“Awful”: Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/roku-says-unpopular-autoplay-ads-are-just-a-test/Open linkView original on lemmy.world1126
Comments294https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/roku-says-unpopular-autoplay-ads-are-just-a-test/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
They're working hard to make sure piracy provides the best experience.
It’s approaching 1984 levels of BS control.
Sorry to inform you, but we are already in the Brave New World.
I seem to be lacking in Soma and orgies.
Ah crap. That means I'm an Epsilon.
Ugh I wanna be in Brand New Animal
This is already my experience but still use a Roku to access Plex. Looks like I'll need to get something else or figure out if i can block them with Ad Guard Home
I use pi hole and the experience is not entirely smooth. I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this but my pi hole blocks ads but every few weeks Roku has an update and it locks up the entire operating system and I’m stuck in a loop of trying to get my update so I can return to normal. I for the hell of it disabled pi hole for 5 minutes and it wound up working but not until I dropped pi hole. So it’s as if it every so often decides to hold the operating system hostage if I don’t drop pi hole for updates. Makes me think they likely get all the telemetry they are trying to collect for selling data. I like not watching ads 90 percent of the time but it pisses me off that they are likely still spying on me by forcing me to communicate with their servers every now and then.
My brother in Christ, please just connect another device to your TV and disconnect your TV from the internet. No one should be using the built-in software for exactly this reason.
Interesting, I use PiHole as well and have no issues with any of my Roku devices. I wonder if you have more restrictive blocking or some particular rule that I don't. What lists are you using in PiHole?
I can't recall having that issue but I stopped using pi-hole because it was blocking certain functionalities on some websites. It required a more hands on approach than I wanted to dedicate at the time.
Not a surprise for Roku. The company has been getting progressively worse in the last few years and their enshittification is accelerating. Their recent forced download of an update that requires users to agree to arbitration to even use our TVs was intended to ultimately take control of those TVs completely away from the people who own them.
Right now it's possible to block Roku's static ads and presumably the autoplaying ones using a local DNS server like Adblock Home or Pihole, but it's only a matter of time before Roku blocks everything unless we watch the ads they are trying force down our throats. I'm already in the process of obsoleting all 5 of our Roku devices.
It has taken Roku years to build up enough market share to allow this kind of behavior and it will take years for the market to abandon them. Their executives will claim ignorance as to why users are walking away when it finally hits their bottom line.
Roku is bad, I have one older Roku ""smart"" tv that I just block from accessing the internet entirely, and use a shield with a custom launcher instead.
Oh please do tell more
So, I use regex to block all Roku domains on my network via pihole:
(ads|logs|cloudservices|image|images|web|prod.mobile|wwwimg|captive|customer-feedbacks|amoeba|amoeba2|sr|giga.sb|cs).roku(.admeasurement)*.com$Then, possibly overkill due to the above, I used OpnSense firewall rules to block all traffic from my Roku tv. I think I just got fed up with seeing Roku spam in my pihole, as the above regex seems to completely "break" Roku.
After that, I set up FLauncher (following the method #2 instructions on the gitlab page) on my shield. This makes it so I only see the Roku launcher for a few seconds while the shield starts up, and then I'm dropped straight into flauncher. I chose flauncher because it's very simple and barebones, so you might want to explore other options if you want more advanced features. I don't really need those features since I'm usually using an app anyway.
Note that I did all of that after the tv was configured and set up, YMMV if it's a brand new tv as it may need to call home to do the initial set up.
Shoutout to the PiHole team!
Why is your Roku TV even on the Wi-Fi if you just block its internet?
They have models that blink the large white LED light until it’s connected to WiFi. Annoying as hell.
You can fix that in 3 seconds with a piece of electrical tape.
Yeah, I suppose. I don’t use the rock UI, it goes straight into the Apple TV when powered on so I don’t really care that much.
You using an OTA tuner with some HD Homerun app or anything? Boooo needing Roku’s interface for antenna TV (on Roku smart TVs) cuz Apple didn’t solve for that (why would they I guess, $treamers as they are)
It didn’t look like there was any fantastic super easy OTA solution for Apple TV. Fine for us but maybe not the elderly. IDK
It does until it doesn't. Did you look at the OP?
Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that - mine does do this, and the LED is right in the bottom middle, and it's super bright.
Sounds like a job for some black tape.
It probably doesn't need to be - but it was required to set up. Before I had my shield, I allowed local connections for local streaming, but you are correct, it's probably no longer necessary.
Depending on the model there's also a dev menu that disables some phoning home/connectivity shit
Had no idea FLauncher existed. Thank you so much
Thanks! I have nothing brand new as I am le poor :)
Is there any point in getting anything above the bottom tier Shield? Just trying to use it to replace my chromecast/stream tv and youtube
I have been using an onn 4k streaming box, which runs Google TV. They're $20. It's pretty easy to disable the default launcher and have it boot to Flauncher. Then you can side load smart tube for an ad free YouTube experience asking with Plex, stremio, or whatever else you want to stream.
I've got a couple of those that I bought shortly after the LTT video, but I'm still using my Roku because I still haven't gotten around to jailbreaking and configuring them.
Do it. It's very easy, and then you can ditch the Roku. There's even an ADB app you can load to remove unwanted apps on-device.
Any ideas for easy OTA on a Roku smart TV w/o using the built-in OS?
Get an AppleTV.
I assume being Apple that it's not possible to sideload apps not supported on the app store? In particular I'd like to use some kind of a SmartTube or other youtube app that is ad free
Ahahahaha that’s awesome
That is correct.
But which do you want? Privacy or convenience? No one makes a streaming device that does both.
Nvidia has destroyed the stock Shield TV experience with ads, but it's easy to install custom launchers like Projectivy. The underlying system is still a privacy nightmare, but I don't care that Nvidia knows what TV shows I watch.
I mean, I do care, just not enough to use something like Kodi as my primary TV interface. Maybe if I used any ad supported services I'd feel differently, but I don't, so meh.
That's not Nvidia, that's Google.
Yes, Google is an inextricably linked to all Google TV issues, but they didn't force Nvidia to ruin the Shield TV'S launcher with ads, and other bloat.
At least, not as far as I know. If you have sources saying otherwise, I'd be happy to take a look.
The "Shield's launcher" is just Android TV... Nvidia did not write their own Android launcher just for this device.
Fuck me. You might be right, as I haven't actually used the stock launcher since the big ad update years back.
I just remembered my original launcher having a lot of a Nvidia specific integrations, but I guess those could have just been bolted on at the system level.
You should not buy a Shield. They haven't been updated since...2019? And there's really no reason to. Get the $20 WalMart one.
They just put out a huge update for the shield. Mine still plays the vast majority of things perfectly, even hevc and 4k content. I am perfectly happy with my shield pro. I'd buy one again if the current one shits the bed.
What are my other options? Apple TV and what else? Everything else is ad ridden underpowered and lacking licenses to play media.
I obviously meant a hardware update.
Anything that runs on Android TV?
And the Shield doesn't have ads? You can bypass all the ads by installing productivity launcher, same as on the Shield.
How much power do you think you need to stream videos?
I don't even know what that means.
As someone who owns both Nvidia Shield TV and standard cheap (Google certified) devices, all running Projectivy, it's not really comparable.
The Shield runs smoother, has significantly less minor/annoying issues, and actually receives fairly regular updates.
Now, the new Chromecast with Google TV does get updates, but it doesn't resolve the first two differences.
If you can't afford, or justify the extra expense, for an Nvidia Shield TV, completely understandable. But don't pretend that the user experience is the same, because it's not.
All "standard cheap" devices are not the same. I recommended a specific one, which was tested and featured on LTT.
I also own both and there's no discernable difference, other than one costs literally 10x more.
I said Playstore Certified, and yes, they are mostly the same when you look under the hood, at least for those classes of devices, per generation.
Same, or similar SoC, with 2/8 (sometimes 2/16) specs.
Once you get up to the 4/32 range, you're already looking around the same price (+/-) of a Shield TV.
Also, lol @ citing LTT, for anything. Just because a broken clock is right twice a day, doesn't change the fact that it's broken.
And for the sake of being fair, I didn't even mention the 1/8 boards.
The hardware is 10 years old and it wasn't even shiny at the time. Shield is a damned joke.
I just block all ads at the router level. When looking through the most blocked domains I see a lot from Roku.
If you're not tech savy, how do you row row row your bot???
Gently down the byte stream
How do you do that?
Install ad block if you have a GL.iNet router or pihole
Get an Nvidia Shield Pro and disconnect your TV from the internet.
When was the last time they even refreshed the hardware? Kinda hard to justify a $200 streaming box that runs Google services on 6 year old mobile hardware.
About 10 years old actually. It's the TI-83 of streaming boxes at this point: an absolute fucking rip-off. Pretty on-brand for Nvidia though.
Yeah it's got about the same specs as a $30 Amazon tablet and you'd now be relying on the largest ad company in the world (Google) instead of Roku, so it does seem like a total ripoff at $200
Blame the rest of the market for being shit - Shield pro is still the best box on the market for streaming HD video with HD audio.
Does your Apple TV stream Atmos? TrueHD? I don't think so...
Can i pleace find a decent TV without smart-capabilitys? I just want HDMI thats it
Don't give your TV wifi access, use a separate device to watch stuff (Chromecast, FireTV, Android box, etc..)
Wish it had more apps, but Apple TV is pretty solid. With the Steam link app, it’s also good for couch gaming on your pc.
We use Moonlight instead of Steam Link. It requires a little more setting up at the PC end, but overall seems to be a more smooth result.
I’ll take a look, but I haven’t noticed any performance issues with Steam link.
Moonlight blows steam out of the water. I can't even tell I'm streaming when I use it.
Can you give me some examples for what’s really all that noticeable?
With steam for me it took longer to connect, it was harder to set up and the stream itself had noticeable artifacts and lag.
With sunshine & moonlight my lag is 1 ms, it connects instantly and I can stream in 4K HDR. Like I said it's so high quality that I often forget I'm streaming the game.
Plus moonlight is free and open source. Takes maybe 5-10 mins to set up. I was skeptical because it's FOSS, but it's easily the streaming solution I've tried for gaming.
This is on Windows over LAN, I haven't tried it over the internet.
Witch brands have moonlight available natively? I think I remember Samsung. Anything else? LG doesn't....
Anything that runs android, but still, just get an old laptop with a broken screen and duct tape it to the back of the screen
Can we install stuff outside of the play store? Like NewPipe?
I can only speak for Apple TV, I'm afraid.
I just dock my steam deck
Yeah, that was my approach, but the forced ads are also on the roku stick :(
Yeah about time for me to switch to something else :/
Is there anything that’s a better alternative?
I'm looking into alternatives. So far Kodi is the front runner for my use. I have not decided on whether to replace roku units with raspberri pi running kodi or try the jailbreaking roku route.
Some people have mentioned apple TV, for now that at least isn't riddled with ads. Others have mentioned getting android sticks, but I'm not sure how smooth that process is (or how well they work with remotes).
Buy a commercial signage display. It's just a TV without the smart garbage.
Or, get a projector :)
Technically you can get commercial TVs but many companies stopped selling them. They are literally the new screen tech with no "Smart" capabilities. They are also much cheaper than their smart counterparts.
I've had luck with just not giving a smart TV my wifi password.
That’s what I do
I'm looking to upgrade the living room TV soon, and this is what I plan to do.
I have heard though that some TVs insist on an Internet connection, so do your research and/or be sure there is a good return policy.
Ah ok, good to know! Thanks!
I must not be looking at the right thing. All I'm finding are expensive displays that have all this fancy scheduling, web surfing, etc. built into it.
Try this brand https://www.sceptre.com/
Are they actually any good though? I was looking at a 1440p Sceptre monitor for my PC, and a lot of reviews mentioned huge bezels, dead pixels, and other issues...
Oh, these are just Wide-screen Gaming monitors though?
Cheap computer monitor works well for me.
A buddy sent me this recently. I'm intrigues. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=46513
A Sharp Aquos TV from the late 2000s, pre-Hisense days. We have a 42" model from ~2007. It's only 1080p (which is honestly just fine for its size and our usage), but there's plenty of I/O for modern and legacy equipment, and lots of configuration options. It is an absolute monster at 75 lbs, but an incredibly high quality unit nonetheless, especially considering it's age. I've owned it since 2019 and it's needed zero repairs or anything.
For comparison, we also have a much newer 55" curved Samsung TV (in our basement, wall-mounted up high) which has already needed a backlight driver board replacement. Luckily that was only $50, but still, I expect better.
the largest problem with older TV's isnt the resolution. even on my 75" its hard to tell the difference between 4k and 1080p... But HDR is amazing, it really blows me away each time a scene lights up!
That's a fair point. HDR is quite nice, I use it a lot on my Pixel. The TV I mentioned does have dynamic brightness, but that's over the whole TV, not really equivalent to HDR.
For years I was a big fan of Roku. It represented a better value alternative from the big corporations pushing their own agenda like Google, Apple, Samsung, and Amazon. They made products that were intuitive and user oriented and carved out a very nice and stable market share for themselves because of it. Now they're just leveraging their hardware relationships to transform the software into something terrible.
I used to look for tvs with Roku built in. Now I've disabled Roku features from my smart TVS and use a separate streaming device.
How did you disable the Roku OS?
I think it depends on the model, but there should be something in the power settings to change the startup device. I did a factory reset first to clear any network settings or user data, skipped the setup, and set it to startup on the HDMI input.
I think the issue is they hit market saturation and haven't been able to develop any real revenue streams beyond the sale of devices (which is one time cost while maintenance and development constantly drain them of any profit).
I suspect the increased enshitification is because they need other revenue streams. Just take a look at their stock price and it doesn't paint a great picture for them.
Shit. I got a Roku TV. That's one big fucking stick to toss.
Shall I introduce you to the folks over at ![email protected]?
Step 1. Factory reset.
Step 2. Do not allow it to connect to the Internet.
Step 3. Connect a Linux based computer to it and run everything through the computer.
Instructions unclear. TV now controlled by Nicole the fediverse chick.
You can trust her. She's from Toronto!
You been getting that noise too?
Seems like everyone's been getting that noise lately. I'm on my third.
This method will not work on all Roku tvs, some Roku TV brands require you to phone home to activate the TV before you can use it for the first time. Which requires you to not only connect to the internet but also log into a Roku account on it. It's stupid.
That would instantly result in the TV being returned to the store I purchased it from.
I bought a Samsung TV that wouldn't let me change the input until I connected it to the internet, I returned that crap within the hour.
Eh, I just started connecting cheap ($30 or so) used Apple TVs to mine. I saw the writing on the wall.
Almost downvoted instinctually as a reaction to the headline. Visceral reaction. I hate this beyond belief.
Don't connect your Roku to the internet.
Or better yet, use a Pi-Hole or something similar to block the relevant adservers at the DNS level.
I wouldn't say this is "better"
I do run a pihole, but I still will never connect my roku to the internet. It is much better to have a media PC or other streaming device I have control of fully connected.
True, but most people are buying off-the-shelf stuff and they don't have their own localized piracy-enabled libraries with a Jellyfin server.
Further, I'm pretty sure you've got to connect your Roku at least once to install player apps like Jellyfin. But maybe you don't, I'm not at all familiar with if you can sideload on a Roku.
There is actually a way to sideload apps without internet. I did it once and forgot the details
For any streaming, Netflix, YouTube, or anything I would always use a computer. Not some awful app on a slow device. No screen of mine needs to be anything besides a screen.
Amen. I run a PiHole, and also just use lil computers on all of my screens and download anything I watch and put it on a lil server they all can stream from! No ads, best quality!
Would you happen to know of any guides or have advice on identifying the adservers to block?
I've always just done it manually by viewing the Pi-Hole logs for the device I am on while the ad is loading. It takes getting into the weeds a bit.
Further, I don't have a Roku so I've never looked into it myself.
That being said, a quick search brought up this hosts file:
https://gist.github.com/sidward35/cea28bedd0ec0b1bceec8c2b22c163c4
Not sure if it's current or not. Lots of threads about Roku ads making it through after being previously blocked.
Appreciate the reply and link regardless! It's always whack-an-ad with these intrusive jerks.
That's not better, you didn't allow any smart TV to connect to the internet.
I thought that Roku was some kind of streaming service to a device. Doesn't that need to be Internet-connected to function?
kagis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku
Ah. Apparently that's what they originally did, but they've also subsequently come out with smart TVs, which I assume can operate without an Internet connection.
Roku started as a streaming media box. You paid them money, they gave you a box that could play Netflix and Youtube. It was a simple transaction. Unfortunately, at some point they decided to start selling/giving their OS to TV manufacturers. This was actually nice at the start. You got a smart TV who's "Smarts" were designed by competent people. A revolution at the time. But the drive to drop prices lower and lower meant that there was no margin on the TV, which means Roku had to investigate other ways of making their revenue, AKA Ads and selling data.
Of course, the stand alone box probably would have went that way anyways, but at least with selling a dedicated box, there is a clear financial benefit without the need to get invasive.
I have a Roku ultra in my kid's room.
I do not want her subjected to ads when she turns on the TV.
This is unacceptable to me and I will be replacing all my Rokus immediately.
I have a 200+TB library for my Plex and jellyfin instances. The Roku was just a family friendly launcher and remote. I bought them when you could still disable ads in the secret menus and most of the Roku BS is blocked by a pair of piholes, but I've gotten annoyed chasing new urls to blacklist.
It's DRM for the other app bullshit that becomes a hindrance for going the Kodi route. There really isn't a good alternative that I've found. Linux boxes will limit some services to 720p and jt's mostly baseball and local news programs that I'll lose.
For the news, I need to look at something like hdhomerun or something else I can pair with an OTA antenna.
For baseball, not much other than the absolute mess that live streaming sports is. Doable, sure. But a pita and sketchy last I looked into it. My season ticket comes with MLB.tv, but the irony is that I'm "in network" so all my teams games are blacked out for me. I had previously created a VPN tunnel and routed one of my Rokus to a different state to watch it. But it's not a user friendly experience.
For games, I already have a batocera box running on an old dell thin client with way more power than a pi, and it has Kodi on it. But the UI/UX still sucks.
I just got an HDHomeRun that I use with an antenna and love it. I use Mac and they are one of the only boxes that works on Mac.
They don’t have a native Linux client, but you can use VLC supposedly: https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/linux
It also works with Jellyfin through a plugin, but I haven't tried it yet so idk how good it is
You can connect your HDHomeRun with Plex too. It’s really a nice setup. Plex can work like a DVR to record live channels and even has some capability to remove commercials. I’ve started letting NFL games be DVR’d and commercials stripped before watching the game. It’s a much better experience if you can tolerate the delay.
I use an Nividia shield that I've had for about 5 years. Have an alternate ad free launcher enabled. Still works really well. I use it mostly with Kodi streaming from SMB, some Jellyfin though I have Jellyfin hosted on a Pi4 so video quality is somewhat lacking. The 4k upscaling still works very well and is somewhat unique among streaming boxes
Cabernet with daddylive plugin, this can emulate hdhomerun on your network, add this to plex/Jellyfin for live tv. https://thedaddy/ . to Check the list and see if these 24/7 channel streams work for you.
I integrated these into plex and are able to watch live tv the way I want. Cabernet is a docker container on my network, ensure you set the ip address to the server vs the docker IP, in the Cabernet web ui settings.
If you want to just watch streams off that site, I recommend using brave browser, turn on all the ad block capability and set it to strict and even import the hagezi multi pro blocklist in brave. The amount of pop ups on that site is horrible. But brave smooths them out and streams are fairly reliable. Plenty of sports.
CabernetDaddylive
DRM. They don't like how open Linux can be so to combat people using it for pirating their content the companies restrict it.
For instance, Netflix is capped at 720p on Linux unless you are on Opera, apparently.
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/30081
Get to the endgame. Just strap us to a chair and make us watch your crap ads Clockwork Orange style.
This is why I disconnected my parents Roku tv from the internet last year, when they started to get updates that wouldn't download, and freeze the whole tv, i said enough is enough
Roku had the best smart tv ui. I was seriously bummed when the ads started rolling in a few years ago.
I want an open source streaming client, but from what I hear DRM gets in the way of that.
Honestly i dont even care about non intrusive ads. I dont like it but i can live with those ads on the side bar telling me about some movie coming out, but this auto video bullshit that takes over my screen is fucking awful. That's the line for me
I’ve much preferred Google TV for some time now. The recommendations and live free tv options are essentially built into the UI. Although I do use the Roku app as one of my free streaming options lol.
this is the worst, next they're gonna put ads on cars
Have I got horrible news for you
@T00l_shed @Mandragora yup https://lemmy.world/post/26386001
Also Dodge cars.
https://www.newsweek.com/stellantis-dodge-car-drivers-adverts-pop-ups-2045033
@surph_ninja urgh
Stellantis is already doing this on new cars in the US. (Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Maserati, FiAT, etc) Soon as you press the brakes and come to a stop ads play on your infotainment system. Have the car in park? Yep more ads.
Bro they already tried charging you monthly sub for unlocking seat heating functionality… if they are not already here, you can bet they are coming.
You know I only ever get more glad that I didn't learn to drive and went with cycling instead. It started due to not being able to afford it, now I won't own their shit and I will be happy.
Just wait, they will find a way to make biking just as shitty
How? There are no electronics in the first place.
I'm sure "smart bikes" will come soon
Uh huh, but collecting Blurays is just silly I've been told.
Looking around Roku's site, I found this email address: [email protected]
I'm planning on giving them a brief but firm "oh hell no" letter. I wonder how many others will do the same 🤔
So glad I blocked my TVs access to the Internet at the router level. Never complainrd about not setting up a network if the network doesn't work.
Why even connect the tv to your local network?
Casting, using your phone for a remote, so the popup for connecting goes away
What a goofy thing to ask. You know exactly why people use smart TVs on the Internet.
I used Netflix on my TV but after the password sharing and other issues I choose to block network access.
Most of my Internet is done on my computer.
Wake on LAN. At least that's what I do. I can turn on the TV and adjust the volume from Home Assistant but the TV itself can't reach the Internet.
When my girlfriend moved in, she had a big TCL Roku TV its software absolutely sucks. But it would keep a blinking led on ALL THE TIME if it wasn't connected to wifi.
I put it on my iot network, and I'm considering null routing it.
I actually had a Roku box plugged into it since it had a better experience, but I'm probably going to switch that to a Nvidia shield pro because of this ad bullshit.
If this happens on my box I'll be taking them to small claims court and let you all know how it goes...
Just a heads up that you probably "agreed" to binding arbitration...
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/05/roku-disables-tvs-and-streaming-devices-until-users-consent-to-forced-arbitration/
They just did this to me. How can I tell them they failed this test?
If it has a video input, hook up a used PC, and pirate everything. (:
So glad I ditched Roku. My modified Onn box (with an open source, ad-free launcher) is so much better.
I got to know more about your setup. How much was the device and what software are you running?
Sure. The device I use is an Onn streaming a Android TV box. I think I got the 2023 4k streaming version and it was about $20, from Walmart. You can probably get cheaper models, but I wanted one with an Ethernet port.
Then I installed a couple of alternative launchers from the Play store on device. I also loaded F-Droid as well (though I had to do that directly through an apk). I can't remember which launcher I went with in the end, but it was either FLauncher or Projectivity. They were both good.
The wrinkle here is that the OS defaults back to the default launcher (which has ads and a lot of clutter on it). But I used a free command line tool called adb to switch the default launcher off.
I've been very happy with the new setup. My kids (who use it all the time) occasionally complain that an app will crash while they are watching something, and take them back to the home screen/launcher. But I haven't run into that, and it's probably just them accidentally hitting a remote (which I know they accidentally do a lot).
I documented the process and posted them here, in another thread a few months ago.
Additional note: The default YouTube app isn't very conducive to quick profile switching, which can be annoying. To switch profiles you basically have to go back to the OS level and do it there, then go back into the YouTube app. It's an Android TV quirk. But I discovered that if you side-load the Amazon Fire version of the YouTube app onto the device, you can switch profiles within that version of the app, and it works just fine.
If you force Ads then I will replace your equipment. The only reason I use Roku is to avoid the Ads built into "smart TVs"
I only ever tried using a Roku so I could stream my PC to my smart TV, but it turns out there's MASSIVE latency. Of course I returned it. If I had to deal with that AND ADS, I would have set that shit on fire
Steam Link works well if they're still around.
At the moment I just have an old laptop and connect it to my TV via hdmi and installed Parsec on both devices. It's a nice, free method.
In the future though I do want to look into getting a mini PC and doing essentially the same thing except it could be an individual device for the most part.
Not sold new
i have 3 just in case one dies
Bought a Roku back in 2020 or 2021 because the Apple TV was more expensive.
Now I know why.
For what it is worth, I have Roku set up as a REGEX in my Pi-hole so for the most part, any of this nonsense is completely blocked on my Roku.
Needless to say, I shouldn’t have to do this shit with a device I paid for and mainly use for Plex streaming.
I know it's being lazy. But if you have the regex you could post, I'd appreciate it.
I had this happen to me just a few days ago. Within the hour I bought an Nvidia shield and came up with a plan to install the projectivy launcher and button remapper.
I'm mostly happy, it's much more snappy but it's missing a couple apps I used on the Roku (WGN and Marquee Sports). At least I can use my own pictures for the background and screensavers.
I was thinking about changing my Roku TV anyway. "Dumb" TVs are the future for me.
PiHole.
My friend doesn't understand this reference, could you elaborate, please?
you can get a raspberry pi and install something called pihole on it, it's a DNS server with ad-blocking. basically, it converts a domain name like example.com into an IP address, but rather than just faithfully supply DNS, it also effectively blocks some adverts by acting like the domain names don't exist for servers that run ads
once it's set up it'll just work, and it should protect everyone on your network/wifi from some ads
Just gonna add that it can also be installed directly to any Linux PC or in a docker container. The raspberry pi isn't necessarily necessary.
Beautiful, I like the sounds of that.
Install a Pihole server on your network. It's a DNS filter. When a client tries to access a domain that has been blacklisted (ie a known ad or tracker domain), it denies the lookup.
On my roku homescreen it just has an empty placeholder where it tried to put the ad, but my Pihole server denied it.
Is there risk of a sort of arms race wherein services will update and decline to render services to those who block said blacklisted ad domains, or has that already happened?
I can't imagine that happening with today's systems. Yes, it's theoretically possible. It just seems unlikely that they'd go through the trouble of denying service to someone who didn't fetch data from one specific domain but did get it from another.
That's good to know, then. Here's to hoping they don't bother, the last thing we need is another opaque, dystopian tech feature.
Reasons I turn off WiFi on any TV I buy and use a streaming box
Roku will do this on their boxes too.
Yeah I don't get roku boxes lol. I have an nvidia shield pro, and I'm considering loading the lineageOS software on it
I got the shield too, it's amazing. Upgraded from an old Chromecast and it's night and day, didn't realize how slow the Chromecast was, even on Ethernet.
oh man, hard agree, the shield is the kind of android boxes
Roku devices and fire sticks belong in the recycle bin.
I switched everything to Apple TV .
I'm not into the apple walled garden, I use android boxes
Any good recommendations?
Onn 4k box or Nvidia shield
Onn is just Walmart Roku, they will absolutely slather it in ads as soon as they figure out how. +1 on Nvidia shield.
You can boot lineage os's android TV version easily on the onn one
To my knowledge that only works for the 2021 version which is no longer sold. The newer 2024 version is locked down further and cannot have its bootloader unlocked.
Oh, I'm not sure, maybe
I was seeing the Moana promo with my Roku streaming stick on a Samsung TV. Didn't look like an ad exactly tho, just a nice ocean background behind the menu.
personally I prefer android streaming boxes, because you can install custom versions of android tv on them, so if the official release from google is bad, you can just go to the community version
That general principle makes me confident that opensource community-driven software will eventually replace corporateware. As long as people get equivalent features they'll eventually gravitate toward the alternative that has no opportunistic agenda.
I agree
There any custom versions you can point me to? I've been looking for a custom Android OS to install on my Insignia Fire TV.
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
lineageOS, but you have to have a supported device, and I'm not seeing that device on there. Plus fire tv's are pretty locked down. I would suggest walmarts onn 4k box or an nvidia shield
My vizio tv auto plays shows, ads, and light music if you leave it idling too long after you turn it on. Moving the remote down just once disables it till the next time your on home screen.
Roku is the one that bricked peoples TVs unless they agreed to their new terms of service.
I have a vero-V but honestly the apps are lack luster. Its amazing if you have your own library of content. I saw my first homescreen add on roku yesterday. I am pissed.
https://pi-hole.net/
I totally get it I could definitely bypass the ads. However the point is that they are doing it at all. I dont want to use their service if this is going to be their strategy.
I think this happened to me last night with an ad for Moana 2 playing automatically. I just assumed I accidentally hit a button. I was on the home screen but it enlarged and played in the basically the top quarter of the screen. I hit Close and it closed.
Also, the Netflix app is absolute garbage on the TCL Roku TVs. Constantly freezes and crashes, sometimes while not even try to rewind or pause/resume. It just decides its had enough and causes the TV to restart lol.
We have several TCL Roku TVs and Netflix is trash on all of them. Netflix is fine on the streaming sticks though. And every app seems to take some time to load as well. The TVs are pretty old so that's probably why.
I noticed the Moana background a couple days ago and thought it looked very nice. But to me it didn't seem like it was "playing" an add, in the sense that there wasn't a noticeable wait time before the remote worked. Checked again just now and it's gone back to a plain gray background.
isn't their a foss os you can flash on your tv?
Lineagos can be flashed on some android TV sticks
Roku box: Bye, bitch!
Guess it's time to either flash my Roku with something that isn't shit or just make a dedicated media box myself.
Aaargh matey!
thank goodness pi hole can block the majority of roku ad sources
I'm just glad I've still got my MythTV running.
Now that's a name I have not thought about in a long time 🤜🤛
What’s the best alternative? I have a fire cube, and I’m getting sick of it. Apple TV? Is there a FOSS solution that’s close to the same quality interface?
TL; DR - No. But actually maybe, depending on what you're looking for and what you can put up with.
Are you looking to access streaming services? Or are you okay with self-hosting?
The FOSS solutions that support streaming services are pretty janky IMO because they don't have support from the service, so you're probably better off hooking up a laptop running Linux and access stuff in a browser. I had Netflix working through Kodi on a Raspberry Pi, for example, but like I said, it was super janky. Maybe it's better now, idk, but check out OpenELEC and Kodi. You'll need some hardware to run it on.
If you can self-host your videos, Jellyfin is pretty great, and I think there are a couple more options. You'll need to get the content yourself though and connect it to the TV somehow (e.g. the Jellyfin app if you have a smart TV).
The best is unironically to pirate and use something like Kodi on a SBC that can run libreElec.
Some good options already listed. But here's another.
Hey an Android TV box (Onn brand or similar) and install an open source launcher on it, like Projectivity. You have to use adb to disable the default launcher after the new launcher is installed, otherwise it keeps defaulting back to the default one. But once don't it's smooth sailing. You have a dedicated streaming device with a remote control and a nice UI with zero ads on the home screen.
I have a Raspberry Pi 500 running PiOS that works well like a computer to just play things in browser. No ads or anything of course. But also no casting from a phone or anything
https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-bigscreen
A tv-like front end for Linux but the project doesn’t see enough support yet
AppleTV is very easy, and what I did after Roku, then the Chrome stick added ads. I haven't seen any ads in the AppleTV home screens.
EDIT: I haven't tested this as of yet, but it seems like a decent option for converting and old PC (or if you have a RaspPi) into a media platform with comparable functionality: https://arcadian.cloud/pi/2023/04/27/easily-turn-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-smart-tv/
Anybody notice the Max app on roku requires clicking twice to pause and then twice to unpause? Very odd and annoying glitch or feature.
FWIW Roku doesn't make the apps. That's on Max. The Paramount app is trash too, resume doesn't work.
Yeah I just thought the two-click bug on the Max app might be specific to Roku, the way some browser glitches only happen on one OS. Having to click twice is such an obvious bug, it's like did anybody even tested this?
yeah it might be specific to the app they built for Roku.
This kind of garbage is why I've never connected my tcl tv with bulit in roku to the internet.
Won't hurt my feelings to throw their shit tv right in the trash.
Think of any invasive streaming devices in your house. Samsung, Google Chromecast, ATV, LG etc. Roku is by far the worst.
Whomp whomp. You get what you pay for.
Ughhh just unsubscibe
The only reason I still use my roku is because it has sound leveling capabilities that is much better than anything else I have. I use my PC for just about everything but recently Sling stopped working on the PC or at least the DVR is directing me to download some app? Also Paramount doesn't handle 60fps content (sports) on the PC very well, it stutters a lot.
Windows has sound leveling but I haven't had much luck with it when its really needed. My receiver is old and has only rudimentary sound leveling.
Libreelec on raspberry pi 4 (Kodi) works for me but it really needs a new YouTube app. That's the only issue really
Apple TV for the win
If you think another private company with profit on their mind is safe, I've got a bridge to sell you.
I definitely think Apple is less susceptible to this, but people seem to forget that Apple literally has an ads business.
Look at the ads in Apple news and in a couple of other places. Apple isn't immune to injecting ads into the UX of their products.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1330127/apple-ad-revenue-worldwide/
They still have an ad business, and ads are what companies turn to when times get tough. There's no guarantees that Apple will stay on top for other reasons, and to assume such a thing will never happen is truly foolhardy.
It's like believing Valve will be the same after Gabe Newell dies.
Further, Apple relies deeply on TMSC and since the US is basically in a nosedive of idiocy and protectionist tariffs, there's a significant chance their supply line for their chips could be deeply impacted, and by extension, their profits from their computing products. Whether from tariffs or China taking over Taiwan, Apple could easily get fucked out of luck fast.
No, you implied that they'll never ever ever never ever in a million years turn to their ad business to supplant lost sales elsewhere and that related things couldn't happen to impact their sales. Which is a bogus and easily disproven line of thought.
bro, you’re projecting and read all that in the other poster’s reply on your own.
chill and rebuild binutils and clang from source again
That's literally the implication that I'm talking about that you say I'm projecting onto this. You don't know the future, that can change.
Hasn’t Apple seriously considered the ad business in the past? I think I saw a video about it years ago. Most likely, they will switch their strategy as soon as it makes financial sense to do so.
Apple has some serious catching up to do with enshitification on the appletv end. I think they are going to really blow our minds when they finally release a new appleTV. It's quite overdue and I'm guessing they are cooking up a doozy for us!
My predictions : still don't fix bit pass audio issue, eliminate ethernet port, crappier remote that still has no back lighting, siri/ appleai is everywhere but only makes things more frustrating, and who knows - maybe ads!!
I love how Dolby content doesn’t work with my Hue sync box!
It's not that they won't do it. It's that they currently don't so it's a good choice.
When they add ads, then we can find something else. I'm on Roku now but have been increasingly annoyed by the increase in ads.
Or just... don't. Self hosting video content isn't that hard, then you have full control.
I do. But I also see a need to support content creators.
You can support content creators without streaming services. I buy and rip DVDs and Blurays, which directly supports them.
As it stands now Apple TV for the win and I'd be legit shocked if Apple puts ads as you boot up an Apple TV.
So this is the Moana garbage?
I have a pihole blocking most of it, but these were playing.
There's surely a way to jailbreak these things.
It’s 1000% worth it to spend a little extra on a TV to get one that runs Google TV. Android is just superior compared to Roku in this regard. I actually have an Apple TV 4K as well, and regularly switch between the two.
Manufacturers need to put the cheap ass software on a cheap ass $20 stick. Stop fucking up TVs with it. Stop accepting any 'smart' features and stop calling them smart. They're invasive advertisement platforms, full fucking stop. It is in fact NOT worth it to get a google TV, because they'll pull this shit or worse next week. We had perfectly functional TVs for decades before this shit, stop acting like the only choice is to surrender your hardware.
I’m not surrending shit. It’s really Android TV, they just call it Google. But whatever man, go off.
I prefer a dumb TV.
That’s such a cool and novel opinion. Wow. My Android TV does everything I need it to right out of the box. Never fucking shows me advertisements, and actually made it easier for me to stop paying for an overpriced Hulu subscription.
So does my dumb TV. No subscriptions.
I don’t really understand the hate for Android TV. It’s pretty obvious to me (since I use both) that they’re trying to compete with Apple TV. Android TV has a lot of great settings and features. When I’m not doing anything with it, it automatically shows a screensaver of my choosing - just like Apple TV does. I have quick and easy access to the movies I’ve purchased on my YouTube account as well.
Any assumption that Android TV will force ads on its users tells me they haven’t used it.
I.democratically hate all smart TVs.
Cool. I’m going to continue enjoying an ad free experience on my TV, and people in this thread can continue using shit platforms that force ads all they want.
As if you aren’t looking for the same functionality mine comes with out of the box.
Nvidia shield is android and works like a roku or chromecast
So far. And I actually prefer the Roku UI even though the Google TV will do more things, like let you sideload apps. Roku is propietary.
The sad thing is Roku's UI was pretty dang good before they added a row of ads at the top, a half screen ad on the left and replaced the background with an ad every 2 weeks, waiting a full minute for it to load the latest nonsense the highest bidder paid them to shove in my face. The ads absolutely ruin a good platform.
So far what?
Even if they do start putting ads on Android TV, all I have to do is switch over to my Apple TV. That’s the best performing streaming device on the market, regardless of your opinion on Apple.
none of this is a big deal, simply never connect your TV to the internet
I see this thrown around a lot.
90% of us watch Netflix, Plex, YT TV or some other streaming service, how do I watch these with 4k quality without connecting to the Internet? That's just an unrealistic request for 90% of TV users.
Use a separate, not ad-riddled device plugged in via HDMI. If you have a game console it can do this.
I don't know what's good for Android TV boxes it used to be the NVIDIA Shield was a well regarded streaming device but it's really old now. Google makes one (Google TV Streamer) and you can install a custom launcher if you're a bit technical and the "suggested content" of the stock launcher bothers you. Same for other Android TV boxes.
Apple, like them or not, makes a really decent TV box with no system level ads and an interface that mostly stays out of the way.
Shield is very old, but it still works pretty well and unlike apple TV you can have true surround sound with bit pass audio.
Yeah but I wouldn't recommend anyone go and buy one at this point.
Why?
Because it's end of lifespan and you should spend your money on something that will at least get a few years of support and updates
What do you propose? I don't feel like there's really great options. I still prefer the shield.
If you have some technical knowhow, you can configure your router to let things like Netflix through, but not the rest of the OS. Or you can try your luck with PiHole or similar.
I personally do have the capabilities I'm just pointing out this is unrealistic for 99% of TV watchers.
You're absolutely right. The better option is to get a TV without all that crap to begin such with.
I'm just don't saying it's an option, that's all.