• _sideffect@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    This is why I disconnected my parents Roku tv from the internet last year, when they started to get updates that wouldn’t download, and freeze the whole tv, i said enough is enough

    • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      56 seconds ago

      A Sharp Aquos TV from the late 2000s, pre-Hisense days. I have a 42" model from 2007. 1080p, plenty of I/O for modern and legacy equipment, and lots of configuration options. It’s an absolute monster at 75 lbs, but is an incredibly high quality unit, especially for it’s age. I’ve owned it since 2019 and it’s needed zero repairs.

      For reference, we also have a much newer 55" curved Samsung TV (in our basement, wall-mounted up high) which that has already needed its display driver board replaced.

      • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Wish it had more apps, but Apple TV is pretty solid. With the Steam link app, it’s also good for couch gaming on your pc.

        • Darren@sopuli.xyz
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          1 hour ago

          We use Moonlight instead of Steam Link. It requires a little more setting up at the PC end, but overall seems to be a more smooth result.

    • scala@lemmy.ml
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      56 minutes ago

      Technically you can get commercial TVs but many companies stopped selling them. They are literally the new screen tech with no “Smart” capabilities. They are also much cheaper than their smart counterparts.

      • CatZoomies@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        Just a heads up that the Smart Cancer has already begun infecting PC monitors. Samsung makes Smart Monitors.

        It won’t be long before there are no longer Dumb Monitors.

      • Bristingr@lemm.ee
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        32 minutes ago

        I must not be looking at the right thing. All I’m finding are expensive displays that have all this fancy scheduling, web surfing, etc. built into it.

  • Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    I only ever tried using a Roku so I could stream my PC to my smart TV, but it turns out there’s MASSIVE latency. Of course I returned it. If I had to deal with that AND ADS, I would have set that shit on fire

  • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Almost downvoted instinctually as a reaction to the headline. Visceral reaction. I hate this beyond belief.

  • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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    10 hours ago

    I was thinking about changing my Roku TV anyway. “Dumb” TVs are the future for me.

      • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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        57 minutes ago

        Sure. The device I use is an Onn streaming a Android TV box. I think I got the 2023 4k streaming version and it was about $20, from Walmart. You can probably get cheaper models, but I wanted one with an Ethernet port.

        Then I installed a couple of alternative launchers from the Play store on device. I also loaded F-Droid as well (though I had to do that directly through an apk). I can’t remember which launcher I went with in the end, but it was either FLauncher or Projectivity. They were both good.

        The wrinkle here is that the OS defaults back to the default launcher (which has ads and a lot of clutter on it). But I used a free command line tool called adb to switch the default launcher off.

        I’ve been very happy with the new setup. My kids (who use it all the time) occasionally complain that an app will crash while they are watching something, and take them back to the home screen/launcher. But I haven’t run into that, and it’s probably just them accidentally hitting a remote (which I know they accidentally do a lot).

        I documented the process and posted them here, in another thread a few months ago.

        Additional note: The default YouTube app isn’t very conducive to quick profile switching, which can be annoying. To switch profiles you basically have to go back to the OS level and do it there, then go back into the YouTube app. It’s an Android TV quirk. But I discovered that if you side-load the Amazon Fire version of the YouTube app onto the device, you can switch profiles within that version of the app, and it works just fine.

    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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      17 hours ago

      This is already my experience but still use a Roku to access Plex. Looks like I’ll need to get something else or figure out if i can block them with Ad Guard Home

      • unconsciousvoidling@sh.itjust.works
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        15 hours ago

        I use pi hole and the experience is not entirely smooth. I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this but my pi hole blocks ads but every few weeks Roku has an update and it locks up the entire operating system and I’m stuck in a loop of trying to get my update so I can return to normal. I for the hell of it disabled pi hole for 5 minutes and it wound up working but not until I dropped pi hole. So it’s as if it every so often decides to hold the operating system hostage if I don’t drop pi hole for updates. Makes me think they likely get all the telemetry they are trying to collect for selling data. I like not watching ads 90 percent of the time but it pisses me off that they are likely still spying on me by forcing me to communicate with their servers every now and then.

        • Ulrich@feddit.org
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          12 hours ago

          My brother in Christ, please just connect another device to your TV and disconnect your TV from the internet. No one should be using the built-in software for exactly this reason.

        • LeeroyTubbins@lemm.ee
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          13 hours ago

          Interesting, I use PiHole as well and have no issues with any of my Roku devices. I wonder if you have more restrictive blocking or some particular rule that I don’t. What lists are you using in PiHole?

        • Tim_Bisley@piefed.social
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          13 hours ago

          I can’t recall having that issue but I stopped using pi-hole because it was blocking certain functionalities on some websites. It required a more hands on approach than I wanted to dedicate at the time.

  • PeteZa@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    It’s 1000% worth it to spend a little extra on a TV to get one that runs Google TV. Android is just superior compared to Roku in this regard. I actually have an Apple TV 4K as well, and regularly switch between the two.

    • Glitterbomb@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Manufacturers need to put the cheap ass software on a cheap ass $20 stick. Stop fucking up TVs with it. Stop accepting any ‘smart’ features and stop calling them smart. They’re invasive advertisement platforms, full fucking stop. It is in fact NOT worth it to get a google TV, because they’ll pull this shit or worse next week. We had perfectly functional TVs for decades before this shit, stop acting like the only choice is to surrender your hardware.

      • PeteZa@lemm.ee
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        18 minutes ago

        I’m not surrending shit. It’s really Android TV, they just call it Google. But whatever man, go off.

      • PeteZa@lemm.ee
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        15 minutes ago

        That’s such a cool and novel opinion. Wow. My Android TV does everything I need it to right out of the box. Never fucking shows me advertisements, and actually made it easier for me to stop paying for an overpriced Hulu subscription.

    • dan1101@lemm.ee
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      2 hours ago

      So far. And I actually prefer the Roku UI even though the Google TV will do more things, like let you sideload apps. Roku is propietary.

      • PeteZa@lemm.ee
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        12 minutes ago

        So far what?

        Even if they do start putting ads on Android TV, all I have to do is switch over to my Apple TV. That’s the best performing streaming device on the market, regardless of your opinion on Apple.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        2 hours ago

        The sad thing is Roku’s UI was pretty dang good before they added a row of ads at the top, a half screen ad on the left and replaced the background with an ad every 2 weeks, waiting a full minute for it to load the latest nonsense the highest bidder paid them to shove in my face. The ads absolutely ruin a good platform.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
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    18 hours ago

    Not a surprise for Roku. The company has been getting progressively worse in the last few years and their enshittification is accelerating. Their recent forced download of an update that requires users to agree to arbitration to even use our TVs was intended to ultimately take control of those TVs completely away from the people who own them.

    Right now it’s possible to block Roku’s static ads and presumably the autoplaying ones using a local DNS server like Adblock Home or Pihole, but it’s only a matter of time before Roku blocks everything unless we watch the ads they are trying force down our throats. I’m already in the process of obsoleting all 5 of our Roku devices.

    It has taken Roku years to build up enough market share to allow this kind of behavior and it will take years for the market to abandon them. Their executives will claim ignorance as to why users are walking away when it finally hits their bottom line.

  • nul9o9@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Roku had the best smart tv ui. I was seriously bummed when the ads started rolling in a few years ago.

    I want an open source streaming client, but from what I hear DRM gets in the way of that.

    • bluegreenwookie@bookwormstory.social
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      29 minutes ago

      Honestly i dont even care about non intrusive ads. I dont like it but i can live with those ads on the side bar telling me about some movie coming out, but this auto video bullshit that takes over my screen is fucking awful. That’s the line for me

    • PeteZa@lemm.ee
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      4 hours ago

      I’ve much preferred Google TV for some time now. The recommendations and live free tv options are essentially built into the UI. Although I do use the Roku app as one of my free streaming options lol.

  • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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    18 hours ago

    Im literally willing to ditch the device and cancel all streaming services because of this. When I turn on my TV I don’t want to be forced to consume ads when I haven’t been provided with anything in return.

  • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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    19 hours ago

    Roku is bad, I have one older Roku ““smart”” tv that I just block from accessing the internet entirely, and use a shield with a custom launcher instead.

      • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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        18 hours ago

        So, I use regex to block all Roku domains on my network via pihole:

        (ads|logs|cloudservices|image|images|web|prod.mobile|wwwimg|captive|customer-feedbacks|amoeba|amoeba2|sr|giga.sb|cs).roku(.admeasurement)*.com$

        Then, possibly overkill due to the above, I used OpnSense firewall rules to block all traffic from my Roku tv. I think I just got fed up with seeing Roku spam in my pihole, as the above regex seems to completely “break” Roku.

        After that, I set up FLauncher (following the method #2 instructions on the gitlab page) on my shield. This makes it so I only see the Roku launcher for a few seconds while the shield starts up, and then I’m dropped straight into flauncher. I chose flauncher because it’s very simple and barebones, so you might want to explore other options if you want more advanced features. I don’t really need those features since I’m usually using an app anyway.

        Note that I did all of that after the tv was configured and set up, YMMV if it’s a brand new tv as it may need to call home to do the initial set up.

    • firadin@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Is there any point in getting anything above the bottom tier Shield? Just trying to use it to replace my chromecast/stream tv and youtube

        • fishpen0@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          Lemmy especially sleeps on the Apple TV more than most communities. It’s a solid box that has no ads and no privacy issues. Plex, Jellyfin, etc… all installable. With apples track record on previous versions of the Apple TV, software updates and support for about a decade

          • firadin@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            I assume being Apple that it’s not possible to sideload apps not supported on the app store? In particular I’d like to use some kind of a SmartTube or other youtube app that is ad free

            • fishpen0@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              You can use sideloadly but IIRC you need a Mac for it to work. My YouTube workflow is a YouTube-dl wrapper that pipes into jellyfin for the small handful of things I still watch from YT, so I’m less familiar with live YouTube interfaces to know which ones are out there.

            • AtariDump@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              That is correct.

              But which do you want? Privacy or convenience? No one makes a streaming device that does both.

      • consumptionone@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        I have been using an onn 4k streaming box, which runs Google TV. They’re $20. It’s pretty easy to disable the default launcher and have it boot to Flauncher. Then you can side load smart tube for an ad free YouTube experience asking with Plex, stremio, or whatever else you want to stream.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          I’ve got a couple of those that I bought shortly after the LTT video, but I’m still using my Roku because I still haven’t gotten around to jailbreaking and configuring them.

          • consumptionone@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            Do it. It’s very easy, and then you can ditch the Roku. There’s even an ADB app you can load to remove unwanted apps on-device.

      • limonfiesta@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        Nvidia has destroyed the stock Shield TV experience with ads, but it’s easy to install custom launchers like Projectivy. The underlying system is still a privacy nightmare, but I don’t care that Nvidia knows what TV shows I watch.

        I mean, I do care, just not enough to use something like Kodi as my primary TV interface. Maybe if I used any ad supported services I’d feel differently, but I don’t, so meh.

      • Ulrich@feddit.org
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        11 hours ago

        You should not buy a Shield. They haven’t been updated since…2019? And there’s really no reason to. Get the $20 WalMart one.