Users are unimpressed, eager to toss devices if test sticks.
  • JIMMERZ@lemm.eeEnglish
    17·
    2 days ago

    Watching Roku steadily decline from a trusted brand has been something. For a time, they were the alternative to the other bigger more Ad driven companies. I’ve owned 2 and used to enjoy them overall. Now, they’ve slowly become just as bad or worse than their competitors in some regards. When history looks back on streaming boxes as a failed delivery method, Roku might just get to be the example in the forefront.

  • muculent@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago
    • Disconnect from network
    • Factory reset
    • Use HDMI to plug into a device that actually respects your privacy and does what you want (Jellyfin, Plex, Pihole for even more goodness, and simply run other streaming services via privacy enhanced browser)
    • Enjoy life without enshittified asshole OS no one asked for by going back to a time that was better.

    EDIT: I haven’t tested this as of yet, but it seems like a decent option for converting and old PC (or if you have a RaspPi) into a media platform with comparable functionality: https://arcadian.cloud/pi/2023/04/27/easily-turn-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-smart-tv/

        • imvii@lemmy.caEnglish
          5·
          3 days ago

          I seem to be lacking in Soma and orgies.

          Ah crap. That means I’m an Epsilon.

    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.eeEnglish
      241·
      4 days 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.worksEnglish
        14·
        4 days 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.

      • surph_ninja@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        3 days 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.xyzEnglish
          3·
          3 days 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.

            • metaldream@sopuli.xyz
              English
              1·
              3 days ago

              Moonlight blows steam out of the water. I can’t even tell I’m streaming when I use it.

                • metaldream@sopuli.xyz
                  English
                  2·
                  2 days ago

                  With steam for me it took longer to connect, it was harder to set up and the stream itself had noticeable artifacts and lag.

                  With sunshine & moonlight my lag is 1 ms, it connects instantly and I can stream in 4K HDR. Like I said it’s so high quality that I often forget I’m streaming the game.

                  Plus moonlight is free and open source. Takes maybe 5-10 mins to set up. I was skeptical because it’s FOSS, but it’s easily the streaming solution I’ve tried for gaming.

                  This is on Windows over LAN, I haven’t tried it over the internet.

          • flightyhobler@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            Witch brands have moonlight available natively? I think I remember Samsung. Anything else? LG doesn’t…

          • stringere@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            I’m looking into alternatives. So far Kodi is the front runner for my use. I have not decided on whether to replace roku units with raspberri pi running kodi or try the jailbreaking roku route.

          • jacksilver@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            Some people have mentioned apple TV, for now that at least isn’t riddled with ads. Others have mentioned getting android sticks, but I’m not sure how smooth that process is (or how well they work with remotes).

    • scala@lemmy.mlEnglish
      11·
      3 days 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.worldEnglish
        12·
        3 days 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.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    105·
    4 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.

  • Afflictedlife@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

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

  • LucidNightmare@lemm.eeEnglish
    13·
    3 days ago

    Bought a Roku back in 2020 or 2021 because the Apple TV was more expensive.

    Now I know why.

    For what it is worth, I have Roku set up as a REGEX in my Pi-hole so for the most part, any of this nonsense is completely blocked on my Roku.

    Needless to say, I shouldn’t have to do this shit with a device I paid for and mainly use for Plex streaming.

  • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.todayEnglish
    77·
    4 days 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.todayEnglish
        52·
        4 days 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.worldEnglish
      3·
      4 days 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

      • melfie@lemmings.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        I haven’t really compared the specs of between them recently, but I have the Pro, and the main decider for me at the time was that it was $50 more and has Ethernet. That being said, I added a USB Ethernet adapter to an Onn device and it works, though the first one I tried didn’t work. It was worth the $50 at the time not to deal with that for the Shield.

      • consumptionone@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        4 days 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.

        • fishpen0@lemmy.worldEnglish
          61·
          4 days 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.worldEnglish
            31·
            4 days 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.worldEnglish
              51·
              4 days 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.worldEnglish
              36·
              4 days ago

              That is correct.

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

      • limonfiesta@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        4 days 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.

  • _sideffect@lemmy.worldEnglish
    221·
    3 days 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

  • Tantheiel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    181·
    3 days 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.

      • Toribor@corndog.socialEnglish
        2·
        3 days 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.

      • Tantheiel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 days 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.

  • oyo@lemm.eeEnglish
    171·
    3 days ago

    If this happens on my box I’ll be taking them to small claims court and let you all know how it goes…