roku remote app showing ads now
My dog tore up the remote so we were forced to use the roku app to control the tv.
They’re showing ads on the remote app. It feels like we can never escape this dystopian hellacape.
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Comments95View original on lemmy.dbzer0.com
I mean... you bought a Roku.
Of all the streaming devices you can purchase, I'd argue Roku is the most privacy invasive: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/roku-streaming-sticks/
Yes I am aware. I mainly use the Jellyfin app on it. I have a PiHole but I unfortunately can’t change the DHCP/DNS settings on my router (i have no admin access to it) so i have to rely change the DNS for every client on my home. But unfortunately Roku does not allow for changing their DNS server.
I have heard about putting my roku on another submet but i don’t know how to do this. Any thoughts 🤔
Hope it's working well for ya'!
Yes! I noticed the video player UI changed, it looks pretty clean. Are you a Jellyfin developer? If so, I love you.
I am. Funny enough, I'm the one who made the new video player OSD 🤘
Oh. Well, this is awkward. I think of you more as a friend...
It's platonic, you never hugged a coworker before?
😆 No, but I've had one put me in a bear hug before.
The recent updates are working really well! Congratulations on the rewrite!
🤘 Enjoy
It's like you picked my favorite features and put them in by default. Thanks.
I believe that would rely on the modem settings... If you buy a router (eero, Google WiFi, etc.) and connect it to the Ethernet port, you could create a separate network and your modem would see your router as a single device. I have T-Mobile Internet but don't trust them with my data, so in conjunction with the above, I have all my network traffic pointed towards AdGuard DNS (Personal Plan)(they have a free version that works well, but you can't customize it).
Mullvad's DNS has been pretty decent, and they're free
https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
Changing DNS isn't the same thing as a VPN. Your traffic isn't "tunneled" over DNS, it just changes which server your devices use to look up IP addresses. Your ISP can still see quite a lot, particularly if you're using plain DNS rather than DNS over HTTPS or DNS over TLS.
Thank you for explaining this to those who don't know.
Perhaps I should have used the word(s) point to instead of traffic.
oof.
Buy another router to stick in between your ISP device and the rest of your network. You won't notice.
Can't you just replace the ISP router?
Depends on the ISP. Many don’t allow you to use one they didn’t provide.
Maybe, if it's a fiber router it handles some authentication maybe?
And, if you do, either put the ISP router in bridge mode OR give your router a static IP then put that IP in the ISP router’s DMZ.
He doesn't have a password for the ISP router
Crap. Right.
If you're running home assistant as well you can use that to create a remote card pretty easily, that's what I'm doing with my Nvidia shield.
I didn't know it was quite this bad. App uninstalled, and TV blocked from WiFi. I have connected devices I typically stream from, but that data collection is crazy. Next TV I'm going to rip the WiFi antennas out of it if I have to.
No worries.
It’s a shame because if you look at the history of Roku, it was founded with technology and ease of access in mind. Unfortunately, like many things, advertising and invading a users privacy is the “best” route for these companies to become profitable.
Google is a perfect example of this, especially after Eric Schmidt and the introduction of Google accounts.
That's crappy, but have you seen what other remote apps are doing?
Vizio has an ad that takes up around 25% of the screen!
MyQ has a large scrolling ad at the top, and they are actively hostile towards any integration that allows you to control your garage door without using their app (unless you use one of the very few subscription-based integrations they offer, of course).
Honestly, if I saw this after installing a new TV, smart home appliances, etc. I would rip them back out of my house and return them all. That is absurd.
hot damn 😵💫
And at least when I tried to pihole the tracking bullshit, it got mad and stopped working.
Rage against the garage door opener.
https://paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/
Force your dog to watch ads as a punishment
Yeah, they updated it. Just opened my app and it has the Featured section.
Apparently, they also worsened the UI
Could be A/B testing that Roku is doing.
I recently stopped using my firestick. Even though I only used it for Jellyfin, the ads on the home screen were too much for me. So I swapped it out for a Raspberry Pi with LibreElec as the OS, and there have been literally no downsides.
I would love to give this a try. Did you follow any guides? Which Pi?
Pi 4B with 4 gigs of RAM. You might be able to get away with 2gigs because of how well it runs for me, but idk. I didn't follow any guides for setting up the Pi or LibreElec. It's honestly super intuitive. Like I said, everything is set up through the GUI. The only slightly technical part is flashing the LibreElec image to the SD card, and even that is super easy. I did follow the Jellyfin documentation for setting up my Jellyfin server, but that's a whole other thing.
Pardon what might be an obvious question, but can you watch paid services using this set up? (Netflix/HBO/prime etc)
Not easily. There are a few 3rd-party add-ons by random people which technically allow you to watch these services if you enter your account details, but the UI is generally just a list of movie and show titles with no or small thumbnails and no other info. It's worth doing this if you already have your own media server but not really otherwise.
Jellyfin is for watching locally stored media so no. Why would you want to even use those
Because family or friends are always going to have them and share with you. In terms of effort, it's still a lot easier to use free-to-you streaming services (even with ads) than set up your own Jellyfin, Radarr, Sonarr, and Jellyseerr stack. I can definitely see the appeal of a streaming stick that let's you do that, is fast, and isn't riddled with ads on the home screen. Hell, I might've paid for one if I knew it existed and had less free time.
What kind of Pi? Can you watch UHD without issues on it?
Pi 4B with 4 gigs of RAM. And yes! I was surprised, but it had absolutely no trouble with playing 4k, especially after using a wired connection.
Does Jellyfin save your watched history using that set-up? That's my main hangup to using Kodi.
Yes, Jellyfin's Kodi add-on sends watch info back to Jellyfin which keeps track of the watch history. Just remember to install the Kodi Sync Queue add-on in Jellyfin too.
Yeah I think an RPi is the best streaming box setup going forward unless you want to go ham and run an actual Mac Mini or PC.
The Apple TV is decent and runs well and doesn't hit you with ads, but they're a bit pricey, they're in the Apple ecosystem (could be a pro or con) and doesn't support as many apps.
The Nvidia shield is starting to cram in ads so that's a non starter as far as I'm concerned, especially for the price. The Amazon stuff is Amazon and is getting more aggressive with ads. Roku is getting worse every year and all their devices I've used sucked. Etc, etc.
Every one of these made-for-purpose streaming sticks/boxes/etc are all gonna go down in enshittification flames. Mark my words.
Edit: come to think of it, I'd say it's a safe bet that corporate America/etc is coming for any digital device or platform or service that feels nonabrasive and like a good value for the money/investment of your time. They're gonna make it more annoying, more ad filled, more data harvesting, and more privacy invading until they can't anymore.
I was thinking about moving pihole off onto a docker container, and converting my pi to a streaming box. Thanks for posting this.
How much it cost?
It was a Raspberry Pi 4 model B. I got it for $60 and a 25ft Ethernet cable for $10 on Amazon just because I had a gift card. You can probably find it somewhere else for cheaper. You also need a small micro SD card for the Pi. Maybe only 8 or 16 gigs because it doesn't store the media locally.
RoMote (Turns your Android Device into a control center for Roku)
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/wseemann.media.romote/
To be fair the physical remote has had ads in it since the beginning.
Are you on Android?
If so: RoMote is pretty good. Here's the releases page for the APK. It's also F-Droid.
Use RoMote Roku remote: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/wseemann.media.romote/
I was sent down a rabbit hole of iOS roku apps. Fuck the iOS ecosystem dude, I am not paying $20 a year subscription for a remote app.
I did find a decent one for free, no ads (i have a pihole so it may show ads for people, idk yet) and only asks for donations from time to time. I had to scroll a bit far to find it
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rocky-roku-remote-control/id1598795880
Probably the biggest shock to getting a Mac for work is how all the basic QoL apps want $20+ a year subscriptions. I'm not paying a subscription to reverse my scrollwheel for my mouse.
I checked it out. Several reviews say you have to give a 5 star review to use it. That’s a lil sketch
Yeah that’s to use the app switcher feature.
Although, theoretically if a FOSS Android app can act as a remote, could there also be a way to self-host a Roku remote? 🤔
There's code you can download from github that would let you control your Roku device from terminal on a PC. I've used it to facilitate the design of my own Roku GUI applications. I think there might also be a TUI you can install. A lot of this is going to be easier on Linux, if that's something you're familiar with.
Yes! (arch user btw) Github link?
https://github.com/jcarbaugh/python-roku <- for a python code API
https://github.com/benthetechguy/controku <- also comes as an AUR package
I've used the first one. Never used the second, but I just happen to know about it.
Oh that’s cool! Unfortunately I am on iOS.
Hopefully sideloading becomes a thing for iOS users. Used to have an iPhone, can't say I miss it.
Thank you!
You bet! I use it all the time, plus you can enter channels, which for the life of me, I cannot understand why Roku never allowed a long press on their reomte in order to enter a channel number with the arrows. 🎶Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb!🎶
There's an ad on that page
Oof. My pihole adblocker caught that. I’ll delete these comments
I had something similar happen. You can find loads of replacement remotes online for very little money.
A replacement remote for my roku stick cost more than a whole new roku box.
Enshittification marches on
the screenshot appears to be from an iphone
Roku to me has always seemed like a bogged down, spammy platform. I've always been surprised at how often it gets recommended in cord cutting and self hosting sort of forums.
I have a fire stick and a roku device. The Firestick is a slow, ad ridden POS, the Roku UI is much more straightforward forward to me.
Every Roku thing I've used was slow and had a bad remote and UI and I recall seeing ads of some kind in at least some of them.
This is not new
Gross.
What Ads? I don't have Ads in the interface nor in the app. Okay the reason could be my openwrt router is set up with Stubby DoT and blocklists from AdguardHome.
There are no ads in your screenshot
“Featured” tab on the bottom right
Setup a pi-hole, you’ll never be happier.
this ad in particular goes through it. I have one and set up my phone to use it.
https://gist.github.com/Hyp5r/6771da91b65ce899630aab3d823f1b88
Use the Roku section
That's because it's a menu button, not an ad
Sun tzu once said a menu button that leads to an ad is considered an ad
Wrong, that was Michael Scott
Don't buy apple's expensive garbage. If you are thinking about getting some Apple TV device you should get a shield, an Android TV, even a raspberry pi 4b would be better than bending over for apple.
Just stop giving that fucking company your money.
AppleTVs are really nice. It's easily the best streaming device for the layman and I say that as someone who generally dislikes Apple's products. It's solid, small, and is fairly easy to integrate.
An Nvidia shield costs more money than an Apple TV. Unless you need those extra features, it's a waste
It's insane that you'd recommend an Android TV, though. Shit performance and data harvesting galore. Never connect your tv to your network.
All of the data harvesting of Android TV can be blocked with ease. None of the closed ecosystem, price gouging, or feature rot of Apple devices can be worked around in any way.
If you're content with the limited offerings available on Apple devices and the exorbitant prices you have to pay to get access to them then by all means continue to fund that nightmare company and it's war on consumers.
OP is using Jellyfin. I don't think they're planning on subscribing to Apple's monthly services.
AppleTV (the device) is cheap as fuck for what you're getting because subscribers is the real money maker for them. What feature rot do you speak of? I installed AppleTVs for years and the only functionality my clients ever lost was when they forced iCloud integration for awhile. I also think it has by far the best remote of any streaming device but that's personal preference.
I use a heavily-blocked Roku Ultra so it's not a fanboy but you're like....a reverse fanboy. Hating on it for the weakest of reasons
If I could get Apple devices in an open compatibility I wouldn't hate them I probably still wouldn't buy them though.
My hatred comes from the fact that I believe critical thinking and mental flexibility are very important skills for people to develop at a very young age. I think one of the most important avenues for the development of reasoning and technical skills is through interaction with technology.
That technology should encourage and reward your curiosity. Apple does not reward curiosity or encourage it, it taxes it to such a degree that Apple users are by and large technologically illiterate.
I grew up on Apple computers, and when I was little the Mac nerds we're doing some pretty cool and impressive shit with their Mac tech that you just can't do now. It was a gateway to me learning about a lot of this technology, but they are a walled garden now, and it gets worse every year.
Show us on the doll where Apple hurt you.
A large part of my job is helping young people and seniors learn how to use technology. Apple makes that much more difficult because Apple stuff only works the Apple way none of it translates to any other technology.
Whenever I talk to somebody who doesn't know what a folder is, what a browser is, that when they download files they go to a place, how to share content with non Apple users, how to use non Apple software, how to use any other non Apple technology, its because Apple wants it that way. I just don't understand why a company this abusive would have fans.
It's like being a fan of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Wells Fargo, or The Pinkertons. You are paying extra for fashion accessories that are objectively lower spec and with a reduced feature list than the alternative that is cheaper. The only benefit of Apple devices is the security, And that's easily bypassed because they don't need to compromise the device to get your information from Apple.
Android TV allows you to sideload apps very easily. I use several sideload apps. It's friggin wonderful.
Smart tube The best YouTube app. Strips all the ads and much more.
And another one for IPTV.
You’re mad that the free options has ads? You’re free to buy a new remote and avoid this….