Roku says unpopular autoplay ads are just a test

Users are unimpressed, eager to toss devices if test sticks.

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[Tofystedeth]

Mentioned this to my wife who relies heavily on Roku for accessing our Emby library (and who's Roku is about due up for a refresh)... her first response was "well I guess I'll just have to pay for you to build out a raspberry pi solution instead"

So thanks Roku! You've just given me a fun project because of this nonsense and an excuse to go buy a couple of RPi's.

Yeah, I got an rPi around Christmas so I can replace my Roku stick and Steam Link with a single box handling both streamings using open solutions.
Just hadn't gotten around to doing it. Guess this will accelerate the getting around to it.

 

[MtnGoatJoe]

Even Apple TV has ads on the home screen and in the TV app.

No it doesn't. You may see ads via a streaming app, but the AppleTV does not show ads on it's Home Screen, and doesn't inject them into anything.

 

[Fatesrider]

Just keep it offline, make the “smart” TV dumb.

This is the option we did. All our TV's (two of them, with me using monitors and NOT TV's) are wired into the computers as video devices. They are never allowed a direct connection to the Internet.

With a Bluetooth remote mouse, it's better than having a spyware-infested, ad-riddled piece of shit some evil corporate entity is trying to monetize with your eyeballs.

Since it can't download anything, we don't get ads at all.

 

[Dzov]

I've been content to let the pi-hole do its thing because its not within my scaled back (geopolitical influence factors) budget to just replace every box with Apple TVs.

Its not like we're over here like "yea this is fine daddy, hit me more". No one "asked" for this. Its just not so easy to just flip the switch for a whole household after years of investing in one set of streamer boxes. What am I, an oligarch?

Definitely a lot easier when you have one tv.

 

[Dogs in a Pile]

I unplugged my Roku Ultra last year when they locked users out of their devices until they viewed and agreed to their new TOS requiring forced arbitration. At that point the writing was on the wall about the direction they were heading and I wanted no part of it. Replaced it with and Apple TV 4k which is a far superior device and doesn't have ads.

 

[OrvGull]

I can get some limited, but very high quality, content for free (OTA) from my local PBS affiliate.

Digital broadcasting ruined OTA TV, in my opinion. I haven't lived anywhere I could get a solid signal on more than maybe one channel in the last decade.

I don't want to say it was a conspiracy to force people onto cable and streaming, but that was the effect.

And I can still get a wealth of content (at least stuff made in the last 40+ years), also essentially for free, via a Blueray/DVD player, and my local libraries, and their wonderful, albeit slow, loan service.

That reminds me, I really need to buy a new Bluray player before they stop making them.

 

[Dzov]

So remind me again why would I buy a 45'' TV when I can buy a PC monitor in that size and have none of this?

People these days are buying 65" TVs for far less than the cost of a 45" monitor.

 

[niftykev]

First time they do this on my Roku Ultra that I've had for I don't remember how long, it gets replaced by an AppleTV device. I don't have the desire or patience to explore using a PC alternative to a streaming box.

 

[Simon Green]

Yes, but they're sold as displays for businesses usually and they're way more expensive.

Buy a Smart TV and don't connect it to the internet --> dumb TV. (Still rage-inducing that you're paying for "smart" features you don't want of course).

 

[tratclif]

I was recently gifted a Smart TV, and happily it didn't force me to connect to the internet to just set it up as a dumb device. I've had an Apple TV for years, mostly used to send media on my computer to the TV. I'm glad I ignored all those GET STARTED WITH ROKU!!!!!! notices.

 

[Great_Scott]

Well I am a sample size of one but we don't watch a lot of well anything so our online time is valuable to us. I can confidently say that my wife will go spare and use a lot of bad language if this happens. And unhappy wife is unhappy life. So I really hope this not come to a streaming stick in my house.

The good news here is that millions of otherwise-good PCs won't support Windows 11. I foresee lots of media PCs running Ubuntu in the near future...

 

[bob_page_cousin]

1988: ACDC release their eleventh album "Blow up your Video".
2026: new album "Bring Back Your VCR."

 

[wdmartin]

So, what are the options for streaming to a TV without BS like this?

I mean, I could go buy a mini-PC and attach it to the TV and stream from that via a web browser. But that seems kind of overkill. I don't really need a full desktop OS when all I really need to do is open a service, select a show and hit Play.

 

[RoninX]

I can't speak for others but I am retired with a pretty decant income and I am more likely to avoid a product because of an (annoying) ad than I am to buy one. In other words, ads that interfere with my viewing experience are very likely to sour me on a company and a product.

Maybe I am not typical but suspect that I am.

Sony seems to be aiming at the high-end market, so their UI is a little less annoying than budget brands like Roku.

I have a top-of-the-line Sony set (which I bought primarily for the picture quality), and while it runs the Google TV OS (which has annoying ads), you can switch to any input device or streaming app immediately using the remote, without having to watch those ads.

 

[gommer]

Question: do they even make dumb TV’s anymore?

They do. You will be paying a little more but in my case, I bought a Sony Bravio. It's not connected to the Internet.

 

[gommer]

Luckily I don’t much care for “top video quality” - it never seems worth the price. On a tv anyway. Sometime a monitor will frustrate me if it’s too garbage.

You get what you pay for.

 

[gommer]

Even Apple TV has ads on the home screen and in the TV app.

You will never see a full volume ad for diapers or Questrade suddenly blare out the speakers, sitting at the home screen.

 

[EBone]

"When reached for comment, a Roku spokesperson shared a company statement that confirms that the autoplaying ads are expected behavior but not a permanent part of Roku OS currently. Instead, Roku claimed, it was just trying the ad capability out."

Riiiiiight...

 

[InfiniteJester]

You get what you pay for.

Hey look everyone: it’s that guy!

 

[Frodo Douchebaggins]

Even Apple TV has ads on the home screen and in the TV app.

Not sure why you're being downvoted here. It's correct. The caveat is that the ads are just for apple's own streaming content, not other shit.

The Home Screen top half stuff is kinda arguable in terms of it being an ad but I'd like to disable it if I could.

 

[Ocqulus]

I went from a yuuge fan of my roku 3, to a extremely frustrated owner and former user of a error prone roku ultra, then a superbly unhappy user of a 4k stick.

Nothing but problems, errors, botched software updates. I gave up. Now this? Never again.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Very glad I decided to hook up my PC and TV with an extremely long HDMI cable! No ads thanks to Ad Block Plus, and the """smart""" TV has been fully offline for it's entire lifespan.

 

[ubercurmudgeon]

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

The colon in the headline, and the quotation marks, are superfluous.

 

[thefiringzod]

If you want a really fun read and another reason to ditch Roku, check out their published privacy policy and search for "olfactory."

While I doubt their current hardware is actually capable of anything like that, they're straight up telling you they would if they could.

 

[LDA 6502]

I can't speak for others but I am retired with a pretty decant income and I am more likely to avoid a product because of an (annoying) ad than I am to buy one. In other words, ads that interfere with my viewing experience are very likely to sour me on a company and a product.

Maybe I am not typical but suspect that I am.

Same. I find advertisements to be incredibly distracting, annoying, and deceitful. They just don't work on me the way advertisers want them to, so they're a waste of everyone's time and money. And in the worst cases, I just end up boycotting the companies.

Worse, I look at the proliferation of ads for gambling, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, junk food, and dark politics as deeply troubling. And the more I see them, the more I believe that our country is seriously fucked up.

So I opt for ad-free experiences where I can. But then I learn that most companies see that as a premium option that supposedly warrants higher revenue per subscriber, so you're paying more than they'd ever earn in ad revenue because "fuck you, pay us".

So now I'm just angry as enshittification spreads like wildfire. Worse, it seems like most people just aren't annoyed with enshittification the way I am, so I know it is only going to get worse, which annoys me even more.

/have two Rokus that I plan to sell because I am tired of creeping enshittification

 

[balthazarr]

"Yes, yes, that's right. The ads were just a test."
<hangs up phone>
"So? How did the tests go?"
"Enough users complained. The numbers went past the threshold."
"OK. So what I'm hearing is we need to make it a bit more subtle."
"Nah. What we need to do is triple the ads delivered, and when the complaints roll in even thicker we tell users 'We hear you and our response will bear that out!' Then we just go back to a single unskippable ad which will then seem bearable by comparison."
"Brilliant! Get that scheduled that for the summer months!"

"Add the call statistics to our ad sales spiel. We'll be able to up the rates, proving our superior user engagement!"

/s, but not really, because this is totally what they would do.

 

[foobacca]

Kill your television. (Again)

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FaTcIzLk880&pp=ygUpa2lsbCB5b3VyIHRlbGV2aXNpb24gbmVkJ3MgYXRvbWljIGR1c3RiaW4%3D

 

[Sadre]

And here I was about to go all Wrath of Khan on Moaono 2. "With my last breath, I do spit at thee."

 

[ExhaustedTechConsumer]

Lots of comments quite rightly advising not to connect your TV to your network but the problem is this kind of BS could infect any set top box you care to attach to your dumb TV and allow to be updated.

Love my Shield Pro but I had to install FLauncher to avoid the "suggestions" and I just hope that remains a viable solution.

Obviously Roku is blacklisted for any future purchases.

I assume Roku believe there are enough people who don't care about this enough to stop them buying their crap.

 

[Frodo Douchebaggins]

This is getting down voted, but it is so true. Using an Apple TV without an iPhone is painful-to-impossible. The whole selling point of Roku is that it was completely standalone.

And given Tim Cook is clearly a Trump fanboi, that's not an ecosystem I want to jump into. At least Roku is honest about being scumbags.

He's a knee-bender, not a fanboy. Still gross, but less so.

 

[Roonski]

Line must go up! Wait, why did line go to zero?

 

[Granadico]

I'm not looking forward to having to drop $100+ on an Apple TV but I'm looking forward to the day my Roku shits the bed and I finally have to get rid of it.

 

[coonwhiz]

Fucking damnit. I just bought a cheap Roku for my Grandma to use so she can cast her iPad via airplay. Haven't installed it yet, but I might just spend my money on an AppleTV that I know will work and also won't have ads to worry about.

 

[EngeldinckHumperbert]

Are there any good alternatives that aren't Apple (or a decade old unsupported Nvidia product)?

I came here to ask the same question. Amazon sticks are terrible, not just because Amazon sucks, but because the software itself is bad. I'm willing to go with Apple, but I'm hoping that there's like an open-source homebrew alternative or something? I have visions of my near future, where I have an entire Linux computer attached to my TV.

 

[TheShark]

Seems like going back to pirating is looking better and better. That said, I wonder how much effect widespread data-caps from Comcast have had in reducing the popularity of bittorrent. And whether there is a bit of a quid-pro-quo going on there.

 

[JZip]

I just signed up for an account after many years so I could post. Surprised all the tech folks here don't know about OSMC: https://osmc.tv/ Based on Kodi, open source and they have a box, Vero V, for those who wish to avoid Apple products. I am a very long time Apple user but not Apple TV. Have a very cheap Roku thing that plugs into HDMI on my less than state of the art Samsung, pretty dumb TV that I got for free. I mostly stream to it via free tier Emby but am in the process of switching to Jellyfin as it's improved a lot since last I looked. I don't run a PiHole as it's too much fuss/work for me but I do use free DNS resolvers from ControlD, which is a companion company started by my VPN provider Windscribe. I can use Windscribe on a secondary router for the Roku but found it messed up some channels so went with changing the DNS to the Hagezi Pro list on my main router and have been very happy with the browsing results and no problems with the Roku. If I start seeing the crap ads in question I'm probably going to ditch Roku. Haven't used the Vero but they has a pretty big community and there are lots of things one can do with it apparently. Jellyfin also has the Streamio/Debrid thing for those that swing that way.

 

[FSTargetDrone]

Some of us bought Rokus specifically to avoid using the built-in smart TV features. In my case that was probably about a decade ago but, nevertheless: egg on my face.

What are the ad-free streaming box or stick options now? Just the Apple TV?

The only ads I see on Apple TV+ are ads for their own shows and they are currently skippable. I can tolerate that, but will not tolerate unskippable ads.

 

[burndive]

I've already disconnected our living room Roku TV from the network (back when I was greeted with an unskippable "agree to binding arbitration" popup at launch).

It has a Google TV dongle for streaming. The TV works great offline. It's past the point where firmware updates improve stability or add features.

 

[siliconaddict]

Dear Roku. I dropped your anti consumer crap last fall after your BS about needing to agree with your predatory ToS to use MY device. Burn in hell.