• spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    114
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days 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.

  • Tantheiel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    So glad I blocked my TVs access to the Internet at the router level. Never complainrd about not setting up a network if the network doesn’t work.

      • Tantheiel@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        I used Netflix on my TV but after the password sharing and other issues I choose to block network access.

        Most of my Internet is done on my computer.

      • Toribor@corndog.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        Wake on LAN. At least that’s what I do. I can turn on the TV and adjust the volume from Home Assistant but the TV itself can’t reach the Internet.

      • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        When my girlfriend moved in, she had a big TCL Roku TV its software absolutely sucks. But it would keep a blinking led on ALL THE TIME if it wasn’t connected to wifi.

        I put it on my iot network, and I’m considering null routing it.

        I actually had a Roku box plugged into it since it had a better experience, but I’m probably going to switch that to a Nvidia shield pro because of this ad bullshit.

  • danc4498@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 days ago

    What’s the best alternative? I have a fire cube, and I’m getting sick of it. Apple TV? Is there a FOSS solution that’s close to the same quality interface?

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Some good options already listed. But here’s another.

      Hey an Android TV box (Onn brand or similar) and install an open source launcher on it, like Projectivity. You have to use adb to disable the default launcher after the new launcher is installed, otherwise it keeps defaulting back to the default one. But once don’t it’s smooth sailing. You have a dedicated streaming device with a remote control and a nice UI with zero ads on the home screen.

    • frank@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      I have a Raspberry Pi 500 running PiOS that works well like a computer to just play things in browser. No ads or anything of course. But also no casting from a phone or anything

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 days ago

      TL; DR - No. But actually maybe, depending on what you’re looking for and what you can put up with.

      Are you looking to access streaming services? Or are you okay with self-hosting?

      The FOSS solutions that support streaming services are pretty janky IMO because they don’t have support from the service, so you’re probably better off hooking up a laptop running Linux and access stuff in a browser. I had Netflix working through Kodi on a Raspberry Pi, for example, but like I said, it was super janky. Maybe it’s better now, idk, but check out OpenELEC and Kodi. You’ll need some hardware to run it on.

      If you can self-host your videos, Jellyfin is pretty great, and I think there are a couple more options. You’ll need to get the content yourself though and connect it to the TV somehow (e.g. the Jellyfin app if you have a smart TV).

    • SuperNerd@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      AppleTV is very easy, and what I did after Roku, then the Chrome stick added ads. I haven’t seen any ads in the AppleTV home screens.

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      The best is unironically to pirate and use something like Kodi on a SBC that can run libreElec.

  • blazeknave@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

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

      • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 day 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.

  • Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    6 hours ago

    This kind of garbage is why I’ve never connected my tcl tv with bulit in roku to the internet.

  • tomjuggler@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 hours ago

    Libreelec on raspberry pi 4 (Kodi) works for me but it really needs a new YouTube app. That’s the only issue really

  • Veneroso@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    19 hours ago

    So this is the Moana garbage?

    I have a pihole blocking most of it, but these were playing.

    There’s surely a way to jailbreak these things.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    For years I was a big fan of Roku. It represented a better value alternative from the big corporations pushing their own agenda like Google, Apple, Samsung, and Amazon. They made products that were intuitive and user oriented and carved out a very nice and stable market share for themselves because of it. Now they’re just leveraging their hardware relationships to transform the software into something terrible.

    I used to look for tvs with Roku built in. Now I’ve disabled Roku features from my smart TVS and use a separate streaming device.

    • jacksilver@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      I think the issue is they hit market saturation and haven’t been able to develop any real revenue streams beyond the sale of devices (which is one time cost while maintenance and development constantly drain them of any profit).

      I suspect the increased enshitification is because they need other revenue streams. Just take a look at their stock price and it doesn’t paint a great picture for them.

      • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        I think it depends on the model, but there should be something in the power settings to change the startup device. I did a factory reset first to clear any network settings or user data, skipped the setup, and set it to startup on the HDMI input.