What a coincidence; I've been seeing no roku laetely
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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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
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.
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.
AI generated ads
It doesn't happen a lot that headlines make me vomit a little in my mouth but this one did
Man it must be rough out there for regular people that put up with that kind of bullshit.
Roku can suck it.
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
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
Amazing! That 55" is about what I paid for the Roku tv before all of this blatant "shit on the user" bullshit, and it still suuuuuuuuuckss
Edit: the Roku tv sucks... Not the Samsung dumb tv
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.
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Odroid with Lineage OS instead of Roku
Is there a good way to set it up with a remote?
I've seen a fancy remote with a keyboard on the back but didn't try it myself.
I want Roku to eat shit.
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?
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.
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.
I think I will start buying mini PCs with Linux starting next year!!! :-)
It's how I have been running it for the last two years now. Coupled with Jellyfin, it is such a better experience. My mother just got a new TV - I think I will set up something similar for her.
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.
That's been my experience too. I had heard so much good about it, but it feels so janky.
I really wish there was a normal minipc option with a good remote controlled UI. But they all have such terrible interfaces or if it's running Linux, weird limitations by streaming vendors who lock Linux to 1080p because they are afraid of piracy, as if that actually prevents anything at all.
I can't stand how normalized these invasive ads have become. I have a child at home and she is too young to know how intrusive ads are. I don't want my 7 year old being shown ads for content that they aren't mature enough for.
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Toshiba 32A33 > roku
Roku is so far away from their golden era, why are we still talking about them?
They subsidize the cheapest TVs
We need to subsidize de-fingering their engineers in response
Iβm Sure the engineers werenβt crazy about this idea either. The business majors are to blame, not the engineering majors.
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So long as their ads keep getting blocked my my pi-hole I won't notice.
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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.
I bought an external hard drive and downloaded all my sons media on it. No more commercials and no more pushed content
Could be entertaining if somebody accidentally flips the "allow slop machine to make up fake products" switch from off to on.
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