tl;dr never buy anything Roku, ever again. Got it.
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
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Yeah... I've been evaluating moving to Plex or Jellyfin.
Kinda getting done with a lot of this smart stuff. The Monopolies are flexing and I don't enjoy it.
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Good way to kill their product..
~~I can't imagine anyone that would leave the device plugged in after the first ad comes up. Pretty much anyone using such a device would also know how to unplug them. They clearly have other uses for that screen, so it's not a total loss to keep it unplugged till the user can switch to a different brand.~~
Ah it's a Roku TV entirely. Reminds me of the Samsung TV ads
Roku TV sets come with ads. Generally, these are restricted to Roku's home and menu screens, its screensavers, and its first-party video channels, and once you start playing video, the only ads you'll see are the ones from the service you're streaming from. That said, Roku TVs have shown ads atop live TV before.
Now, the company is apparently experimenting with ways to show ads over top of even more of the things you plug into your TV. A patent application from the company spotted by Lowpass describes a system for displaying ads [...]
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So we just ordered a new tv and just want the universe to know that Roku wasn’t even considered and this shit is why.
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I'm glad they patented it so that any of the products I actually buy won't be able to do this
Parents can be licensed for use by other companies.
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The amount of ewaste they will be producing when they push that update. Should be against some environmental laws.
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roku has patented a way to go fuck itself
Now, if only they would invent the exact opposite of this, I would buy it
I want zero ads. Ever.
They did! Its called a pihole plus ublock origin plus piracy.
You can't buy it, only the hardware, but the software is all free.
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I've just invented a way to never use a Roku product again, and I've chosen not to patent it.
The process is this:
- Don't buy anything from Roku anymore.
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On this episode of Black Mirror....
I'm tired boss...
My TV set is like a dumb monitor: HDMI in, colorful image out, basta.
Not even audio. And of course it does not get any internet connection. And I don't feed it any caviar.
The best way to prevent ads is to figure out every way in which they can be served in the future, and patenting every one.
And then do nothing with them.
Utility patents expire after 20 years (under US patent law; might have different rules somewhere else).
Twenty years of sweet freedom from ads
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Sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.
Imagine that you pay for an ad free streaming service through your roku, like HBO for example. And now you have ads streaming over it?
People will sue for a way to disable it over ad free paid content.
Also, this will lead to way more pirating. People are sick of advertisements.
That’ll be why they just pushed a “agree to our new license with arbitrage or your tv is a brick” update
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Hopefully this ends up something they never actually do like that sony patent for ads that only go away if you call out the name of the product.
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if they patent this, it could be slightly good thing because it might prevent other companies from doing it
if the video being displayed is static
Imagine you're playing Skyrim and while reading one of the books your TV covers up the content with an ad! That would be infuriating!
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Roku filed for the patent in August 2023 and it was published in November 2023, though it hasn’t yet been granted
So they haven't patented shit.
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So I guess fuck people who use static images as screensavers
I mean... Yes? I hate this idea and Roku will lose me as a customer over this, but yes they are specifically targeting screensavers. Idle time is ad time to these people.
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Aight. So it’s time for me to start taking this seriously. Has anyone tried using like a GrapheneOS or LineageOS as a Roku or FireTV replacement? Is there anything like that which will support an experience with a regular remote control and have apps like Netflix and Hulu work?
The problem with those TV apps is DRM. All the major streaming services require that you either use a locked down platform (probably checking SafetyNet and more on Android TV) or settle for their browser UI which lacks dpad support and gets quality throttled to 1080p or lower.
Circumventing that DRM is possible, but no project at the scale of a platform like those would dare the both legal risk and support headache of making those circumventions (which are very liable to break) a core part of the OS.
Kodi (and distros using it like LibreELEC) exist for people who want a FOSS platform for using non DRM encumbered media with a TV remote interface.
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Please don't tell the idea to HP or they might get inspired.
Time to create an app that runs a moving pixel and or subsonic tone during pause to thwart these fuckers
I'm waiting for Version 2.0 where they don't care about whether you're watching content or not and just randomly inject ads every 20 minutes.
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