my roku TV can't talk to the internet anymore because it was foolish enough to show me a banner ad while I was gaming
its a dumb TV now π₯°π
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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good luck. recent update blocks all apps from loading unless you have their most recent ads. I let one sit for four hours before I gave up.
now looking at replacing all my rokus(6) with Linux.
what updates? this TV can't use internet.
at all.
it can't GET updates.
I'm surprised you could even use it. I did that and after a year or so the apps could no longer use the APIs for my self-hosted stuff, which was routinely updated/maintained.
all inputs are just run through hdmi. and I don't use any internet based services on the device at all.
its basically the same as a computer monitor. as all my media is on computers now.
that makes more sense.
AI generated ads
It doesn't happen a lot that headlines make me vomit a little in my mouth but this one did
What a coincidence; I've been seeing no roku laetely
Man it must be rough out there for regular people that put up with that kind of bullshit.
I've always said I want to see more commercials made by people who have no idea what they're doing and with near zero oversight for quality or taste.
I don't want to see Roku anymore.
You're Not Buying a TV; You're Buying a Roku
My TV (dumb but attached to a Roku Express) died last month and since then I've been watching on computer + Zen Browser + uBlock Origin, with zero ads.
And noticing that I don't see a single TV for sale in nearby shops that is not a (usually Roku) smart TV, i.e. data surveillance capitalist tool.
Instead of looking for a tv, look for a commercial display. Theyβre basically a computer monitor the size of a TV. Samsung makes a line that we use at work, and the cost is similar to a mid-range TV. They can function completely without internet.
Something like these: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/commercial-displays/ci/35567/N/3538895735
Awesome advice
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I'm fearing when my tv finally dies. It's a 15 year old 75", and I know i won't have the money for a new one when the time comes. Especially not enough to shop around for a dumb tv the same size.
The funny thing is you can just use an external box and never connect your tv to the internet at all. Let it collect all the data it wants. Itβs not like it can tell anybody.
It may not be that way for much longer. Take a look at Amazon Sidewalk. They're using low power, long range mesh technology so Ring Doorbells and Echos can communicate without access to the internet. That may not sound like a big deal, but the potential is huge.
If companies like Amazon/Google are able to create a "side network" they could use it to provide low bandwidth backhaul for other companies that want to get telemetry from their airgapped devices.
So, for example, you get a new Roku smart TV and don't connect it to your Wi-Fi, but your neighbour has a Ring doorbell so it just uses that.
Mesh tech is awesome, and so is tech in general, but we are so slow at regulating it. This stuff needs to be opt in at the absolute minimum.
While that is concerning, itβs not something that would scale well. Mesh networks donβt have the bandwidth for all the telemetry data from tons of users all at once. It wouldnβt work unless they cut back on the amount of data they wanted to get and they will never be asking for less data.
The data would have to be scaled back, no doubt about that. Right now they collect everything under the sun because they can. Remember, this would be data they otherwise wouldn't get at all.
If I were to predict how it would work I would say they would continue to send back full fidelity data over Wi-Fi the same as today, but mesh would be used as a fallback if nothing is available. That data could be bundled to once a day, or week or whatever they decide makes sense and would only include summary information like, how much time spent on each channel per day, SSIDs scanned in the area, etc.
Why not librewolf, Firefox has native vertical tabs since Firefox 136
Video playback smooth in Zen but jerky in Firefox. Haven't tried in Librewolf or Firedragon.
Are you using Linux? Do you have the right codecs installed? Firefox shouldn't be jerky.
Linux: Yes, Linux Mint Xfce 22.1
Codecs: Yes, mint-meta-codecs.
Everything seems fine in Zen, Falkon, FreeTube, SMPlayer, VLC etc.
But the one time I tried watching video in Firefox recently, it was jerky.
A quick way to test would be installing the Flatpak version of FF. As far as I know it should contain everything you need in one go, plus super easy to uninstall.
Roku can suck it.
I want Roku to eat shit.
Odroid with Lineage OS instead of Roku
Any Android TV OS > Roku. Dumb TV > Roku. Outside > Roku.
Kinda. I recently got a shield pro to replace my roku. Customization, and no ads are nice, but for what it cost, what a fucking piece of shit. Hard freezee that require unplugging is the main issue, but it also doesn't respond to remote presses frequently on start up. Takes 30+ seconds sometimes before the remote works.
For more than double the cost it shoukd blow the roku ultra away in every sense. And I shouldn't have to adb hack it to install a custom launcher.
Thank you for this. I was setting up to buy an nvidia shield to replace my roku ultras.
FWIW, I have so far tried:
-
Onn Google TV 4K: Returned it, freezes constantly.
-
Jailbroken AMZ fire stick w/ LineageOS. Buffering issues and wireless issues in general. I still use it, but not my favorite.
So for now it seems my next purchase will be a TiVo Stream 4k android device or a jailbroken fire tv cube and if that fails, I may just have to DIY an android Pi system lol.
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I'm about to be seeing a lot less Roku...
They know they're entirely replaceable right? Like the Amazon fire tv, apple tv, Chromecast... Making their platform shittier really shouldn't be their top priority if they want to stay in business.
But the masses have shown that they won't do anything about it, despite caring and being annoyed.
Have they? Is Roku dominant in this market?
Referring to intrusive ads in general. But, yes, Roku and Roku tvs are everywhere.
βThis company is too cheap to pay someone for a proper advertisement.β
Using AI like this seems like a counter productive way to build brand awareness.
Roku is so far away from their golden era, why are we still talking about them?
So long as their ads keep getting blocked my my pi-hole I won't notice.
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That sucks. People already have to pay to get rid of ads on streaming services last I remember. I wish companies would stop aggressively showing ads everywhere.
I pay extra for paramount+ ad free version and they still show me periodic ads. Its infuriating. And they are much louder than the show content, as a cherry on top. What an awful service.
I think I will start buying mini PCs with Linux starting next year!!! :-)
Commercials over the basic channels on the basic TV is its own curse but It's difficult for me to understand why would someone want to watch YouTube through their smart television since the service pumps lots of adds in those videos as well - after years of me watching everything at home via my computer screens that are guarded by the amazing solution of AdBlock β₯οΈ
I still use a Roku that was gifted to me, but only thanks to also having a pihole. The amount of logging & ads it blocks on the Roku is insane. If that ever stopped working I would ditch the Roku in a heartbeat.
Could be entertaining if somebody accidentally flips the "allow slop machine to make up fake products" switch from off to on.
I bought an external hard drive and downloaded all my sons media on it. No more commercials and no more pushed content
On the plus side, AI will make the obnoxious ad goblin career track less profitable now. So, good news.
I'll be honest... advertising is the one industry I wouldn't be sad to see get completely cannibalized by AI.
Truth. Before there was at least some sort of pressure on the ad industry to incentivize our attention. They had to make it interesting or funny.
Now, itβs a far less consensual arrangement. βI will hold your Skinner box hostage until you listen to me!β
UBo, pinchflat, SponsorBlock, jellyfin, WireGuard, Apple shortcuts for auto connect and activation when I get in my car, and now I get my stories while Iβm driving and those obnoxious vultures can fuck right off.
If Adblock blocking goes away, so will I. This is already more work than I feel like putting into it and the quality of online content has really gone downhill. The enshittification is so extreme now that itβs just not worth paying for things anymore.
Roku, was cool.
I want Roku to fuck all the way off with that plan.
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