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.
I prefer a dumb TV.
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.
So does my dumb TV. No subscriptions.
I don’t really understand the hate for Android TV. It’s pretty obvious to me (since I use both) that they’re trying to compete with Apple TV. Android TV has a lot of great settings and features. When I’m not doing anything with it, it automatically shows a screensaver of my choosing - just like Apple TV does. I have quick and easy access to the movies I’ve purchased on my YouTube account as well.
Any assumption that Android TV will force ads on its users tells me they haven’t used it.
I.democratically hate all smart TVs.
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.
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.
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.
Nvidia shield is android and works like a roku or chromecast
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.
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.
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.
Get an Nvidia Shield Pro and disconnect your TV from the internet.
Or spend less money and get a brand new Apple TV 4K
Does your Apple TV stream Atmos? TrueHD? I don’t think so…
My tv is dumb. The roku is the device that connects to the internet.
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.
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.
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.
I just block all ads at the router level. When looking through the most blocked domains I see a lot from Roku.
Im not very computer savvy and currently only have a tablet and a mac mini from 2008.
If you’re not tech savy, how do you row row row your bot???
Gently down the byte stream
How do you do that?
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.
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.
Guess it’s time to either flash my Roku with something that isn’t shit or just make a dedicated media box myself.
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”
thank goodness pi hole can block the majority of roku ad sources
Whomp whomp. You get what you pay for.
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.
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?
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.
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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.
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DRM. They don’t like how open Linux can be so to combat people using it for pirating their content the companies restrict it.
For instance, Netflix is capped at 720p on Linux unless you are on Opera, apparently.
I just got an HDHomeRun that I use with an antenna and love it. I use Mac and they are one of the only boxes that works on Mac.
They don’t have a native Linux client, but you can use VLC supposedly: https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/linux
Think of any invasive streaming devices in your house. Samsung, Google Chromecast, ATV, LG etc. Roku is by far the worst.
This was shitty, but the giants are worse than the smaller companies. Roku works fine and ad-free if you block the ad/tracking domains. Try separating the ads/tracking from the stuff you need on a Google device.
Roku is the one that bricked peoples TVs unless they agreed to their new terms of service.
I’m just glad I’ve still got my MythTV running.
Aaargh matey!
Shit. I got a Roku TV. That’s one big fucking stick to toss.
Step 1. Factory reset.
Step 2. Do not allow it to connect to the Internet.
Step 3. Connect a Linux based computer to it and run everything through the computer.
Instructions unclear. TV now controlled by Nicole the fediverse chick.
You can trust her. She’s from Toronto!
You been getting that noise too?
Seems like everyone’s been getting that noise lately. I’m on my third.
This method will not work on all Roku tvs, some Roku TV brands require you to phone home to activate the TV before you can use it for the first time. Which requires you to not only connect to the internet but also log into a Roku account on it. It’s stupid.
That would instantly result in the TV being returned to the store I purchased it from.
I bought a Samsung TV that wouldn’t let me change the input until I connected it to the internet, I returned that crap within the hour.
Eh, I just started connecting cheap ($30 or so) used Apple TVs to mine. I saw the writing on the wall.
Shall I introduce you to the folks over at !selfhosted@lemmy.world?
We’re pretty neat I like to think
