Roku OS’s home screen now features a large, permanent ad
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Stop. Giving. Those. Assholes. Your. Fucking. Money.
They've been constantly enshittifying stuff. I know this and I'm not even a customer!
They've been constantly enshittifying stuff. I know this and I'm not even a customer!
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RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Wait till you get those Free Vizios from Walmart... it will play ads even while its off! Oh, you can't turn it off!!! /s
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Decades-long Roku customer.
Them: “One of the things we found is that not very many people actually customized those app screens,” Smalley told Fast Company. “They’d end up scrolling all the way to the bottom of this long list. So, what we wanted to do was actually pull that all together in a way that made sense for you.”
Me: The instant any new nonsense gets crammed into my Roku home page I immediately remove it before watching anything.
I haven't seen the new UX updates yet. There's been a big ad on the right for me for a long time unless you were actively navigating the left menu. Now I'm dreading discovering what they've done...
Them: “One of the things we found is that not very many people actually customized those app screens,” Smalley told Fast Company. “They’d end up scrolling all the way to the bottom of this long list. So, what we wanted to do was actually pull that all together in a way that made sense for you.”
Me: The instant any new nonsense gets crammed into my Roku home page I immediately remove it before watching anything.
I haven't seen the new UX updates yet. There's been a big ad on the right for me for a long time unless you were actively navigating the left menu. Now I'm dreading discovering what they've done...
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chaos215bar2
Ars Praefectus
Just replace them one at a time. Don't reward this behavior with more money.
$10/month will replace all your hardware within about 5 years.
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"Denham's Dentifrice, Denham's Dandy Dental Detergent" on repeat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can't turn it off.
We can't have you thinking, or meditating, only consuming.
We can't have you thinking, or meditating, only consuming.
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Didn't someone try that already? I think it was a TV with a smaller, super wide screen below it that always displayed ads.
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Roku has lost the thread. The I haven’t replaced any of mine in 5-6 years and, at this point, I won’t be doing so ever.
Roku has enshittified so hard that it’s hardware is no longer in the conversation between Nvidia Shield Pro and Apple TV.
Roku has enshittified so hard that it’s hardware is no longer in the conversation between Nvidia Shield Pro and Apple TV.
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I'll never buy another Roku anything again. My TCL TV with Roku was great when I bought it, now it won't even let me select an input without being connected to the internet.
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I have a couple old Rokus that I bought years ago and still use them because I'm cheap. I also use pi-holes on my network and the volume of advertising & analytics traffic that it blocks from these devices are insane.
I'm holding out for the next generation Apple TV. Once that's available I plan on tossing all our Roku's into the trash and switching. There's nothing redeeming about the Roku that could convince me to stay with it at this point.
I'm holding out for the next generation Apple TV. Once that's available I plan on tossing all our Roku's into the trash and switching. There's nothing redeeming about the Roku that could convince me to stay with it at this point.
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After having a couple of Fire sticks and using built in Android TV the best thing I ever did was pick up an Apple TV. No ads on the home screen is great, as is the search function looking the same in all the apps. I might not like the alphabetical keyboard, but at least its always the same
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Done with Roku. Final straw:
An elderly person says "open channel 123" to the voice remote. It navigates to antenna TV, channel 123. This works for years.
Past few months? "open channel 123" may well search Roku's OS for "channel 123" and present random streaming options.
OK, it's necessary to maintain profitability, but it's necessary for elderly folks to be able to use their technology, so Apple TV it is. Just have to pull trigger on e.g. HDHomeRun (annoying expense and new interface to learn, but alas). Unless there's a better option!
An elderly person says "open channel 123" to the voice remote. It navigates to antenna TV, channel 123. This works for years.
Past few months? "open channel 123" may well search Roku's OS for "channel 123" and present random streaming options.
OK, it's necessary to maintain profitability, but it's necessary for elderly folks to be able to use their technology, so Apple TV it is. Just have to pull trigger on e.g. HDHomeRun (annoying expense and new interface to learn, but alas). Unless there's a better option!
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This, for everything.
Stop suggesting shit. I have never taken a look at it. I lack the disposable income to just buy shit randomly, so I have to have a reason to make a purchase, or to actually watch something. I'm FINE looking up something, as long as the search methods aren't the kind that make me want to pull my hair out. I'm also fine with eliminating options based on my preferences. I want to see things I want to see when I ask to see them.
But stop suggesting shit. This applies to everything. I am not swayed by that. It's a waste of your time, and data stream to do that, too. This isn't the theater. I'm not a captive audience. And I can switch to another service almost as fast as I can change my underwear, and with a LOT less effort.
If streaming services could just get this fucking concept down, my streaming life would be a lot more tolerable.
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I dumped Roku when the set up wouldn't allow me to set a DNS server address of my choice. Which would of course be the address of my Pihole. Saw this crap coming long ago. Glad those of you that have stuck with it got some years out of it.
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They 64GB one is now $129. Plus if some of your TVs aren’t 4K you can pick up the previous generation for about $80 on Backmarket.
And the older ones don’t make you pay $20 extra for an Ethernet port for hardwiring (which I’d hate to live without, nothing worse than a WiFi dropout in the middle of a tense scene). If buying new Apple TV 4K for my primary TV I’d spend the $149 for that, the extra 64GB is immaterial.
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So I know Apple TV is one alternative. Are there any other suggestions? Requirements:
Strongly preferred:
Don’t care:
* I have no use for 4K, HDR, etc. Standard 1080p is sufficient.
- Must be operable by non-tech wife and teenager using just a remote.
- Must not become a “project” by itself. I don’t mind some initial setup or whatever, but if I/we sit down to watch something, it better work and not turn into 5 minutes of me figuring out what broke this month.
- Must support Plex, Netflix, Disney+, and YouTube.
- Price under $200 (Apple TV is $130)
Strongly preferred:
- Support Airplay or whatever from a MacBook.
- Be able to control the TV on/off and power with the same remote as the new device. (The current TV has Roku built in)
Don’t care:
* I have no use for 4K, HDR, etc. Standard 1080p is sufficient.
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This only works when there is an alternative that is not showing ads. Right now, that alternative is Apple TV. But, Apple already has ads on the App Store, and they are getting ready to sell ads that will go on Maps (this summer?). If you were an Apple executive and you were focused on "line go up", just what would you be looking to put ads on next?
I argue that they've already screwed up the Apple TV app on the Apple TV by cluttering it up with everybody else's shows & putting those awful previews at the top of the screen.
When the ads get more prevalent, at that point, we're stuck either watching ads, being satisfied with 2K blu-rays or hoisting the Jolly Roger.
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I've happily moved on too, but FYI for others reading, if you block tcp and udp 53 from it , it will grudgingly use your DNS. (haha, autocorrect made that "DNA" which I'm sure it would use if it could figure out how to)
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Luckily my Roku TV is apparently too old for this form of home screen. I still have the red screen--never seen the purple 'city skyline' screen except when I travel and stay somewhere that has Roku TVs/Roku devices.
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I've had a Roku for years, but only started using it within the past year. I have a pfSense firewall running pfBlockerNG and have never seen an ad on my Roku. I explicitly sorted the Apps on the Roku home screen to put the ones I use right at the top. I'm going to be pissed their "AI" screws up the order, or if I have to navigate past "Top Picks for You" to get to the service I want. I can always go back to using the PC hooked to the TV instead if the new UI is too annoying.
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Animated recommended by AI flashing dancing ads.You know what's coming next, animated ads in that space. Flashing dancing ads.
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First off, given the number of Roku remotes I've had to replace because my dog ate them you'd think they'd be doing better financially. Amazon delivers a remote about once a week. She leaves all the other remotes alone. But the Roku? She'll pull it off the top shelf (Or pull the whole case over which would be worse) and just chomp the shit out of it.
Secondly, if this is the price I have to pay to avoid having invasive adds DURING my streams I guess I'll take it. I don't like it but it could, and probably eventually will, be worse. It's still better than having a Fire Cube in the house listening to everything and then generating adds from that.
Secondly, if this is the price I have to pay to avoid having invasive adds DURING my streams I guess I'll take it. I don't like it but it could, and probably eventually will, be worse. It's still better than having a Fire Cube in the house listening to everything and then generating adds from that.
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Because there might be some space that doesn't have ads, and WE CAN'T HAVE THAT.
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My Roku remotes power off my LG tv natively. No need for an IR blaster or any other app. Just go into the Roku menu and tell it to program the remote for the brand of TV I have.
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Trading at 98x earnings. Prepare for some layoffs.
The roku experience like 10 years ago was good. It's been getting worse every time. Slower, shittier, more adds. It's listening to your conversations.
The roku experience like 10 years ago was good. It's been getting worse every time. Slower, shittier, more adds. It's listening to your conversations.
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I think I "unplugged" my Roku TV from the internet around a year ago. We've been using Apple TVs for years now and they're worth every penny. As a bonus, the stock Roku remote couldn't control the volume of our soundbar, but the Apple TV remote has an IR blaster.
This still makes me wish someone would sue them for this bait-and-switch nonsense.
This still makes me wish someone would sue them for this bait-and-switch nonsense.
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The Google Streamer thing is a good option. The default launder is a bit bloated and has recommendations, but I've moved to Projectivity Launcher on all my Google TV devices. Amazing how snappy these devices can be when they're not loading in garbage. It still supports your apps providing suggestions, if that's something you're interested in, but that's also something you can disable. I don't consider Apple TV+ putting the latest episode of the last show I watched under the recommendation section ads though, that's a shortcut back to what I was watching.
You could do the same with some no-name Google TV device (I think Walmart's store brand makes one for really cheap) but I prefer to stick to know brands. The NV Shield TV is good, but it's awfully long in the tooth considering they're still asking full price.
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Terminal stage has been reached. I remember when it was the cleanest option. Mandatory everything makes it perfect for the bottom of the trashcan
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Proof again I was correct to switch to ATV. It does help to be "all in" for all the features, but my in-laws have old school flip phones and manage to use the one at their house perfectly and never bothered about missing features as they don't use computers either.
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Our Apple TVs turn their actual TVs on and off with the power button. Pretty sure that depends on there being an HDMI-CEC input on the TV, but for what it's worth, we're two for two.
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The alternative is for everyone to stop watching for a couple of weeks. For example, boycott the stupid World Cup by not watching it and they will feel the pinch. Can’t stop watching for a couple of weeks? Well… they got you where they wanted. Sorry for you.
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Walmart sells a streaming device called the "Onn" for twenty dollars that ticks all your boxes. I don't use it myself, prefer a Linux minipc, but an older family member of mine enjoys it.
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I'm so, so glad I disconnected mine before it was "blessed" with that "feature".
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Same with my Shield and LG tv.
I do have a Roku older model on a second TV. The batteries just fry in that remote so I don't use it. Not sure what's up with it. Maybe the headphone jack hardware does something but man that thing eats AAs.
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