 hours ago, ebr said:

There's a bug in your apps row.

Lol.

5 hours ago, vdatanet said:

Plex? 

Truth be told, I never use it.