• imvii@lemmy.ca
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          13 days ago

          I seem to be lacking in Soma and orgies.

          Ah crap. That means I’m an Epsilon.

    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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      14 days ago

      This is already my experience but still use a Roku to access Plex. Looks like I’ll need to get something else or figure out if i can block them with Ad Guard Home

      • unconsciousvoidling@sh.itjust.works
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        14 days ago

        I use pi hole and the experience is not entirely smooth. I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this but my pi hole blocks ads but every few weeks Roku has an update and it locks up the entire operating system and I’m stuck in a loop of trying to get my update so I can return to normal. I for the hell of it disabled pi hole for 5 minutes and it wound up working but not until I dropped pi hole. So it’s as if it every so often decides to hold the operating system hostage if I don’t drop pi hole for updates. Makes me think they likely get all the telemetry they are trying to collect for selling data. I like not watching ads 90 percent of the time but it pisses me off that they are likely still spying on me by forcing me to communicate with their servers every now and then.

        • LeeroyTubbins@lemm.ee
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          14 days ago

          Interesting, I use PiHole as well and have no issues with any of my Roku devices. I wonder if you have more restrictive blocking or some particular rule that I don’t. What lists are you using in PiHole?

        • Tim_Bisley@piefed.social
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          14 days ago

          I can’t recall having that issue but I stopped using pi-hole because it was blocking certain functionalities on some websites. It required a more hands on approach than I wanted to dedicate at the time.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
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    14 days ago

    Not a surprise for Roku. The company has been getting progressively worse in the last few years and their enshittification is accelerating. Their recent forced download of an update that requires users to agree to arbitration to even use our TVs was intended to ultimately take control of those TVs completely away from the people who own them.

    Right now it’s possible to block Roku’s static ads and presumably the autoplaying ones using a local DNS server like Adblock Home or Pihole, but it’s only a matter of time before Roku blocks everything unless we watch the ads they are trying force down our throats. I’m already in the process of obsoleting all 5 of our Roku devices.

    It has taken Roku years to build up enough market share to allow this kind of behavior and it will take years for the market to abandon them. Their executives will claim ignorance as to why users are walking away when it finally hits their bottom line.

  • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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    14 days ago

    Roku is bad, I have one older Roku ““smart”” tv that I just block from accessing the internet entirely, and use a shield with a custom launcher instead.

      • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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        14 days ago

        So, I use regex to block all Roku domains on my network via pihole:

        (ads|logs|cloudservices|image|images|web|prod.mobile|wwwimg|captive|customer-feedbacks|amoeba|amoeba2|sr|giga.sb|cs).roku(.admeasurement)*.com$

        Then, possibly overkill due to the above, I used OpnSense firewall rules to block all traffic from my Roku tv. I think I just got fed up with seeing Roku spam in my pihole, as the above regex seems to completely “break” Roku.

        After that, I set up FLauncher (following the method #2 instructions on the gitlab page) on my shield. This makes it so I only see the Roku launcher for a few seconds while the shield starts up, and then I’m dropped straight into flauncher. I chose flauncher because it’s very simple and barebones, so you might want to explore other options if you want more advanced features. I don’t really need those features since I’m usually using an app anyway.

        Note that I did all of that after the tv was configured and set up, YMMV if it’s a brand new tv as it may need to call home to do the initial set up.

    • firadin@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Is there any point in getting anything above the bottom tier Shield? Just trying to use it to replace my chromecast/stream tv and youtube

        • fishpen0@lemmy.world
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          13 days ago

          Lemmy especially sleeps on the Apple TV more than most communities. It’s a solid box that has no ads and no privacy issues. Plex, Jellyfin, etc… all installable. With apples track record on previous versions of the Apple TV, software updates and support for about a decade

          • firadin@lemmy.world
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            13 days ago

            I assume being Apple that it’s not possible to sideload apps not supported on the app store? In particular I’d like to use some kind of a SmartTube or other youtube app that is ad free

            • fishpen0@lemmy.world
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              13 days ago

              You can use sideloadly but IIRC you need a Mac for it to work. My YouTube workflow is a YouTube-dl wrapper that pipes into jellyfin for the small handful of things I still watch from YT, so I’m less familiar with live YouTube interfaces to know which ones are out there.

            • AtariDump@lemmy.world
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              13 days ago

              That is correct.

              But which do you want? Privacy or convenience? No one makes a streaming device that does both.

      • consumptionone@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        I have been using an onn 4k streaming box, which runs Google TV. They’re $20. It’s pretty easy to disable the default launcher and have it boot to Flauncher. Then you can side load smart tube for an ad free YouTube experience asking with Plex, stremio, or whatever else you want to stream.

      • limonfiesta@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        Nvidia has destroyed the stock Shield TV experience with ads, but it’s easy to install custom launchers like Projectivy. The underlying system is still a privacy nightmare, but I don’t care that Nvidia knows what TV shows I watch.

        I mean, I do care, just not enough to use something like Kodi as my primary TV interface. Maybe if I used any ad supported services I’d feel differently, but I don’t, so meh.

  • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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    14 days ago

    Im literally willing to ditch the device and cancel all streaming services because of this. When I turn on my TV I don’t want to be forced to consume ads when I haven’t been provided with anything in return.

    • Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
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      14 days ago

      I just block all ads at the router level. When looking through the most blocked domains I see a lot from Roku.

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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        14 days ago

        When was the last time they even refreshed the hardware? Kinda hard to justify a $200 streaming box that runs Google services on 6 year old mobile hardware.

        • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
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          13 days ago

          About 10 years old actually. It’s the TI-83 of streaming boxes at this point: an absolute fucking rip-off. Pretty on-brand for Nvidia though.

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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            13 days ago

            Yeah it’s got about the same specs as a $30 Amazon tablet and you’d now be relying on the largest ad company in the world (Google) instead of Roku, so it does seem like a total ripoff at $200

        • DontMakeMoreBabies@lemm.ee
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          13 days ago

          Blame the rest of the market for being shit - Shield pro is still the best box on the market for streaming HD video with HD audio.

          • fishpen0@lemmy.world
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            13 days ago

            The Apple TV 4K does do atmos and has since 2018.

            You are correct about TrueHD. In order to get it with Apple tv you have to be using a tv and audio equipment that supports eARC but even then it’s a raw PCM stream which is technically different.

            As the average consumer waits 6-8 years to buy a new TV at least half of the people reading this probably still don’t have eARC as it was only common in the highest end of tvs back then. But that probably also means their tv or audio equipment wouldn’t be capable of TrueHD anyway.

            For anyone reading this, don’t spend $200 on a set top box with capabilities your TV can’t handle. Save money on the box and upgrade your other equipment sooner.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    For years I was a big fan of Roku. It represented a better value alternative from the big corporations pushing their own agenda like Google, Apple, Samsung, and Amazon. They made products that were intuitive and user oriented and carved out a very nice and stable market share for themselves because of it. Now they’re just leveraging their hardware relationships to transform the software into something terrible.

    I used to look for tvs with Roku built in. Now I’ve disabled Roku features from my smart TVS and use a separate streaming device.

      • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        I think it depends on the model, but there should be something in the power settings to change the startup device. I did a factory reset first to clear any network settings or user data, skipped the setup, and set it to startup on the HDMI input.

    • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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      I think the issue is they hit market saturation and haven’t been able to develop any real revenue streams beyond the sale of devices (which is one time cost while maintenance and development constantly drain them of any profit).

      I suspect the increased enshitification is because they need other revenue streams. Just take a look at their stock price and it doesn’t paint a great picture for them.

      • Hellmo_luciferrari@lemm.ee
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        14 days ago

        I wouldn’t say this is “better”

        I do run a pihole, but I still will never connect my roku to the internet. It is much better to have a media PC or other streaming device I have control of fully connected.

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          14 days ago

          True, but most people are buying off-the-shelf stuff and they don’t have their own localized piracy-enabled libraries with a Jellyfin server.

          Further, I’m pretty sure you’ve got to connect your Roku at least once to install player apps like Jellyfin. But maybe you don’t, I’m not at all familiar with if you can sideload on a Roku.

          • Steve@startrek.website
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            14 days ago

            There is actually a way to sideload apps without internet. I did it once and forgot the details

          • Hellmo_luciferrari@lemm.ee
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            13 days ago

            For any streaming, Netflix, YouTube, or anything I would always use a computer. Not some awful app on a slow device. No screen of mine needs to be anything besides a screen.

      • ALostInquirer@lemm.ee
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        14 days ago

        Would you happen to know of any guides or have advice on identifying the adservers to block?

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          14 days ago

          I’ve always just done it manually by viewing the Pi-Hole logs for the device I am on while the ad is loading. It takes getting into the weeds a bit.

          Further, I don’t have a Roku so I’ve never looked into it myself.

          That being said, a quick search brought up this hosts file:

          https://gist.github.com/sidward35/cea28bedd0ec0b1bceec8c2b22c163c4

          Adlist for Pi-hole with domains for Roku, LG, and Samsung

          Not sure if it’s current or not. Lots of threads about Roku ads making it through after being previously blocked.

          • ALostInquirer@lemm.ee
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            14 days ago

            Appreciate the reply and link regardless! It’s always whack-an-ad with these intrusive jerks.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      14 days ago

      Don’t connect your Roku to the internet.

      I thought that Roku was some kind of streaming service to a device. Doesn’t that need to be Internet-connected to function?

      kagis

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku

      Ah. Apparently that’s what they originally did, but they’ve also subsequently come out with smart TVs, which I assume can operate without an Internet connection.

      • GreyBeard@lemmy.one
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        14 days ago

        Roku started as a streaming media box. You paid them money, they gave you a box that could play Netflix and Youtube. It was a simple transaction. Unfortunately, at some point they decided to start selling/giving their OS to TV manufacturers. This was actually nice at the start. You got a smart TV who’s “Smarts” were designed by competent people. A revolution at the time. But the drive to drop prices lower and lower meant that there was no margin on the TV, which means Roku had to investigate other ways of making their revenue, AKA Ads and selling data.

        Of course, the stand alone box probably would have went that way anyways, but at least with selling a dedicated box, there is a clear financial benefit without the need to get invasive.

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    14 days ago

    Almost downvoted instinctually as a reaction to the headline. Visceral reaction. I hate this beyond belief.

  • nul9o9@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Roku had the best smart tv ui. I was seriously bummed when the ads started rolling in a few years ago.

    I want an open source streaming client, but from what I hear DRM gets in the way of that.

    • PeteZa@lemm.ee
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      13 days ago

      I’ve much preferred Google TV for some time now. The recommendations and live free tv options are essentially built into the UI. Although I do use the Roku app as one of my free streaming options lol.

  • spongebue@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Looking around Roku’s site, I found this email address: [email protected]

    I’m planning on giving them a brief but firm “oh hell no” letter. I wonder how many others will do the same 🤔

    • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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      14 days ago

      I emailed them to let them know I cancelled Disney+ and cited this specific ad and advertisement campaign through Roku as to why I cancelled the service.

      Let’s make the companies who advertise this way feel pain.

  • _sideffect@lemmy.world
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    13 days 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

  • infinitevalence@discuss.online
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    14 days ago

    If you force Ads then I will replace your equipment. The only reason I use Roku is to avoid the Ads built into “smart TVs”