this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025

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221

“Awful”: Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

84 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Users are unimpressed, eager to toss devices if test sticks.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Go look at the down votes on all your posts and just how universally unpopular your take is - That's called being wrong. That's fine, you can be wrong sometimes, that's okay. It doesn't define you, but stop digging in the wrong direction.

I can pay for music, I often don't on principal. I work to find other ways to contribute to artists as directly as I can (patreon, merch, shows, etc). I'm not alone in that. You had some weird guilt socialized into you that tells you your value is in what you spend and own. Protest at any level is valid. Copyright law is bullshit, DMCA takedowns are bullshit, DRM and digital streaming music that you never actually legally own is all bullshit. Anything you can do to make that broken system nervous or hurt is a great and valuable thing to broader society.

You are unequivocally wrong here, you're the last person to realize that, but you still can realize it here and now today and go forward from here. How about it, take the olive branch, bud?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

They're not "smart" TVs. They're TVs with shitty android spyware boxes attached.

Stop using that garbage. Don't connect it to a network, just use it as a display.

If you need to watch YouTube on your TV go and grab an OSMC (Kodi-based OS for media boxes) media box. You can get a pre-built one for around $100, or install it yourself on a raspberry pi.

These manufacturers depend on you being lazy and accepting their spyware. You will save yourself so much more headache in the long run if you control your own hardware and software.

Trying to navigate through the world without some minimal knowledge of computers means you're going to get taken by every scam like what Roku is pulling.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It's not just the tvs, they're doing it on their streaming sticks too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, every product that they sell will do it.

Using something like OSMC (or buying a Vero is you don't want to mess around with the setup) will let you control what runs on your player.

Until you do that, you're paying some random company while also giving root access on a device in your house and letting them waste your time with ads.

All you get out of the deal is avoiding having to learn how to use a new piece of software. A Pyrrhic victory due to the fact that you have to learn to use Roku.

I'd rather spend a few hours learning how to setup Kodi. It's free software, you don't pay for it and it's Free software, you control it with no strings attached.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

My big issue with kodi is that i like my media library to be human navigable and named and it does not. Dealbreaker

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Kodi doesn't organize your media, you use other applications for that (tinymediamanager, sonarr/radarr, etc).

The default library layout, for Plex/Jellyfin/Kodi is very human navigable, for example TV Shows are in this format:

TV Show Name
 |-Season 1
 |-Season 2
 |-\-S02E01-Episode_Name.mkv

There may be a few extra files in the directories depending on what metadata you're storing and what you're pulling from the Internet, but it is organized and navigable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 56 minutes ago* (last edited 54 minutes ago)

aight, I never said that Kodi organises media, if it tried to, I would shoot it on sight.

I organise my media, ebcause it's media I've decided I want to keep and organise accordingly. Kodi has very specific requirements and cracks the shits if you don't give it exactly what it wants. If that fine for you, then that's fine for you. That is not how I roll

how I do roll:

-> \fileserver
--> Sci fi series
---> Babylon 5
----> 1.01 - Midnight on the Firing Line
----> ...
----> 2.01 - Points of Departure

etc etc etc.

I've played with a translation file so Kodi's file scrapers can understand that X is Y and react accordingly, but it's very "my way or the highway" and I don't bow to a machine. When it refuses to even acknowledge the existence of a file (as in just display the file name, not necessary with any metadata) unless it can jam its thumb up there, I'm out.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago (19 children)

This is one of the many reasons why you should be your own streaming service. 🏴‍☠️

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We had one on our TV the other day. This will absolutely be our last Roku.

In the meantime I immediately installed PiHole, to block all their ads.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 minutes ago

This is the way.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I will absolutely be getting rid of mine if I experience this.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (20 children)

Basically punishment for people who either don't get their own streaming box/avoid tvs with roku built in.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Roku is the worst thing to happen to TVs since motion smoothing.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Ive never looked into it but how viable is a raspberry pi zero for this? I mean, is the hardware powerful enough and is there software available for easy TV use? Potentially paired with an android bluetooth remote.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I don't have personal experience trying to do that specifically but the zero is a really underpowered device that's sluggish even updating itself. I've tried streaming games through a pi 4 which is way more powerful and even it struggled with the video being choppy, though it is more intensive than just streaming video by itself.

You'd probably have good luck with a pi 4 or 5, though, and they aren't very big either.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

You are right. Ive looked into it and it lacks memory for what I'd want out of it. Pi4/5 would certainly work though it would no longer be the "stick" form factor.

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