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Own a Roku TV or streaming device? You're about to see a lot more ads on your home screen (www.techradar.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

269 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ugh. Roku was one of the platforms with fewer ads.

Roku will be adding more ads to the home screens of its devices and TVs in the near future.
The ads will be interactive and 'shoppable' and will cover a range of industries, including restaurants and cars.
Roku already has a significant amount of ads on its home screen, and it is unclear if users will be able to change their preferences for the new ads.

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[–] kadu 174 points 9 months ago (21 children)

After all the issues with software updates, ads, and just overall terrible experience of TV operating systems and those little media boxes, I just finally accepted that my life is better using my TV as a dumb screen that's connected to a PC and then using Steam Big Picture for games and Jellyfin for media.

[–] dual_sport_dork 66 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

After various trial and error, not to mention irritation, I have determined that this is the way. It's what I did in the dark ages back in the day (with a Pentium 3 that had enough hardware acceleration to play DVD's!) and it's what I do once more. By hook or by crook, one way or another you're guaranteed to be able to retain complete control over a PC even if that ultimately means you have to install some flavor of Linux on the fucking thing.

You can get a perfectly capable media center PC for very little money if you don't need it to be able to run AAA games, which in my case I don't. Even the various nanocomputer boards like one of the beefier Raspberry Pi's or any of its myriad competitors can do the job these days, fit in a tiny enclosure, make no noise, and consume very little power.

Fuck all the Chromecasts, Fire sticks, Roku boxes, Apple TV's, and other sundry and bullshit devices of the world.

[–] deweydecibel 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Nvidia SHIELD is still ok, because it's Android TV, and you can install custom launchers on Android. Therefore no ads on your home screen.

Granted, Nvidia is letting the SHIELD line twist in the wind, and the most recent model is from 2019, but it's not outmoded just yet. I'll still be using mine for a number of years.

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[–] Stovetop 22 points 9 months ago (14 children)

Inb4 Toyota ads start popping up in your Steam library.

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

PiHole Domain regex blacklist:
(ads|logs|cloudservices).roku.com$

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please 51 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

And there it is, folks.

I added the Roku and Samsung TV servers to my blocklist months ago, (maybe even years ago, at this point?) My three smart TVs are the most blocked devices on my network, by far. It’s not even close. Here are today’s stats from my pihole:

For reference, my phone (my most used device) is number four on that list. My three smart TVs (two Rokus and a Samsung) are numbers 1, 2, and 3. I haven’t even watched TV today. These blocked requests are simply from the TVs idling. Smart TVs are hilariously, mind-bogglingly invasive, and you should block them ASAP.

[–] grayman 42 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Why did you black out your private IP addresses?

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Old habits. Just as a general rule, I black out most IPs, even when private. I used to deal with a lot of horribly insecure devices at work, with default passwords that couldn’t be changed, no port security (so anyone who found the wrong Ethernet port could connect to the network,) etc…

So anyone on the network could fuck things up if they were on the wrong wifi and tried to reconfigure something they shouldn’t be touching. It was only an issue a few times, since the vast majority of people using said network were other techs who knew what they were doing. But there were a few times that someone screenshotted something, it got passed around to all the managers, and someone who didn’t know what they were doing got curious and went digging when they saw the IPs.

It was never anything catastrophic since the network wasn’t even connected to the internet, and we had backups of any important settings. But it was just a practice that we all eventually picked up, to prevent random employees from sniffing around. Because it always sucked to come into work the next morning, and discover that a particular piece of gear wasn’t working properly because someone decided to tick a stray checkbox or change a polling rate.

[–] rob_t_firefly 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I, for one, appreciate that someone called @PM_Your_Nudes_Please understands the value of good OPSEC. You go ahead and fiercely guard any electronic data you might happen to have, neighbor.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

He doesn’t wanna get hAcKeD duhhhhh

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[–] Mango 56 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Step one.

Buy a thing. It is a good thing.

Oops, now it only works if you pay monthly. Ok maybe they're doing some upkeep.
Now there's ads. You're paying them money, but they want even more so now you're the product.
Haha it broke! My family tech guy says it's literally impossible to fix without the cheat codes.

Final step. Don't buy the thing again. Don't buy anything with "terms may be altered. Pray I do not alter them further." Probably stick to open source.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 9 months ago (6 children)

For those with Roku TVs or any of their products, I found that a PiHole blocks the ads on the home screen so far. Hoping I could pick up an ONN box in the future so I can just not deal with this shit lol.

[–] AtariDump 24 points 9 months ago (3 children)

A pihole is a whole "home" adware/malware/spyware blocker. It runs on a raspberry Pi but can also run on a physical/virtual install of several different Linux distributions. Not only can it block ads on your computer but can also block ads on technology that you can't (easily) block ads on ("Smart" TV / stock cellphone / IoT devices / etc). In addition, with some easy to instal additional (free) software you can block ads even when not at "home"!

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[–] thecookingsenpai 49 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Thank you Roku, a step forward towards self hosting and self managing of every service

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (9 children)

How are you going to self-host streaming hardware? A HTPC for every TV in the house along with a mouse and keyboard?

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[–] flop_leash_973 48 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Jesus, I hate that word, “shoppable”. It just sounds dystopian.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

it's not as brutal a construct as the other Sales-Bro trash we see: 'the ask', 'the spend', etc. It's too bad that no matter how much we mock the soulless people who parrot that crap, it's just our dumber friends who won't learn anyway.

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[–] rob_t_firefly 47 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Anyone jailbreaking these damn things yet?

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes, this is what the people want! More ads! Skip the content, just show ads 24/7! That will definitely keep people from pirating out of sheer frustration.

[–] JoeKrogan 17 points 9 months ago

And dont forget about that ad space on the remote control too.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (11 children)

I just recently started using my Samsung TVs as dumb screens because they're slow as shit, but a nice side effect is zero ads.

ONN 4k streaming box for $20 at Walmart.
Install a custom launcher.
Install a button remapper for the remote.
Install SmartTubeNext for YouTube (no ads, SponsorBlock).
Install whatever other apps you need (Plex, etc).

FAR better experience. Turn the TV on and it's ready to go in a few seconds, not the ~60-90 seconds it takes the Tizen nonsense to "warm up."

It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better. Can recommend, especially for only $20.

[–] deweydecibel 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

(Plex, etc)

Just get started on the move to Jellyfin now.

Seriously, people, use some pattern recognition here. Plex is already on its way down the enshitification pipeline, you'll be sick of it in a couple years too, just like Roku. Why wait?

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[–] Burn_The_Right 41 points 9 months ago (9 children)

Y'know what I love most about the high sea, matey? She never gets enshittified.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (9 children)

Can these ads be blocked with pi-hole?

[–] xylogx 38 points 9 months ago (8 children)

I block logs.roku.com and cloudservices.roku.com on my pihole without impacting any functionality.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Google is already doing this with their default Android TV launcher. I tolerated their home screen 'recommendations' for a while as they occasionally highlighted something interesting to watch, but one day I switched on the TV and was greeted with a huge advert banner for a fucking watch on the home screen.

At that point I spent a few hours setting up FLauncher on all my ATV devices.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Hey, nice, I get to build an HTPC again and check out the latest streaming shit for Linux.

I'm not even being ironic. Tired of this corporate hellscape and finding joy in returning to the kind of hobbyist tech I grew up on.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago

Enshittification strikes again!

[–] dorumon 25 points 9 months ago

Well time to replace my roku TV with a Goodwill special TV because fuck that shit. Fuck smart tvs in general and what they have become. They used to be neat little editions added on for value on your TV back when Netflix made sense. But now they don't especially with the ads that automatically get shoved into your face depending on what you are doing that have started to interrupt your viewing experience. It's not like I'll be downgrading at all when just using a computer with a TV using Stremio and AllDebrid.

[–] harry_balzac 24 points 9 months ago (1 children)

After reading so much about this, I'm definitely going to start reading up on running a Pihole at home

I'd like to ask for suggestions on FAQs or guides that'd help me get started.

TIA!

[–] Evotech 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (12 children)

Your don't need to run your own pihole anymore, unless your goal is to not share your dns history of course

Controld.com and many others has free dns which blocks ads

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[–] FlavoredButtHair 23 points 9 months ago (7 children)

Not with pihole I wont.

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[–] Suavevillain 23 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

I do see the appeal of non-smart TV's now. Just getting a device that host your media is a good option.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

So you go from owning a multi media entertainment system to owning a online store front where you must buy crap that you don't need.

This is bait and switch level bullshit

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

They've gotten great at this war of attrition. They know if they make changes incrementally people wouldn't accept all at once then most people won't notice or care. That's why I through that trash and two firesshits out in the garbage where they belonged when they started with "related" ads and app store ads.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I've been doing some research for the last few days on setting up a home server/NAS. If anyone's going to ruin my entertainment, it's going to be ME

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (17 children)

Why won't anyone make a privacy focused premium streaming box with no ads? I'd pay so much for this thing that will never exist.

[–] ForgotAboutDre 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Apple TV is a premium streaming box without ads. The privacy aspect is less clear, but probably better than Samsung, Google and Roku that are all harvesting data.

An open source solution would be better.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Is there any way to repurpose an old android phone into an android TV? Sometimes like Linage OS but TV focused. Even older Android phones can be considerably more powerful than any current streaming box. Add on privacy and you've got the perfect solution. It also would save on e-waste.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Anyway to roll back firmware on some of these TVs?

Mine was never connected, except once a friend came over and connected it and it updated and now it requires a connection to rename inputs...

It's never been connected since that day either.

Hate this kind of crap.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (3 children)

DNS blocking at the router never fails.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

Rumor has it Roku hard coded Google DNS nameservers on some devices so along with pihole, you have to block direct access now. FYI

I had a pihole that worked until an update. Had to block Google nameservers to restore blocking.

[–] ThePantser 16 points 9 months ago

Similar to what Google does with some Chromebook devices. They don't respect router DNS settings. So if I wanted to block YouTube on my kids machines I had to create a black hole on my router to send all requests from 8.8.8.8 and then and only then would the Chromebook use my adguard DNS.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't mind if it's an ad for a new tv show or movie or streaming platform. But if it's shopping stuff I'll need to find a new tv.