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Own a Roku TV or streaming device? You're about to see a lot more ads on your home screen (www.techradar.com)

submitted 10 months ago by AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world

176 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ugh. Roku was one of the platforms with fewer ads.

Roku will be adding more ads to the home screens of its devices and TVs in the near future.
The ads will be interactive and 'shoppable' and will cover a range of industries, including restaurants and cars.
Roku already has a significant amount of ads on its home screen, and it is unclear if users will be able to change their preferences for the new ads.

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[–] kadu@lemmy.world 131 points 10 months ago (7 children)

After all the issues with software updates, ads, and just overall terrible experience of TV operating systems and those little media boxes, I just finally accepted that my life is better using my TV as a dumb screen that's connected to a PC and then using Steam Big Picture for games and Jellyfin for media.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 47 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

After various trial and error, not to mention irritation, I have determined that this is the way. It's what I did in the dark ages back in the day (with a Pentium 3 that had enough hardware acceleration to play DVD's!) and it's what I do once more. By hook or by crook, one way or another you're guaranteed to be able to retain complete control over a PC even if that ultimately means you have to install some flavor of Linux on the fucking thing.

You can get a perfectly capable media center PC for very little money if you don't need it to be able to run AAA games, which in my case I don't. Even the various nanocomputer boards like one of the beefier Raspberry Pi's or any of its myriad competitors can do the job these days, fit in a tiny enclosure, make no noise, and consume very little power.

Fuck all the Chromecasts, Fire sticks, Roku boxes, Apple TV's, and other sundry and bullshit devices of the world.

[–] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Nvidia SHIELD is still ok, because it's Android TV, and you can install custom launchers on Android. Therefore no ads on your home screen.

Granted, Nvidia is letting the SHIELD line twist in the wind, and the most recent model is from 2019, but it's not outmoded just yet. I'll still be using mine for a number of years.

[–] FunderPants@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The shield is great for the reasons you mention here. I use primal launcher and have a custom home screen experience without annoying ads.

The shield also outputs music over HDMI without resampling, which makes it awesome for my digital music listening, except the app support is lame.

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[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Inb4 Toyota ads start popping up in your Steam library.

[–] Schmidtster@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 10 months ago (6 children)

It’s already in some games unfortunately…

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[–] nicetriangle@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago

Yeah I was getting fed up with apps and boxes said fuck it and am running a mac mini hooked up to a shitload of storage now and it's been great. Plays media, works as a competent file server for said media, and emulates a bunch of console games. We don't use anything else now.

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[–] negativenull@lemm.ee 63 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

PiHole Domain regex blacklist:
(ads|logs|cloudservices).roku.com$

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

And there it is, folks.

I added the Roku and Samsung TV servers to my blocklist months ago, (maybe even years ago, at this point?) My three smart TVs are the most blocked devices on my network, by far. It’s not even close. Here are today’s stats from my pihole:

For reference, my phone (my most used device) is number four on that list. My three smart TVs (two Rokus and a Samsung) are numbers 1, 2, and 3. I haven’t even watched TV today. These blocked requests are simply from the TVs idling. Smart TVs are hilariously, mind-bogglingly invasive, and you should block them ASAP.

[–] grayman@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Why did you black out your private IP addresses?

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Old habits. Just as a general rule, I black out most IPs, even when private. I used to deal with a lot of horribly insecure devices at work, with default passwords that couldn’t be changed, no port security (so anyone who found the wrong Ethernet port could connect to the network,) etc…

So anyone on the network could fuck things up if they were on the wrong wifi and tried to reconfigure something they shouldn’t be touching. It was only an issue a few times, since the vast majority of people using said network were other techs who knew what they were doing. But there were a few times that someone screenshotted something, it got passed around to all the managers, and someone who didn’t know what they were doing got curious and went digging when they saw the IPs.

It was never anything catastrophic since the network wasn’t even connected to the internet, and we had backups of any important settings. But it was just a practice that we all eventually picked up, to prevent random employees from sniffing around. Because it always sucked to come into work the next morning, and discover that a particular piece of gear wasn’t working properly because someone decided to tick a stray checkbox or change a polling rate.

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[–] Mango@lemmy.world 52 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Step one.

Buy a thing. It is a good thing.

Oops, now it only works if you pay monthly. Ok maybe they're doing some upkeep.
Now there's ads. You're paying them money, but they want even more so now you're the product.
Haha it broke! My family tech guy says it's literally impossible to fix without the cheat codes.

Final step. Don't buy the thing again. Don't buy anything with "terms may be altered. Pray I do not alter them further." Probably stick to open source.

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[–] ObviousMix@lemmy.one 41 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes, this is what the people want! More ads! Skip the content, just show ads 24/7! That will definitely keep people from pirating out of sheer frustration.

[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

And dont forget about that ad space on the remote control too.

[–] Poggervania@kbin.social 36 points 10 months ago (4 children)

For those with Roku TVs or any of their products, I found that a PiHole blocks the ads on the home screen so far. Hoping I could pick up an ONN box in the future so I can just not deal with this shit lol.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A pihole is a whole "home" adware/malware/spyware blocker. It runs on a raspberry Pi but can also run on a physical/virtual install of several different Linux distributions. Not only can it block ads on your computer but can also block ads on technology that you can't (easily) block ads on ("Smart" TV / stock cellphone / IoT devices / etc). In addition, with some easy to instal additional (free) software you can block ads even when not at "home"!

[–] gramathy@lemmy.ml 10 points 10 months ago

Pihole also has a docker distribution, so it’ll also run easily on “appliance” NAS solutions with minimal effort

[–] SharpieThunderflare@lemmy.ca 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, DNS blocking is quite effective for not just ads, but also telemetry on Roku.

Personally, I use nextdns until I can can a good pihole setup going.

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[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Y'know what I love most about the high sea, matey? She never gets enshittified.

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[–] jimbo@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago (3 children)

God damn this shit is so fucking annoying. I paid something like $100 last year for the Roku Ultra because it was better than the built-in software on my TV and now I have to see ads? Fuck em, I'll repurpose a mini PC I have and replace the Roku.

[–] ccdfa@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months ago

Nvidia shield is what I got instead of Roku and holy shit it's so much better. It can be flashed with another OS as well.

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[–] Malice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (7 children)

I just recently started using my Samsung TVs as dumb screens because they're slow as shit, but a nice side effect is zero ads.

ONN 4k streaming box for $20 at Walmart.
Install a custom launcher.
Install a button remapper for the remote.
Install SmartTubeNext for YouTube (no ads, SponsorBlock).
Install whatever other apps you need (Plex, etc).

FAR better experience. Turn the TV on and it's ready to go in a few seconds, not the ~60-90 seconds it takes the Tizen nonsense to "warm up."

It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better. Can recommend, especially for only $20.

[–] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

(Plex, etc)

Just get started on the move to Jellyfin now.

Seriously, people, use some pattern recognition here. Plex is already on its way down the enshitification pipeline, you'll be sick of it in a couple years too, just like Roku. Why wait?

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[–] Kadaj21@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just picked up the Onn box and did all that. Also installed RetroArch and so far the SNES era stuff all plays good with my bluetooth controller though there is a slight input lag or i just need to adjust lol.

[–] CatZoomies@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Bluetooth does have latency issues, but setting your TV to Game mode (if available) will provide extremely noticeable improvement.

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[–] FloMo@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Any guides/links on setting up my Onn box like that? It’s been great for the $20 but removing ads and deeper customization sounds amazing

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[–] dorumon@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

Well time to replace my roku TV with a Goodwill special TV because fuck that shit. Fuck smart tvs in general and what they have become. They used to be neat little editions added on for value on your TV back when Netflix made sense. But now they don't especially with the ads that automatically get shoved into your face depending on what you are doing that have started to interrupt your viewing experience. It's not like I'll be downgrading at all when just using a computer with a TV using Stremio and AllDebrid.

[–] FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Not with pihole I wont.

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[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 22 points 10 months ago

Enshittification strikes again!

[–] andyburke@fedia.io 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hey, nice, I get to build an HTPC again and check out the latest streaming shit for Linux.

I'm not even being ironic. Tired of this corporate hellscape and finding joy in returning to the kind of hobbyist tech I grew up on.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

corposhit used to at least be worth paying for with all it's flaws but they're shitting it up so bad it's increasingly not even worth it in the slightest

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 21 points 10 months ago

So you go from owning a multi media entertainment system to owning a online store front where you must buy crap that you don't need.

This is bait and switch level bullshit

[–] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 18 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Can these ads be blocked with pi-hole?

[–] antimongo@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yea my Adblock Home (pihole alternative) blocks the ads on my Roku home screen. Now it’s just a big blank box.

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[–] Lianodel@ttrpg.network 15 points 10 months ago

I've been doing some research for the last few days on setting up a home server/NAS. If anyone's going to ruin my entertainment, it's going to be ME

[–] oxideseven@lemmy.ca 15 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Anyway to roll back firmware on some of these TVs?

Mine was never connected, except once a friend came over and connected it and it updated and now it requires a connection to rename inputs...

It's never been connected since that day either.

Hate this kind of crap.

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[–] Rookeh@startrek.website 15 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Google is already doing this with their default Android TV launcher. I tolerated their home screen 'recommendations' for a while as they occasionally highlighted something interesting to watch, but one day I switched on the TV and was greeted with a huge advert banner for a fucking watch on the home screen.

At that point I spent a few hours setting up FLauncher on all my ATV devices.

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[–] harry_balzac@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (11 children)

After reading so much about this, I'm definitely going to start reading up on running a Pihole at home

I'd like to ask for suggestions on FAQs or guides that'd help me get started.

TIA!

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So how about a Raspberry pie with jellyfin connected to your TV?

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[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

I do see the appeal of non-smart TV's now. Just getting a device that host your media is a good option.

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[–] stinerman@midwest.social 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

DNS blocking at the router never fails.

[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Rumor has it Roku hard coded Google DNS nameservers on some devices so along with pihole, you have to block direct access now. FYI

I had a pihole that worked until an update. Had to block Google nameservers to restore blocking.

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[–] kumatomic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They've gotten great at this war of attrition. They know if they make changes incrementally people wouldn't accept all at once then most people won't notice or care. That's why I through that trash and two firesshits out in the garbage where they belonged when they started with "related" ads and app store ads.

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[–] supernicepojo@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Pi-Hole/AdGuard works to stop these ads, never even have to see them.

[–] MiDaBa@lemmy.ml 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Is there any way to repurpose an old android phone into an android TV? Sometimes like Linage OS but TV focused. Even older Android phones can be considerably more powerful than any current streaming box. Add on privacy and you've got the perfect solution. It also would save on e-waste.

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[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

For anybody who has one, here's a dns block list specifically for Roku: https://github.com/asimcard/roku-ad-list

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[–] jennwiththesea@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

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