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Own a Roku TV or streaming device? You're about to see a lot more ads on your home screen

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.
Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

As I have found trying to see if I can sideload or jailbreak or otherwise hack the software of my Samsung TV, I have found plenty of ways to totally disable ads on a Roku or Android TV or anything that runs on Android in general (Chromecast, and firestick also IIRC). Too bad I don't have one of those... 😩

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

Wild idea - if you’re concerned about ads, maybe don’t buy the streaming box or TV that puts permanent ads on its remotes.

Yoz ,

People are not that smart.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Which ones don't?

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve had a bunch of streaming boxes and smart TVs, and my old AppleTV is the one I usually go back to. None are perfect, but it annoys me the least.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Maybe I should say which new ones haha. It's getting hard to find sadly.

kuneho ,
@kuneho@lemmy.world avatar

my streaming device is a 4th gen Intel i5 computer with Kodi.

I don't think I'll see more ads in the future 😆

DavidGA ,
@DavidGA@lemmy.world avatar

Apple TV boxes have no ads.

I know everyone here hates Apple, but, there it is.

manos_de_papel ,

They push apple TV+ so hard. The home screen, aside from recently watched, is one big ATV+ ad.

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

You can turn that off pretty easily. The AppleTV+ app has the ability to configure how it uses that little quick look space. You can set it to only display your “up next” content.

Any apps in that dock region can show featured content when they are highlighted by the user. Any app can do that, not just Apple’s. Quite a few third party apps use that space to show featured or watchlist content.

manos_de_papel ,

Where should I look in the settings?

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

Settings > Apps > TV

Set Home Screen to “Up Next”

There is a bunch of interesting things hidden under the App settings.

manos_de_papel ,

I already had that set, thanks.

The apple TV is much worse now that apple has ATV+ than before it had that. :( still better than any other platform, i suppose.

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

Technically that Home Screen can display an app’s featured content. And Apple and other apps often use that space to promote new shows. But you can turn off TV+ promos and or move apps out of that region.

Roku actually installs physical ads onto its damn remotes. I have remotes that promote streaming services that don’t even exist anymore.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

For the approximately 1 second a day I look at the Roku home screen?

friend_of_satan ,

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

jimbo ,

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 ,

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.

buzz86us ,

Do you want Plex servers? BECAUSE THIS IS HOW YOU GET PLEX SERVERS

MonkeMischief ,

This is the way. I've only used it for backed up movies so far but Jellyfin is SNAPPY.

oxideseven ,

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.

lapommedeterre ,

I don't think so, I searched around but didn't see anything noteworthy. Maybe a hacker will get bored one day and jailbreak them, but seems like there's no hope as of right now.

oxideseven ,

It's honestly kind of surprising this hasn't happened yet.

I guess TVs don't have much processing power or room for it. Or maybe all the drm in them is a nightmare.

Emerald ,

Why did they ever connect it? just wanted to watch the world burn?

oxideseven ,

They didn't understand how the TV and Shield worked and had wanted to watch some sports thing on their ESPN account.

I guess they thought i was mistaken when I told them they only needed the shield remote for everything and the shield could do it all.

FlavoredButtHair ,
@FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world avatar

Not with pihole I wont.

jeanofthedead ,

No, but 1/3 of your screen will be empty real estate.

FlavoredButtHair , (edited )
@FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world avatar

I'd rather have blank space than ads.

jeanofthedead ,

Of course. I did the same thing until my OCD got the better of me and I got an AndroidTV device with a custom launcher, as well as an AppleTV4K. I love having no ads and no blank spaces now.

machinin ,

This posted prompted my to set up pihole. My blank space has a big "not connected to the internet," although all the services work.

Unfortunately, they also disabled accessibility settings, so I can't remap buttons or add another launcher.

This is my last Google TV. Are there any other options?

MonkeMischief ,

From what I gather, making your own little "media PC" connected to a "dumb TV" or never-connected "smart PC" can give you a similar if not better experience!

KDE has a big TV style desktop environment they've made for TVs now, and you can use KDE connect to use any phone as a remote control.

Completely open source! Wee!

paraphrand ,

“Not connected to the internet” lol. How presumptuous of the designers.

Faxing_Berlin ,

If it’s a Google TV you can always install a custom launcher and even disable the stock launcher via ADB and never be bothered by any of the curated bullshit again

My recommendation is FLauncher

ObviousMix ,
@ObviousMix@lemmy.one avatar

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 ,
@JoeKrogan@lemmy.world avatar

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

phoenixz ,

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

jeanofthedead ,

Not connected, but works fine as a media server. Less issues with Plex than Jellyfin in its current state.

dorumon ,
@dorumon@lemmy.world avatar

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.

Mango ,

Step one.

Buy a thing. It is a good thing.

  1. Oops, now it only works if you pay monthly. Ok maybe they're doing some upkeep.

  2. Now there's ads. You're paying them money, but they want even more so now you're the product.

  3. 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.

radau ,

Me after getting those dumbass Canary cameras that cost $200 a piece then they completely wrecked the free tier then started giving them away for free to get more subscribers.

Wyze cams with wz_mini_hacks firmware offline in a VLAN with Frigate and Home assistant from here on out!

phoenixz ,

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

kandoh ,

I don't mind if it's an ad for a new tv show or movie or streaming platform. But if it's shopping stuff I'll need to find a new tv.

Trainguyrom ,

I just shuffled some hardware around and got an old Roku that I thought was dead going again. One of the ads that appeared on the homescreen was "Cancel THIS! the Rosanne Barr Special" so if that's the kind of movie ads you're looking for you'll love Roku!

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