Chromecast with Google TV is now serving full-screen, auto-playing Chicken Tender Wrap ads

Why are people in this thread fine with ads being played on their televisions. So strange.
- Because there either astroturfing or bots astroturfing
- Not apologizing for them, but, probably because they see it as still a less shitty option rather than recognizing what the options should or could be.
  Also, even if the streaming box is ad-free, all the streaming services will have ads. It’s like a lose lose lose all the way down.
  Capitalism has been on this accelerated death by 1000 cuts phase since marketing weenies figured out how to market during the worst parts of covid, not everyone has caught on. Especially in America where #hailcapitalism brainwashing is still chugging along.
  Probably time to just give up and go back to books. Although in America, we will lose that skill in another couple of generations as our education system continues to rot. So there’s that.
  
  In the mean time there's the high seas and jellyfin
  
  Yeah and books are never considered cool. So young people rather watch ad filled shows then pick up a book. Also you need to have some energy to read a book, and people are often tired after the 9 to 5 we are forced to do.
- “You people and your standards!!!” lol what are you even trying to argue.
  
  Sorry that we accept nothing less than adequate.
  
  I have an adroid TV stick that doesent show ads when I turn it on. Showing ads when you turn the device on full screen is intrusive as hell
  
  You can get an N100 NUC for about 100$ and it's a full windows 11 or Linux PC that can do everything you listed and everything else a computer can do. No ads unless you allow them.
  
  Plex will do all/most of that with no additional hardware required. Just install the app to your smart TV and phones. Best part is when I go to a anyone else's house it's as easy as installed the app to their TV and using the QR code on the display to sing in with my phone. Bonus you install the server app to your home computer and put in movies or media you already own there. You don't even have to install a server for it to use all of the other aggregation features.
  
  My Sony bravia has an AndroidTV and has no ads. It's basically the same thing but without the ad banner.
  
  Fuck, you convinced me to look into getting one of these.

Nope.
That's just how the ad at the top looks and always has, and yes, it plays if you hover over it, they always have, and yes, it expands out if you keep watching it and don't touch anything.
If you use the UI normally the ad doesn't play, the person in that video explicitly played the ad.
plays ad
ad plays
SurprisedPikachu.jpeg
Get this clickbait shit outta here. It's literally an ai generated article that stole content off a reddit post as it's "source". Have some standards people.
- Why the fuck are there ads at all?? The advertisement did exactly as the article says it does -- it autoplays full screen if you cursor over the fucking advertisement.
  Not clickbait at all.
  
  You have to cursor over it for several seconds and click nothing before it plays, you have to intentionally opt into triggering it.
- As an AppleTV user I’m honestly shocked folks are ok with their product they paid for having advertisements on it like that anyways?
  It’s one thing to advertise a show or an app / service that is in the App Store but another to show actual ads.
  It’s weird to me.
  Then again, you and your advertisement ID are googles business.
  
  We are not okay with it.
  But else you have this, some flavor of AndroidTV + Launcher, an AppleTV which probably doesnt have feature parity with all apps available for the AndroidTV or you setup your own device which involves (probably) work.
  
  I have an android tv from Sony which is basically android tv without any kind of skin AFAIK. No ads. I had suggested videos from apps and stuff but hat was configurable and removed years ago.
  
  A single apple TV is like $80 more than Google TV devices to do the same thing. I don't like the ads and they irritate me, but I have 4 TVs with streaming boxes (so I don't have to replace the screens. I'm not paying an extra $360 just to not have ads on the home screen.
  It's just a situation where I'm not really okay with either option.
  
  It’s one thing to advertise a show or an app / service that is in the App Store but another to show actual ads.
  Most of the time it's this, rarely mcdonalds or Harvey's has an ad like this you need to hover over for several seconds to play, intentionally, and people turn it into rage bait garbage posts.
  90% of the time it's just an add for a TV show or movie, and you still have to purposefully hover over it unmoving to start it playing, it's pretty opt in.
  
  I don't even notice it, the ad starts out small at the top and your cursor starts out on the Apps row, you have to very intentionally trigger the ad.
  90% of the time the ads are for movies or TV shows on the streaming services you have installed (and presumably an account for) anyways, so there's been non zero times where I did go abd hover the ad to watch it cuz I was like "oh hey I actually wanna watch that, is it coming out soon? No shit!"
  The other 10% if the time it's mcdonalds or Harvey's or whatever, I barely notice it as I spend pretty much all of my time with the Google tv "inside" an app.
  Very little time gets spent on the home screen, it's a glorified Start menu to pick an app and open it up, so I don't, to be blunt, give much of a shit that for half a second I can see a big Mac at the top of my TV screen before I click the 1 button to open Netflix.
  Also more often than not I use my phone app to push to the TV, so my process is:
  TV is turned off atm, I open on my phone (Netflix, Disney plus, crunchyroll, Amazon prime, YouTube, etc)
  I click the cast button on my phone
  TV auto detects activity, starts turning on, meanwhile my chromecast is already loading up the app and booting into it
  By the time my TV screen flips on, the app is opened as well and my content starts to play, so u never even saw the home screen in the first place
  End result: I rarely even see the app realistically anywho.
- I bought the Chromecast with Google TV (older version, not the newer 4k one, which I also own now) when it first cane out.
  The home screen hasn't changed since day 1 when I plugged it in.
  It always had an ad at the top, and you always have had to purposefully move the cursor onto the ad itself and not touch anything for multiple seconds before it played.
  I owned the OG chromecast and chromecast 2 before that, and you are right, that one didn't have ads, but it also didn't have much of anything really.
- I've had an Android TV for about five years. I recently bought a TV with Google TV. I don't know if this is how Google TV has always been, but it wasn't that way in Android TV.
  Seeing the home screen on the Google TV made me immediately regret the purchase. Unfortunately, the model I bought disabled the ability to make alternate launchers default. I was able to put it in app mode, but it was still plastering ads everytime you turned on the TV or hit the home button. Absolutely disgusting.
  The home screen is so bad I finally set up pi-hole on my network. Now there is just a blank area where the ads used to be with a notification saying I'm not connected to the internet, although my services are fine.
  I'll never by a Google TV again unless I can make alternative launchers default. I'm really glad I installed pi-hole, those TV send so much info back to Google. I recommend it to anyone.
  
  Apps Only mode is a decent workaround… for now. https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en
  Really cuts down on the amount of clutter and suggestions on the main screen.
  
  Smart TVs are the stupidest fucking things.
  No TV manufacturer is actually willing to put processing power or networking features in a TV, and they're never willing to spend money developing the software, so even new, they're slow as shit, and you can no longer realistically use them for 10 years, they'll go obsolete. A $35 external computer is more powerful and I've been using mine for a decade now without a problem. The interface is more straightforward. I don't need to log into anything. I don't need a special remote, I can just use my phone. The TV manufacturer can't spy on me. There's no microphone.
  Dumb TV + Chromecast is just a thousand times better than a smart TV.
- Yeah, I've never heard of the ads people complained about. Mine was just what new streaming show was being promoted. Kind of an add, but relevant and only on home screen.
  But....
  My Sony TV 100% was playing the Hardee's ad today.
  It's not a huge deal, but still worse than it was yesterday
- Have some standards people.
  Yeah, we should all be out protecting mega corps from bankruptcy by fighting inconsequential misinformation on obscure social media platforms. Where would the world be without heroes like you? Thank you for your service.
  🏅
  
  So you think it's okay to spread misinformation if it's about a giant corporation?
  Misinformation is never okay, as it muddies the waters and makes it hard to know what you can trust. If we idly stand by and let a lemmy instance degrade to the point where garbage posts like this are commonplace, it becomes difficult to sift apart the actual news and stuff that matters from the shit deluge of misinfo.
  Which means, yes, calling out misinformation / shit posts even if it's about a megacorp, because shit in the water is still shit in the water.

It's weird how much better Chromecast was when it came out than it is now. Stronger hardware, sure, but no real antifeatures, you could set it up without installing the app, you could use the app without giving it location data, casting was way more straightforward...
- I feel that way about everything Google makes. Entire company is nose diving
- Idk...I had to throw out my first gen Chromecast because it does fuck all compared to literally any other streaming stick and it could no longer play HD videos without lagging to shit. When they added Android TV, it became a hell of a lot more useful.
- I have the first Chromecast. Google emailed me a few years ago that it's no longer supported, and that it'll be a brick soon. That was about 3 years ago. As long as I can project my desktop, it works for me!
  And I was getting really concerned about getting the latest model too.
  
  When it stops working you can buy a wireless hdmi transmitter
  
  I just fired my gen1 up on my 1080p screen and it looks like crap. I think they have already deprecated the bandwidth?
  
  I'm still on an early gen Chromecast and never see any adverts. Very occasionally crashes (once a fortnight).

If you have a CCwGTV, you should be using Apps Only mode. Sucks that Google hides this, because I've found that this is the best streaming device for my needs, but they just keep pushing ads like this. Makes me want to do a homebrew chromecast device.
But switching to Apps Only mode is a decent workaround... for now. https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en
- Damn I wish my firestick had that.
- It's not even "apps only" since they still show sponsored shows at the top. Probably only a matter of time before more ads worm their way in.

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
androidtvchannels-pa.googleapis.com
androidtvlauncherxfe-pa.googleapis.com
- Amazing that blocking DNS is still a thing for gadgets like this.
  
  Dns resolution is integral to load balancing and regional content delivery. There is no universe where a single server, even a specially designed asic, could handle proxy routing if there was a DNS outage and every iPhone or android device or whatever failed to a single IP. Thank God the Internet works this way tbh, dns-based content blocking will probably be the only thing we can do eventually
  
  There are apps that circumvent DNS blocking. They hard code the DNS server into the app, so instead of making requests to your set DNS, they make them directly to, say, Google's DNS (8.8.8.8)
- Ty.

Google ecosystem problems :(.

Download another launcher, set it as default home, and forget about google's excessive ads. Depending on your model, you may need to run an ADB command. You may need to get a remote remapper app to remap the home button to open the launcher
I am using this one for my android tv https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.projengmenu
And flauncher for my chromecast https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.efesser.flauncher
- I wanna piggyback onto this comment to say that you can change the home launcher on a Chromecast With Google TV (And some other Android TV boxes) by downloading another launcher first (I use FLauncher) and disabling the default home launcher.
  1.Download FLauncher first
  2.Enable USB debugging
  3.ADB into your TV's IP from a computer
  4.adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx
  This will disable the original launcher
  5.adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith
  This will disable the service that re-enables the launcher
  This will cause the home button on the remote to fall back to whatever other home app is installed. No button remapping needed. It will also break the YouTube button, but not the Netflix button.
- Ive been using ivy on my Chromecast it's good, but Flauncher looks more like what I want.
  Protip for Chromecast users - disable the stock launcher via adb to set a new default
- Thanks!
  I tried both of these just now and Flauncher is very rough around the edges. Spooky's Projectivy Launcher is great, though! I do miss being able to quickly change users by long-pressing the home button, though.
  Edit: though
- While I am normally a fan of tendies, this ad was the final straw for me with the GoogleTV launcher. I'd been in app-only mode, but now I'm rocking Project Ivy instead. Thanks for the recommendation!

Projectivity Launcher ftw
- Just discovered this last night. I will never go back to the bloat that is the Chromecast launcher. Holy fuck is this so much better.
- I haven't heard of this one. Personally, I use FLauncher.

All the more reason to fire up adb and replace that launcher before they take that ability away.
- It’s relatively easy too! And you can install 3rd party YouTube apps with sponsor block +auto updates
- What launcher do you recommend?
  
  Flauncher for absolute minimalism, or projectivy for a more featured replacement.

I wanna see what the "they're not ads, they're recommendations!!!" crowd has to say now

Step 1. Open window.
Step 2. Grab TV.
Step 3. Launch TV.
Step 4. Start pricing monitors.
- Or just don't connect the TV to your network. It has inputs. Use an input device you have control over. The end.
  
  a Chromecast is one of those inputs. And it has been a nice product. The reason people are mad is that they Google changed the product after they bought it significantly.
  and yes. Today the only reasonable good TV is a computer monitor connected to a device I have control over.
  
  But then how would I express my outrage by hyperbole?
  
  Or get a decent TV?
  My LG oled has options to disable ads, and I never see ads when using the apps or the menu that launches them.
  I still have a PC connected to the TV, but many of the TV’s apps do a good job.

We need Matter Casting

Checkout adbapp control and install flauncher.
- Why?
  
  If you want to get rid of ads.
- Is flauncher an oss clone of the normal Google TV launcher?
  
  Sorry, idk. Never heard of gtb launcher.

Show your local Carls Jr. how much you appreciate this shit by throwing a brick through their front window today.
- Brought to you by Carl's Jr
- Carls Jr. didn’t decide to place their add on your TV. Google is the one that would be held responsible.
  
  They often has options in how and who delivers their ads.
  
  Bricks for everyone!