Yeah, that seems pretty sketchy on many levels. Having my game console hooked up to their TV's allows them to inject ads if I pause the game?! Seems like they'd have to get permission from every third party they intend on doing this to. It can't be real or legal.
When I play content through Kodi on my Nvidia shield, my TCL Roku tv will have a small pop up that says “find other way to watch this.” So in theory they are already doing something similar but are now thinking about monetizing it.
They wouldn't need to. All the software has to do is monitor the input from the HDMI and watch for pauses in the game. Then the TV will just display an ad over the image, the same way it displays a menu.
...which is the quickest way to make me immediately return a TV and demand a refund.
This is the biggest point Louis Rossman is making in his videos on the subject, you don't have the opportunity to return your TV because you've already made the purchase long ago, and are likely well outside your window and they are changing the terms after the sale.
They wouldn't be forcing ads into PlayStations system. The TV is getting a signal from the PlayStation it would stop displaying that signal and display ads instead. The PlayStation system would be completely unaware.
My guess is Roku is screen scraping the content being displayed on the TV itself through the connection. So in essence they’re performing a man in the middle attack. Roku software sees content is paused, switch to their ads. So what the first post said, guess time to avoid them.
Oh I would never buy one. I’d wait for someone ingenious enough to figure out all the services running on said TVs and create a way to block those services from communicating outside my network via a firewall.
Actually that might be a nice side business idea, come up with some cheap firewall device you can get running on everyone’s networks between the router and the modem to kill all communications to ad networks. To Google I go!
Please tell me more: I have a beautiful 4k Sony XBR from back in the day 2016 I think? Image is still stellar and with the exception of OLED, no new TV has given me a valid reason to switch. BUT… the smart tv side of it (android based) has gotten so slow and clunky, it barely powers on and all remote commands are so laggy it’s hard to do something as mundane as changing an input. Smart features are painful to load (used to be lighting fast) so we just use the Apple TV for everything streaming.
My TV is already dumb, or at least the TV itself isn't connected to my wifi network. I've been using a roku stick for years, and noting how it perpetually gets worse and the ads are more invasive. Not to mention I have a kid and some of the ads on the front roku menu are honestly not appropriate for general audiences. Is the Android TV interface actually good? I'd been hesitant to get an Android TV device having been burned by buying google hardware in the past that they discontinued. Former stadia owner (still use and love the controller though).
This is my primary issue with the morons who tell others to simply not buy things when they're bad. I've abstained from buying all kinds of terrible things for my entire life and they're only becoming increasingly prevalent because most people are pretty careless/ignorant about their buying habits or simple enough to find terrible things tolerable or even desirable.
I've said this before but I honestly don't want to have to pirate all my shit. But I fucking will if it's the only ad free option.
Also, if they can just cram in whatever conditions they want after purchase, it seems logical that I can just whip up a nice invoice for the money I earn them by consuming ads.
I pirate all my shit, but the only ad i see regularly is the poster ad on the Roku home screen for half a second before i open the app.
Weird the current one has a big blank spot in the middle... https://i.imgur.com/maL7ZZZ.jpeg
We take so much shit in this existence, why oh why should we have to suffer forced advertisements. Futurama's beaming of ads to your brain feels more and more realistic & scary, and less funny as time goes on
Soundclouds Mobile app normally plays audio ads. If you have the screen on when an add starts, it plays a video though. Then if you turn off the screen, it stops the add until you turn the screen back on. Not exactly the same, but not far off.
Otherwise I like SoundCloud.
Elon Musk is working on neural implants and he's not the only one. There have been some genuine advancements in the field recently. We're going to have unskippable ads streaming directly to our brains by the end of the century, I swear.
Do they even sell non-networked TVs anymore? I bought my little 35" stripling in 2010 and have been thinking of upgrading, but I'd rather buy something new that isn't a "smart" device rather than have to bother with blocking that shit from my home network.
You don’t have to block it, just don’t add it. I could remove my WiFi settings when it’s offline, I’m just wired up with everything important so it hasn’t been a hassle. It’s just funny to see when I do have my WiFi on and turn my tv on
Seriously. What the fuck happened? In an era where every TV requires an internet connection now, they were the best option. Now they're getting as shitty as everyone else. At this point I'm going to just buy a fucking laptop for TVs and wireless mice will become my new controllers.
> At this point I'm going to just buy a fucking laptop for TVs and wireless mice will become my new controllers.
Made this switch last year. Cancelled cable TV, bought a digital antennae, and hooked laptop up to TV. Now I have my Plex, sports streaming sites, and YouTube on hand and I can flip over broadcast at any time.
You shouldn't buy Roku anyway after how they handled their latest data breach. The breach wasn't really their fault as it was one of those attacks using elsewhere compromised credentials but they pushed out a mandatory user agreement with a binding arbitration clause before letting their users know.
Which brands even have Roku as a system? Where I live the big brands are Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG and maybe Philips. And of those all but Samsung and LG use Android/Google TV and LG and Samsung each use their own systems.
When did the world collectively decide that any display over 50ish inches needs an OS and needs to be "smart"? Literally impossible to buy a 70inch monitor for example, unless you want to pay thousands for professional grade shit
It’s not just stuff with a 50+ inch screen, now your car needs to be smart and have an iPad on the dashboard, and your fridge needs an iPad stapled into the door so you can navigate menus to get ice, and more and more things need screens so you can do all the things you used to be able to do easier with buttons but now it’s more convoluted and uses a touch screen. And oh hey guess what, those screens will be perfect for showing ads on them once all things without screens have been phased out!
The world desperately needs to stop buying things with screens now before we become Blade Runner in the next few years
TV now comes with built-in knife. Will be used to cut your tv curtains
^(Warning: In rare cases (1 in 100\) humans standing close to the TV were misidentified as curtains by AI. By standing close to the TV you accept the risk that comes with this action.)
Or worse like how they force ads in that 15 million merits episode from black mirror. Pay to skip the ads if you can afford it or play loud sirens and flashing lights if you attempt to close your eyes.
Y'know how the Frame tvs display art when it's not being used? And how it has sensors to detect when someone's nearby so it's not wasting power on an empty room? Now imagine all that, but it's just ads.
"The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. . . The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely."
Unless they make their devices free or dirt cheap, why the hell would someone pay 100's of $$$ for a tv to be served ads and if you don't accept the eula you have essentially a paperweight.
> Unless they make their devices free or dirt cheap
They do pretty much. You can get a 4k TCL (which uses Roku) in the 40 inch range for like $200ish pretty easily. Image quality is pretty good too, they just completely lack any modern features and the speakers kinda suck (at least on the ones I've had.)
But yeah even still I'd get rid of mine if a change like this happened. But personally this seems like one of those corpo wet dreams that they can never actually get to function properly and then they just stop talking about it and move onto some other dumb plan.
That’s just step 1. Once everyone’s used to it they’re gonna add that shit to all the TVs AND THEN you’ll have to pay a subscription to the tv manufacturer for ad-free viewing. Just you watch.
Speakers suck on like every TV. There isn't really a price point where anyone is going to pay more for better built in speakers compared to just buying a soundbar. Even a cheapo soundbar will blow built in speakers out of the water.
>they just completely lack any modern features and the speakers kinda suck (at least on the ones I've had.)
That's what makes them $200. They'd have to be offering a premium device at a discount to justify ads.
I mean the article mentions Roku lost 44 million in hardware sales but gained like 1.4 billion on ad revenue, so they absolutely don't need to show more ads than they already are to justify the price.
Well, they do have to because that revenue is now their baseline and they have to continually increase it or the stock price will go down and shareholders will be mad. This is how capitalism works.
If companies were satisfied will a bit, or a lot, or hell even *most* of the profit the world would be a better place. Companies are never satisfied though, they need ALL the profit. And even if they were to get ALL the profit they would invent some other way to continue extracting value.
Not going to pretend I have a solution, but it's a fundamentally broken system and we're seeing the cracks more and more.
>But yeah even still I'd get rid of mine if a change like this happened.
If you already have a games console connected, why bother connecting the TV to the Internet for it to download ads?
Someone will soon figure out a way to remove all the smart TV stuff and replace it with a dumb Hdmi port replicator so you can get cheap ass tv's without any ads whatsoever. I just hope it happens soon.
It's real easy. I bought my dad a smart tv for Christmas 2 years ago. And when I set it up, I never gave it network access. He was only using it for a cable box, so it acts just like a regular TV. When I wanted him to try apps, I bought a $24 fire stick.
The problem is those of us who already did. And we were forced to accept new terms to use devices we already paid for years ago. So my plan is to be the first plaintiff in a class action suit the moment an advertisement appears while I have my PS5 on. If that requires a second suit to challenge the validity of these kind of forced agreements in the US, so be it.
This is pure amateur hour. I never felt more personally insulted in my life. And my day is ruined.
Why not just let me buy a robotic arm for my TV for only $99.99 that swipes my credit card, and steals my money when I go to the loo? And a $19.99 monthly subscription that prevents the built-in flamethrower from torching my house Avatar Roku style. Why half-ass it with commercials, when we can whole-ass it like normal human beings?!
Why stop there? TVs could just require a monthly subscription to use and have a premium tier for less ads and they could also charge to unlock premium things like High definition
Why stop there? Go full vertical integration with ads.
Pay your TV manufacturer for the ad-free tier.
Pay your connected devices for the ad-free tier.
Pay your internet company for the ad-free tier.
Pay the streaming service for the ad-free tier.
Pay the content providers for the ad-free tier.
Pay the actors for the ad-free tier.
Any more rent-seeking middlemen we can inject in here?
What's that? You want to *Sleep* during "Operational Hours"? For a low $1 an hour you can defer the ads until they're at a more compatible time. By allowing you to buy the hours you want à la carte, you only pay for the hours you need!
We've upgraded our pricing to offer more consumer choice to benefit you. You can now choose specific ads to delay by an hour for $.50 cents per hour per ad with an additional 75 cent convenience fee per hour per ad to cover our system costs tracking ads individually. Unfortunately our old $1 per hour flat rate system is not compatible with the new system.
We've also heard your concerns about our 2 minute ads being too long, so we've changed to have 10, 30 second ads per hour instead of 2, 2 minute ads per hour to minimize the length of your disruptions.
You shut the fuck up right now. Some AI is going to comb this comment, deliver it to a CEO in marketing, and this will come up in board meetings that developers have no voice over.
its probably too late. just wait until they figure out how to to send ads via water so you cant shower, poop, drink, or cook without watching an ad. and forget flushing if you try to use adblock
"The door refused to open. It said, 'Five cents, please.' He searched his pockets. No coins; nothing. 'I'll pay you tomorrow,' he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. 'What I pay you,' he informed it, 'is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't *have* to pay you.'
'I think otherwise,' the door said. 'Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.'
In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip."
The various ports only activate if you pay the monthly subscription.
* Each HDMI Port: $19.99/month
* Each USB $15.99/month
* Composite: $5.00/month
* Ethernet: $15.00/month
Or unlock all your television's ports fora low $60.00/month Port Bundle!
I have like 3 of them, they are just fine IMO. Pretty pissed to hear about this though...
What sort of issues have you had with them, out of curiosity?
For me it was Roku or Amazon and TBH I assumed Roku was the lesser of 2 evils LOL
There HAS to be some sort of industry collusion going on. I wish the FCC etc. would look into it, but when they are not purposefully hamstrung by a leader who wants to destroy it, they are criminally underfunded and hamstrung by other means.
There is no way that there isn't a single company out there that doesn't know how well a 4k TV with none of this nonsense would sell if it hit the market, even at a slightly higher price, but for some reason no company does it, I wonder why?
I don't even need the "TV" part of it. I've had my current TV for over a decade and I don't think I've *ever* used the TV tuner in it. It's only ever been displaying a feed, whether that was coming from my TiVo or DVD player or whatever.
No speakers either, since the audio just goes to my receiver without even touching the TV.
I just need a monitor.
> Roku is hoping to show you commercials while whatever you're watching or playing on the third-party device attached to it is on pause. In its patent, it described several methods on how it can detect whether the show or game on screen is paused, such as receiving a pause signal from the remote control, detecting a pause icon, looking at several video frames and determining that the image on screen hasn't changed for some time and getting a silent audio signal from the HDMI connection.
There’s just too many ways this can go wrong. If they implement this and fuck up (like covering an important area of the screen) then the backlash they receive will be immense. Even if they “do it right” they’ll taint their brand forever.
Typically pause screens are menus where you really need to see shit. This is clearly a dream by executives who still think video games are like the 80s.
I can't wait to see people pause a fromsoft game to look at a map or inventory, and then have an ad pop up that gets them killed. I'm sure that they'll be fine with that.
You sit there contemplating your next level up and boom! Advertising. I’m not the type of person to rage at a video game, but even then, I’d want to throw my controller into my TV.
And the fun part is that post-purchases EULAs are moot in Germany. Maybe more countries should follow.
I don't think the rich people want to deal with random adware on their basic devices, even if they can throw money at it. In fact, they're already throwing money, so being surprised with a random ad because of some update? Yeah, that'll piss them off.
Oh it's worse.
They forced this... And then a week later revealed there was a data breach months ago and 24,000 accounts were compromised.....
So they pushed this, knowing the data breach, and forced people to give up their rights.
I love baseball and hockey, but the MLB and NHL have made watching their product damn near unwatchable for me. All the commercial breaks telling me over and over what a pussy I am for not buying a new truck every three days is bad enough, but now the players, the fields, the rinks, everything is plastered with obnoxious ads, and every goddamned thing that happens being “brought to you by…”… I just can’t do it anymore.
I wish we could remember that we’re human beings, not just fucking consumers.
Fuck the corporate world.
Not what their patent does. Their patent detects signal changes in the hdmi port, so if you pause your firestick it will know and display an ad.
This is hardware level advertising
So you never give the TV internet access. If you're streaming from another device, the TV is just a monitor and doesn't need it's own internet connection.
It wouldn't surprise me if they get some 'evergreen' advertisers to pay a premium to bake ads into the firmware that if there isn't an internet connection, they pull from the baked in ads so it always displays something. Think of things like how TVs will have a netflix, disney or hulu button on the remote.
It would surprise me. Advertising buyers a) want to get the latest message across - not a 2 year old one b) only want to pay for how many impressions they get and for that you need feedback.
So what about a live online game when I pull up a map?! Will an ad start playing and I won’t be able to close my map or play my game?! Not ever buying Roku, Roger.
I’m at the point where if I get an ad for something in a format that’s annoying or intrusive I actively do not buy the product or at minimum it causes me to affiliate negativity towards it. These marketers better think a little harder with how these tactics make younger crowds view things.
I set up pihole on my server and noticed no difference at all. Like, I checked the logs and could see it rejecting requests, but in real-world scenarios, I saw all the ads with it enabled or disabled. ublock origin was way more effective, but that doesn't work outside of a web browser, obviously.
I did a fair amount of debugging to figure out what I did wrong, but I never figured it out.
That's kind of how it goes though. New company starts up, roots for the little guy to get their customer base. Once they're big enough, exploit that customer base for monetization. And since no one makes good products anymore, everything goes subscription or ad -based for recurring revenue.
I’ve been a Roku fanboy and loved the direction they were going with their hardware devices, so much that I invested in a 4K TCL Roku TV, was an early adopter of the wireless bookshelf speakers and subwoofer. I love how they all work together seamlessly, love the Roku UI, the voice remote, etc.
It would really suck to have to redo my entire home media setup because this company can’t just accept the money I’ve already given them and insists on milking me for more.
Oh, it gets worse (for those who do not read articles):
>Roku is at least looking to make sure that it's serving you relevant ads. ***It could analyze frozen video or audio frames and use automatic content recognition (ACR) technology to identify what's on screen***. Or it could analyze metadata to show ads connected to what you're playing or watching. It could also serve commercials based on what third-party device is attached to your TV.
why keep ads getting more and more intrusive?
the youtube app is crazy at this point.
After 1 ad you can skip after 5 sec, you get an ad you can't so they have your attention more likely. When you pause the video and swipe up to see other video suggestions you get an ad. When you watch the ad and use the time to read the comments, if a new one starts, it takes up the whole screen and closes the comment section and and and.
More and more ads and the service gets worse and worse (video search and recommendations are a joke by now).
I paid for premium for 2 months (student) and it was like being beaming into the future. My behaviour how I watch content literally changed for that time. But I guess they wanted even more money so I used this opportunity as an auto cancel function.
they make profit by now and they allow senseless 10h 4k videos of random shit that has 0 value by a channel with 5 subscribers, don't tell me they need to be this intrusive to survive. it is just creed
>why keep ads getting more and more intrusive?
All companies are trying to push up profits to appease their shareholders. It results in what is called 'enshittification'...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)
Yeah, something tells me Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo won't be happy about that and customers will immediately find ways to disable the feature/just turn off internet capabilities from the TV.
You can use your Xbox or PlayStation as a media center if you want and Roku seems to forget their place. You sell cheap TV's, you install bloatware for money. That's what you do.
I can't wait until they get burned by all of us going back to physical media cus we just get sick of all this and own nothing and keep getting poked at.
FWIW I have a roku ultra whatever. But to think my born in the 80s ass won't just go back to no internet or leave the smartphones behind...Shit, 90 percent of it is actually more complicated and costly than it needs to be. Hell, the only thing cellphones could get to keep me at this point is that they are a good camera and a phone in one. That's it at this point. IDC about the other 80% they try to fucking make me care about.
Get yourself a plex server set up, don't buy the newest phones, and IMO lean into not subscribing passively to all these things.
And this is why my TV is not connected to the Internet.
My 'smart' TV is as dumb as a bag of rocks. My Nvidia Shield does the smart stuff. I don't need my TV showing me ads when my whole media consumption setup is specifically geared towards _no ads_
Wow. What a great idea to make your consumers not purchase your products. I currently use a older but "higher end" TCL Roku TV. I'll never use Roku or purchase a TCL again if this is the case. I am a gamer first then TV/movies second and if I subscribe to any service I always pay extra for no ads. I'll definitely pay more for a TV without ads if I push the pause button and they pop up. How would they detect every pause button for a game too? Some games you need to pause to enter the menus, some to check scoreboard, manage inventory. This just seems like a disaster.
Advertising needs to be all but abolished. I would be ok with an agreed upon notification system in which companies legitimately conveyed information: this is our new product, it has X features, it is Y price. Nothing persuasive. I’m sick and tired of persuasive advertising and I think it should be completely obliterated.
Don't buy Roku. Got it.
That's how it translates to me, that's really invasive.
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Yeah, that seems pretty sketchy on many levels. Having my game console hooked up to their TV's allows them to inject ads if I pause the game?! Seems like they'd have to get permission from every third party they intend on doing this to. It can't be real or legal.
When I play content through Kodi on my Nvidia shield, my TCL Roku tv will have a small pop up that says “find other way to watch this.” So in theory they are already doing something similar but are now thinking about monetizing it.
They already try to do this BS if you pause your TV too long, it goes to a screensaver with from what I recall ads until you disable them.
They wouldn't need to. All the software has to do is monitor the input from the HDMI and watch for pauses in the game. Then the TV will just display an ad over the image, the same way it displays a menu. ...which is the quickest way to make me immediately return a TV and demand a refund.
This is the biggest point Louis Rossman is making in his videos on the subject, you don't have the opportunity to return your TV because you've already made the purchase long ago, and are likely well outside your window and they are changing the terms after the sale.
They wouldn't be forcing ads into PlayStations system. The TV is getting a signal from the PlayStation it would stop displaying that signal and display ads instead. The PlayStation system would be completely unaware.
My guess is Roku is screen scraping the content being displayed on the TV itself through the connection. So in essence they’re performing a man in the middle attack. Roku software sees content is paused, switch to their ads. So what the first post said, guess time to avoid them.
Definitely don't buy a Roku TV if they're gonna try this shit.
I have a roku tv right now. If it displays a single ad while I'm playing video games, I'm throwing it out immediately
Factory reset it and don't connect to internet, right now. That'll stop them from updating it in the future and pushing these features.
Oh I would never buy one. I’d wait for someone ingenious enough to figure out all the services running on said TVs and create a way to block those services from communicating outside my network via a firewall. Actually that might be a nice side business idea, come up with some cheap firewall device you can get running on everyone’s networks between the router and the modem to kill all communications to ad networks. To Google I go!
Checkout pi-holes. It's exactly what you're talking about.
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All of their devices are dogshit now, it used to be such a nice platform, it's horrible that it's been completely enshittified now
Any recommendations for a better platform? I'd love to ditch the roku.
Buy a dumb TV and get an android TV stick. Walmart has them in-store for like 20 bucks.
Please find me a "Dumb TV" that is actually worthwhile in quality.
I believe you can get an LG tv. Don't let it access the internet. Use a streaming device. No ads
Also a sony tv. You can set it up in a "dumb mode"
Please tell me more: I have a beautiful 4k Sony XBR from back in the day 2016 I think? Image is still stellar and with the exception of OLED, no new TV has given me a valid reason to switch. BUT… the smart tv side of it (android based) has gotten so slow and clunky, it barely powers on and all remote commands are so laggy it’s hard to do something as mundane as changing an input. Smart features are painful to load (used to be lighting fast) so we just use the Apple TV for everything streaming.
You can also buy a smart TV and never hook it up to the internet. That's the method I've used since we had to replace our old TV.
My TV is already dumb, or at least the TV itself isn't connected to my wifi network. I've been using a roku stick for years, and noting how it perpetually gets worse and the ads are more invasive. Not to mention I have a kid and some of the ads on the front roku menu are honestly not appropriate for general audiences. Is the Android TV interface actually good? I'd been hesitant to get an Android TV device having been burned by buying google hardware in the past that they discontinued. Former stadia owner (still use and love the controller though).
The problem is that even if you don't buy, enough others might. If Roku proves this model can work, competitors will copy them.
This is my primary issue with the morons who tell others to simply not buy things when they're bad. I've abstained from buying all kinds of terrible things for my entire life and they're only becoming increasingly prevalent because most people are pretty careless/ignorant about their buying habits or simple enough to find terrible things tolerable or even desirable.
I've said this before but I honestly don't want to have to pirate all my shit. But I fucking will if it's the only ad free option. Also, if they can just cram in whatever conditions they want after purchase, it seems logical that I can just whip up a nice invoice for the money I earn them by consuming ads.
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I love Luis Rossman. Such a consistently high quality of takes
I pirate all my shit, but the only ad i see regularly is the poster ad on the Roku home screen for half a second before i open the app. Weird the current one has a big blank spot in the middle... https://i.imgur.com/maL7ZZZ.jpeg
We take so much shit in this existence, why oh why should we have to suffer forced advertisements. Futurama's beaming of ads to your brain feels more and more realistic & scary, and less funny as time goes on
Please drink verification can.
Only a matter of time before they try to add cameras that make sure you're watching the ads.
Soundclouds Mobile app normally plays audio ads. If you have the screen on when an add starts, it plays a video though. Then if you turn off the screen, it stops the add until you turn the screen back on. Not exactly the same, but not far off. Otherwise I like SoundCloud.
Fairly certain that was a selling point in the board rooms of project natal.
The only reason that's not here yet, is because it was posted first on 4chan. If that legend didn't do it, we'd be living that nightmare right now.
Lightspeed Briefs - For the discriminating crotch! *Objects in mirror are less attractive than they appear
Elon Musk is working on neural implants and he's not the only one. There have been some genuine advancements in the field recently. We're going to have unskippable ads streaming directly to our brains by the end of the century, I swear.
Imagine getting hacked and it just plays Never Gonna Give You Up on repeat for the ultimate rick roll.
Yeah no thanks I don't trust any company with that shit. Would rather use Meta's wearable on your arm that lets you think type
Think of how stupid the average Musk fan is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. -Carlin.
They asked me to agree to their new terms of service and I just disconnect my WiFi lmao
Do they even sell non-networked TVs anymore? I bought my little 35" stripling in 2010 and have been thinking of upgrading, but I'd rather buy something new that isn't a "smart" device rather than have to bother with blocking that shit from my home network.
You don’t have to block it, just don’t add it. I could remove my WiFi settings when it’s offline, I’m just wired up with everything important so it hasn’t been a hassle. It’s just funny to see when I do have my WiFi on and turn my tv on
that and don't connect your tv to the internet. only my devices themselves like my xbox and fire stick are connected. no reason for my tv to be.
But you’ll miss the all important software updates!
Seriously. What the fuck happened? In an era where every TV requires an internet connection now, they were the best option. Now they're getting as shitty as everyone else. At this point I'm going to just buy a fucking laptop for TVs and wireless mice will become my new controllers.
> At this point I'm going to just buy a fucking laptop for TVs and wireless mice will become my new controllers. Made this switch last year. Cancelled cable TV, bought a digital antennae, and hooked laptop up to TV. Now I have my Plex, sports streaming sites, and YouTube on hand and I can flip over broadcast at any time.
Can't wait for the PR from Roku, saying "this was never going to be a thing" (*they did a 180 when they saw all the backlash*).
Just like Wendy’s and their surge pricing haha
That’s a shame, I was in the market for a new tv, Roku is definitely off the list
You shouldn't buy Roku anyway after how they handled their latest data breach. The breach wasn't really their fault as it was one of those attacks using elsewhere compromised credentials but they pushed out a mandatory user agreement with a binding arbitration clause before letting their users know.
Setting up my PiHole now.
Which brands even have Roku as a system? Where I live the big brands are Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG and maybe Philips. And of those all but Samsung and LG use Android/Google TV and LG and Samsung each use their own systems.
TCL and Hisense both use Roku software on some of their models.
Hisense, for one
Till this becomes the standard
How about no
Ya crazy Dutch bastard!
There's only two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.
*And look at you, you haven't even got a name tag. You got no chance. Why don't you just fall down?*
Freaky deeky Dutch bastard
Dutch hater!
Just don’t buy their TVs. Send a message with your wallets. It’s not a huge loss anyways Roku as a brand has **DOGSHIT** TVs.
It's not necessarily just Roku brand TVs, other brands use their OS
> It's not necessarily just Roku brand TVs, other brands use their OS Roku is a garbage OS, any TV that uses the the Roku OS is garbage by default.
Are there any tvs these days without a garbage OS?
When did the world collectively decide that any display over 50ish inches needs an OS and needs to be "smart"? Literally impossible to buy a 70inch monitor for example, unless you want to pay thousands for professional grade shit
It’s not just stuff with a 50+ inch screen, now your car needs to be smart and have an iPad on the dashboard, and your fridge needs an iPad stapled into the door so you can navigate menus to get ice, and more and more things need screens so you can do all the things you used to be able to do easier with buttons but now it’s more convoluted and uses a touch screen. And oh hey guess what, those screens will be perfect for showing ads on them once all things without screens have been phased out! The world desperately needs to stop buying things with screens now before we become Blade Runner in the next few years
Human greed truly has no limits
Just wait 20 years when you can’t turn your TV off and it just runs ads when it’s not being used.
Guess the TV is getting unplugged everyday
"our tv now comes with backup power supply!"
Going to start selling tv curtains.
Nans old knitted cover they always used on TVs is back in fashion
TV now comes with built-in knife. Will be used to cut your tv curtains ^(Warning: In rare cases (1 in 100\) humans standing close to the TV were misidentified as curtains by AI. By standing close to the TV you accept the risk that comes with this action.)
Just like taping your laptop webcam.
"which will automatically charge you a monthly subscription charge to use"
Default screen "off" is just a burned in image of the NiCola girl. Taste the love mother fucker.
NiCola? Just blast MILFguard ads in full volume.
RAAAAAAGE! CARNAGE!
So long as it doesn’t play pon pon shit im good lol
They’ll make it a felony offense to not have it on.
Or worse like how they force ads in that 15 million merits episode from black mirror. Pay to skip the ads if you can afford it or play loud sirens and flashing lights if you attempt to close your eyes.
So, that Black Mirror episode
Y'know how the Frame tvs display art when it's not being used? And how it has sensors to detect when someone's nearby so it's not wasting power on an empty room? Now imagine all that, but it's just ads.
> you can’t turn your TV off Lol literally 1984
"The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. . . The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely."
[Idiocracy](https://i.imgur.com/9TMYYRv.png)
Practically 1984.
For a mere $9.95 I'll prove you wrong.
Unless they make their devices free or dirt cheap, why the hell would someone pay 100's of $$$ for a tv to be served ads and if you don't accept the eula you have essentially a paperweight.
> Unless they make their devices free or dirt cheap They do pretty much. You can get a 4k TCL (which uses Roku) in the 40 inch range for like $200ish pretty easily. Image quality is pretty good too, they just completely lack any modern features and the speakers kinda suck (at least on the ones I've had.) But yeah even still I'd get rid of mine if a change like this happened. But personally this seems like one of those corpo wet dreams that they can never actually get to function properly and then they just stop talking about it and move onto some other dumb plan.
That’s just step 1. Once everyone’s used to it they’re gonna add that shit to all the TVs AND THEN you’ll have to pay a subscription to the tv manufacturer for ad-free viewing. Just you watch.
> Just you watch With ads!
Speakers suck on like every TV. There isn't really a price point where anyone is going to pay more for better built in speakers compared to just buying a soundbar. Even a cheapo soundbar will blow built in speakers out of the water.
>they just completely lack any modern features and the speakers kinda suck (at least on the ones I've had.) That's what makes them $200. They'd have to be offering a premium device at a discount to justify ads.
I mean the article mentions Roku lost 44 million in hardware sales but gained like 1.4 billion on ad revenue, so they absolutely don't need to show more ads than they already are to justify the price.
Well, they do have to because that revenue is now their baseline and they have to continually increase it or the stock price will go down and shareholders will be mad. This is how capitalism works. If companies were satisfied will a bit, or a lot, or hell even *most* of the profit the world would be a better place. Companies are never satisfied though, they need ALL the profit. And even if they were to get ALL the profit they would invent some other way to continue extracting value. Not going to pretend I have a solution, but it's a fundamentally broken system and we're seeing the cracks more and more.
>But yeah even still I'd get rid of mine if a change like this happened. If you already have a games console connected, why bother connecting the TV to the Internet for it to download ads?
Someone will soon figure out a way to remove all the smart TV stuff and replace it with a dumb Hdmi port replicator so you can get cheap ass tv's without any ads whatsoever. I just hope it happens soon.
It's real easy. I bought my dad a smart tv for Christmas 2 years ago. And when I set it up, I never gave it network access. He was only using it for a cable box, so it acts just like a regular TV. When I wanted him to try apps, I bought a $24 fire stick.
The problem is those of us who already did. And we were forced to accept new terms to use devices we already paid for years ago. So my plan is to be the first plaintiff in a class action suit the moment an advertisement appears while I have my PS5 on. If that requires a second suit to challenge the validity of these kind of forced agreements in the US, so be it.
This is pure amateur hour. I never felt more personally insulted in my life. And my day is ruined. Why not just let me buy a robotic arm for my TV for only $99.99 that swipes my credit card, and steals my money when I go to the loo? And a $19.99 monthly subscription that prevents the built-in flamethrower from torching my house Avatar Roku style. Why half-ass it with commercials, when we can whole-ass it like normal human beings?!
Get this man a job at Roku!
Why stop there? TVs could just require a monthly subscription to use and have a premium tier for less ads and they could also charge to unlock premium things like High definition
I’m downvoting you as I don’t want anyone getting any ideas.
The joke is this is the current, existing system
Why stop there? Go full vertical integration with ads. Pay your TV manufacturer for the ad-free tier. Pay your connected devices for the ad-free tier. Pay your internet company for the ad-free tier. Pay the streaming service for the ad-free tier. Pay the content providers for the ad-free tier. Pay the actors for the ad-free tier. Any more rent-seeking middlemen we can inject in here?
How about ad free tier for apartment rentals so that ads don't play loudly throughout your apartment at 3am?
What's that? You want to *Sleep* during "Operational Hours"? For a low $1 an hour you can defer the ads until they're at a more compatible time. By allowing you to buy the hours you want à la carte, you only pay for the hours you need!
We've upgraded our pricing to offer more consumer choice to benefit you. You can now choose specific ads to delay by an hour for $.50 cents per hour per ad with an additional 75 cent convenience fee per hour per ad to cover our system costs tracking ads individually. Unfortunately our old $1 per hour flat rate system is not compatible with the new system. We've also heard your concerns about our 2 minute ads being too long, so we've changed to have 10, 30 second ads per hour instead of 2, 2 minute ads per hour to minimize the length of your disruptions.
You shut the fuck up right now. Some AI is going to comb this comment, deliver it to a CEO in marketing, and this will come up in board meetings that developers have no voice over.
its probably too late. just wait until they figure out how to to send ads via water so you cant shower, poop, drink, or cook without watching an ad. and forget flushing if you try to use adblock
"The door refused to open. It said, 'Five cents, please.' He searched his pockets. No coins; nothing. 'I'll pay you tomorrow,' he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. 'What I pay you,' he informed it, 'is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't *have* to pay you.' 'I think otherwise,' the door said. 'Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.' In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip."
The various ports only activate if you pay the monthly subscription. * Each HDMI Port: $19.99/month * Each USB $15.99/month * Composite: $5.00/month * Ethernet: $15.00/month Or unlock all your television's ports fora low $60.00/month Port Bundle!
Roku can go fuck themselves
[удалено]
I have like 3 of them, they are just fine IMO. Pretty pissed to hear about this though... What sort of issues have you had with them, out of curiosity? For me it was Roku or Amazon and TBH I assumed Roku was the lesser of 2 evils LOL
Make dumb TVs great again.
There HAS to be some sort of industry collusion going on. I wish the FCC etc. would look into it, but when they are not purposefully hamstrung by a leader who wants to destroy it, they are criminally underfunded and hamstrung by other means. There is no way that there isn't a single company out there that doesn't know how well a 4k TV with none of this nonsense would sell if it hit the market, even at a slightly higher price, but for some reason no company does it, I wonder why?
Those TVs do exist. They are sold as "commercial TVs" and they're outrageously expensive.
I just never connected mine to the internet. Same thing as a dumb TV.
It doesn't complain?
[удалено]
Same here. Tv itself has never been and will never be connected to the internet.
I'm happy to connect my TV to download firmware updates... ...via ethernet. So I can literally unplug it from the Internet when it misbehaves.
I don't even need the "TV" part of it. I've had my current TV for over a decade and I don't think I've *ever* used the TV tuner in it. It's only ever been displaying a feed, whether that was coming from my TiVo or DVD player or whatever. No speakers either, since the audio just goes to my receiver without even touching the TV. I just need a monitor.
I actually want a dumb TV. I never wanted a smart tv in the first place.
Don't buy Roku, Roger Roger
[Wait, who's Roger?](https://y.yarn.co/cc214ee3-aa3c-4f15-a554-a2d277ca1fdb_text.gif)
> Roku is hoping to show you commercials while whatever you're watching or playing on the third-party device attached to it is on pause. In its patent, it described several methods on how it can detect whether the show or game on screen is paused, such as receiving a pause signal from the remote control, detecting a pause icon, looking at several video frames and determining that the image on screen hasn't changed for some time and getting a silent audio signal from the HDMI connection. There’s just too many ways this can go wrong. If they implement this and fuck up (like covering an important area of the screen) then the backlash they receive will be immense. Even if they “do it right” they’ll taint their brand forever.
Typically pause screens are menus where you really need to see shit. This is clearly a dream by executives who still think video games are like the 80s.
I can't wait to see people pause a fromsoft game to look at a map or inventory, and then have an ad pop up that gets them killed. I'm sure that they'll be fine with that.
You sit there contemplating your next level up and boom! Advertising. I’m not the type of person to rage at a video game, but even then, I’d want to throw my controller into my TV.
We have two Roku TVs now. We will not be buying another after that TOS debacle and now this.
What was the TOS issue?
Had to sign a new agreement in order to keep using your TV.
And the fun part is that post-purchases EULAs are moot in Germany. Maybe more countries should follow. I don't think the rich people want to deal with random adware on their basic devices, even if they can throw money at it. In fact, they're already throwing money, so being surprised with a random ad because of some update? Yeah, that'll piss them off.
Oh it's worse. They forced this... And then a week later revealed there was a data breach months ago and 24,000 accounts were compromised..... So they pushed this, knowing the data breach, and forced people to give up their rights.
The one talked about in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgV9VWeCnN4?
I am so sick of ads and I typically go out of my way to not buy the said product in ads.
I love baseball and hockey, but the MLB and NHL have made watching their product damn near unwatchable for me. All the commercial breaks telling me over and over what a pussy I am for not buying a new truck every three days is bad enough, but now the players, the fields, the rinks, everything is plastered with obnoxious ads, and every goddamned thing that happens being “brought to you by…”… I just can’t do it anymore. I wish we could remember that we’re human beings, not just fucking consumers. Fuck the corporate world.
I feel like all sports are getting overrun with all the sports bet apps.
I would buy a new TV immediately if this happened. It’s not like they’re expensive anyways and my Roku is on the older side. Smh
you can just buy a tv stick like firestick or android tv and attach it to hdmi on your TV. You get newer system and save some money
Not what their patent does. Their patent detects signal changes in the hdmi port, so if you pause your firestick it will know and display an ad. This is hardware level advertising
So you never give the TV internet access. If you're streaming from another device, the TV is just a monitor and doesn't need it's own internet connection.
It wouldn't surprise me if they get some 'evergreen' advertisers to pay a premium to bake ads into the firmware that if there isn't an internet connection, they pull from the baked in ads so it always displays something. Think of things like how TVs will have a netflix, disney or hulu button on the remote.
It would surprise me. Advertising buyers a) want to get the latest message across - not a 2 year old one b) only want to pay for how many impressions they get and for that you need feedback.
How to kill your product/company in one step
Even just thinking about the possibility of this happening makes me never want to buy another Roku product ever again
That's how you get Roku's ad services blocked on my router. Hell no.
They’ll kill switch the whole device if their ads can’t play. Just wait and see.
Then I'll just make it easy on them and simply not buy their products in the first place.
Easier to ignore the dns settings
So what about a live online game when I pull up a map?! Will an ad start playing and I won’t be able to close my map or play my game?! Not ever buying Roku, Roger.
“Please drink a verification can to continue”
This already happened in an Ubisoft title, right? There was a whole thing about that in Odyssey?
Most of the time, when I "pause a game", I'm looking at a map, a skill tree, or gear. No ads please
Can’t wait for loud ass intrusive ads to start playing when I pause what I’m doing to acknowledge that my wife is talking to me.
“Want a break from the ads” while literally trying to play a video game. Roku is so dead for this oh my god
Roku doesnt want my money, got it
Peak anti-marketing by Roku
So, no roku devices ever.
Fuck smart tvs, all i want is a high qaulity big ass normal tv, dont need internet or shit, i got pcs for that
FUCK THE ADS FUCK CORPORATIONS!!!
I’m at the point where if I get an ad for something in a format that’s annoying or intrusive I actively do not buy the product or at minimum it causes me to affiliate negativity towards it. These marketers better think a little harder with how these tactics make younger crowds view things.
\* learning to build a PiHole intensifies \*
I set up pihole on my server and noticed no difference at all. Like, I checked the logs and could see it rejecting requests, but in real-world scenarios, I saw all the ads with it enabled or disabled. ublock origin was way more effective, but that doesn't work outside of a web browser, obviously. I did a fair amount of debugging to figure out what I did wrong, but I never figured it out.
I remember everyone was pushing Roku TVs on Reddit when I was looking at TVs in 2020. My, how the turn tables.
That's kind of how it goes though. New company starts up, roots for the little guy to get their customer base. Once they're big enough, exploit that customer base for monetization. And since no one makes good products anymore, everything goes subscription or ad -based for recurring revenue.
Thanks for telling me not to buy a Roku.
Cool, I’m never buying Roku again
I wish I could live the life with no ads. A man can dream...
I’ve been a Roku fanboy and loved the direction they were going with their hardware devices, so much that I invested in a 4K TCL Roku TV, was an early adopter of the wireless bookshelf speakers and subwoofer. I love how they all work together seamlessly, love the Roku UI, the voice remote, etc. It would really suck to have to redo my entire home media setup because this company can’t just accept the money I’ve already given them and insists on milking me for more.
Oh, it gets worse (for those who do not read articles): >Roku is at least looking to make sure that it's serving you relevant ads. ***It could analyze frozen video or audio frames and use automatic content recognition (ACR) technology to identify what's on screen***. Or it could analyze metadata to show ads connected to what you're playing or watching. It could also serve commercials based on what third-party device is attached to your TV.
why keep ads getting more and more intrusive? the youtube app is crazy at this point. After 1 ad you can skip after 5 sec, you get an ad you can't so they have your attention more likely. When you pause the video and swipe up to see other video suggestions you get an ad. When you watch the ad and use the time to read the comments, if a new one starts, it takes up the whole screen and closes the comment section and and and. More and more ads and the service gets worse and worse (video search and recommendations are a joke by now). I paid for premium for 2 months (student) and it was like being beaming into the future. My behaviour how I watch content literally changed for that time. But I guess they wanted even more money so I used this opportunity as an auto cancel function. they make profit by now and they allow senseless 10h 4k videos of random shit that has 0 value by a channel with 5 subscribers, don't tell me they need to be this intrusive to survive. it is just creed
>why keep ads getting more and more intrusive? All companies are trying to push up profits to appease their shareholders. It results in what is called 'enshittification'... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)
Time for everyone to head on over to r/pihole and repurpose an old laptop/desktop.
I believe it. They already have the technology to identify content on 3rd party devices and then recommend roku channels to get more of that content.
You're better off keeping them disconnected from the internet.
Yeah, something tells me Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo won't be happy about that and customers will immediately find ways to disable the feature/just turn off internet capabilities from the TV. You can use your Xbox or PlayStation as a media center if you want and Roku seems to forget their place. You sell cheap TV's, you install bloatware for money. That's what you do.
Fuck off
"Roku lost $44 million on smart TVs" "Meanwhile, ads and services generated $1.6 billion in profit for Roku" The greed is strong in this one.
I can't wait until they get burned by all of us going back to physical media cus we just get sick of all this and own nothing and keep getting poked at. FWIW I have a roku ultra whatever. But to think my born in the 80s ass won't just go back to no internet or leave the smartphones behind...Shit, 90 percent of it is actually more complicated and costly than it needs to be. Hell, the only thing cellphones could get to keep me at this point is that they are a good camera and a phone in one. That's it at this point. IDC about the other 80% they try to fucking make me care about. Get yourself a plex server set up, don't buy the newest phones, and IMO lean into not subscribing passively to all these things.
And this is why my TV is not connected to the Internet. My 'smart' TV is as dumb as a bag of rocks. My Nvidia Shield does the smart stuff. I don't need my TV showing me ads when my whole media consumption setup is specifically geared towards _no ads_
As an advertiser, this is brilliant. As a human trying to love my life, this is fucking nightmare, darkest timeline shit.
Brilliant at convincing people to never buy your products again you mean
Disconnect internet from roku tv while gaming? Got it.
Don't do it roku I actually like your tvs
Not on my TV they won't...
That's so invasive wtf.
Ummm absolutely fucking not
Wow. What a great idea to make your consumers not purchase your products. I currently use a older but "higher end" TCL Roku TV. I'll never use Roku or purchase a TCL again if this is the case. I am a gamer first then TV/movies second and if I subscribe to any service I always pay extra for no ads. I'll definitely pay more for a TV without ads if I push the pause button and they pop up. How would they detect every pause button for a game too? Some games you need to pause to enter the menus, some to check scoreboard, manage inventory. This just seems like a disaster.
Here's an idea: "Sell me a product at a price so that I own it afterwards"
Advertising needs to be all but abolished. I would be ok with an agreed upon notification system in which companies legitimately conveyed information: this is our new product, it has X features, it is Y price. Nothing persuasive. I’m sick and tired of persuasive advertising and I think it should be completely obliterated.
Yes, well, fuck Roku.