Technology

Roku, I already had you blocked at Pihole, but now I’m just straight up turning off your network access.

Well, that would be a way to guarantee I buy a new TV...

Am I the only one who gets the feeling that this is kinda dystopic? Like come on, this just gets crazy. It amazes me that some people think this is an ethically acceptable way to earn money.

Is there some open-source replacement for Roku? All I really use it for is a portal to my streaming services that’s easy to navigate with a remote. I’ve noticed my Roku become increasingly more overrun with ads ever since I started using it 4-5 years ago to my dismay, and it’s obviously not stopping any time soon. I’m vaguely aware of Plex but I have no clue where to start with setting it up or if it would even meet my needs

Mutually assured destruction if they were able to do this, because every other company that has a device that interfaces with HDMI would immediately implement their own ad-hijacking system that would fight for the same screen space during those "breaks".

Not to mention that if Roku saw some unknown time to monetize the screen, surely the host device they're trying to draw over would've done it by now.

Maybe they could plaster ads over their screensaver to ruin their own experience before trying to do it to someone else.

If this happens I will find the person responsible and punch their dad in the cock

I'm so glad I made the switch to projectors. They have yet to be riddled with this horse shit. My current projector does 1080p, 60fps, makes an 85" screen in my room, can be used just fine during the day, works great with my Deck, and with the Kodak branded screen cost me less than 600 bucks.

Lmao, Roku can go suck on a lemon... Never buying any of their shit ever again.

Wow! Not since Xitter have we seen a brand so aggressively shoot itself in the crotch!

Amazing, Roku. That’s . . . something.

That is definitely way too invasive. Plugging something on to a Roku TV shouldn't enable them to show you ads through that other device.

I was actually thinking about getting a Roku once too. Really dodged a bullet.

I swear to fuck, in 2030 we're going to be spinning our own homebrew crts. 640x480 is better than ads.

Wow... Roku found a way to dig a deeper while and somehow make Samsung look good by comparison.

The only reason I liked using their remote app was being able to do Bluetooth listening. Now the app no longer runs on my phone, and after reinstalling and rebooting I deleted that and am back to using the Chromecast. Time to cut the internet to the TV so I don't get an update with this ad feature

I doubt that Roku is the only one exploring this option though. Heck Samsung displays ads everywhere in their UI, including the individual, source selection items.

Our TV can fortunately bypass all the "smart" shit, and run like dumb monitor, maybe because it's an older TV? We use it with an external computer with Linux mediacenter, where we have full control and no adds.
Would it even be possible to run a new "smart" TV as a dumb monitor?

We are very happy with our TV, because we can run it as a plain monitor no problem, but it could break.

I just had a horrifying thought while wondering what these TV manufacturers will do with the TVs if you just never connect them to the Internet.

I know people are worried about them jumping on your neighbor's WiFi without prompting, or even hacking your own connection, etc but I think that seems unlikely because of how deeply illegal it is...but my horrifying thought was that they could just create a new, free mesh network that only serves up ads.

You'd need a fucking faraday cage wrapped around your TV in order to not see ads.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go throw up. 🤮

I will buy any other brand or a try to find a dumb TV if they do this.

patents don't mean shit tho, companies usually just patent whatever they want without any plans of implementation

Sounds like a good way to get open source tvs

I'm so crotchety if your site so much as makes me click an extra X for an ad, promo, or even a coupon I'm fucking out homie.

Ugh, well what are the best Roku alternatives?