I just recently got that forced arbitration agreement from them. In response I got out an old Odroid N2+ I had laying around, installed Android TV, installed SmartTube, and never looked back. My only gripe is I have a Nebula subscription and the Nebula app that runs on Android TV is like a damn phone app. It starts with the phone aspect ratio and it expects me to use a touchscreen. It’s annoying. If anyone has a solution to this Nebula problem then I would be most appreciative.
Man Roku’s just getting worse and worse. I used to love my Roku years ago. Thought it was crazy I would have a fire stick because Roku was so much better. Those days are gone. Well mostly I still hate Fire Sticks.
Roku always was a company with great engineers and shitty money grabbing management. The new user creation always requested data not necessary for basic operation.
Roku always was a company with great engineers and shitty money grabbing management.
So, like most companies then?
No, most companies also have mostly incompetent engineers.
I’ve had the displeasure of using a Roku TV while put up by insurance since a truck drove into our garage in January, after a couple hotel stays.
I’m sure it’s a few years old but there can’t be more than 8mb of RAM.
The software is so bloated and sluggish on mine
I really wish software developers were actually allowed to ship decent firmware for stuff rather than just running a gigantic bloated os to effectively just decode and display video
wish software developers were actually allowed to ship decent firmware
huh funny i thought the talent were in charge…
It blows my mind how slow mine is now. I don’t even use the UI really, I only switch between ps5 and my shield tv, but that switch takes SO LONG
I’m not shocked, but I am disappointed.
Can you block these by adding Pi-Hole? I’m so tired of enshittification.
Last time I had a Roku you could block the static home screen ads with PiHole. So as long as they don’t start serving these from the same domain as something you need for the box to work right or start hard coding a different DNS server into the OS that won’t respect your local network settings it will probably keep working.
But if they are not doing one of the above to get around DNS adblockers yet, they will eventually in the name of those sweet sweet ad dollars. Best to just start planning an exit from Roku products if you care about such things.
If shit like this keeps going, soon my car is going to be homemade out of 2x4s and a backyard-forged 2 stroke engine, while I try to turn sand into chips so I can stay connected to the Internet…
https://www.openmotors.co/product/tabbyevo/
Bit out of date, but it’s a framework to start with.
I’ve already resolved to not buy cars newer than the ones I already have (from the '90s and 2000s).
(It sucks 'cause it means I can’t have an EV unless I find one of those super-low-volume '90s fleet compliance cars or build my own.)
You can always install an EV conversion kit to old cars.
Consider an ebike to supplement your car for shorter trips. I’ve just opted to ride my bikes more.
My ebike odometer ticked over 1000 miles a couple weeks ago.
Better alternative, stop buying Roku products…
And do what instead? Serious question as I’m about to buy my 2nd roku product
I like Android TV but there are a lot of better other solutions like using a SBC or a Chromecast.
Currently, yes and no.
Yes, in that pihole can filter ad servers, but no because backup DNS servers are hard coded in the software; you have to block those too from your router.
Not sure about the new changes planned.
I’m wondering if they managed to break that, too. I tried forcing my Roku to use my pi-hole by blocking Google DNS (what it seems to be hardcoded with) at my router and the Roku just stops recognizing that it even has an Internet connection.
I haven’t seen a seen a single home screen Roku ad since I installed Pi-Hole.
This will be my last Roku, it has become such a horrible ad-ridden experience since I first got it years ago.
At first, Pi-hole was enough, but some devices had a software update a year or two ago that used Google (if memory serves) DNS as a backup. It was sneaky, but adding a block rule closed that loophole.
Not all devices had that change though. I’m hoping mine is old enough to be ignored for the new video ads.
I imagine they’ll eventually work around block rules with DNS over https.
Then you block that too at the router level (port 853 if my memory is correct)
DNS over TLS (aka DoT) uses port 853. DNS over HTTPS (aka DoH) uses port 443 so that it looks the same as any other web traffic for privacy reasons.
Fork
Roku went to shit long back
Any thoughts on an alternative device to stream through Plex? I have an LG tv I guess I can use 🤷🏼♀️
AppleTV with the Infuse app.
Blows everything else away. It will connect to Plex and Jellyfin servers. Or a standard SMB folder share if you prefer. No ads. It never lags. Has reliable frame rate matching. And you’re likely to get 5+ years of software update support.
The only thing it won’t do is Atmos from Bluray rips. If you need that, then get an Nvidia Shield Pro.
The apple tv looks good. But can I put software of my choosing on it and will I be able to do everything on the apple tv if I dont have other apple devices?
Sideloading and customisation is a downside. Like other Apple devices, the App Store is the way they want you to install things.
There are ways to sideload things like Kodi through pre signed certificates but I don’t know much about it.
Dont need another Apple device.
They might miss out on the convenience of AirPlay, though. AFAIK you cant do DLNA streaming to the Apple TV.
AirPlay really bridges the gaps for me, wrt having any app available on my tv at any time.
Combined with steam connect, it’s a decent multi use box with solid, non-intrusive updates. Just wish the garden wasn’t so unnecessarily walled.
Why Infuse and not the native Plex app?
Better support for Dolby Vision. I also prefer the Infuse UI.
Plex user here, you install app on your receiver (tv/tablet/phone/whatever) and if you so desire you can host local content via plex server running on a machine on your network. Not used it as a home screen though, as i avoid paid players.
For RaspberryPI/Adguard:
Custom block rule
(ads|logs|cloudservices).roku.com$Thread MVP ^
I factory reset my roku TV and now keep it offline. I have a laptop with Ubuntu hooked up to it.
Same, im gunna hook up a pi5 to it soon. Crazy how much faster the Roku UI is when it’s not bloated with all that crap
I think our parent’s generation (or maybe their parents’?) would have said something like “There ought to be a law!” but we don’t say that because we don’t expect anyone in office will ever help us. Hm.
This seems entirely opposite to my observation. I’d say Biden and his administration are unusually focused on unfair or annoying business practices. In just the past two weeks the Biden administration:
- Set clear rules requiring cash refunds for flight delays
- Banned non-compete clauses
- Set new rules on “junk fees” for credit cards
- Increased the minimum salary for overtime exemption
- Expanded fiduciary duty to retirement “advisors”
- Announced a lawsuit against Live Nation (TicketMaster)
- Re-instated net neutrality
Oh man, don’t stop, what about two weeks prior to that? And two weeks before that? I bet we must be living in a consumer utopia with the pace of the last two weeks, surely applied to the last 3 years, right? right?
Yeah, things have actually gotten quite a bit better over the past 3 years. Much of that was due to the abysmal performance of his predecessor, so even a “just ok” job would have looked like a masterwork.
That said, Biden’s def hitting his stride lately 😄
Oh man, don’t stop
You got it! Here’s some other consumer protections the administration has introduced recently:
- Direct filing with the IRS
- Price limits on asthma inhalers and insulin for seniors
- Requiring ISPs to provide consistent up-front information and pricing
- Restrictions on college junk fees and disallowing witholding of transcripts
Hungry for more? Check this out:
White House Statement on Junk Fees
That’s from October, so some of it overlaps, but among other stuff there’s still a “Click to Cancel” rule working its way through the FTC.
Sadly Biden has been spending a bunch of time on lame crap like climate change, human rights, health care, infrastructure, election integrity, etc., so it might take a bit longer for him to single-handedly usher in consumer utopia.
Great. That covers what, 1 month of his administration? Keep going, unless you’re cherrypicking this incredibly active recent two weeks. This list should be enormous.
You bought an ad supported device.
I can’t believe the company that puts ads on the remote would do this to me.
It was my favorite UI between firestick, android tv, and roku. I’m seriously bummed out by what they’ve been doing.
Last time I asked it seemed like open source streaming box OS’s aren’t a thing.
LibreElec?
I am living that dream right now and it’s pretty sweet. Tied into my jellyfin and emby setup. Personal photo screensaver, integration with my control platform, can run some emulators. And add-ons for some services.
I can’t get prime video to work but that’s not terrible, I do wanna watch fallout though.
I need to figure out a way to dual boot to Blissos easily on the fly.
But yeah LibreELEC has made me proud
I recently got rid of my TV box from my ISP (around here it tends to be bundled, but I found a cheaper data only ISP) and of a separate media box I had to play my collection of videos in digital files that were stored in a NAS and even the old NAS setup (which was just improvised with some external HDs connected to my router and used the older SMB v1 protocol which is much slower than more recent versions) and brough everything onto a single device which is a Mini PC with Lubuntu and Kodi which even has so additional stuff in it like an always on VPN and web controlled Torrent download server.
I never had a this good and this well integrated home entertainment setup before.
That’s basically a “make your own” version of LibreElec, but I didn’t recomend it above because that Mini PC was $150 and you do need to know your way around Linux to set something like that up yourself (plus the added value to make it worth it is in being able to hand more server services in that machine, such as Torrent downloading over that always on VPN) whilst LibreElec is a pre-assembled full solution and is also available for much cheaper devices.
But yeah, it’s actually pretty amazing how far open source home entertainment solutions have come in just a decade (which is how old my setup with a dedicated media box and NAS was before this restructuring of the whole thing to modern tech).
There’s at least one for sale; https://osmc.tv/vero/
Stupid question, but am I right in thinking that osmc won’t support streaming services like Netflix/Hulu/Max?
It’s open source, so you’re right, it won’t. I use mine as a jellyfin box.
I haven’t followed this guide so can’t comment on how up to date it all is, but looks like there are addons to stream Disney, Netflix, and Prime at least: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/netflix-amazon-video-plex-raspberry-pi/
Definitely interested but not sure what apps are in its app store and what osmc even is (only ever used kodi).
It is kodi
Yep, looked more into it. Honestly it sounds great. A dedicated box AND remote with kodi and an integrated app store? I’m intrigued. Will give this os a go soon.
Been loving it well enough myself for about 3 months now.
Well since roku did the forced agreement update
I thought it was nifty with a sharp UI. I provided feedback on multiple occasions not to degrade their own platform, which I’m sure were read by nobody. But still, it’s a shame.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The news highlights Roku’s growing focus on advertising and an alarming trend in the streaming industry that sees ads increasingly forced on viewers.
Wood’s comments didn’t address the expected impact on the Roku user experience or whether the company thinks this might turn people off its platform.
Our business remains well positioned to capture the billions of dollars in traditional TV ad budgets that will shift to streaming," an April 25 letter to shareholders [PDF] authored by Wood and Roku CFO Dan Jedda reads.
For example, an Accenture survey of 6,000 “global consumers” noted by The Streamable found that 52.2 percent of participants thought that streaming platform-recommended content “did not match their interests.”
Similarly, an October TiVo survey of 4,500 viewers in the US and Canada ranked “streaming apps / home screen / carousel ads” as the fourth most popular method of content discovery, after word of mouth, commercials aired during other shows, and social media.
While Roku is a budget brand associated with more affordable TVs and streaming devices, excessive ads could make people reconsider the true price of these savings.
The original article contains 734 words, the summary contains 182 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Sigh, time to sell my Roku stock
