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.
Uh huh, but collecting Blurays is just silly I’ve been told.
Get to the endgame. Just strap us to a chair and make us watch your crap ads Clockwork Orange style.
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?
The Matrix ad campaign
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.
Reasons I turn off WiFi on any TV I buy and use a streaming box
Roku will do this on their boxes too.
Yeah I don’t get roku boxes lol. I have an nvidia shield pro, and I’m considering loading the lineageOS software on it
I got the shield too, it’s amazing. Upgraded from an old Chromecast and it’s night and day, didn’t realize how slow the Chromecast was, even on Ethernet.
oh man, hard agree, the shield is the kind of android boxes
Roku devices and fire sticks belong in the recycle bin.
I switched everything to Apple TV .
I’m not into the apple walled garden, I use android boxes
I was seeing the Moana promo with my Roku streaming stick on a Samsung TV. Didn’t look like an ad exactly tho, just a nice ocean background behind the menu.
personally I prefer android streaming boxes, because you can install custom versions of android tv on them, so if the official release from google is bad, you can just go to the community version
There any custom versions you can point me to? I’ve been looking for a custom Android OS to install on my Insignia Fire TV.
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
lineageOS, but you have to have a supported device, and I’m not seeing that device on there. Plus fire tv’s are pretty locked down. I would suggest walmarts onn 4k box or an nvidia shield
Think of any invasive streaming devices in your house. Samsung, Google Chromecast, ATV, LG etc. Roku is by far the worst.
I think this happened to me last night with an ad for Moana 2 playing automatically. I just assumed I accidentally hit a button. I was on the home screen but it enlarged and played in the basically the top quarter of the screen. I hit Close and it closed.
Also, the Netflix app is absolute garbage on the TCL Roku TVs. Constantly freezes and crashes, sometimes while not even try to rewind or pause/resume. It just decides its had enough and causes the TV to restart lol.
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.
We have several TCL Roku TVs and Netflix is trash on all of them. Netflix is fine on the streaming sticks though. And every app seems to take some time to load as well. The TVs are pretty old so that’s probably why.
I noticed the Moana background a couple days ago and thought it looked very nice. But to me it didn’t seem like it was “playing” an add, in the sense that there wasn’t a noticeable wait time before the remote worked. Checked again just now and it’s gone back to a plain gray background.
So glad I blocked my TVs access to the Internet at the router level. Never complainrd about not setting up a network if the network doesn’t work.
Why even connect the tv to your local network?
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.
What a goofy thing to ask. You know exactly why people use smart TVs on the Internet.
If this happens on my box I’ll be taking them to small claims court and let you all know how it goes…
Just a heads up that you probably “agreed” to binding arbitration…
Anybody notice the Max app on roku requires clicking twice to pause and then twice to unpause? Very odd and annoying glitch or feature.
FWIW Roku doesn’t make the apps. That’s on Max. The Paramount app is trash too, resume doesn’t work.
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
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.
PiHole.
My friend doesn’t understand this reference, could you elaborate, please?
Install a Pihole server on your network. It’s a DNS filter. When a client tries to access a domain that has been blacklisted (ie a known ad or tracker domain), it denies the lookup.
On my roku homescreen it just has an empty placeholder where it tried to put the ad, but my Pihole server denied it.
Is there risk of a sort of arms race wherein services will update and decline to render services to those who block said blacklisted ad domains, or has that already happened?
I can’t imagine that happening with today’s systems. Yes, it’s theoretically possible. It just seems unlikely that they’d go through the trouble of denying service to someone who didn’t fetch data from one specific domain but did get it from another.
this is the worst, next they’re gonna put ads on cars
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.
Have I got horrible news for you
Bro they already tried charging you monthly sub for unlocking seat heating functionality… if they are not already here, you can bet they are coming.
I only ever tried using a Roku so I could stream my PC to my smart TV, but it turns out there’s MASSIVE latency. Of course I returned it. If I had to deal with that AND ADS, I would have set that shit on fire
Steam Link works well if they’re still around.
At the moment I just have an old laptop and connect it to my TV via hdmi and installed Parsec on both devices. It’s a nice, free method.
In the future though I do want to look into getting a mini PC and doing essentially the same thing except it could be an individual device for the most part.
Not sold new
