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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.
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.

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.

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)

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.

MiDaBa ,

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.

yozhfyfyfy ,

Kodi is probably one way to do it

https://kodi.tv/download/android/

smileyhead ,

Smart TV: Runs Android
Smartphone: Runs Android

Oh, so can I install Android TV interface to repurpose my phone as TV box?

Google and capitalism: No!

Also why I'm looking forward at Linux phones in the future.

wavebeam ,
@wavebeam@lemmy.world avatar

Let's say I got myself one of those arm-based single board computers that can run android. Is there not a way to install Android TV instead of "regular" android? i assume you're saying it's not because it requires GMS cert or something.

smileyhead ,

No no no. You can replace whole OS sometimes, some phones can also do it but in much more hacky way than SBCs. But what I mean is that you cannot replace the interface.
Almost all highly corporate operating systems have their interfaces "welded" in place.

BombOmOm ,
@BombOmOm@lemmy.world avatar

I'm not sure, but the easiest solution is an old laptop or a mini-PC.

nutsack ,

looks fucking stupid

MiDaBa ,

Why won't anyone make a privacy focused premium streaming box with no ads? I'd pay so much for this thing that will never exist.

ForgotAboutDre ,

Apple TV is a premium streaming box without ads. The privacy aspect is less clear, but probably better than Samsung, Google and Roku that are all harvesting data.

An open source solution would be better.

corsicanguppy ,

The privacy aspect is less clear, but probably better

I love how dividing by an unknown somehow makes a bigger number for you. The bias is leaking.

ForgotAboutDre ,

Apple chargers more and isn't openly selling data (Samsung) or openly selling ads (Google). The commercial activity provides some insight here, that suggests Apple is better for privacy.

xylogx ,

We need a fediverse streaming service.

smileyhead ,

Torrent? PeerTube?

For paid options I see no sense in decentralization.
But a standard protocol for rental tied with some protocol for payments (like GNU Taler) to rent movies from any source with one tap and no install would be cool.

CalicoJack ,

Until then, a Raspberry Pi or SFF PC will do the job just fine. They even work with remotes if you get an IR receiver for them.

OrderedChaos ,

How do you set up the IR receiver? I would like to use Linux if possible. It's often such a pain to set up things like this. Took me forever to get my Xbox controller to pair.

CalicoJack ,

I've used LIRC in the past. Takes a bit of setup, but it works well once you get it going.

OrderedChaos , (edited )

Thanks for that. Were you ever able to get something like this to power a device on from a full shut down?

Edit: power on using the remote.

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

IMHO, for a quick out-of-the-box solution, the AppleTV is still the better streaming box.

Performant, tight software experience, large software catalog, proactively asks about blocking tracking data, and no ads all over the place.

AProfessional ,

It does advertise Apple content but its not too bad.

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

You can turn that off. If you don’t want the TV app to show new TV+ shows when it’s highlighted in the dock, you can set it to display recently watched content. And recently watched content will be app agnostic.

The feature is a little buried, but it’s a nice experience upgrade that is worth switching over to.

huskypenguin ,

It still clutters on OS upgrades.

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

Can you elaborate? Mine has remained set to show “up next” for several OS upgrades. That feature has never switches itself off.

huskypenguin ,

Hmmm, maybe I need to dig in settings. When Apple Arcade became a thing I found new apps on the Home Screen. I still think it's the only streaming box outside of a shield that is appropriately powered amass doesn't serve ads. And unlike the shield, Apple tv has a clear future.

Ghostalmedia ,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

Ahh. Yeah, when Apple adds a new app to an OS, they love to throw that thing right in the dock so you can see it. I usually end up moving a lot of those things out and I put my preferred apps in that dock.

I thought you meant it was changing your preferences for “settings > apps > tv > homescreen” after you installed OS updates. Sorry, I was confused.

Tinidril ,

Mainly because the major streaming services wouldn't allow their platforms to run on it.

Emerald ,

I don't use major streaming services. I just want something that runs NewPipe and Jellyfin. Lol

huskypenguin ,

Because people won't pay for it. We are in the minority.

kumatomic ,

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.

corsicanguppy ,

through

You sure?

OrderedChaos ,

Tru blu tru n tru

Rookeh ,

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.

Sendbeer ,

I did the exact same thing. Also blocked androidtv updates in case Google starts pulling shit regarding custom launchers.

It's gross how ads are being crammed in every little nook of our lives. Not like the ShieldTv was a cheap device either.

Pretty sad to see Roku going down the same road. Guess forcing a third of the screen devoted to ads just wasn't enough.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Chromecast 2. No ads ever. Just send stuff from your device to your TV.

eco_game ,

This launcher looks super cool, does anyone bychance know if it works on FireTVs?
I was ok with the FireTV launcher up until they made it autoplay ads with sound everytime you turn the damn thing on.

DrDeadCrash ,

Same! I recently found this "feature" can be disabled in the preferences, along with a bunch of creepy tracking options.

Rookeh ,

I can't speak from experience as I don't own any Amazon devices, but I have read reports that it seems to work fine with the FireTV variant of Android.

The dev has only tested it against Chromecast with Google TV, with that said I'm using it on a Shield TV and a Shield Pro and it runs fine on both.

iggy ,

I prefer projectivy launcher. It's got a few more features and feels a little more polished.

Shyfer ,

That's the reason I've been using Roku. I couldn't stand all the suggestions and ads on my Google TV. If Roku does that, too, then there's nothing good to distinguish them.

dan1101 ,
@dan1101@lemm.ee avatar

I like that I can install custom apps on Google TV, but Roku beats them in UI IMO.

Burn_The_Right ,

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

rickyrigatoni ,
@rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee avatar

How do i pirate an ad free tv

Sendbeer ,

Pihole helps. If you have androidtv you can setup a custom launcher and avoid it on your interface.

rickyrigatoni ,
@rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee avatar

I will have to see about getting pihole on truenas core. It has a preconfigured adguard thingy but I didn'tblike it.

Texas_Hangover ,

Might not be the exact solution you're looking for, but I run my "smart TV" off a cheap ass laptop. The TV itselfbhas never been connected to the internet.

rickyrigatoni , (edited )
@rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee avatar

Hmm. Since all I use my tv for is local plex server and hdmi I could just disable its internet access in the router.

e: i did it

Texas_Hangover ,

Absolutely! There is no reason for the TV itself to have access, I'm actually using this TV as kind of an experiment, I let my last 2 roku TVs access the internet, and after 2-3 years they both went tits up. I've heard rumors that they can pretty much be broken on schedule with "updates" and shit. No idea if that is true, But if this TV lasts me a good long while, I will assume it is lol. So far 1 year on this one lol.

slumberlust ,

Could your tv just phone home via another nearby (neighbors) tv?

Texas_Hangover ,

I sure as fuck hope not lol. I don't think my TV has that capability, even if it wanted to. If I don't give it access to my shit, its just a big-ass monitor lol.

rob_t_firefly ,
@rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world avatar

If someone, let's say, happened to own a Roku TV and a NAS full of some sort of DRM-free video content ripped from home-video media they legitimately own and have legally format-shifted and backed up, to watch their stuff they'd still have to wade through Roku's enshittifying home screen to access the appropriate media player.

Lianodel ,

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

stealth_cookies ,

You are still likely going to want some sort of streaming device though. I have an old computer of mine running unraid with Plex in a docker container and still use a chromecast in apps only mode to stream to my TV.

Lianodel ,

Oh yeah, I already have a Chromecast. I know this is a post about Roku specifically, but it was just another example of enshittification getting me to finally set up my own system. It was honestly the HBO Max disaster that got me started.

Good to know about App Only Mode, though! So far the Chromecast interface doesn't bother me, but it's good to know there's a ripcord I can pull if it gets worse (unless they take that away).

harry_balzac ,

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!

Evotech , (edited )

Your don't need to run your own pihole anymore, unless your goal is to not share your dns history of course

Controld.com and many others has free dns which blocks ads

harry_balzac ,

I'm going to take a look. Thanks!

lemmyvore ,

That (and PiHole) will only work as long as Roku doesn't start using DoH.

Dark_Arc ,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

The Department of Holes!?? Gosh... I knew PiHole's time was limited but it's too soon 😥

AProfessional ,

Using DoH is fine (good), hardcoding a specific server less so.

lemmyvore ,

Well, you know they're gonna use it to circumvent ad blocking. If they want to play nice they can simply keep doing what they're doing now and use whatever DNS server they're told by DHCP.

AProfessional ,

Not using DoH is simply a leak of data, every client should use it. If they use it maliciously is a different topic but yeah I wouldn’t say its unlikely.

lemmyvore ,

Do you mean leaking on the LAN or on the Internet? Because the former is a whole different kettle of fish.

Normally, LAN clienta should work with the router and let it organize these things. It's best for example to just let the router advertise itself as DNS and proxy the requests via DoH/DoT, you get a central place where you set the resolver, you can filter ads, you can do caching etc. The router can also intercept (clear) DNS traffic and secure/cache it as needed.

AProfessional ,

By default devices should expect their requests to go over the internet where DoH is very important. Over LAN much less so ofc.

Pretzilla ,

Is there a free DNS from Controld.com I can just put in my network settings?

I only saw the paid option. - thx

Evotech ,

Yeah just click free dns from the menu

sonovebitch ,

Adguard DNS does that for free : https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

Pretzilla ,

Yep I'm using adguard but heard they have new owners of unknown security accountability

negativenull , (edited )
@negativenull@lemm.ee avatar

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

PM_Your_Nudes_Please ,

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:

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/8b634a7b-a95e-40d0-a629-ceb70010c283.jpeg

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 ,

Why did you black out your private IP addresses?

ji17br ,

He doesn’t wanna get hAcKeD duhhhhh

lazynooblet ,
@lazynooblet@lazysoci.al avatar

They are called private for a reason!

PM_Your_Nudes_Please ,

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.

rob_t_firefly ,
@rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world avatar

I, for one, appreciate that someone called @PM_Your_Nudes_Please understands the value of good OPSEC. You go ahead and fiercely guard any electronic data you might happen to have, neighbor.

madcaesar ,

Did you add the expression by the user you are replying to?

Does it just block the Roku / Samsung spam, while leaving the platform otherwise in tact?

WalkableProgrammer ,

What does it look like on your tv after blocking the ads

herrvogel ,

Not the guy you replied to, but my LG webos TV worked just fine after I added a whole bunch of domains to my pihole blacklist. Got rid of A LOT of crap from the "homepage". Made it a hell of a lot cleaner and overall more usable. There are compiled lists of domains per brand and per region. Just find one that fits your bill.

I use past tense because last week I finally created a kodi box and took the TV offline entirely. Now it's even better.

Lemonparty ,

They've already been adding them to mine. My home screen inputs got smashed into one (because I don't use any of the home screen apps, I only use the two HDMI inputs) so they could jam a bigger ad on the right, and then make suggested things some of the options. Like the last month or so it's been wanting me to watch super girl or Wonder woman or some dumb shit.

My other personal favorite thing they do is that they load slowly so sometimes I'll go to select an input and the cursor will jump to the wrong place because an ad loaded. Fun!

thecookingsenpai ,
@thecookingsenpai@lemmy.world avatar

Thank you Roku, a step forward towards self hosting and self managing of every service

ShepherdPie ,

How are you going to self-host streaming hardware? A HTPC for every TV in the house along with a mouse and keyboard?

trash ,
@trash@lemm.ee avatar

Small SBCs and keyboard/remote combos. That's what we do.

grue ,

I was already thinking of upgrading my old Roku to a $20 Onn (Walmart brand) Google TV box (which I'm told is hackable), but this will only accelerate that decision.

OR3X ,

I have one of these on every TV in my house and they're great!

0x2d ,

yes they are. you can put lineage and degoogle these

averyfalken ,

Yes I have a thinclient attached to my TV running linux mint

bigb ,

Use Android TV with an alternate launcher like FLaunchee

lemmyvore ,

No need for HTPC, just a small USB device with HDMI output and DLNA support. You use your phone as a DLNA controller, a server running Jellyfin as DLNA provider, and the device attached to the TV as DLNA renderer. And sometimes TVs have DLNA support built-in (my Toshiba does).

On Android there's an amazing app called BubbleUPnP that can source media from a wide variety of places, make playlists, and cast to DLNA devices as well as proprietary protocols like Chromecast.

Blue_Morpho ,

It works but it isn't family friendly.

lemmyvore ,

Jellyfin supports DLNA too, if you have a DLNA rendering device on the network it will just appear in the cast menu. Or if you want something that works with a remote directly on the TV you can install Kodi. There's really no point nowadays in getting tied up into proprietary stuff.

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