I have piHole running on my network so the ads didn't load, if you are wondering why there are just gray boxes.
Well I won't be buying a Sony Android TV
Finally! Everyone has been asking for more ads.
Google broke featured apps out to it's own bar. I'm good with this if it means all other apps will spam there instead of to other random places. Sony didn't do anything and so far it's just the crap from the play store that's already pushed at everyone. Turning it off on my shield works, but lots of people are complaining otherwise. I like this approach much better than amazon's all spam all over nonsense.
Sucks. But other TV OSes have been doing this for years. I really wish this wasn't a thing, but the world we live in... target ads like a MF. I also enjoy my pihole
Why would I pay $4500 for an A9f to get this? Seriously.
Wasn’t part of the appeal of Sony TVs is that they were supposed to be advertisement free and had a good privacy policy?
This isn't Sony's fault, it's Google's, just for clarification if you don't want to read through all the comments.
My bad, still not happy that any company thinks this is ok, but the blame should go towards the right company.
Must be a Sony thing my shield and mibox s don't have this.
PiHole people
I don't get it. You pay $1000+ for a TV and You get ads with it? Ad playing every input switch??? Hell no... I wouldn't buy it.
Wouldn't changing a launcher take care of this ? That's assuming there are actually decent Android TV launchers lol.
Can this channel be removed? If not, I don't think this is the same as the Shield and Mi box issue. That was a 'Featured by' channel for the play store. This looks like a 'Sponsored' channel at the top. Anyway, for those with a Sony TV, let us know. But I actually don't believe mcribgaming is right (no offense).
what the hack it sounds like It was homepage app that is causing https://9to5google.com/2019/04/03/android-tv-sponsored-homescreen-row/
Can you remove the sponsored section when you edit what appears on the home screen?
The thing that annoys me is even if you remove the row, after each restart it gets enabled again..
I have Nvidia shield and after update do not have the ad bar but I also have YouTube premium so unless they are putting ads there if your not a premium member "just guessing here mind"
This was recenter update from Play store may be just started showing up last week
I don't have this. I don't remember the model number but it's a Sony 49" 4K HDR TV on Oreo.
If I were Google this is exactly what i would do too.
Supply a virtually free media player OS (apart from minor licensing and testing costs), distribute it to as many Audio / Video manufacturers as you can and then MONETIZE it by plugging in advertising and collecting user browsing data.
What's a bet the Android TV OS licensing, in the fine print allows for such advertising additions and there is nothing the manufacturers can do, or they actually get a cut of the advertising $$$.
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Remember the saying - there is no such thing as a free lunch !
And it shows up under the Customize Chammels section of the settings. Yet, you can't really customize it. So why the hell is it there.
Android TV Core Services - go comment here with your pitchforks etc!
Google seem to get scummier every day. Really is time to make an effort to get them out of my life.
I bought an X850C at launch and was originally excited that a smart TV could allow me to reduce the number of streaming boxes I was using. In practice, it's been a frustrating experience. It's not responsive, there are a lot of useless UI elements, and (recently) privacy concerns have lead me to unplug it from the ethernet and disable the WiFi.
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I discovered this video a while ago that (at least for my model) shows you how to enable "ProMode" which gives you significantly more control over the UI elements. I'm not sure if this works for more recent versions of Sony's TVs, but I would try this. [On the IR remote hit display, then mute, then volume up, and then home.] Using this I was able to really reduce the UI clutter by creating a profile that was super locked down. That and the fact that I use an AppleTV 4k allows me to (almost) never see the android UI or deal with the substandard Sony / GoogleTV software.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xg_6W5Meqg&t=82s
I would not buy another Sony TV. I'm hoping for a dumb TV revolution. Just give me a big beautiful 55 inch panel with some HDMI inputs and an optical output and let me do the rest.
Great! Now the two math grads disrupting the insurance industry in <insert your city here> are going to disrupt my tv!!
Well I have the top of the line Roku and an Nvidia shield in the other room. The Nvidia is now getting firewalled off
If you have Sony Bravia Android TV there's actually a very easy way to get rid of them permanently 😊
Which device and OS version?
Just remember - with Google - YOU ARE the spied upon, Product !
It's an app. Do some research and figure out how to disable it.
This is actually a bug from Google, not Sony. It's happening on the Nvidia Shield as well as the Xaomi Mi Box. Here are some previous threads complaining about it, and a workaround to disable that recommendations row:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/b70506/promotional_channels_wont_stay_disabled/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/b5ljs2/_/ejgwe7i/
I was researching this problem elsewhere, and it led me to a thread where Google acknowledged the problem and promised a fix "soon". I can't find that thread again, but I read it with my own eyes. We'll see I guess.
But it's wrong to blame Sony, this is clearly a Google Play initiative. Be mad at Alphabet / Google, they pushed this software to their Android TV base without Sony / Nvidia / Xioami's participation.