Earlier this month, we reported on a new feature coming to Android TV devices that autoplays teaser videos on the home screen. The new feature is meant to draw your attention to new content and, potentially, convince you to watch. And while various Android TV-powered devices have received the update over the past few weeks, 9to5 Google noticed Nvidia’s Shield TV line appears to be exempt so far.
We checked our own Nvidia Shield TV Pro and, after ensuring it was running the latest version, we discovered there were no home screen ads to be found. A quick check of underlying services and apps showed that our Shield TV was using Android TV Core Services version 2.12-320114979-f and Android TV Home version 2.1.3-320113730-f. Both were listed as updated on July 8, 2020.
Meanwhile, we fired up our TiVo Stream 4K, updated Android TV Core Services and Android TV Home to the same version numbers and the home screen feature suddenly appeared. In fact, upon returning to the home screen after updating the Stream 4K, Android TV highlighted the new feature so we wouldn’t miss it.
It’s currently unclear why the Nvidia Shield appears to be exempt from the new feature. It could be something as simple as a slight delay in testing and QA departments signing off on the update. In any case, we’ll continue to keep an eye on the story and update as we learn more.
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