Libreelec on raspberry pi 4 (Kodi) works for me but it really needs a new YouTube app. That’s the only issue really
“Awful”: Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen
Submitted 1 year ago by flop_leash_973@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/roku-says-unpopular-autoplay-ads-are-just-a-test/
Comments
tomjuggler@lemmy.world 1 year ago
melfie@lemmings.world 1 year ago
Anyone successfully installed LineageOS on Nvidia Shield or Onn devices? I ran the Konstakang AndroidTV build of Lineage on a Raspberry Pi 4 a couple years ago, and it was nice in how uncluttered and non-spywarey it was, but I ended up buying a Shield because hardware decoding never worked well and the frame rate drops were unbearable.
muculent@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I was just looking into this and saw this comment. I’m just using Xubuntu on an old laptop at the moment but this sort of thing is what I really want to go for so I might test it out when I get more time.
muculent@lemmy.world 1 year ago
- Disconnect from network
- Factory reset
- Use HDMI to plug into a device that actually respects your privacy and does what you want (Jellyfin, Plex, Pihole for even more goodness, and simply run other streaming services via privacy enchances browser)
- Enjoy life without enshittified asshole OS no one asked for by going back to a time that was better.
Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
This kind of garbage is why I’ve never connected my tcl tv with bulit in roku to the internet.
JIMMERZ@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Watching Roku steadily decline from a trusted brand has been something. For a time, they were the alternative to the other bigger more Ad driven companies. I’ve owned 2 and used to enjoy them overall. Now, they’ve slowly become just as bad or worse than their competitors in some regards. When history looks back on streaming boxes as a failed delivery method, Roku might just get to be the example in the forefront.
T00l_shed@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Was roku recently acquired by an investment firm?
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Uh huh, but collecting Blurays is just silly I’ve been told.
Veneroso@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Get to the endgame. Just strap us to a chair and make us watch your crap ads.
SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 1 year ago
But the eyelid things look like they’re really uncomfortable. Any chance you can just hack into our brains and stream advertising consistently while I’m in a coma?
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The Matrix ad campaign
Empricorn@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Roku box: Bye, bitch!
HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 1 year ago
Aaargh matey!
MetalMachine@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Roku is the one that bricked peoples TVs unless they agreed to their new terms of service.
MiDaBa@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Think of any invasive streaming devices in your house. Samsung, Google Chromecast, ATV, LG etc. Roku is by far the worst.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
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.
melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
pirate, or you’ll just be doing the same fucking thing again in two years.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
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.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Anybody notice on Max with roku you have to click twice to pause and then twice to unpause? Very annoying.
_stranger_@lemmy.world 1 year ago
FWIW Roku doesn’t make the apps. That’s on Max. The Paramount app is trash too, resume doesn’t work.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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?
LucidNightmare@lemm.ee 1 year ago
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.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
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.
candyman337@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Reasons I turn off WiFi on any TV I buy and use a streaming box
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
candyman337@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
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
thermal_shock@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Roku will do this on their boxes too.
candyman337@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Yeah I don’t get roku boxes lol. I have an nvidia shield pro, and I’m considering loading the lineageOS software on it
AvailableFill74@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Roku devices and fire sticks belong in the recycle bin.
I switched everything to Apple TV .
cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I think this happened to me last night with an ad for Moana 2 playing automatically. I just assumed I accidentally hit a button.
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.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
ABonar@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I thought the Netflix issue was just me! I also got the Moana 2 ad yesterday and assumed that I’d hit something, too. Good to know it wasn’t me, bad to know it was intentional on Roku’s part.
cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
modus@lemmy.world 1 year ago
PiHole.
TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 1 year ago
My friend doesn’t understand this reference, could you elaborate, please?
bearboiblake@pawb.social 1 year ago
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
modus@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
oyo@lemm.ee 1 year ago
If this happens on my box I’ll be taking them to small claims court and let you all know how it goes…
phorq@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
Just a heads up that you probably “agreed” to binding arbitration…
Tantheiel@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Why even connect the tv to your local network?
Tantheiel@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
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.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 year ago
What a goofy thing to ask. You know exactly why people use smart TVs on the Internet.
histic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Casting, using your phone for a remote, so the popup for connecting goes away
_sideffect@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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
spaffel@spaffel.social 1 year ago
Can i pleace find a decent TV without smart-capabilitys? I just want HDMI thats it
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
A buddy sent me this recently. I’m intrigues. www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=46513
RedEyeFlightControl@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Buy a commercial signage display. It’s just a TV without the smart garbage.
Or, get a projector :)
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
A Sharp Aquos TV from the late 2000s, pre-Hisense days. I have a 42" model from 2007. 1080p, plenty of I/O for modern and legacy equipment, and lots of configuration options. It’s an absolute monster at 75 lbs, but is an incredibly high quality unit, especially for it’s age. I’ve owned it since 2019 and it’s needed zero repairs.
For reference, we also have a much newer 55" curved Samsung TV (in our basement, wall-mounted up high) which that has already needed its display driver board replaced.
Smokeless7048@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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!
scala@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
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.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Cheap computer monitor works well for me.
CatZoomies@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Just a heads up that the Smart Cancer has already begun infecting PC monitors. Samsung makes Smart Monitors.
It won’t be long before there are no longer Dumb Monitors.
CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Don’t give your TV wifi access, use a separate device to watch stuff (Chromecast, FireTV, Android box, etc…)
jacksilver@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah, that was my approach, but the forced ads are also on the roku stick :(
surph_ninja@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
dan1101@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’ve had luck with just not giving a smart TV my wifi password.
Captainautism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
I’m looking to upgrade the living room TV soon, and this is what I plan to do.
moseschrute@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s what I do
TK420@lemmy.world 1 year ago
[deleted]Bristingr@lemm.ee 1 year ago
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.
PeteZa@lemm.ee 1 year ago
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.
dan1101@lemm.ee 1 year ago
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.
PeteZa@lemm.ee 1 year ago
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.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 1 year ago
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.
Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
PeteZa@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’m not surrending shit. It’s really Android TV, they just call it Google. But whatever man, go off.
0x0@programming.dev 1 year ago
I prefer a dumb TV.
PeteZa@lemm.ee 1 year ago
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.
Amanduh@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Nvidia shield is android and works like a roku or chromecast
Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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. If I had to deal with that AND ADS, I would have set that shit on fire
OminousOrange@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Steam Link works well if they’re still around.
a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
i have 3 just in case one dies
Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
Mandragora@lemmy.world 1 year ago
this is the worst, next they’re gonna put ads on cars
scala@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
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.
Fixxelious@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Bro they already tried charging you monthly sub for unlockibg seat heating functionality… if they are not already here, you can bet they are coming.
not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
isn’t their a foss os you can flash on your tv?
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
I was thinking about changing my Roku TV anyway. “Dumb” TVs are the future for me.
ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 1 year ago
So glad I ditched Roku. My modified Onn box (with an open source, ad-free launcher) is so much better.
blazeknave@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Almost downvoted instinctually as a reaction to the headline. Visceral reaction. I hate this beyond belief.
Sprocketfree@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Ughhh just unsubscibe