Roku is exploring ways to show consumers ads on its TVs even when they are not using its streaming platform: The company has been looking into injecting ads into the video feeds of third-party devices connected to its TVs, according to a recent patent filing.
This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads. Roku engineers have even explored ways to figure out what the consumer is doing with their TV-connected device in order to display relevant advertising.
Does nobody in this thread know about HDCP? This wouldn’t fly at all.
is an HDMI feed like an rss feed? How does this “supposed” feed work here?
I’ve never given money to roku, and now I’ll never will
I’ve given them money and now I want it back.
Page 42069 of the TOS makes this legal.
All I heard is keep my current TV I’m using as a monitor alive for as long as possible.
Well, that would be a way to guarantee I buy a new TV…
Any company trying to use the HDMI-CEC protocol in such a subversive manner should lose their license to the HDMI standard IMO.
You know HDMI is not some big secret they can use it without the license and ship from overseas like 90% of shit shipped from China.
For cheap gizmos I can see a chinese seller getting away with it (rebranding under another weird name like AWOYO or something, in a sea of identical devices under different brand names), but not a large business like Roku.
Funnily enough, Flipper did exactly that and the Zero is still doing fine. It’s a loophole, but it does seem to be working fine-ish.
HDMI Forum have instead resorted to taking GPU manufacturers hostage because they don’t want any specs leaking, that’s why AMD were denied being allowed to support latest HDMI in their free Linux drivers.
That only works if you’re headquartered in China.
Not that the HDMI Fourm will stop them, anyway. More likely, the companies involved will want to license Roku’s patent.
The HDMI forum is run by big companies so that is not happening, sorry
Death to HDMI. DisplayPort is the superior port.
I’m sure that a DisplayPort device in a chain can also inject video, but I have to admit that I would kind of like to not have two competing video standards, and my impression is that DisplayPort tends to lead HDMI technically, so…
DisplayPort: We have
- Higher maximum resolution.
- Better support for higher refresh rates.
- Multi-stream transport so you can use a single display cable for multiple monitors.
HDMI: Oh yeah? Well, we have
- Royalties.
- Specifications hidden behind contracts.
- An emphasis on implementing DRM technology that makes it hard to use a capture card.
Fuck HDMI.
Oh and HDMI prevents open source GPU drivers supporting HDMI 2.1 natively.
An emphasis on implementing DRM technology that makes it hard to use a capture card.
Well, DP supports HDCP too.
It’s not like they ever properly implemented it in the first place.
I’m mad that they did their broken implementation of sending control codes between devices that never works. I have to disable it on everything so that the correct input gets set.
And then they are killing the universal remote industry so there is nothing to replace it with.
The bastards that control the hdmi standard: yeah!
Roku: 💰
Bastards: actually no
Collectivism: 💰💰 Fuck Roku.
The shittiest of enshitifications.
We need an anti-awards show for shit like this.
I like that. If there was a site that did like The Razzies for movies but for technology enshitification, I would definitely watch, and probably follow a blog if it was done well
Youre in luck!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=NXhmnQzZ7n8
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
The plungies. Winners receive golden plungers
Plungers wrapped in cheap tinfoil, don’t want to give them anything they can melt down and sell
Roku has always been a shitty company that wants to monetize everything. People are finally waking up. How many of us have a Roku remote that advertises a useless or bankrupt streaming service?
I know I’m old, but I miss having numbers on my remote.
Now I have a “sling” and a “crackle” button. 🙁
Yeah, I do miss being able to quickly type a code to jump to a known broadcaster. Opening up a menu is slower than jumping direct to said thing.
The Roku buttons solves that a little bit, but there is only 4, you can’t change them, and they prioritize featuring whoever pays up.
Roku, somehow becoming shittier than Twitter
Roku still gives me a lot more valuable content
Wow… Roku found a way to dig a deeper while and somehow make Samsung look good by comparison.
If Roku actually does this I would definitely never use them again. Completely asinine behavior. Especially because most people aren’t even using stand alone boxes with their smart TVs.
I don’t know. If done well this could be a much better option than pausing whatever you’re watching to show an ad.
If youtube showed ads on the corner of the screen while you’re browsing around searching for something to watch, it would be a much better platform than what it is today and it would probably make more money too. If Netflix did this they would triple their revenue.
The problem with this philosophy is that it’s basically how ads started on the internet and now we’re here.
Oh it’s just a small, non-intrusive side bar ad, thats okay… oh it’s just ads on both sides… oh it’s just an additional ad on top and on the bottom… oh it’s just an easily dismissed pop up ad… oh it’s just a short video to watch before I’m allowed to see the site… repeat ad nauseam (no pun intended)
Yep, just like autoplay video was common early on, then bad and now it’s common again starting with ads.
-
you’ve described youtube in 2008 and it was a much better platform.
-
the issue isn’t what time to show ads, or where. It’s the furthering invasion of marketing into private spaces and lack of apparent concern for end-user consent. There are security concerns when devices can hijack eachother. This technology is likely to rely on some means of detecting idle time so you know, try reading longer text…
-
Sounds like IOI in the rp1 movie
“We can take up to 80% of the visual field BEFORE inducing seizures” ~ Nolan Sorento
I quoted this a week or two ago for something else on here, and someone responded along the lines of you know they’d be trying to up that %, and they were 100% right.
I will never buy a Roku device because of that forced arbitration stunt. We can add the fact that they are even considering this to the list of reasons.
To be fair, a lot of companies are doing the forced arbitration nonsense. I just bailed on Vultr (VPS host) for doing the TOS update nonsense (undismissable pop-up, must accept to access account), and I’ve been looking for an alternative and every one I’ve checked has that forced arbitration nonsense in their TOS. Some let you opt out, but you need to send a letter or email to do so.
So instead of dealing with that, I’m actively looking for ways to avoid using any type of service with forced arbitration. I’m upgrading my NAS to support hosting my things, I’m trying to find VPNs that offer a fixed public address so I can expose services behind my NAT, etc. It’s incredibly frustrating because it’s literally everywhere now…
Yeah, Roku must be on its last legs with the crap they’re pulling. All of this says to me: don’t buy Roku.
I would get rid of my old Roku that I’m sure is too old for this tech and urge everyone I know to never buy anything Roku, and if they did, I would lambast them every opportunity I could.
Our tv turned out to be a roku tv. When we bought it this wasn’t advertised well. Which feels on brand right now.
“Wow, this Roku TV is so cheap!”
Your selling your privacy and basically leasing the disposable tv.
Roku is a pioneer in most of this crap but don’t be fooled to think that only cheap stuff is gonna have these and that somehow you are safe if you spend a lot on your TV. as it turns out high end and average TV producers would also like to squeeze the tiniest profit margins out of their consumers and if they could get away with it they would do the same.
in fact nowadays most TVs regardless of price are actually collecting and selling your data and in the best case it’s an opt out option in the worst possible place in the menu.
This makes me make goddamm sure 1 don’t buy a smart tv. Two definitely a Roku one.
Good luck finding an affordable “dumb” TV. They’re just computer monitors and they cost a hell of a lot more at TV size than most people are able to spend. The smart TVs are so cheap because they are subsidized by the shit vendors paying the manufacturer to load their malware in front of your eyes.
Then I will not buy one I will spend whatever it is to continue using a dumb tv.
Is there anyone selling high quality dumb TV’s though?
This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads.
But what if I want to have ads playing while I’m playing XBox? Can the Roku analyze the image, identify 3d surfaces in the game I’m playing, and plaster ads on them so that they look integrated with the game?
Once more games are pixel streamed, that’s probably possible
Roku: Furiously takes notes
Imagine a world where talented engineers would put their minds to work for solving big problems instead of … I’m not sure wtf this is.
You underestimate how many talented people are in the world. I get that being on Lemmy for so long though lol.
Increasing profit margins…which is the thing our society puts above all else.
Is it really “society” doing this? Or just the deliciously looking, juicy, meaty, 1%?
The 1% - but unfortunately this includes our leaders and lawmakers; so that puts power in the hands of those who value money above all else. And that power is used to extract more money and power from everyone else. Advertising always reinforces their message of course.
The 1% is society.
When was the last time you, or anyone you know, had an actual voice in how things are run?
But that’s the opposite of “society”…
I doubt that Roku is the only one exploring this option though. Heck Samsung displays ads everywhere in their UI, including the individual, source selection items.
I just had a horrifying thought while wondering what these TV manufacturers will do with the TVs if you just never connect them to the Internet.
I know people are worried about them jumping on your neighbor’s WiFi without prompting, or even hacking your own connection, etc but I think that seems unlikely because of how deeply illegal it is…but my horrifying thought was that they could just create a new, free mesh network that only serves up ads.
You’d need a fucking faraday cage wrapped around your TV in order to not see ads.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna go throw up. 🤮
Look up Amazon Sidewalk. Your TV will soon get an internet connection whether you like it or not.
Thanks I hate it
You can tear the wifi antenna off the board, and it’ll never connect again (not just unplug it from the card, actually tear it off the pads), could also remove the shield from the Wifi module as well for good measure and it would never get a good signal ever again.
If you’re feeling really brave you could even try removing or cutting the traces connecting the Wireless module to the main system bus, has diminishing returns though since it would be very easy to short or destroy the PCI bus rendering the system completely inoperable.
I get that it’s probably technically possible to bypass, but it wouldn’t matter. In some cases, it’d actually be illegal to bypass and almost nobody would do it.
But hey, it’s not happened (yet) so this is purely speculation.
