“Awful”: Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen

They're working hard to make sure piracy provides the best experience.

It’s approaching 1984 levels of BS control.
- Sorry to inform you, but we are already in the Brave New World.
This is already my experience but still use a Roku to access Plex. Looks like I'll need to get something else or figure out if i can block them with Ad Guard Home
- I use pi hole and the experience is not entirely smooth. I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this but my pi hole blocks ads but every few weeks Roku has an update and it locks up the entire operating system and I’m stuck in a loop of trying to get my update so I can return to normal. I for the hell of it disabled pi hole for 5 minutes and it wound up working but not until I dropped pi hole. So it’s as if it every so often decides to hold the operating system hostage if I don’t drop pi hole for updates. Makes me think they likely get all the telemetry they are trying to collect for selling data. I like not watching ads 90 percent of the time but it pisses me off that they are likely still spying on me by forcing me to communicate with their servers every now and then.

Not a surprise for Roku. The company has been getting progressively worse in the last few years and their enshittification is accelerating. Their recent forced download of an update that requires users to agree to arbitration to even use our TVs was intended to ultimately take control of those TVs completely away from the people who own them.

Right now it's possible to block Roku's static ads and presumably the autoplaying ones using a local DNS server like Adblock Home or Pihole, but it's only a matter of time before Roku blocks everything unless we watch the ads they are trying force down our throats. I'm already in the process of obsoleting all 5 of our Roku devices.

It has taken Roku years to build up enough market share to allow this kind of behavior and it will take years for the market to abandon them. Their executives will claim ignorance as to why users are walking away when it finally hits their bottom line.

Im literally willing to ditch the device and cancel all streaming services because of this. When I turn on my TV I don’t want to be forced to consume ads when I haven’t been provided with anything in return.

I just block all ads at the router level. When looking through the most blocked domains I see a lot from Roku.
- Im not very computer savvy and currently only have a tablet and a mac mini from 2008.

Can i pleace find a decent TV without smart-capabilitys? I just want HDMI thats it

Don't give your TV wifi access, use a separate device to watch stuff (Chromecast, FireTV, Android box, etc..)
- Wish it had more apps, but Apple TV is pretty solid. With the Steam link app, it’s also good for couch gaming on your pc.
- Yeah, that was my approach, but the forced ads are also on the roku stick :(
Technically you can get commercial TVs but many companies stopped selling them. They are literally the new screen tech with no "Smart" capabilities. They are also much cheaper than their smart counterparts.
Buy a commercial signage display. It's just a TV without the smart garbage.
Or, get a projector :)
- I must not be looking at the right thing. All I'm finding are expensive displays that have all this fancy scheduling, web surfing, etc. built into it.
Cheap computer monitor works well for me.
- Just a heads up that the Smart Cancer has already begun infecting PC monitors. Samsung makes Smart Monitors.
  It won’t be long before there are no longer Dumb Monitors.
A buddy sent me this recently. I'm intrigues. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=46513
A Sharp Aquos TV from the late 2000s, pre-Hisense days. We have a 42" model from ~2007. It's only 1080p (which is honestly just fine for its size and our usage), but there's plenty of I/O for modern and legacy equipment, and lots of configuration options. It is an absolute monster at 75 lbs, but an incredibly high quality unit nonetheless, especially considering it's age. I've owned it since 2019 and it's needed zero repairs or anything.
For comparison, we also have a much newer 55" curved Samsung TV (in our basement, wall-mounted up high) which has already needed a backlight driver board replacement. Luckily that was only $50, but still, I expect better.
- the largest problem with older TV's isnt the resolution. even on my 75" its hard to tell the difference between 4k and 1080p... But HDR is amazing, it really blows me away each time a scene lights up!

For years I was a big fan of Roku. It represented a better value alternative from the big corporations pushing their own agenda like Google, Apple, Samsung, and Amazon. They made products that were intuitive and user oriented and carved out a very nice and stable market share for themselves because of it. Now they're just leveraging their hardware relationships to transform the software into something terrible.

I used to look for tvs with Roku built in. Now I've disabled Roku features from my smart TVS and use a separate streaming device.

How did you disable the Roku OS?
- I think it depends on the model, but there should be something in the power settings to change the startup device. I did a factory reset first to clear any network settings or user data, skipped the setup, and set it to startup on the HDMI input.
I think the issue is they hit market saturation and haven't been able to develop any real revenue streams beyond the sale of devices (which is one time cost while maintenance and development constantly drain them of any profit).
I suspect the increased enshitification is because they need other revenue streams. Just take a look at their stock price and it doesn't paint a great picture for them.

Don't connect your Roku to the internet.

Or better yet, use a Pi-Hole or something similar to block the relevant adservers at the DNS level.
- I wouldn't say this is "better"
  I do run a pihole, but I still will never connect my roku to the internet. It is much better to have a media PC or other streaming device I have control of fully connected.
- Would you happen to know of any guides or have advice on identifying the adservers to block?
- That's not better, you didn't allow any smart TV to connect to the internet.

Shit. I got a Roku TV. That's one big fucking stick to toss.

Step 1. Factory reset.
Step 2. Do not allow it to connect to the Internet.
Step 3. Connect a Linux based computer to it and run everything through the computer.
- Instructions unclear. TV now controlled by Nicole the fediverse chick.
- This method will not work on all Roku tvs, some Roku TV brands require you to phone home to activate the TV before you can use it for the first time. Which requires you to not only connect to the internet but also log into a Roku account on it. It's stupid.
Shall I introduce you to the folks over at !selfhosted@lemmy.world?
Eh, I just started connecting cheap ($30 or so) used Apple TVs to mine. I saw the writing on the wall.

Almost downvoted instinctually as a reaction to the headline. Visceral reaction. I hate this beyond belief.

I have a Roku ultra in my kid's room.

I do not want her subjected to ads when she turns on the TV.

This is unacceptable to me and I will be replacing all my Rokus immediately.

- I have a 200+TB library for my Plex and jellyfin instances. The Roku was just a family friendly launcher and remote. I bought them when you could still disable ads in the secret menus and most of the Roku BS is blocked by a pair of piholes, but I've gotten annoyed chasing new urls to blacklist.
  It's DRM for the other app bullshit that becomes a hindrance for going the Kodi route. There really isn't a good alternative that I've found. Linux boxes will limit some services to 720p and jt's mostly baseball and local news programs that I'll lose.
  For the news, I need to look at something like hdhomerun or something else I can pair with an OTA antenna.
  For baseball, not much other than the absolute mess that live streaming sports is. Doable, sure. But a pita and sketchy last I looked into it. My season ticket comes with MLB.tv, but the irony is that I'm "in network" so all my teams games are blacked out for me. I had previously created a VPN tunnel and routed one of my Rokus to a different state to watch it. But it's not a user friendly experience.
  For games, I already have a batocera box running on an old dell thin client with way more power than a pi, and it has Kodi on it. But the UI/UX still sucks.

Looking around Roku's site, I found this email address: AdsPR@roku.com

I'm planning on giving them a brief but firm "oh hell no" letter. I wonder how many others will do the same 🤔

I emailed them to let them know I cancelled Disney+ and cited this specific ad and advertisement campaign through Roku as to why I cancelled the service.
Let’s make the companies who advertise this way feel pain.

Roku had the best smart tv ui. I was seriously bummed when the ads started rolling in a few years ago.

I want an open source streaming client, but from what I hear DRM gets in the way of that.

Honestly i dont even care about non intrusive ads. I dont like it but i can live with those ads on the side bar telling me about some movie coming out, but this auto video bullshit that takes over my screen is fucking awful. That's the line for me
I’ve much preferred Google TV for some time now. The recommendations and live free tv options are essentially built into the UI. Although I do use the Roku app as one of my free streaming options lol.

this is the worst, next they're gonna put ads on cars

Have I got horrible news for you
- @T00lshed @Mandragora yup https://lemmy.world/post/26386001
Stellantis is already doing this on new cars in the US. (Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Maserati, FiAT, etc) Soon as you press the brakes and come to a stop ads play on your infotainment system. Have the car in park? Yep more ads.
Bro they already tried charging you monthly sub for unlocking seat heating functionality… if they are not already here, you can bet they are coming.
- You know I only ever get more glad that I didn't learn to drive and went with cycling instead. It started due to not being able to afford it, now I won't own their shit and I will be happy.

So glad I blocked my TVs access to the Internet at the router level. Never complainrd about not setting up a network if the network doesn't work.

Why even connect the tv to your local network?
- Casting, using your phone for a remote, so the popup for connecting goes away
- What a goofy thing to ask. You know exactly why people use smart TVs on the Internet.
- Wake on LAN. At least that's what I do. I can turn on the TV and adjust the volume from Home Assistant but the TV itself can't reach the Internet.
- I used Netflix on my TV but after the password sharing and other issues I choose to block network access.
  Most of my Internet is done on my computer.
- When my girlfriend moved in, she had a big TCL Roku TV its software absolutely sucks. But it would keep a blinking led on ALL THE TIME if it wasn't connected to wifi.
  I put it on my iot network, and I'm considering null routing it.
  I actually had a Roku box plugged into it since it had a better experience, but I'm probably going to switch that to a Nvidia shield pro because of this ad bullshit.

Apple TV for the win

If you think another private company with profit on their mind is safe, I've got a bridge to sell you.
- As it stands now Apple TV for the win and I'd be legit shocked if Apple puts ads as you boot up an Apple TV.
- It's not that they won't do it. It's that they currently don't so it's a good choice.
  When they add ads, then we can find something else. I'm on Roku now but have been increasingly annoyed by the increase in ads.

Uh huh, but collecting Blurays is just silly I've been told.

If this happens on my box I'll be taking them to small claims court and let you all know how it goes...

Just a heads up that you probably "agreed" to binding arbitration...
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/05/roku-disables-tvs-and-streaming-devices-until-users-consent-to-forced-arbitration/

So glad I ditched Roku. My modified Onn box (with an open source, ad-free launcher) is so much better.

I got to know more about your setup. How much was the device and what software are you running?
- Sure. The device I use is an Onn streaming a Android TV box. I think I got the 2023 4k streaming version and it was about $20, from Walmart. You can probably get cheaper models, but I wanted one with an Ethernet port.
  Then I installed a couple of alternative launchers from the Play store on device. I also loaded F-Droid as well (though I had to do that directly through an apk). I can't remember which launcher I went with in the end, but it was either FLauncher or Projectivity. They were both good.
  The wrinkle here is that the OS defaults back to the default launcher (which has ads and a lot of clutter on it). But I used a free command line tool called adb to switch the default launcher off.
  I've been very happy with the new setup. My kids (who use it all the time) occasionally complain that an app will crash while they are watching something, and take them back to the home screen/launcher. But I haven't run into that, and it's probably just them accidentally hitting a remote (which I know they accidentally do a lot).
  I documented the process and posted them here, in another thread a few months ago.
  Additional note: The default YouTube app isn't very conducive to quick profile switching, which can be annoying. To switch profiles you basically have to go back to the OS level and do it there, then go back into the YouTube app. It's an Android TV quirk. But I discovered that if you side-load the Amazon Fire version of the YouTube app onto the device, you can switch profiles within that version of the app, and it works just fine.

They just did this to me. How can I tell them they failed this test?

If it has a video input, hook up a used PC, and pirate everything. (:

If you force Ads then I will replace your equipment. The only reason I use Roku is to avoid the Ads built into "smart TVs"

Was roku recently acquired by an investment firm?

I only ever tried using a Roku so I could stream my PC to my smart TV, but it turns out there's MASSIVE latency. Of course I returned it. If I had to deal with that AND ADS, I would have set that shit on fire

Steam Link works well if they're still around.
- Not sold new
- At the moment I just have an old laptop and connect it to my TV via hdmi and installed Parsec on both devices. It's a nice, free method.
  In the future though I do want to look into getting a mini PC and doing essentially the same thing except it could be an individual device for the most part.
- i have 3 just in case one dies

Bought a Roku back in 2020 or 2021 because the Apple TV was more expensive.

Now I know why.

For what it is worth, I have Roku set up as a REGEX in my Pi-hole so for the most part, any of this nonsense is completely blocked on my Roku.

Needless to say, I shouldn’t have to do this shit with a device I paid for and mainly use for Plex streaming.

I know it's being lazy. But if you have the regex you could post, I'd appreciate it.
I had this happen to me just a few days ago. Within the hour I bought an Nvidia shield and came up with a plan to install the projectivy launcher and button remapper.
I'm mostly happy, it's much more snappy but it's missing a couple apps I used on the Roku (WGN and Marquee Sports). At least I can use my own pictures for the background and screensavers.

PiHole.

My friend doesn't understand this reference, could you elaborate, please?
- you can get a raspberry pi and install something called pihole on it, it's a DNS server with ad-blocking. basically, it converts a domain name like example.com into an IP address, but rather than just faithfully supply DNS, it also effectively blocks some adverts by acting like the domain names don't exist for servers that run ads
  once it's set up it'll just work, and it should protect everyone on your network/wifi from some ads
- Install a Pihole server on your network. It's a DNS filter. When a client tries to access a domain that has been blacklisted (ie a known ad or tracker domain), it denies the lookup.
  On my roku homescreen it just has an empty placeholder where it tried to put the ad, but my Pihole server denied it.

isn't their a foss os you can flash on your tv?

Lineagos can be flashed on some android TV sticks

I was thinking about changing my Roku TV anyway. "Dumb" TVs are the future for me.

Reasons I turn off WiFi on any TV I buy and use a streaming box

Roku will do this on their boxes too.
- Roku devices and fire sticks belong in the recycle bin.
  I switched everything to Apple TV .
- Yeah I don't get roku boxes lol. I have an nvidia shield pro, and I'm considering loading the lineageOS software on it
Any good recommendations?
- Onn 4k box or Nvidia shield

Roku is the one that bricked peoples TVs unless they agreed to their new terms of service.

Aaargh matey!

My vizio tv auto plays shows, ads, and light music if you leave it idling too long after you turn it on. Moving the remote down just once disables it till the next time your on home screen.

I have a vero-V but honestly the apps are lack luster. Its amazing if you have your own library of content. I saw my first homescreen add on roku yesterday. I am pissed.

https://pi-hole.net/
- I totally get it I could definitely bypass the ads. However the point is that they are doing it at all. I dont want to use their service if this is going to be their strategy.

Roku box: Bye, bitch!

I think this happened to me last night with an ad for Moana 2 playing automatically. I just assumed I accidentally hit a button. I was on the home screen but it enlarged and played in the basically the top quarter of the screen. I hit Close and it closed.

Also, the Netflix app is absolute garbage on the TCL Roku TVs. Constantly freezes and crashes, sometimes while not even try to rewind or pause/resume. It just decides its had enough and causes the TV to restart lol.

I thought the Netflix issue was just me! I also got the Moana 2 ad yesterday and assumed that I’d hit something, too. Good to know it wasn’t me, bad to know it was intentional on Roku’s part.
- We have several TCL Roku TVs and Netflix is trash on all of them. Netflix is fine on the streaming sticks though. And every app seems to take some time to load as well. The TVs are pretty old so that's probably why.

Guess it's time to either flash my Roku with something that isn't shit or just make a dedicated media box myself.

Whomp whomp. You get what you pay for.

It’s 1000% worth it to spend a little extra on a TV to get one that runs Google TV. Android is just superior compared to Roku in this regard. I actually have an Apple TV 4K as well, and regularly switch between the two.

Manufacturers need to put the cheap ass software on a cheap ass $20 stick. Stop fucking up TVs with it. Stop accepting any 'smart' features and stop calling them smart. They're invasive advertisement platforms, full fucking stop. It is in fact NOT worth it to get a google TV, because they'll pull this shit or worse next week. We had perfectly functional TVs for decades before this shit, stop acting like the only choice is to surrender your hardware.
- I’m not surrending shit. It’s really Android TV, they just call it Google. But whatever man, go off.

I'm just glad I've still got my MythTV running.

Now that's a name I have not thought about in a long time 🤜🤛

thank goodness pi hole can block the majority of roku ad sources

none of this is a big deal, simply never connect your TV to the internet

I see this thrown around a lot.
90% of us watch Netflix, Plex, YT TV or some other streaming service, how do I watch these with 4k quality without connecting to the Internet? That's just an unrealistic request for 90% of TV users.
- Use a separate, not ad-riddled device plugged in via HDMI. If you have a game console it can do this.
  I don't know what's good for Android TV boxes it used to be the NVIDIA Shield was a well regarded streaming device but it's really old now. Google makes one (Google TV Streamer) and you can install a custom launcher if you're a bit technical and the "suggested content" of the stock launcher bothers you. Same for other Android TV boxes.
  Apple, like them or not, makes a really decent TV box with no system level ads and an interface that mostly stays out of the way.
- If you have some technical knowhow, you can configure your router to let things like Netflix through, but not the rest of the OS. Or you can try your luck with PiHole or similar.

Disconnect from network
Factory reset
Use HDMI to plug into a device that actually respects your privacy and does what you want (Jellyfin, Plex, Pihole for even more goodness, and simply run other streaming services via privacy enhanced browser)
Enjoy life without enshittified asshole OS no one asked for by going back to a time that was better.

EDIT: I haven't tested this as of yet, but it seems like a decent option for converting and old PC (or if you have a RaspPi) into a media platform with comparable functionality: https://arcadian.cloud/pi/2023/04/27/easily-turn-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-smart-tv/

Won't hurt my feelings to throw their shit tv right in the trash.

This kind of garbage is why I've never connected my tcl tv with bulit in roku to the internet.

Think of any invasive streaming devices in your house. Samsung, Google Chromecast, ATV, LG etc. Roku is by far the worst.

I was just looking into this and saw this comment. I'm just using Xubuntu on an old laptop at the moment but this sort of thing is what I really want to go for so I might test it out when I get more time.

The only reason I still use my roku is because it has sound leveling capabilities that is much better than anything else I have. I use my PC for just about everything but recently Sling stopped working on the PC or at least the DVR is directing me to download some app? Also Paramount doesn't handle 60fps content (sports) on the PC very well, it stutters a lot.

Windows has sound leveling but I haven't had much luck with it when its really needed. My receiver is old and has only rudimentary sound leveling.

Ughhh just unsubscibe

Libreelec on raspberry pi 4 (Kodi) works for me but it really needs a new YouTube app. That's the only issue really

So this is the Moana garbage?

I have a pihole blocking most of it, but these were playing.

There's surely a way to jailbreak these things.

Roku is bad, I have one older Roku ""smart"" tv that I just block from accessing the internet entirely, and use a shield with a custom launcher instead.

Oh please do tell more
- So, I use regex to block all Roku domains on my network via pihole:
  (ads|logs|cloudservices|image|images|web|prod.mobile|wwwimg|captive|customer-feedbacks|amoeba|amoeba2|sr|giga.sb|cs).roku(.admeasurement)*.com$
  Then, possibly overkill due to the above, I used OpnSense firewall rules to block all traffic from my Roku tv. I think I just got fed up with seeing Roku spam in my pihole, as the above regex seems to completely "break" Roku.
  After that, I set up FLauncher (following the method #2 instructions on the gitlab page) on my shield. This makes it so I only see the Roku launcher for a few seconds while the shield starts up, and then I'm dropped straight into flauncher. I chose flauncher because it's very simple and barebones, so you might want to explore other options if you want more advanced features. I don't really need those features since I'm usually using an app anyway.
  Note that I did all of that after the tv was configured and set up, YMMV if it's a brand new tv as it may need to call home to do the initial set up.