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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.
watson387 ,
@watson387@sopuli.xyz avatar

PiHole takes care of that.

GrammatonCleric ,
@GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world avatar

As long as they don't remove the option to startup on input #1, I'm good 👍

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

I have the remote with two shortcut buttons, so I can map them to my favorite apps and never see the homescreen. It's actually pretty nice!

Lemonparty ,

How do you map the custom buttons? I've literally never used mine

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

You have to have the remote with the 1 and 2 buttons. Then just press and hold them and it should give you the option to assign an action like launching an app.

Lemonparty ,

Oh I think mine is too old. Mine just had like a plus quadrant, power button and then there pre-programmed buttons that I've literally never used.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

It's ok I don't actually think the customizable remote comes with any TV or box. You have buy it after market from their site.

cmbabul ,

I guess I get to ad more devices to my pfsense Adblock rule

RattlerSix ,

I just saw enough ads trying to read the damn story

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Firefox with uBlock Origin!

RattlerSix ,

I actually have that on my phone but there was still 7-8 ads

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Interesting, I didn't see any (aside from links to other articles on the same site).

RattlerSix ,

Oh i see now, it didn't open in an external browser

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Ahhh! What app are you using? I use Thunder which uses Custom Tabs which basically means it uses your default default browser but without leaving the app.

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

I know a lot of people here reeeeeaaaaalllly hate apple, but, having used many different streaming boxes over the years, I’ve never had a better experience than with my Apple TVs. I have a Gen 4 (Apple TV HD) and a Gen 5 (Apple TV 4K first generation), and they both have worked flawlessly and trouble-free since they day I bought them many years ago. I primarily use them for the Plex app (there are very nice Jellyfin, Kodi, and Emby apps too, chill), and sometimes for some other stuff, all of which they do very well, even the older one, and even still after all these years. tvOS updates have, historically, been pretty essentialist— that being, slim and performant. Old Apple TVs still run great.

YES, for those who don’t like Apple and/or who aren’t totally into the who Apple ecosystem, one won’t get all of the benefits (yet will still get about 90% of them) and one might see friction with some of Apple’s “way of doing things” — especially that fucking annoying remote of theirs - but, all things considered, it does what it does extremely well, and it’s far better and more powerful than its competition IMO (for which you do pay a premium I feel is well worth it). and it is especially good at both protecting your privacy (compared to its competitors) and keeping ads far, far away (except when individual apps insert them, i.e. Hulu or Netflix with ads).

I have had Rokus in several TVs I’ve owned, and… yeah, they were, technically, the closest to the great functionality I came to expect rom my ATVs, but, still, nowhere close. On top of that, my Rokus all wanted all my data and sleazily blasted me ads while making it nearly impossible to disable the ability to disconnect my wifi, disable ads or tracking, etc. The whole device/os seemed designed for data mining first, and showing me media second. ew. the only upside was that the Roku Plex app has one or two interesting UX and UI features the tvOS app didn’t due to some weird programming quirks in SwiftUI and tvOS limitations that didn’t exist in whatever development framework that Roku uses.

Veedem ,
@Veedem@lemmy.world avatar

I came here to say something similar. I love my AppleTV. Works like a charm and has a no-nonsense interface if you enable the grid Home Screen. No ads. Runs great. It’s perfect.

gregorum ,
@gregorum@lemm.ee avatar

Even for Apple haters, it’s a pretty decent device. Even for people who hate Apple stuff, you don’t have to have other Apple devices to make great use of an Apple TV. You do have to create an iCloud account in order to sign into it, but you can always use an iTunes account for that purpose.it’s just for the purpose of downloading apps and so forth. No other Apple device or service is required. It really does work great on its own and isolated from any other service or device. However, it does work excellently in concert with other Apple devices, if that is your thing.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Do you need any other Apple devices to make good use of an Apple TV?

gregorum ,
@gregorum@lemm.ee avatar

No! Shockingly, this is the one Apple device, even aside from the iPhone, that you really don’t need another Apple device for it to be at nearly it’s maximum usefulness. Yes, more Apple devices do make it more useful, but on its own, it’s at nearly 100% of its usefulness. It does want you to have an iCloud account and register for that, but it doesn’t need to go further than that. All of the regular apps like Hulu or prime video or Netflix or whatever work normally on Apple TV, but they work in an Apple TV sort of way. For the most part, it’s actually much better than another platforms, but it is in Apple TV sort of way. It does take a little getting used to.you can always go into an Apple Store and try it out if that is convenient for you.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Thanks!

gregorum ,
@gregorum@lemm.ee avatar

sure! I’m happy to answer any of your questions about it.

Sendbeer ,

AppleTV would be my recommendation for people that want a clean interface with no ads and they don't want to or can't modify an android TV box to a custom launcher. It's just about a perfect experience right out of the box. It's a shame about the shitty remote though.

For people willing to get their hands dirty, androidtv having SmartTubeNext is a killer tool for YouTube and for me gives it the edge.

QuarterSwede ,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

Just buy one of the 4K’s and it comes with the power button and better remote. Also, the remote isn’t bad if you turn off the swiping and just use the 4-way as a D-pad. You still get its great circular scrolling too.

cyborganism ,

Anyone ever read the short story "Sales pitch" by Philip K. Dick?

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, that sucks. That will definitely drive me elsewhere.

Like a modified Android TV or Apple TV or something

ji17br ,

Highly recommend Apple TV. My only issue is the insane amount of YouTube ads. Feels like more ads than content some days.

LazaroFilm ,
@LazaroFilm@lemmy.world avatar

My Roku TV is basically unusable at this point. Opening Netflix takes about 10 minutes to get to the main menu. Then launching the video is like rolling a D12. Except it lands on a 1 every time and crashes. It also restarts randomly for “updates” in the middle of watching something. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it!

jimbo ,

Bruh, it sounds like your Roku TV is just broken in general.

LazaroFilm ,
@LazaroFilm@lemmy.world avatar

It was working fine then an update made it this way.

henfredemars ,

Enshittification strikes again!

thantik ,

LOL "Roku was one of the platforms with fewer ads" my ass. Every. Fucking. Menu. Had that shit.

That's why I stuck with Google TV/Nexus TV for so long - because despite Google collecting that viewing info, I wasn't getting feature-length ads interrupting my shit.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Maybe I'm not using all of Roku's features but the only ad I see is the one box on the right of the homescreen. To me that's much less intrusive than the full screen stuff I see on Google TV or Fire Stick.

thantik ,

Yeah, GTV and Fire Stick have become awful for sure - On the lookout for alternatives to all 3 at this point. I shouldn't have to run a pihole just to connect to my jellyfin instance.

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

I've seen ads on one screen and that's it. Static ads for shows on the initial home page, nowhere else. Have 5 Rokus and have been using them for a decade.

Oh. Also I guess they started advertising shows in some of the screensavers, too.

ultranaut ,

I blocked it with nextdns, my Roku shows no ads at all. Instead there's just a blank space where the ads would be, which is so much better and less obnoxious.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

How do you set the Roku's DNS server?

ultranaut ,

You don't have to, nextdns on my router handles the Roku.

ALostInquirer ,

What would one recommend as more of a custom build version of these with a way to connect a convenient remote (smartphone or otherwise)? Alternatively is there a way to sort of jailbreak many of them, or does that just become more cumbersome?

Poggervania ,
@Poggervania@kbin.social avatar

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 ,

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 ,

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

triptrapper ,

Thank you for the explanation. I felt very out of the loop on this whole thread. I'll look into pihole.

AtariDump ,

NO problem.

Any issues, let me know :-)

Not sure if the PiHole team is on Lemmy yet.

SharpieThunderflare ,

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.

NovaPrime ,
@NovaPrime@lemmy.ml avatar

You can comfortably run pihole, unbound, and a VPN like wireguard on a pi zero or zero 2. You can find entire zero 2 kits for under $35 if you're patient

SharpieThunderflare ,

Very true. Mostly just haven't had the time. Also want to set up a little home server to play around with Proxmox and move Jellyfin off my main PC.

Fixbeat ,

I use roku...I might have to try a pihole...or switch to something else. Damn shame just about everything gets ruined by greed.

Lucidlethargy ,
@Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works avatar

I can confirm that I'm blocking all the Roku ads with adguard now. You just plug this list in: https://oisd.nl/

Malice , (edited )

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.

Kadaj21 ,

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 ,
@CatZoomies@lemmy.world avatar

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

Kadaj21 ,

Ah at the moment its connected to a 144hz portabble monitor via usbc.

FloMo ,

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

Malice ,

Directly from the play store, you can install alternative launchers. Some people like FLauncher; I did not. I went with Projectivy. Highly customizable, very clean.

You can also grab a button re-mapper there. I went with tvQuickActions Pro - it's paid, but quite powerful.

For SmartTubeNext, I followed this guide.

FloMo ,

Much appreciated!

deweydecibel ,

(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?

Malice ,

Jellyfin is definitely on my radar, and I'd love to make the switch. One thing that's important to me and my family, however, is the library sharing between accounts. To my knowledge, Jellyfin doesn't support this.

Sendbeer ,

SmartTubeNext might be the greatest thing about AndroidTV just for the sponsor block. It's so amazing.

Proxima_Centauri11 ,

Your comment inspired me, so I picked one up today for my Roku TV, and I had it running in under an hour! We really don't know how many ads we'd been seeing until we stop seeing them. I already had a PiHole on my network, but getting SmartTube running is so nice.

Malice ,

I'm glad you're having a better time with it! Honestly, if you watch any amount of YouTube on your TV, it's well worth the $20 just for SmartTubeNext. Such a massive improvement to skip all the sponsor, promotion, intro, etc segments.

Proxima_Centauri11 ,

Thank you! For me, that's half of it. The other half is removing everything that's not my subscriptions on the home page so I'm not seeing a bunch of "the algorithm". And then being able to boot to the subscriptions page too is so nice.

andyburke ,
@andyburke@fedia.io avatar

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 ,
@Uranium3006@kbin.social avatar

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

andyburke ,
@andyburke@fedia.io avatar

Yep. There was a little while there where things coulda maybe been fine but the greedy psychopaths decided they wanted to fuck it up.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@kbin.social avatar

I only use my Roku streaming stick for Youtube and Plex. Should be easy enough to replace with a mini-PC or equivalent, if it really becomes bad enough.

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