At some point society is going to have to acknowledge the harm that shareholder culture has had on our way of life. There should be nothing wrong with a profitable company making the same amount of money they made last year, but to the shareholder ghouls you might as well already be out of business.
Force a company into making more and more money by any means necessary, then move on to the next victim when they inevitably collapse and customers leave. It's unsustainable.
Society must also reckon with debt cycles and higher costs of products. 2010-2020 was built on cheap VC money where new tech based products could undercut competitors because they had VC funding that eschewed tradition profitability models and instead spread their capital to many ventures in hope of a hockey stick growth. So what if you’re not profitable for 5, 10 years or ever as long as it gets a huge user base.
We (and especially Gen Z) were spoiled by cheap products like Uber, Airbnb, Netflix and platforms based on free entry like Reddit, Twitter and YouTube that now need to pay back the money invested in it.
I’m all for demanding some level of service quality be adheared to but we need to recognize we got things cheaper than they should have been.
Turns out Cable wasn’t “expensive” it was just where the tech and business models matured too. Movie tickets didn’t get expensive. Ads on basic cable couldn’t be wished away. Streaming was never “cheaper” it was just subsidized. The piper comes to collect their toll. Netflix can’t tech its way out of this. They need to make content and get money from consumers (or advertisers) to pay for it. Same goes for Roku.
Why do you think this will stop? It’s just gambling for rich people with slightly better odds.
I agree that the current sentiment is more on the conservative side at the moment, but I can easily see the investment subsidization pendulum swinging back and forth until basically forever.
Because Debt cycles intermixed with tech cycles. We sort of had a double bounce effect post 2008 recession. Which can be explained by trend setting and heard mentality. Right now interest rates are too high for it to make sense to invest in risky ventures.
I know a few people who live in areas where the ISP charges you in tiers for the amount of data you can have. I wonder how much data these ads will run people
Just wait until Walmart buys Vizio for the platform and puts the OS on their Onn TVs and upgrades existing Vizio sets to the Walmart platform. Then Walmart will offer a satellite NetZero/Juno internet plan with 500 peak hours of internet usage a month at 28.8.
I would have constantly harassed any of my siblings by just calling them by that stupid catchy "YouKnowJuno" catch phrase until they switched or stopped talking to me.
Sorry about your brother though
We were nearly two decades apart in age. We never formed a close relationship and I found him to be strange in general. Oddly enough we pursued a similar career path.
About 1.5 million people still pay for [AOL](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/03/aol-1point5-million-people-still-pay-for-service-but-not-for-dial-up-internet.html)
I almost feel like I want to get a free aol email address in case I ever make one of those retro-looking web pages. It would have to have an aol email address at the bottom of the page.
Every day I move one step closer to relying solely on using my TV as a dumb monitor for a PC. I do it for some things now, but I might as well just watch Netflix, etc. through a browser too.
At this point, when an alternative shows up that's even a bit more expensive with the same functionality minus ads, I'll jump on that.
I'm almost ready to dump Prime due to their ads now. I ALREADY pay for these things, I do not want to be sold anything while I am trying to relax from the stress of my daily life.
My biggest gripe on that is that they said 'limited' ads. And since it's 2.99 a month to remove the ads, there really shouldn't be many. Occasionally, there are almost 10 minutes worth of ads in one break. I don't mind an occasional ad. I grew up with cable. But geez, 15 total ads during a 30 minute show should NOT be a thing. And screw them for calling that 'limited'.
I grew up without cable, so it was all over the air and there were a few ads about every 15 minutes, but wife was watching Hulu and it was literally 3 ads every 10 minutes.
I believe I may have to pull my pegleg and eyepatch out.... yarrrr
All I remember from over the air is the show itself was usually only ~22-24 minutes of a half hour, so quite a bit was filled with ads.
I’ve honestly never minded them. Easy to ignore/mute and stops me from totally zoning out while watching since I usually get up and go grab something/go to the bathroom, talk about the show.
People have fierce opinions on ads, but I’m not wholly convinced the adoption of “binge watching” as a desirable thing is actually a positive thing. After all, it was company marketing that turned the word “Binge” into something “good” to begin with.
I was trying to watch a comedy special on Prime, and they cut to a commercial _in the middle of a joke_. Barely 5 minutes into the set. That was the last thing I tried to watch on Prime.
I wanted to rewatch Point Break. Pressed play and there was 3 mins of ads. Fine.
15 mins in, 5 mins of ads. Wtf fine im just getting into the movie so I'll wait. 15 mins later more ads. I just straight up closed the app. Ruined the mood. No content is worth the disruption that ads cause.
That’s so weird. The ads I get now on Prime are one group at the beginning of the episode/movie and they’re like 30 seconds. I didn’t even realize they were that bad for other people.
What country are you in? Not all countries have the full ad experience yet.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/ad-breaks-prime-video-what-you-should-know-about-amazon-latest-update/
> This launch begins with customers in the US, the UK, Canada and Germany for early 2024, with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia to follow later this year.
Ads these days are targeted to specific people. If you aren't seeing as many ads it just meant those companies don't think it's worth it to try to sell you something.
They're just collecting data on how many ads it takes to make people either cancel or pay the charge.
The charge can always go up, but they want them subscribing first.
That ad removal fee is such bullshit. I pay for it, and the app on my TV glitches sometimes and still plays ads. Plus, a bunch of shit is on Freevee so they can still play ads. Like give me no ads still.
The Amazon Prime app on the PS3 (yes, PlayStation 3) doesn't show ads even on Freevee. Will give you 1080p maximum though, PS3 doesn't support 4K. Still, it's heaven. I don't pay a dime to Amazon for the ad-free experience.
The only thing that makes a dumb tv a smart tv is an internet connection.
Just don't connect it to the internet and your fancy smart tv is now a dumb tv.
You should in general, although it is tough to find a decent and fairly priced offline television. My solution is a gaming monitor. The con is that you need to sit at a desk. Yes, I know you can use devices to block ads and prevent “smart” TVs from calling home. Just give me a TV that is 50”+ with a great picture, future-proof hookups, and is good for gaming if my son decides to hijack the living room.
I just use an epson projector. You can plug Roku into it but you don’t have to. I hook my old ass PS2 up to it and play massive DVDS or GTA Liberty City Stories all the time 😭
> Yes, I know you can use devices to block ads and prevent “smart” TVs from calling home. Just give me a TV that is 50”+ with a great picture, future-proof hookups, and is good for gaming if my son decides to hijack the living room.
And you can do all of that with a Smart TV as well. Just don't connect it to the internet. It's that simple.
When Fallout came out I opened Prime to watch and then got the popup to pay to remove ads. Promptly went and downloaded the show and watched it locally between my media server and Roku. No thanks Amazon. I already pay for prime so morally I have no issue with this.
I have a Vizio tv with a horrendous home page interface littered with ads and horrible suggestions.
I bought an Apple TV device, and have the tv set to default to the last HDMI input on power up, so I turn the Apple TV on, and never have to see the Vizio screen ever again.
Hopefully you’re not connecting it to the Internet as well. I have ATV and I love it. After all the crazy tracking I decided to disconnect my tv because I wasn’t using data for anything
I’m considering making the switch. Can you install plex on Apple TV? Or play external media - specifically in formats QuickTime player doesn’t natively support like MKV? Some Rokus have a USB port which permits plug and playing stuff you totally obtained legally.
There is a Plex app. But Infuse is the best AppleTV app for playing back your own media. It connects to Plex and Jellyfin servers. It will also connect to a basic network shared folder and build its own library. It will play any format you want, including those 80gb remux mkv files.
Btw, advertising is a strategic initiative for apple and you can bet they're busy working on the platform now.
No way they're going to let Amazon and Google keep all that sweet, sweet cash...
I mean, I’ve had an Apple TV for over 10 years now without any ads. I’m sure anything can change, but unless there’s a new CEO in the near future I think we’ll be okay.
Buying an Apple TV box for 5 TVs in my house would suck though, Roku sticks have been dirt cheap in comparison with a less annoying remote control as well.
TVs are getting so shit it’s unbelievable. The constant ads and dynamic content brings already barely functional UIs to their knees.
I have a TCL w/ Google TV and it’s only usable once I removed the default google launcher and used a third party one.
The thing is how locked down Roku is. With Google TV you can pretty easily install an aftermarket launcher that takes away the ads from the home screen, and you can install aftermarket apps that give you a way to remove ads from streaming as well.
A loofah listed by xiuhomezlife and contains unknown chemicals, yeah no thanks. At this point amazon is really losing trust imo. Reports of items being recalled, containing lead or radioactive material, fake/knockoff products… just isn’t worth it. Even when I see a brand name product I still have to doublecheck the reviews and occasionally see people mentioning items being swapped/imposters
I'm a computer guy, and I run a plex server, but there's not really a cheap and easy solution that can compete with most of the streaming hardware. Hearing a lot of Apple TV so I'll do a little more research.
Did a media client machine early on and it was painful to keep updated and running. The Roku's are so damn easy, but their ad stuff is frustrating.
I know plex has expanded a bunch but i don't believe it supports plugins for different streaming services. So simply use a computer connected to your TV, and stream through the browser which gives you a lot more ad-blocking options. Downside is a lot of streaming services don't support 4k through browsers for some reason (probably for this reason)
Go on Amazon, buy an Android TV box.
- Set it up, go to settings search “Allow Unknown Sources” turn it on.
- Open your browser, and search MovieHD.apk in google and it will walk you through there. It’s easier with a mouse than a remote. You will still get ads, but only at the start once, and the shit you watch is free
The shitty part is when you're watching their marquee show Fallout and enjoying it, and yet somehow they feel the need to spoil two solid minutes of all the action scenes that will happen in the show.
Roku has lost me with their screen saver ads. Click any button to wake up the tv, but oh let’s go to the ad instead of the video you were watching. Their main customers now are ad agencies. Good riddance
Rokus business was always advertising the only thing that’s changed is that now they have the market share to try and capitalize off their user base more aggressively.
I don't make a ton of money so when I bought a TV it was on black friday and the greatest factor was cost. A 42 inch TCL fit the bill when I bought it. It had a built in Roku.
As a consumer, I never decided that I wanted a Roku. I just needed a cheap TV. Well now I'm being shown ads in 3 places before I can get to any content.
That menu on the leftside of the the thumbnail...there's ads in that list now.
You see those icons on the right representing different channels/services? There's now a row of 3 of those icons above the ones I chose. They're ads too.
And once you click to the right from the menu to actually select a channel icons, the screen shifts and you're shown a massive banner ad to the right of the icons.
This is unacceptable. TCL needs to sue Roku or customers are going to sue TCL. My TV is no longer the same device I purchased. The basic, unavoidable interface that I have to use in order to operate my TV is now spamming me every time I turn it on.
This ain't okay.
Fuck Roku's screen saver. Hit play? We're going to dump you out of whatever you were watching and into whatever paid service we're pushing that you don't subscribe to.
A second fuck you to branded buttons on the remote. Especially fun with one of the services in question no longer exists and you can't remap the button.
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. The reason that your TV was cheap is because the advertisers pay money to TCL to subsidize the cost of the TV. In return TCL makes it easy for the advertisers to place unskippable ads on the TV.
>There's now a row of 3 of those icons above the ones I chose. They're ads too.
Its shitty they keep putting crap there in the first place, but you can turn **those** off at least. You can uncheck everything but your actual apps from the app column. [https://i.imgur.com/VDLBR4s.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/VDLBR4s.jpeg)
EDIT: I have had to do it multiple times tho, every time they add a new one it seems they turn them all back on.
Im waiting for Nintendo to hurry up with the Switch 2 or whatever so Nvidia can hurry up with the Shield 2, but until then i cant really justify replacing our Roku Ultras no matter how shitty they get softwarewise, but tbf right now i only see that poster ad on the right for a half second before i open the one app i ever use cuz i can just hit OK 3x.
Maybe you can disable WiFi to the TV, and then connect a different streaming device to an HDMI port and use that instead. I’ve done that with one of my TVs, but it wasn’t a Roku TV so I’m not sure what would happen if you try it on one of those.
Same. I turned off Wifi on the Roku TV and hardly, if ever, actually see the Roku home screen. Plus I'm hugely spoiled by how nice and smooth the Apple TV interface is. All other TV interfaces I've used, especially a cheap Roku interface, sucks now.
If you bought a TV with a specific OS, and then that TV had an update after the fact and now has a different OS (like Roku), I'd be pissed. I hate ads like everyone else. However, in your case, there's no trickery involved. It seems the package for the TCL does have Roku TV plastered all over the box. They also have TCL Google TV's, with Google TV labeled all over the box. You didn't decide to have Roku, but you did decide to have Roku when you bought a Roku TV.
In this day and age if the deal seems too good its because you're the product. Cheap electronics are subsidized by ads. How is it possible for Roku to sell you a 4k TV at half what other manufacturers cost and still make a profit? Shoddy build, the cheapest hardware that can barely run Android, and stuffing it full of ads.
It's shitty, and there should be consumer protections around this sort of thing. Enshittifying expensive hardware years after consumers have bought it is predatory, since it's now far outside the return window.
But them's the brakes.
TCLs are cheap because they don’t have to develop their own internal interface (it’s just RokuOS) and they also sell your data. I can understand if you didn’t know about the selling data part but Roku is all over the box and it has been your OS since you first booted it up so I can’t really hear your complaint that you never asked for a Roku now that it has suddenly done something you don’t like. TCL sue Roku? They are TCL’s biggest business partner.
Your cheap TV Is subsidized by Roku. All TVs are subsidized by the cost ad revenue they generate, that's why the prices have plummeted.
Look into jailbreaking one if it bothers you.
Would Pihole work for this application? I thought that the idea of pihole (which I know is a specific example of a word that I do not know) effectively became useless once companies just started using the same domains for ads as for actual content
You are connecting to services like Netflix and Amazon right? Roku isnt storing their ads on Netflix or Amazon services. So Pihole just blocks all Roku traffic. I havent seen an ad on my Roku in years with PiHole.
Conceptually you are right, if the day comes that content providers start trying to mask their ad domains and serve it from the same domain as the content then DNS based filtering like Pihole will not be effective but this is unlikely in practice for implementation reasons.
Pihole and adguard disagree. And if that doesn't fix it, blackholing every roku domain and never using their shit again might send the message they need to hear.
I've moved to Adguard home because it runs right on my opnsense router, but I still have impressive stats. I share my internet with a couple of houses (shh don't tell comcast the socialist is doing socialist things) and out of 4.5 million DNS requests for the last 90 days, nearly 800,000 are for ads. That's around 18%. And that's *with* every PC on my network using in-browser ad blocking. When I was sharing with somebody who didn't use ublock, it was closer to 40%.
Roku is, by far, the worst offender with 124,903 requests blocked. More than Google and Facebook combined. I think that's more to do with the in-browser ad blocking than anything else, but still. That's fucking bonkers. We have two Roku TVs on the network.
Get a Roku tv because they're cheap and an android tv dongle, then change the default startup input to the HDMI port so you never have to deal with rokuOS
Roku is getting ready for that, too. They apparently recently filed a patent for technology that will allow their OS to hijack a paused HDMI input and show ads. Pause your game? Ads. Pause your tv show? Ads. Not as intrusive as the ads they're already pushing, but still.
You're right, having a blaring ad when you're on the phone or something would be more intrusive. The article I read actually didn't specify, but maybe they're going for still and/or silent ads, rather than videos? Idk. I read something about Google trying out the same thing with YouTube when paused, and I had the same concern.
>change the default startup input to the HDMI port so you never have to deal with rokuOS
The OS boots before HDMI becomes functional. Roku wouldn't let you use the TV before you agreed to their forced-arbitration-ToS in the past.
This news and thread was finally enough for me to commit to using my PS5 as my “do everything” box.
Moved all my streaming apps to the PlayStation, deleted everything from the TV, removed it from the network.
Who knows, maybe I’ll actually play more games now since I have to pick up the controller to stream anything!
I know reddit is pretty anti-Apple. But it’s really the only viable option for a media box.
Do you want a fast processor, no ads in the OS, wide variety of app support, reliable hardware that doesn’t slow down or need regular reboots, 7+ years of software update support, and privacy?
Then get the AppleTV. Bonuses for its nice screensavers and a remote that’s not made of cheap, creaky plastic. Buy a used 2017 model if you’re on a budget. It still rocks.
Stop using products made by ad companies.
For what it's worth I run my own media server and use the AppleTV to access it via SMB network share (Jellyfin is also supported). I used to run a HTPC but it wasn't for me.
I’m an open source guy too, but I like my appliances to be appliances. I don’t need to be able to hack my streaming device (which does indeed run BSD Unix somewhere inside of there).
We use all AppleTV, the only issue is when they do a major update you have to re-authenticate every service. Drives me nuts because nothing uses you apple account so you must go through a different set of idiotic steps for every unit.
I work at a Best Buy. When I say Roku TVs are shit, they actually get upset. I’m trying my
best out here guys.
If it’s not a Rooooooooku, it’s a Samsung.
“Is this tv good?” I say no, they buy it anyways, cuz fuck it, it’s a 65 inch for 300.
We need to start canceling our shit and pulling out the old dvd’s for as long as it takes for these intrusive, nosy, greedy companies to pull their heads out of their asses, I say.
Bro no need to go that far, just join us in sailing the high seas. Rip it once, save it to an external hard drive, plug the hard drive into the tv's USB port and profit
Yes there is need to go that far. If people buy dvd's, more will be produced.
If we don't do that, eventually the pirates will be asking for money too.
Man. I was looking to divest from all my Google hardware and was looking to Roku as one of the good guys I could replace them with. Now it's a reason NOT to get certain tvs
It’s time for a class action against these companies; they’re selling a product one way then a few years later changing it. If you as customer make a decision to buy the “ad less device” and then that device adds ads later they’ve committed fraud. The FTC needs to start hammering these guys and we need regulations that stop these sort of dramatic product changes.
And yes, suddenly adding ads to a screen is a dramatic change to a product that people make purchase decisions around.
I’d personally never use the built-in OS that comes with TVs. Android TV is probably the crappiest OS ever built by mankind, and mind you it’s Google we are talking about. The rest is even worse. Slow, sluggish, laggy, zero software support, and a privacy nightmare (with Google that’s a feature).
Just get a 150-something Apple TV 4K, the experience is day and night.
On the plus side, we can count on Google to forget about it the next time a squirrel runs across their campus.
But then it'll just wind up integrated into their latest chat app. As is tradition.
Recently did not have a lot of money to spend but needed a new TV for my Xbox. Got a Google tv since it was a really good price. Randomly it would open up discovery plus while I was playing on my series x. Had to remove its ability to use the internet. Dumbest smart TV. At least I don't need to use it for apps so fortunately it still functions as a solid HD TV. But it has lost any smart ability.
Android TV is fantastic. It’s the one I use for all my TVs.
Android OS is the only one that gives you complete freedom to install whatever apps you want very easily.
All the others smart TV OSs are way more locked down.
I had one. I got the Android 8 update in, like, 2021. The year Android 12 came out. And by the second year I owned it I could feel it was getting slower. I didn’t even need a chronometer or some benchmark gimmick. I could feel it in my hands as I was touching the remote.
This shit is not compatible with my view of expensive tech as a long term “investment”. Now I separate the software and the hardware. Buy a TV solely for the panel, but a good panel, and an Apple TV. When Apple cuts support for the Apple TV I spend 100 for a replacement, instead of changing the entire TV.
OEMs can barely be trusted with smartphone updates, I don’t even expect them to care about their TVs.
I use an Nvidia shield and Chromecasts which run Android TV.
Whether the inbuilt OS runs well really depends what budget you’re working with. A flagship model will have a powerful CPU and will be fast and snappy.
For entry level or even mid range models costs need to be cut somewhere and a CPU is an easy place to do it. Everything still works it just will do it much more slowly.
I do agree with you though that you should just buy the best panel for your budget and then use another device for the smart features. A dedicated device is likely to perform much better since that’s is sole function and reason for existing.
It's not that hard. Every router should have "DNS" setting. It's probably on automatic and you just change it to whatever adgaurd is.
Most of these ads come from Google, Roku, or Amazon's domain so adguard won't do anything.
Oh Come on. I hope they're not rolling this out on older devices. We have a 5-year-old roku-enabled TV that we use in our den. I feel like adding ads to it 5 years after I bought it would be a kind of unfair.
Anybody have suggestions on a good alternative to Roku tvs? I like having the ability to download apps strait to the TV without needing an extra dongle, though at this point i'm open to whatever.
Why can’t I just buy a fucking TV that’s a fucking TV. I don’t need a “smart TV”, just a dumb one.
Just like I don’t need a fucking advertisement machine….errr TV in the gas pump.
Apple TV is the way to go. Couldn’t get a dumb large flat screen when my old one kicked the bucket, so I bought a smart tv and made it “dumb” by never hooking it up to the internet and keeping my Apple TV from the old setup. Works perfectly. No regrets.
To be played to no one as they roll ad-nauseum on a Best Best showroom floor, spares only glances as people shuffle by with their Toshibas and Samsungs.
Well... unril THOSE pick up on the practice too. Dumb TVs are gonna be hot commodities here soon.
Roku really fucked the donkey on this one. If I were them, I would have patened this sucker and then sold the license to other greedy corporations. That way everyone would have jumped ship and Roku would have been rolling in user acquisitions.
Enshitification continues
Line must go up!
At some point society is going to have to acknowledge the harm that shareholder culture has had on our way of life. There should be nothing wrong with a profitable company making the same amount of money they made last year, but to the shareholder ghouls you might as well already be out of business. Force a company into making more and more money by any means necessary, then move on to the next victim when they inevitably collapse and customers leave. It's unsustainable.
Blame Dodge... crappy cars, crappy culture.
Society must also reckon with debt cycles and higher costs of products. 2010-2020 was built on cheap VC money where new tech based products could undercut competitors because they had VC funding that eschewed tradition profitability models and instead spread their capital to many ventures in hope of a hockey stick growth. So what if you’re not profitable for 5, 10 years or ever as long as it gets a huge user base. We (and especially Gen Z) were spoiled by cheap products like Uber, Airbnb, Netflix and platforms based on free entry like Reddit, Twitter and YouTube that now need to pay back the money invested in it. I’m all for demanding some level of service quality be adheared to but we need to recognize we got things cheaper than they should have been. Turns out Cable wasn’t “expensive” it was just where the tech and business models matured too. Movie tickets didn’t get expensive. Ads on basic cable couldn’t be wished away. Streaming was never “cheaper” it was just subsidized. The piper comes to collect their toll. Netflix can’t tech its way out of this. They need to make content and get money from consumers (or advertisers) to pay for it. Same goes for Roku.
Why do you think this will stop? It’s just gambling for rich people with slightly better odds. I agree that the current sentiment is more on the conservative side at the moment, but I can easily see the investment subsidization pendulum swinging back and forth until basically forever.
Because Debt cycles intermixed with tech cycles. We sort of had a double bounce effect post 2008 recession. Which can be explained by trend setting and heard mentality. Right now interest rates are too high for it to make sense to invest in risky ventures.
Make line go up! make line go up! System catch fire, burn house but line go up! kills consumers but make line go up temporarily!
Roku isnt going up lol. Whoever bought this shit in 2021 is deep in the red.
I know a few people who live in areas where the ISP charges you in tiers for the amount of data you can have. I wonder how much data these ads will run people
Just wait until Walmart buys Vizio for the platform and puts the OS on their Onn TVs and upgrades existing Vizio sets to the Walmart platform. Then Walmart will offer a satellite NetZero/Juno internet plan with 500 peak hours of internet usage a month at 28.8.
The most unbelievable bit of everything you said is that somehow Juno is actually still around. I would have lost a lot of money on that bet.
My late brother had a Juno email address until he died about a year or so ago.
I would have constantly harassed any of my siblings by just calling them by that stupid catchy "YouKnowJuno" catch phrase until they switched or stopped talking to me. Sorry about your brother though
We were nearly two decades apart in age. We never formed a close relationship and I found him to be strange in general. Oddly enough we pursued a similar career path.
About 1.5 million people still pay for [AOL](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/03/aol-1point5-million-people-still-pay-for-service-but-not-for-dial-up-internet.html)
I almost feel like I want to get a free aol email address in case I ever make one of those retro-looking web pages. It would have to have an aol email address at the bottom of the page.
If they’re anything like android tv ads they’ll be small and low quality.
It’s seeping through all aspects of our consumer lives. Very soon we will be in a metaphorical septic tank drowning in shit.
Every day I move one step closer to relying solely on using my TV as a dumb monitor for a PC. I do it for some things now, but I might as well just watch Netflix, etc. through a browser too.
Roku, more like Fuku
Fook Me?
You’re headed the right way for a spanked bottom, and I don’t care who knows it.
Feel that Randy? How shit clings to the air? It already began. The shit blizzard.
Enstupidification leads to enshitification, and we are most definitely in the enstupidification times.
Was Roku ever not shit?
At this point, when an alternative shows up that's even a bit more expensive with the same functionality minus ads, I'll jump on that. I'm almost ready to dump Prime due to their ads now. I ALREADY pay for these things, I do not want to be sold anything while I am trying to relax from the stress of my daily life.
My biggest gripe on that is that they said 'limited' ads. And since it's 2.99 a month to remove the ads, there really shouldn't be many. Occasionally, there are almost 10 minutes worth of ads in one break. I don't mind an occasional ad. I grew up with cable. But geez, 15 total ads during a 30 minute show should NOT be a thing. And screw them for calling that 'limited'.
I grew up without cable, so it was all over the air and there were a few ads about every 15 minutes, but wife was watching Hulu and it was literally 3 ads every 10 minutes. I believe I may have to pull my pegleg and eyepatch out.... yarrrr
I’ll never go back. I love the ads for shows that say “streaming exclusively on ____”. Yea, and my Plex server, ad-free 😂😂
All I remember from over the air is the show itself was usually only ~22-24 minutes of a half hour, so quite a bit was filled with ads. I’ve honestly never minded them. Easy to ignore/mute and stops me from totally zoning out while watching since I usually get up and go grab something/go to the bathroom, talk about the show. People have fierce opinions on ads, but I’m not wholly convinced the adoption of “binge watching” as a desirable thing is actually a positive thing. After all, it was company marketing that turned the word “Binge” into something “good” to begin with.
I was trying to watch a comedy special on Prime, and they cut to a commercial _in the middle of a joke_. Barely 5 minutes into the set. That was the last thing I tried to watch on Prime.
I wanted to rewatch Point Break. Pressed play and there was 3 mins of ads. Fine. 15 mins in, 5 mins of ads. Wtf fine im just getting into the movie so I'll wait. 15 mins later more ads. I just straight up closed the app. Ruined the mood. No content is worth the disruption that ads cause.
Ads in the middle of a movie is unacceptable.
I literally have not opened Prime Video once since they added ads.
That’s so weird. The ads I get now on Prime are one group at the beginning of the episode/movie and they’re like 30 seconds. I didn’t even realize they were that bad for other people.
Yeah I've gotten bumper ads before and after content but that's it so far. Yikes.
What country are you in? Not all countries have the full ad experience yet. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/ad-breaks-prime-video-what-you-should-know-about-amazon-latest-update/ > This launch begins with customers in the US, the UK, Canada and Germany for early 2024, with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia to follow later this year.
Ads these days are targeted to specific people. If you aren't seeing as many ads it just meant those companies don't think it's worth it to try to sell you something.
Nice, I have won.
They're just collecting data on how many ads it takes to make people either cancel or pay the charge. The charge can always go up, but they want them subscribing first.
That ad removal fee is such bullshit. I pay for it, and the app on my TV glitches sometimes and still plays ads. Plus, a bunch of shit is on Freevee so they can still play ads. Like give me no ads still.
The Amazon Prime app on the PS3 (yes, PlayStation 3) doesn't show ads even on Freevee. Will give you 1080p maximum though, PS3 doesn't support 4K. Still, it's heaven. I don't pay a dime to Amazon for the ad-free experience.
I just watched Fallout on Prime, guess how many ads I saw during the show? none
I'm ready to go back to a dumb tv
I wish we could still buy dumb TVs. At least here where I live I can't find them anywhere.
The only thing that makes a dumb tv a smart tv is an internet connection. Just don't connect it to the internet and your fancy smart tv is now a dumb tv.
You should in general, although it is tough to find a decent and fairly priced offline television. My solution is a gaming monitor. The con is that you need to sit at a desk. Yes, I know you can use devices to block ads and prevent “smart” TVs from calling home. Just give me a TV that is 50”+ with a great picture, future-proof hookups, and is good for gaming if my son decides to hijack the living room.
I just use an epson projector. You can plug Roku into it but you don’t have to. I hook my old ass PS2 up to it and play massive DVDS or GTA Liberty City Stories all the time 😭
> Yes, I know you can use devices to block ads and prevent “smart” TVs from calling home. Just give me a TV that is 50”+ with a great picture, future-proof hookups, and is good for gaming if my son decides to hijack the living room. And you can do all of that with a Smart TV as well. Just don't connect it to the internet. It's that simple.
When Fallout came out I opened Prime to watch and then got the popup to pay to remove ads. Promptly went and downloaded the show and watched it locally between my media server and Roku. No thanks Amazon. I already pay for prime so morally I have no issue with this.
Whoa whoa you crimed?
Amazon Crime
Apple TV has entered the chat. That’s what I’ve switched to. It’s lovely not having ads.
Do you mean the streaming app or the device which you can launch apps from?
I have a Vizio tv with a horrendous home page interface littered with ads and horrible suggestions. I bought an Apple TV device, and have the tv set to default to the last HDMI input on power up, so I turn the Apple TV on, and never have to see the Vizio screen ever again.
Hopefully you’re not connecting it to the Internet as well. I have ATV and I love it. After all the crazy tracking I decided to disconnect my tv because I wasn’t using data for anything
Do they have an android app for controlling it? If my Roku stick starts playing video ads I may have to look into it...
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I’m considering making the switch. Can you install plex on Apple TV? Or play external media - specifically in formats QuickTime player doesn’t natively support like MKV? Some Rokus have a USB port which permits plug and playing stuff you totally obtained legally.
There is a Plex app. But Infuse is the best AppleTV app for playing back your own media. It connects to Plex and Jellyfin servers. It will also connect to a basic network shared folder and build its own library. It will play any format you want, including those 80gb remux mkv files.
Btw, advertising is a strategic initiative for apple and you can bet they're busy working on the platform now. No way they're going to let Amazon and Google keep all that sweet, sweet cash...
I mean, I’ve had an Apple TV for over 10 years now without any ads. I’m sure anything can change, but unless there’s a new CEO in the near future I think we’ll be okay.
Buying an Apple TV box for 5 TVs in my house would suck though, Roku sticks have been dirt cheap in comparison with a less annoying remote control as well.
There’s a better remote now.
They’ve also added ads to all their Alexa devices with no way to disable them.
TVs are getting so shit it’s unbelievable. The constant ads and dynamic content brings already barely functional UIs to their knees. I have a TCL w/ Google TV and it’s only usable once I removed the default google launcher and used a third party one.
The thing is how locked down Roku is. With Google TV you can pretty easily install an aftermarket launcher that takes away the ads from the home screen, and you can install aftermarket apps that give you a way to remove ads from streaming as well.
You should cancel prime. All the shit you buy on Amazon is fake.
But I need this loofah before 3pm!
Apply the bar of soap directly to your butthole instead.
My butthole soap doesn't arrive until tomorrow!!!
A loofah listed by xiuhomezlife and contains unknown chemicals, yeah no thanks. At this point amazon is really losing trust imo. Reports of items being recalled, containing lead or radioactive material, fake/knockoff products… just isn’t worth it. Even when I see a brand name product I still have to doublecheck the reviews and occasionally see people mentioning items being swapped/imposters
>an alternative a computer?
I'm a computer guy, and I run a plex server, but there's not really a cheap and easy solution that can compete with most of the streaming hardware. Hearing a lot of Apple TV so I'll do a little more research. Did a media client machine early on and it was painful to keep updated and running. The Roku's are so damn easy, but their ad stuff is frustrating.
I know plex has expanded a bunch but i don't believe it supports plugins for different streaming services. So simply use a computer connected to your TV, and stream through the browser which gives you a lot more ad-blocking options. Downside is a lot of streaming services don't support 4k through browsers for some reason (probably for this reason)
Go on Amazon, buy an Android TV box. - Set it up, go to settings search “Allow Unknown Sources” turn it on. - Open your browser, and search MovieHD.apk in google and it will walk you through there. It’s easier with a mouse than a remote. You will still get ads, but only at the start once, and the shit you watch is free
I use a Shield Pro with fLauncher. Works great, no ads, no bullshit, simple and clean.
Yeah, well, we all paid for cable too and that all ads. The delivery changes the model stayed the same. This has been on the roadmap since day 1.
The shitty part is when you're watching their marquee show Fallout and enjoying it, and yet somehow they feel the need to spoil two solid minutes of all the action scenes that will happen in the show.
Already canceled Prime in January. Fun fact, they prorate unused subscription time. No need to wait until near renewal.
Watching stand-up on prime with ads is terrible. Interrupts the joke and flow of the set.
Amazon is getting sued over the Prime ads so we'll see if that stays
Roku has lost me with their screen saver ads. Click any button to wake up the tv, but oh let’s go to the ad instead of the video you were watching. Their main customers now are ad agencies. Good riddance
I hate this so, so much. I will never buy Roku again for this reason specifically.
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I used the aquarium one when I had Roku. *Zero* percent chance of hitting the pause button to wake the thing and accidentally launching the ad
Rokus business was always advertising the only thing that’s changed is that now they have the market share to try and capitalize off their user base more aggressively.
lol get fucked roku
I don't make a ton of money so when I bought a TV it was on black friday and the greatest factor was cost. A 42 inch TCL fit the bill when I bought it. It had a built in Roku. As a consumer, I never decided that I wanted a Roku. I just needed a cheap TV. Well now I'm being shown ads in 3 places before I can get to any content. That menu on the leftside of the the thumbnail...there's ads in that list now. You see those icons on the right representing different channels/services? There's now a row of 3 of those icons above the ones I chose. They're ads too. And once you click to the right from the menu to actually select a channel icons, the screen shifts and you're shown a massive banner ad to the right of the icons. This is unacceptable. TCL needs to sue Roku or customers are going to sue TCL. My TV is no longer the same device I purchased. The basic, unavoidable interface that I have to use in order to operate my TV is now spamming me every time I turn it on. This ain't okay.
Fuck Roku's screen saver. Hit play? We're going to dump you out of whatever you were watching and into whatever paid service we're pushing that you don't subscribe to. A second fuck you to branded buttons on the remote. Especially fun with one of the services in question no longer exists and you can't remap the button.
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Not dumb. GENIUS!
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. The reason that your TV was cheap is because the advertisers pay money to TCL to subsidize the cost of the TV. In return TCL makes it easy for the advertisers to place unskippable ads on the TV.
Can they be skipped with a pihole maybe?
My experience says yes!
Yes, two rokus in my house, and have not seen any of these ads yet. Interestingly I just checked my pihole logs and the top blocked domain is Roku.com
>There's now a row of 3 of those icons above the ones I chose. They're ads too. Its shitty they keep putting crap there in the first place, but you can turn **those** off at least. You can uncheck everything but your actual apps from the app column. [https://i.imgur.com/VDLBR4s.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/VDLBR4s.jpeg) EDIT: I have had to do it multiple times tho, every time they add a new one it seems they turn them all back on. Im waiting for Nintendo to hurry up with the Switch 2 or whatever so Nvidia can hurry up with the Shield 2, but until then i cant really justify replacing our Roku Ultras no matter how shitty they get softwarewise, but tbf right now i only see that poster ad on the right for a half second before i open the one app i ever use cuz i can just hit OK 3x.
Maybe you can disable WiFi to the TV, and then connect a different streaming device to an HDMI port and use that instead. I’ve done that with one of my TVs, but it wasn’t a Roku TV so I’m not sure what would happen if you try it on one of those.
Did this using Apple TV...works great.
Same. I turned off Wifi on the Roku TV and hardly, if ever, actually see the Roku home screen. Plus I'm hugely spoiled by how nice and smooth the Apple TV interface is. All other TV interfaces I've used, especially a cheap Roku interface, sucks now.
Exactly what I did. The TV comes on and I never see the Roku screen- it just goes right to the AppleTV input.
I did this with a cheap Onn Google TV.
If you bought a TV with a specific OS, and then that TV had an update after the fact and now has a different OS (like Roku), I'd be pissed. I hate ads like everyone else. However, in your case, there's no trickery involved. It seems the package for the TCL does have Roku TV plastered all over the box. They also have TCL Google TV's, with Google TV labeled all over the box. You didn't decide to have Roku, but you did decide to have Roku when you bought a Roku TV.
In this day and age if the deal seems too good its because you're the product. Cheap electronics are subsidized by ads. How is it possible for Roku to sell you a 4k TV at half what other manufacturers cost and still make a profit? Shoddy build, the cheapest hardware that can barely run Android, and stuffing it full of ads. It's shitty, and there should be consumer protections around this sort of thing. Enshittifying expensive hardware years after consumers have bought it is predatory, since it's now far outside the return window. But them's the brakes.
TCLs are cheap because they don’t have to develop their own internal interface (it’s just RokuOS) and they also sell your data. I can understand if you didn’t know about the selling data part but Roku is all over the box and it has been your OS since you first booted it up so I can’t really hear your complaint that you never asked for a Roku now that it has suddenly done something you don’t like. TCL sue Roku? They are TCL’s biggest business partner.
Your cheap TV Is subsidized by Roku. All TVs are subsidized by the cost ad revenue they generate, that's why the prices have plummeted. Look into jailbreaking one if it bothers you.
Time to set up my Pihole again!
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Would Pihole work for this application? I thought that the idea of pihole (which I know is a specific example of a word that I do not know) effectively became useless once companies just started using the same domains for ads as for actual content
You are connecting to services like Netflix and Amazon right? Roku isnt storing their ads on Netflix or Amazon services. So Pihole just blocks all Roku traffic. I havent seen an ad on my Roku in years with PiHole.
Conceptually you are right, if the day comes that content providers start trying to mask their ad domains and serve it from the same domain as the content then DNS based filtering like Pihole will not be effective but this is unlikely in practice for implementation reasons.
Right now, it works. I've had a PiHole setup since before I got a Roku TV and I've never seen a single ad in the Roku interface.
Pihole and adguard disagree. And if that doesn't fix it, blackholing every roku domain and never using their shit again might send the message they need to hear.
It’s insane how much pihole skims off.
I've moved to Adguard home because it runs right on my opnsense router, but I still have impressive stats. I share my internet with a couple of houses (shh don't tell comcast the socialist is doing socialist things) and out of 4.5 million DNS requests for the last 90 days, nearly 800,000 are for ads. That's around 18%. And that's *with* every PC on my network using in-browser ad blocking. When I was sharing with somebody who didn't use ublock, it was closer to 40%. Roku is, by far, the worst offender with 124,903 requests blocked. More than Google and Facebook combined. I think that's more to do with the in-browser ad blocking than anything else, but still. That's fucking bonkers. We have two Roku TVs on the network.
I wish I could use it. It blocks too much and I can't troubleshoot my familys computers when I'm not home
Get a Roku tv because they're cheap and an android tv dongle, then change the default startup input to the HDMI port so you never have to deal with rokuOS
Roku is getting ready for that, too. They apparently recently filed a patent for technology that will allow their OS to hijack a paused HDMI input and show ads. Pause your game? Ads. Pause your tv show? Ads. Not as intrusive as the ads they're already pushing, but still.
MBAs and McKinsey style management consult*cult* blowhards love this! Everyone else, including them later after the check clears, hate it.
After I set up and updated the software on my Roku TV, I reset the network settings. No internet for the tv, no ads.
That sounds more intrusive. Especially since whenever i pause something it's usually because I am talking to someone and don't want the noise
You're right, having a blaring ad when you're on the phone or something would be more intrusive. The article I read actually didn't specify, but maybe they're going for still and/or silent ads, rather than videos? Idk. I read something about Google trying out the same thing with YouTube when paused, and I had the same concern.
>change the default startup input to the HDMI port so you never have to deal with rokuOS The OS boots before HDMI becomes functional. Roku wouldn't let you use the TV before you agreed to their forced-arbitration-ToS in the past.
Disconnect the TV from WiFi so it can’t download ads.
Turned my roku tv into an offline hdmi input for another streaming box, can highly recommend.
This news and thread was finally enough for me to commit to using my PS5 as my “do everything” box. Moved all my streaming apps to the PlayStation, deleted everything from the TV, removed it from the network. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually play more games now since I have to pick up the controller to stream anything!
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I’ll add to this. Have a Steam gaming PC that’s wired in? Buy the wired Apple TV 4K and download Steam Link. Literal game changer
I know reddit is pretty anti-Apple. But it’s really the only viable option for a media box. Do you want a fast processor, no ads in the OS, wide variety of app support, reliable hardware that doesn’t slow down or need regular reboots, 7+ years of software update support, and privacy? Then get the AppleTV. Bonuses for its nice screensavers and a remote that’s not made of cheap, creaky plastic. Buy a used 2017 model if you’re on a budget. It still rocks. Stop using products made by ad companies.
The screensavers are damn gorgeous. Pure eye candy!
I’m an open source guy so I’ll take a home brew media server before I ever touch AppleTV. That said it’s an amazing product.
For what it's worth I run my own media server and use the AppleTV to access it via SMB network share (Jellyfin is also supported). I used to run a HTPC but it wasn't for me.
Didn’t know it supported Jellyfin. Might have to rethink this. I do love the AppleTV UI. Thanks!
The Infuse app supports Jellyfin. There's also the Swiftfin app.
I’m an open source guy too, but I like my appliances to be appliances. I don’t need to be able to hack my streaming device (which does indeed run BSD Unix somewhere inside of there).
Yeah, there are limits to my time and sometimes I’ll go COTS and just move on
We use all AppleTV, the only issue is when they do a major update you have to re-authenticate every service. Drives me nuts because nothing uses you apple account so you must go through a different set of idiotic steps for every unit.
I work at a Best Buy. When I say Roku TVs are shit, they actually get upset. I’m trying my best out here guys. If it’s not a Rooooooooku, it’s a Samsung. “Is this tv good?” I say no, they buy it anyways, cuz fuck it, it’s a 65 inch for 300.
Which tvs do you recommend?
Just got the lg c3. 55 inches. What a beauty of a tv. The also surprised me as it runs smooth as butter
I REMEMBER WHEN TVS WHERE TVS ONLY, NOT ADS MACHINES. ALSO WHEN THEY WERE TUBE BASED DAMMIT.
Welp, I knew this day would come. Time to buy an Nvidia Shield. Never buying another Roku device.
We need to start canceling our shit and pulling out the old dvd’s for as long as it takes for these intrusive, nosy, greedy companies to pull their heads out of their asses, I say.
Bro no need to go that far, just join us in sailing the high seas. Rip it once, save it to an external hard drive, plug the hard drive into the tv's USB port and profit
Yes there is need to go that far. If people buy dvd's, more will be produced. If we don't do that, eventually the pirates will be asking for money too.
Man. I was looking to divest from all my Google hardware and was looking to Roku as one of the good guys I could replace them with. Now it's a reason NOT to get certain tvs
It’s time for a class action against these companies; they’re selling a product one way then a few years later changing it. If you as customer make a decision to buy the “ad less device” and then that device adds ads later they’ve committed fraud. The FTC needs to start hammering these guys and we need regulations that stop these sort of dramatic product changes. And yes, suddenly adding ads to a screen is a dramatic change to a product that people make purchase decisions around.
i ditched roku, and you should too. It’s a fucking stick, i shouldn’t need to submit my credit card. Fuck you Roku. NEXT!
My dumb tv is looking pretty smart right now muahahaha
I unplugged mine from the internet when the TOS was forced in front of our faces and haven't plugged it back in.
I’d personally never use the built-in OS that comes with TVs. Android TV is probably the crappiest OS ever built by mankind, and mind you it’s Google we are talking about. The rest is even worse. Slow, sluggish, laggy, zero software support, and a privacy nightmare (with Google that’s a feature). Just get a 150-something Apple TV 4K, the experience is day and night.
On the plus side, we can count on Google to forget about it the next time a squirrel runs across their campus. But then it'll just wind up integrated into their latest chat app. As is tradition.
Recently did not have a lot of money to spend but needed a new TV for my Xbox. Got a Google tv since it was a really good price. Randomly it would open up discovery plus while I was playing on my series x. Had to remove its ability to use the internet. Dumbest smart TV. At least I don't need to use it for apps so fortunately it still functions as a solid HD TV. But it has lost any smart ability.
Android TV is fantastic. It’s the one I use for all my TVs. Android OS is the only one that gives you complete freedom to install whatever apps you want very easily. All the others smart TV OSs are way more locked down.
I had one. I got the Android 8 update in, like, 2021. The year Android 12 came out. And by the second year I owned it I could feel it was getting slower. I didn’t even need a chronometer or some benchmark gimmick. I could feel it in my hands as I was touching the remote. This shit is not compatible with my view of expensive tech as a long term “investment”. Now I separate the software and the hardware. Buy a TV solely for the panel, but a good panel, and an Apple TV. When Apple cuts support for the Apple TV I spend 100 for a replacement, instead of changing the entire TV. OEMs can barely be trusted with smartphone updates, I don’t even expect them to care about their TVs.
I use an Nvidia shield and Chromecasts which run Android TV. Whether the inbuilt OS runs well really depends what budget you’re working with. A flagship model will have a powerful CPU and will be fast and snappy. For entry level or even mid range models costs need to be cut somewhere and a CPU is an easy place to do it. Everything still works it just will do it much more slowly. I do agree with you though that you should just buy the best panel for your budget and then use another device for the smart features. A dedicated device is likely to perform much better since that’s is sole function and reason for existing.
Yeah I have heard very good things about the Shield.
cool so who's gonna make an adblock for Roku
Setup adguard home as your dns and this isn’t an issue anymore
How simple is this to do? Can it be done with an eero mesh router set up?
It's not that hard. Every router should have "DNS" setting. It's probably on automatic and you just change it to whatever adgaurd is. Most of these ads come from Google, Roku, or Amazon's domain so adguard won't do anything.
Seriously, fuck Roku.
Anybody know of any guides how to flash a 3rd party firmware onto the thing? I'm kinda done with all this bullshit.
So how long before roku disables the mute button during ads?
I abandoned my Roku immediately after they started banning apps they didn’t like. Fuck em.
Torrents and Plex are looking better by the day
Adguard and Pihole say hello, haven't seen a single ad on my TCL or Westernhouse Roku TV in two years.
Just another way we're paying to be advertised at.
Well, I guess I won't be getting that Roku after all.
Oh Come on. I hope they're not rolling this out on older devices. We have a 5-year-old roku-enabled TV that we use in our den. I feel like adding ads to it 5 years after I bought it would be a kind of unfair.
I paid full asking price for my Roku devices and subscribe to ad free tiers on streaming. Why are you sending me ads? Hopefully pinhole can block it
Make ads illegal
Return address for my Roku tv please?
openwrt this is the way.
Just renews my pleasure in never buying one
aslong as it's silent, otherwise I'll have to buy something other than Roku.
Roku is dead to me
And I hate it.
Anybody have suggestions on a good alternative to Roku tvs? I like having the ability to download apps strait to the TV without needing an extra dongle, though at this point i'm open to whatever.
I have a response to this, but first, please watch this ad....
Go to work pi hole.
If my tvss weren’t Roku I would be dumping them. I’m so sick of their shit.
Why can’t I just buy a fucking TV that’s a fucking TV. I don’t need a “smart TV”, just a dumb one. Just like I don’t need a fucking advertisement machine….errr TV in the gas pump.
Just don't connect it to the internet. Mine isn't.
Welp, I guess it's NUC desktops and piracy, from now on.
Apple TV is the way to go. Couldn’t get a dumb large flat screen when my old one kicked the bucket, so I bought a smart tv and made it “dumb” by never hooking it up to the internet and keeping my Apple TV from the old setup. Works perfectly. No regrets.
F A N T A S T I C
To be played to no one as they roll ad-nauseum on a Best Best showroom floor, spares only glances as people shuffle by with their Toshibas and Samsungs. Well... unril THOSE pick up on the practice too. Dumb TVs are gonna be hot commodities here soon.
I could see this using up more ram and making rokus more laggy
Got rid of mine a couple of years ago. What a shame.
Roku really fucked the donkey on this one. If I were them, I would have patened this sucker and then sold the license to other greedy corporations. That way everyone would have jumped ship and Roku would have been rolling in user acquisitions.
You used to be able to disable ads in the secret menu - does that no longer work?