Just side load an Android app called "NetGuard" which is a free firewall app on Android (though it's only available on the Android phone, but you can still sideload it on the Shield TV). Download the NetGuard APK file and then install it on your Shield TV using a 3rd party file manager app (you can find the NetGuard .APK file on Google search, or you could use an APK extractor and extract the NetGuard app from your Android phone after downloading it from the Play Store). You might need to also download a 3rd party launcher to see the side loaded Android apps as it will not appear on the stock Android TV home launcher. Then open the NetGuard app and disable network connections to the "Software Upgrade" app, then switch on the NetGuard toggle and it will block the "Software Upgrade" system app from accessing the internet, therefore it cannot download the software update and then prompt you to install it with an annoying pop up screen message.
If you get a software update message and the software update gets downloaded, just go to the app settings of "Software Upgrade" and delete the app cache and data.
Once you have the NetGuard app enabled, it should auto start every time you boot up the Shield TV and it will always run in the background. I suggest that you regularly open the NetGuard app and have it in the background so just incase Android OS puts it to sleep.
Additionally, I suggest you go to Google Play Services and the Google app and disable all the app permissions to access storage or change system settings (though if you use things like Google Assistant or voice search, you may need to leave the microphone permission on). Do the same for the other Nvidia apps which you might think may try to control or change settings on your Shield TV without your permission.
I'm still on Android 8.0 on my 2017 Shield and I'm happy with it. I don't really need any extra features and nothing needs to be fixed. This is the only method I found to work. I have tried to delete the "Software Upgrade" app package from my computer using Android ADB but I just couldn't do it (maybe Nvidia blocked it). So the firewall method is the only option. I don't know if Nvidia made changes and blocked this method in newer updates, but try it and let me know if it works.
Recommend GrapheneOS for your Pixel phone. It is so good I wonder how long it will last.
And yes, I get it, they're not perfect, but they're the better of 2 bad options.
https://www.thespl.it/p/apples-sleeping-advertising-business
" For the past five years, Apple has been setting up for what will soon be its most profitable product line. It's not a new phone or computer: it's advertising. "
As some C-suite suit bonus will depend on that, you can be sure that the various protections will evaporate over the years.
Pest or cholera - that's what happens when there is a monopoly and the monopoly buys out or sue every competitor. Google and Apple are laughing all the way to the bank, Just like Microsoft for PC.
Shouldn't happen since NetGuard works as a ‘vpn client’ to pass connections through the app—so afaik reasonably it should stay working as long as the pseudo-vpn-connection is up.
(Not to be confused with actually connecting to a vpn server, which it doesn't do.)
More to the point, the site reminded me that you might want to verify if Blokada is exempted from ‘battery optimizations’ (works via app info —> ‘Battery’ —> ‘Battery optimization’ for me). I checked NetGuard on my phone, and sure enough I have the ‘optimization’ disabled for the app.
(Let me know if you see this comment, or I'm gonna notify you manually.)
It is insane that this level of workaround and hacks is required to avoid advertising and crapware on a £500+ _television_. Normal people have almost no hope for a good experience when you consider something like a Lenovo laptop from the OP.
You have the manufacture-installed adware, windows 10 + edge nonsense constantly nagging you, and then there is just the state of the web itself. Its all just too much.
A lot of us love this stuff, irony acknowledged.
It's one thing to hack for fun or to find new uses for hardware and software. It's another to live in a world where we purchase devices for hundreds of dollars, only to have a bait-and-switch on the software and suddenly we get ads on our splash page and a slower UI.
I'm glad there are workarounds, but they _shouldn't be needed_.
Could this be somehow related to two decades of cheap money and the bloated corporate budgets it created?
Either way do we need a new post every hour making this same point from yet a different angle?
I found one from a brand named “OK” (sold by mediamarkt/mediaworld) and it’s just awesome.
No software, if I ever want new features I’ll get a firestick from amazon or some xiaomi dongle i can plug into one of the two hdmi inputs.
I love it (and i hate smart tvs).
Bonus: it also costed way less! About 250-280 Euros iirc, for a 42" panel with full-hd resolution.
Note that I am only recounting hearsay, and I haven't done my research on this, as my three PC monitors cover my needs completely, and I have no need for a TV. I'm only "idly curious" about this topic, because one day I may need such a dumb TV.
HN consists of many different people in many markets.
For US folks, yes, you generally have to go for an industrial display panel which is slightly more expensive than a smart TV [whose lower price can be subsidized by the data they're eventually selling].
Maybe for the previous poster who is in the EU, faces a completely different market than the US, a market which is more favorable to non-smart TVs.
I’ve been using it with an Apple TV 4K and it’s been great.
(I know I could leave the TV on standby but I don't like doing that, especially just to work around poorly designed software.)
Current Sony TVs offer a “basic TV” mode that disables all the smart stuff though, so they’re a decent option for more discerning buyers looking for a dumb TV.
Same here. I want to buy things without software and Touch Screen.
(I'm in the market for a dumb TV and am not having much joy.)
Make dumb tvs, and maybe put a firestick or similar piece of tech in the box.
[0] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=tru...
at least with android TV it’s sort of, somewhat a choice, for now, but this is flat-out immutable. you used to be able to sideload an alternative home screen, but another forced update removed that option too
buying a firestick is buying adverts for inside your house
I sometimes wonder, if the founder has controlling voting shares, or the shareholders on public exchange / stock market are non-voting shares. Would the company still have to please their non-voting shareholders?
It's the same reason why, at least in theory, VC founders can't structure a deal that devalues everyone else to ~0 and pockets the extra money in a side-channel transaction. They definitely have the power to do so, but if you can prove that better options existed and have the inclination to take that to court then you have a decent shot at recovering damages.
The reviews on it are quite something to see.
I wish dumb TVs with good panels were easier to buy.
Probably. In fact, I think you're underestimating the degree to which they can.
Very few evil people actually think they're evil. Most think they're legitimately doing good and helpful things, while being extremely misguided as to what is good and helpful.
Was not expecting the level of animosity for this app. The last update in August apparently forced a ton of ads on the interface, even if people had paid subscriptions that would remove ads.
Absolute trash. In their boundless greed, Google decided to force endlessly cycling ads onto the home screen, and had the temerity to highlight it as a feature. I give two @$#@$# about the content they are highlighting, from a Christmas movie (in July) to the latest teen pablum. Pretty sure I had automatic updates disabled, and that was overwritten without my consent (with no way to roll back to the prior version). I took a chance on the Android ecosystem with this device (NVIDIA shield), and that's the last time I make that mistake. I'll be tossing that out and not looking back...
Unbelievable. They added unremovable ads right in the home screen. The "Staff Picks" takes over the top 30% of your screen advertising random videos from apps that I don't ever want to install. No way to turn off. How quickly my $2k TV turned from pleasant to ad infested junk. The only solution I had was was to uninstall updates in App manager. If this is the future of Android TV, I'm certainly not buying another TV with this OS again.
I paid a hefty sum for a top-end TV, then again for the most expansive TV box one can find, and what did I get? Ads! Ads that blink and distract. Ads that take more than a third of the screen, pushing what I want to see on the second page. Ads for movies I cannot be less interested in, on services I have absolutely no intention to subscribe to. Ads that have been trying to sell me the exact same three movies in genres I don't care about since they appeared. Evil greedy corporation at its worst.
Minnesota Statue 325F.67 FALSE STATEMENT IN ADVERTISEMENT.
Any person, firm, corporation, or association who, with intent to sell or in anywise dispose of merchandise, securities, service, or anything offered by such person, firm, corporation, or association, directly or indirectly, to the public, for sale or distribution, or with intent to increase the consumption thereof, or to induce the public in any manner to enter into any obligation relating thereto, or to acquire title thereto, or any interest therein, makes, publishes, disseminates, circulates, or places before the public, or causes, directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated, or placed before the public, in this state, in a newspaper or other publication, or in the form of a book, notice, handbill, poster, bill, label, price tag, circular, pamphlet, program, or letter, or over any radio or television station, or in any other way, an advertisement of any sort regarding merchandise, securities, service, or anything so offered to the public, for use, consumption, purchase, or sale, which advertisement contains any material assertion, representation, or statement of fact which is untrue, deceptive, or misleading, shall, whether or not pecuniary or other specific damage to any person occurs as a direct result thereof, be guilty of a misdemeanor, and any such act is declared to be a public nuisance and may be enjoined as such.
They advertised there would be no ads, then promptly started serving ads while still collecting monthly subscription revenue I think fall into this area.
every time, I have to go into the Play Store and uninstall it again. uninstall the home screen! how illogical is that? and how would I have known how to do that if I wasn’t tech-savvy enough to find a reddit post telling me how?
every time, this resets my normal home screen, and I have to set it all back up again, removing the semi-advertising “channels” that are already in the less-bad default home screen.
the device this is on cost more than £500, and yet I’m still paying out in attention because greedy Google wants to please their shareholders