“HDMI customized ad insertion” patent would show Roku’s ads atop non-Roku video
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Upvote
467
(471
/
-4)
Apple TV, no ads yet, but with the ways things are going, can't guarantee that either.
Upvote
311
(335
/
-24)
Upvote
617
(620
/
-3)
Alternatively, stream a browser window showing Twitter, and take pictures of ads next to Musk posts.
Upvote
280
(299
/
-19)
what happened to companies making money on quality products and sales?
When did we cross into the never ending circle jerk of advertising revenue being the only thing companies want?
Edit - My friends occasionally give me a hard time for buying and ripping physical media for self streaming, but this is exactly why I do it. I can’t stop the companies from dropping ads everywhere but I can at least run everything locally and just never connect my TV to the internet.
When did we cross into the never ending circle jerk of advertising revenue being the only thing companies want?
Edit - My friends occasionally give me a hard time for buying and ripping physical media for self streaming, but this is exactly why I do it. I can’t stop the companies from dropping ads everywhere but I can at least run everything locally and just never connect my TV to the internet.
Upvote
677
(678
/
-1)
Even better.
I'm sure either way that companies will love having no control over what type of content their ads will be displayed over.
Upvote
193
(194
/
-1)
Upvote
104
(104
/
0)
You know what would make Chester Cheetah really ‘pop’? Dale Earnhardt’s autopsy photos.
Upvote
91
(100
/
-9)
Don't buy their TVs? From the article it isn't clear if this is limited to their TV line or if they will also put it on their stand-alone devices.
Between Roku and Visio it seems likely that my next TV will be a computer monitor.
Upvote
352
(357
/
-5)
I have a Roku Ultra (was gifted to me), unfortunately it's not just the TVs...
Upvote
64
(67
/
-3)
Apple TV already has ads, at least mine does. Sure, they’re ads for Apple services and shows, but that doesn’t make them any less of an ad. They’re really optimistic that I’m going to subscribe to Apple TV+
Upvote
194
(231
/
-37)
And with this announcement I'll be either getting another Apple TV, or some other device, to replace the Roku dongle's I still have. And never purchasing a TV from them again in the future.
And if any other vendor decides to pull this kind of junk, well, I'll just find other alternatives or just buy older TV's without it. This ad push junk is really getting ridiculous at this point.
And if any other vendor decides to pull this kind of junk, well, I'll just find other alternatives or just buy older TV's without it. This ad push junk is really getting ridiculous at this point.
Upvote
172
(176
/
-4)
After their "Accept our new ToS or don't use the TV" stunt mine is now offline completely. I use an AppleTV for everything anyway and they (so far) don't seem to want to monetize every moment of my vision.
I preemptively disconnected my other 2 TV's (Google TV, Fire TV) before they decide to go down the same road.
I preemptively disconnected my other 2 TV's (Google TV, Fire TV) before they decide to go down the same road.
Upvote
217
(220
/
-3)
A partial workaround is to have somebody else's TV then use a Roku stick. You'll still get ads on what you stream through the stick (though so far at least the ads seem to be limited to the start screen and the "free" Roku channels, not the streamed content from other providers, except for whatever ads the content streamer shows (thinking of you, Amazon and Youtube)), but not on what you watch from other sources. The Roku stick lives on one of the HDMI ports; how would it see or intrude on what's happening on other ports if it's not part of the TV's OS?
Safest way to do that is having a dumb TV - OTA and ports, that's it. They're nearly unobtainium these days, unfortunately.
Safest way to do that is having a dumb TV - OTA and ports, that's it. They're nearly unobtainium these days, unfortunately.
Upvote
85
(89
/
-4)
i guess im one of today's lucky 10,000 because i have a shield tv pro and dont know what FLauncher is.
Upvote
83
(86
/
-3)
Roku has always has ads, this is just a new, and profoundly evil, way of pushing even more ads. And as was pointed out a couple of posts up, it's not clear that a Roku device could figure out what's going on elsewhere on the TV. If you ARE the TV however.......
Upvote
128
(131
/
-3)
Hopefully their patents are iron clad. That makes it very easy to skip such annoying behaviour.
Upvote
71
(71
/
0)
This is probably already evident and maybe your q is rhetorical, but just in case: basically it's because growth-at-all-costs quarterly capitalist vampires HATE it when a company only makes money once when they sell one thing. No, they need nice little line-go-up charts to show how a customer is increasingly monetized over their lifetime with that sweet, sweet recurring monthly revenue in order to make the circle-jerk of PE/public investment at ever-higher valuations -> C-suite bonuses continue. The name of the game is cash flows, and the steadier (while growing) the better.
Similar to how you can't just buy a thing from a store once anymore without them following you around for the rest of your life trying to keep you "engaged". Customer Lifetime Value needs to exist, and move up and to the right only.
Upvote
221
(228
/
-7)
I use atv launcher. The caveat is using another app to remap your home button. Afaik you can't set a default launcher via ADB on android tv. So you'll still sporadically see google play ads.
Upvote
22
(22
/
0)
Upvote
246
(259
/
-13)
"What is, how to make me get rid of every Roku device I own."
I'll take "Bad Ideas" for a thousand.
I'll take "Bad Ideas" for a thousand.
Upvote
156
(158
/
-2)
Not sure how the stand-alone devices would do this. If I am watching a Blu-ray, I am probably on a different input than the Roku stick at that point, so any ads it "shows" wouldn't be visible on my screen anyway.
Upvote
28
(37
/
-9)
I'd prefer the final option there, never hearing anything about it again.
* Scratches Roku off of all lists of entertainment and equipment options *
I don't really care if they just filed the patent and it's still a process before that patent is granted (if it is). I don't use Roku now, anyhow. But if one wishes to pay to walk in the blessed light of no advertising, one doesn't consort with devils who come up with ways to intrude on your bliss.
Upvote
141
(143
/
-2)
I haven't blocked my Roku TV from the internet (at least, not entirely, my PiHole blocks quite a few of its requests) yet because I do like to watch Nebula on it, but man I'm really thinking I made a mistake. Back when I got it, I wanted to avoid Google (because, Google), and I mainly wanted a Plex app easily available. I hadn't heard of (or maybe it didn't exist yet) Jellyfin at the time. AppleTV was unappealing because I hadn't even bit into the ecosystem at all back then, plus I wasn't sure it would suit my needs. And I wasn't interested in giving Amazon yet another data stream about me. It just seemed like Roku was the least worst option which was fit for purpose.. and of course, the price was pretty nice.
Now it seems like I might've been better off with a Google Chromecast or something.
Now it seems like I might've been better off with a Google Chromecast or something.
Upvote
60
(61
/
-1)
Great -- now that Roku has a patent, it might be easier to avoid this. Other companies should now be disincented to implement something like this because they might get sued!
Upvote
99
(99
/
0)
+1 for Shield Pro or Apple TV depending on your apple/android relationship.
Upvote
56
(56
/
0)
Good point, it doesn't apply to my non-Roku inputs to my non-Roku TV. It does apply to using the Ultra on a non-Roku TV though...
Upvote
-6
(4
/
-10)
What's annoying is the ~$200 TCL roku 43" 4K screens make a great monitor... I even prefer it over LG's dedicated 43" 4K monitor. I'm not that worried about this though... If it starts sending data back on what it sees it would all of a sudden cause huge HIPAA, SOX, and CFAA violations for companies that use these TV's as PC displays and they'd be sued out of oblivion.
Upvote
66
(70
/
-4)
I think that’s only if you’re hovering the focus over the (Apple) TV app in the main GUI. Much the same as Netflix or others in the top shelf of apps which can show available shows, etc in the top pane when you have the focus on that app. That’s not inserting into other apps video stream like this. This patent is troubling. I don’t use Roku and probably won’t but this would really make sure I don’t.
I don’t know that we can put the genie back in the bottle. Every company thinks they monetize customers after they’ve bought the product. It would take some legislation that we know Congress in the US isn’t capable of doing. They don’t care about people being ripped off or misused unless everyone gets really pissed. Even then they wait until something else pisses everyone off and they move on from that issue.
I blocked all my TV’s in my firewall. I found all kinds of weird traffic from LG and others. LG was sending info to Alphonso.TV without my knowledge. That was not OK.
Last edited:
Upvote
119
(119
/
0)
Any bets on this affecting AirBnBs business, considering how practically every house listed includes a Roku TV? One can only hope...
Upvote
-12
(7
/
-19)
Why can't Roku just be happy being a middleware and widget company. They make a device os and some devices, just call it there guys
Upvote
107
(107
/
0)
Sir, I like the cut of your jib.
(Except I'm already playing hard-core porn as a screensaver, so I might get things mixed up and take pictures of porn over the ads, thereby diluting the value of the porn itself.)
Upvote
66
(66
/
0)
So glad I reset my old TCL Roku TV back to factory and set it up in dumb mode like a year or two ago now.
They used to be a simple, cheap recommendation and that goodwill isn't just going downhill - it's freefalling.
They used to be a simple, cheap recommendation and that goodwill isn't just going downhill - it's freefalling.
Upvote
47
(47
/
0)
This seems like something that’s a thing for cheap TVs with Roku embedded. Kind of like Amazon’s approach with the fire tablets.
I don’t have a huge problem with it as long as they’re upfront about it, but OTOH I am so tired of the whole digital world becoming a spyware infested ad platform for whomever.
Will they be upfront? Who knows. I think many people who buy the absolute cheapest available items often aren’t very picky. Otherwise they’d buy something just a little more expensive that is meaningfully better.
Maybe they try this on mid range TVs too but I think those TVs would quickly get a bad reputation.
I don’t have a huge problem with it as long as they’re upfront about it, but OTOH I am so tired of the whole digital world becoming a spyware infested ad platform for whomever.
Will they be upfront? Who knows. I think many people who buy the absolute cheapest available items often aren’t very picky. Otherwise they’d buy something just a little more expensive that is meaningfully better.
Maybe they try this on mid range TVs too but I think those TVs would quickly get a bad reputation.
Upvote
-5
(16
/
-21)