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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.
Suavevillain ,
@Suavevillain@lemmy.world avatar

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

nullPointer ,

"commercial display" is the search term you want.

CrowAirbrush ,

All i need is to find one, preferably affordable obviously.

Just the thought of being able to use it until the hardware fails, instead of when the maufacturer decides to abandon it after 2 years.

I remember the 20 years i lived at home, we owned 3 tv's and 2 of those were passed on to people who didn't have the money to upgrade. The last one is still in use today, 15 years later.

While my own tv now requires 2 devices to stay functional one of which i need to rent from my isp, in a way i'm being forced to buy a new tv even though i don't need one and then everyone wonders why the planet is going to shit.

I'm surprised we aren't living in a cyberpunk esque landfill bordered city.

Riven ,
@Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I'm looking into getting a projector and just hooking it up to my pc for media. I don't watch all he time anyways, it's mostly for movie/game night.

scv ,

Every smart TV is a dumb TV too. Mine has some smart stuff, I think, but I have never used it, and it has never been online.

hesusingthespiritbomb ,

All new Google TVs have a "dumb mode" that you can configure at startup.

flop_leash_973 ,

Jesus, I hate that word, “shoppable”. It just sounds dystopian.

corsicanguppy ,

it's not as brutal a construct as the other Sales-Bro trash we see: 'the ask', 'the spend', etc. It's too bad that no matter how much we mock the soulless people who parrot that crap, it's just our dumber friends who won't learn anyway.

MonkeMischief ,

They're out to stomp pressure on er, maximize value proposition from your "pain points" with their ad-sponsored boots. (Uggs maybe idk)

Eezyville ,
@Eezyville@sh.itjust.works avatar

Can these ads be blocked with pi-hole?

xylogx ,

I block logs.roku.com and cloudservices.roku.com on my pihole without impacting any functionality.

CobblerScholar ,

Is there a good resource to learn how to install that kind of a system for a person who's tech knowledge ends at one semesters worth of C++?

BenPranklin ,

A semester of programming is more than you need. The hardest part would be installing the OS on the raspberry pi. https://pi-hole.net/

NaoPb ,

Yes setting up a Pi-Hole should be pretty doable for someone like you. I can't recomend a specific tutorial off the top of my head, but there should be plenty to find.

You mainly need a pi running raspbian or a pc running some debian based distro.

ILikeBoobies ,

Anyone can set them up, it’s just running an app

Fedegenerate ,

I set one up. My IT skills begin and end with being a millennial that had to troubleshoot what I wanted to get to work before App stores.

You'll be fine in general searching "Pihole setup (insert OS here)". Some minor troubleshooting was necessary in my case, could be an ID10T issue though.

Kushia ,
@Kushia@lemmy.ml avatar

You can alternatively install Adguard too which will happily sit in a Docker container on a regular server if you're aware of how to do that.

0x2d ,

what info is sent to these domain?

jimbo ,

None if you block them.

QuarterSwede ,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

Yes.

modus ,

What domain list(s) are you using? Mine are still showing up with pihole. I do think some are being blocked, but not all.

Fedegenerate , (edited )

Firebog.net Ticked lists as a collective, over 10^6 domains long now. Firebog have lists organised by how likely it is to impact general browsing, ticked being least likely (basically do you want to be black listing or white listing).

modus ,

Thank you. And good advice about over-doing it. I've had people complain about "the internet being broken" on my wifi because of an overly-restrictive pi hole.

LeFantome ,

PiHole blocks the current ads. Hopefully these new ones too.

antimongo ,

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

Kushia ,
@Kushia@lemmy.ml avatar

I do wonder how long it's going to take for these device manufacturers to get wise and start hard coding their own host file on these devices with the addresses they use.

ShellMonkey , (edited )
@ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com avatar

Then we switch from DNS and look to good old firewall blocks.

Update to say device is 'offline' unless it can reach these IPs? Local NAT to direct the traffic to a basic ping box.

Game keeps being played until someone quits.

rob_t_firefly ,
@rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world avatar

Anyone jailbreaking these damn things yet?

xia ,

Rokus are not worth the effort. Nvidia literally publishes dev roms for the shield tv boxes.

dan1101 ,
@dan1101@lemm.ee avatar

I love the RF remote, the functionality, and the responsiveness.

viking ,
@viking@infosec.pub avatar

Are the dev roms fully compatible with Netflix & Co.? I'm running a shield and the one thing that kept me from rooting it was compatibility with hardware DRM. Have since cancelled all my subscriptions after they locked my family out and tried to hike the prices, but I'm still following the developments out of interest.

xia ,

I'm not sure, actually. If they do have DRM issues, I imagine it would be precisely the same issue as (and therefor would have the same workarounds as) any other custom android rom... which probably involves some shady APKs & instructions from XDA forums.

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!

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

friend_of_satan ,

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

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

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

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