Fair enough, I can understand how you got there, some of these articles (Zdnet, aftvnews) are doing the same thing I mentioned: referring to the app stores as walled gardens, but not exactly leveling that charge at the whole device. I don’t think that’s a useful way to apply the term, but oh well. Thedrum article—as far as I skimmed—is talking about Google and Facebook’s advertising businesses, a whole different realm to apply the term. I didn’t skim the rest yet.
Anyway, I think we’re all on the same page now for what we’re actually talking about.
ZDnet: Author doesn’t know what he’s talking about. You can’t escape a walled garden, by definition.
The Drum: Has nothing to do with fire/android devices. Talking about access to metrics about their media.
AFTVnews: This is a very credible site, but the author is using the term incorrectly because you can sideload apps on Amazon decices.
Adweek: Author doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Both Twitter and amazon devices are not walled gardens, because you can access twitter with 3rd party applications.
Gizmodo: Restricting what goes on your appstore does not define a walled garden. Everybody does that. Microsoft restricts the apps that go on the Windows store. Is Windows a walled-garden? No of course not, because you can install apps outside the store. (Ignoring Windows S because it’s a complete non-issue.)
These are the accounts I found within five minutes of searching. There are hundreds, probably thousands more. You are welcome to champion your definition as you like
It’s clear to me there are camps of agreed upon definition but there is no universal definition for this.
That’s the only reason I setup the HDHomeRun. PlexDVR is so far by a large margin the easiest OTA DVR I have ever used, and I have an original HD Home Run and used to use MythTV back in the day. Summer olympics, not so much, but we love the winter. As long as we can skip through 90% of the garbage.
I absolutely agree streaming interfaces, including youtube, are garbage on HTPCs like kodi. So I have been interested in the ShieldTVs for awhile now, how does it work switching from Kodi to a native streaming app, which is what I assume you are talking about or is possible? Right now I just flip between a fire, chromecast, and kodi but having just one device would be nice.
I look forward to all the letters you’re going to send out correcting all the tech articles out there not using it in the way you say it should be used. You might be right, but you’re not really controlling the narrative on this. they are.
I won’t be sending any letters, as I am not clinically insane.
Kodi is an app on the ShieldTV, just like every other app. So when you want to run something else like Netflix you hit the home button, go back to home, then select Netflix and run that. Or you double-click the home button to bring up the multitasking UI and switch directly, if it’s already open. And since the shieldTV has 3GB RAM, apps generally don’t have to relaunch, they just stay open. It’s all really seamless and fast.
The shieldTV also runs the Plex server, and does hardware transcoding. If you’re really into customization and whatnot, you can setup a SMB server on the ShieldTV and mount it from your desktop, then you can edit Kodi advancedsettings.xml and whatnot very easily. And it can permanently mount SMB to the device too; I have my NAS permanently mounted. If I want to sideload an app or add a new repository to Kodi I just drop it on my NAS and load it up in X-Plore or Kodi.
I still think the FireTV is a better choice for most people because it’s half the price, but if you don’t mind the extra $100, the ShieldTV is simply unmatched.
Neither am I which is why I only gently remind people, once in awhile, that they’re not “investing” in hangers, mixers, cookware or any other hugely expensive thing that they think they’ll have forever and got a “deal” on.
Speaking of Amazon and music: I sent a fair amount of time last week trying to figure out how to access Prime Music on my Roku. I can access Music Unlimited just fine, which offers me access to a lot of music–but I have to subscribe. I already have Amazon Prime, but it offers me a grand total of 2 albums to play, the two that I have purchased through Amazon. it does NOT allow me to access all of the music I have access to for free through Prime, though. At least as nearly as I could figure out, there’s no way to get to any free music on Prime through the Roku app. And I refuse to purchase .mp3s, so I guess I’m out of luck?
Yes you can technically get around with side loading and such but a tiny number actually do that or even know what that is. So for most people it essentially is.
BTW, since this is the place where most might see this question: is there a setting on Netflix (and Amazon/Hulu) whereby one can prevent the auto-minimization of the credits after the end of an episode? It drives me bananas. Yes, you can maximize them again but by that point you’ve already missed something.
