- cross-posted to:
- enshittification@lemmy.world
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- enshittification@lemmy.world
- technology@lemmy.world
Users are unimpressed, eager to toss devices if test sticks.
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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.
It’s not just the tvs, they’re doing it on their streaming sticks too.
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.
Oh god, and I was considering getting a Roku stick for my old dumb TV, glad I went for a Xiaomi box instead 🫣
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.
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.
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.
Tried this with streaming from the cable box, and it did not work really well. Upgraded to a Pi 4, which now runs a full Kodi MediaCenter and is connected via Gigabit Ethernet to the cablebox. I use a Logitech harmony with an IR USB dongle, which was a bit clunky to get to work because it’s old, there’s probably much easier Bluetooth solutions available, or you can just use your phone as remote. All in all I fiddled around an afternoon to get the whole thing to work, there’s tons of how tos on the web.
This is one of the many reasons why you should be your own streaming service. 🏴☠️
Shut up. Stop making every thread about your piracy agenda. Nobody cares. And this isn’t even remotely related to the topic in this case. Apparently you don’t even know what Roku is.
Lmao mate you’re on lemmy
Nobody decent shares your opinion. Shut your mouth and sit on your hands.
Pirates are a vocal minority. The majority does in fact share my opinion.
It really doesn’t… Beyond the active “pirates” who would tell you to fuck off are the many MANY regular folks sympathetic to the cause. You live in a fantasy world where everyone else is as much of a tattletale pig boy as you are, friend. Especially on a thing like Lemmy, where the average user is an elder millennial, we all at e very least dipped our toes in e seven seas sorting the Napster/Kazaa days.i
You live on an island, friend. And nobody wants to visit you there.
U mad bro?
Now this is the classic Internet retort I require of my Lemmy subscription
🤌
🤏
Really shit the bed with that one m8, got something going on? Send me a dm and talk it out
Just take it elsewhere. I’m tired of seing the same comment about piracy on 75% of my threads recently. You don’t need to tell us you do piracy. You’re not actually on a mission. You can cope elsewhere.
You know what would make you less mad? Watching less ads. You know you could do that? Piracy.
I can do that without piracy aswell.
But this is still totally off-topic as you cannot pirate Roku. It’s a device. Not a streaming service.
say what you will, but piracy ensures that my copy of Brokeback Mountain will never be taken from me again.
👢👅
I wish I could, but I didn’t type it.
I will absolutely be getting rid of mine if I experience this.
I only have my roku tv because I got it dirt cheap ages ago, I don’t use it all that often and no good enough reason to replace it, I’m already considering replacing it with a dumb tv and just hooking up my laptop to it. If I ever experience this, it will make the cost of a new dumb tv 1000% worth it.
You can reset your Roku tv and simply not connect it to the internet. It will still work as a dumb tv.
I’ll try that, thank you.
Yup!! 100%
Roku is the worst thing to happen to TVs since motion smoothing.
News to me, what Roku do?
I mean the sticks and boxes, not the TV’s themselves, I get those suck.
You ever wonder why many of Rokus remotes don’t come with a mute button? Weird huh… Maybe just an especially expensive button, huh?
Huh…I must have gotten lucky because all of mine have a mute button…
It’s a problem. Also reports of some reviews that do have mute buttons, but the functionality gets selectively disabled - I.e. on the YouTube app, pressing mute will pause an ad, but not mute. The point is to force you to complete watching ads.
I don’t understand the question. I’m reacting to this story, what the company is doing, without distinction between the branded TVs and peripheral devices.
I get ads suck, and I was pissed and confused when I received one the other day on my Roku.
I just didn’t know if there was some other reason that they were the worst thing that happened to TV that I missed.
Basically punishment for people who either don’t get their own streaming box/avoid tvs with roku built in.
What? This is reported to be happening on both sticks and tv versions of the rolu app.
It’s capitalism… When every CEO, Board Member, and shareholder wants a yacht, it’s literally never enough. They even created a term to describe this inevitable deterioration of every company’s product: enshittification.
It’s not that they all want yachts, they make enough to each buy multiple yachts. It’s just that nothing is ever enough. They don’t know what success is, so they chase the undefined feeling until they die unfulfilled. Fucking living dead and a cancer on collective humanity
They want nesting yachts.
And once they have a nesting yacht, they want an even bigger yacht to nest that one in.
It’s yachts all the way up.
Enshittification was coined for online services, which includes roku, but doesn’t apply to all products.
Oh course it does, what are you talking about? It applies to any product or service that can have its quality gradually and intentionally reduced in service of having its profit margin increase.
Whether it was coined for all products or not, it’s definitely applying to all products
Enshittification was coined for online services, which includes roku, but doesn’t apply to all products.
American businessmen: “Hold my beer and watch this”
hence, punishing those who didnt get their own streaming box (that isnt roku based), or has a tv that has roku built into it.
Owners of smart TVs and streaming sticks running Roku OS
The article clearly states
Owners of smart TVs and streaming sticks running Roku OS
It IS affecting tvs with roku built in.
hence its PUNISHING those who bought tvs that have it BUILT IN
Then you are writing it to mean the opposite of what you intended.
Is this what you meant?
hence, punishing those who didnt get their own streaming box (that isnt roku based), AND those who have a tv that has roku built into it.
hence why i went to clarify it on the second comment. I can agree that on the first attempt, it can be read off, but the second attempt clearly shows that roku tvs are affected regardless of how you read it
Not what your original comment said. And completely disingenuous too, since the Roku streaming box is one of the most popular ones
I never plugged mine into the Internet. I just plugged in an Apple TV, and I’m good to go. No ads, no sweat, no problem.
New devices don’t allow that
I got mine three weeks ago from Amazon. How much more new can it get?
Really? Last time I used a Roku device it forced an account.
It appears to be device dependent, some have the initial online setup requirements, even the Community Forum on Roku’s site tells a poster they will need to setup with the internet connection and then can disconnect after setting it up.
Last post in this thread with a response by a former moderator.
You will need an internet connection and a Roku account to activate your Roku TV.
…
Once the activation is complete, you can disconnect from the internet and continue to use your TV
NVidia Shield 2 when?
Never, apparently. Dunno why Nvidia is dragging their feet on this one
Apparently Valve might be releasing a shield-like thing. If they do it’s an instant buy for me.
A steam link?
Steam Link 2 that also does 4K video would be awesome.
I was expecting them to release one with the Switch 2 but haven’t heard anything yet unfortunately.
Not to say that the Shield 1 isn’t great. It’s still the best streaming device to this date! It’s awesome!
I remember when Roku was the big cost saving alternative to TV. I remember when it was the all in one streaming aggregator.
Meh, I don’t even watch TV anyway
Glad I never set up the smart features on my roku TV.
HTPC+PiHole 👍👍
Also if you’re cool 🏴☠️
Advertisements suck and no regular person would ever advocate for seeing more of them. Enshittification is also out of control and ad-free services you pay a subscription for are more and more sneaking in ads where they can. This combination of facts is why I am a deranged data hoarder with self-hosted solutions wherever possible.
I just really really hate ads. If I had a Roku and this change rolled out to me I’d probably flip.
I think I wouldn’t hate ads so much if they weren’t constantly bombarding us.
That plus the gross manipulation techniques they employ for me
Roku is terrible anyways. They can’t even accurately reproduce the colors.
