“Awful”: Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen
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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.
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Don't connect your Roku to the internet.
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They just did this to me. How can I tell them they failed this test?
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Apple TV for the win
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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.
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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.
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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
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Or better yet, use a Pi-Hole or something similar to block the relevant adservers at the DNS level.
Would you happen to know of any guides or have advice on identifying the adservers to block?
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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.
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Would you happen to know of any guides or have advice on identifying the adservers to block?
I've always just done it manually by viewing the Pi-Hole logs for the device I am on while the ad is loading. It takes getting into the weeds a bit.
Further, I don't have a Roku so I've never looked into it myself.
That being said, a quick search brought up this hosts file:
https://gist.github.com/sidward35/cea28bedd0ec0b1bceec8c2b22c163c4
Adlist for Pi-hole with domains for Roku, LG, and Samsung
Not sure if it's current or not. Lots of threads about Roku ads making it through after being previously blocked.
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I've always just done it manually by viewing the Pi-Hole logs for the device I am on while the ad is loading. It takes getting into the weeds a bit.
Further, I don't have a Roku so I've never looked into it myself.
That being said, a quick search brought up this hosts file:
https://gist.github.com/sidward35/cea28bedd0ec0b1bceec8c2b22c163c4
Adlist for Pi-hole with domains for Roku, LG, and Samsung
Not sure if it's current or not. Lots of threads about Roku ads making it through after being previously blocked.
Appreciate the reply and link regardless! It's always whack-an-ad with these intrusive jerks.
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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.
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If you think another private company with profit on their mind is safe, I've got a bridge to sell you.
Apple has absolutely no interest in injecting ads like this. That’s not their business model. Apple has a thousand things wrong but it’s reasonable to assume they aren’t going to pull this kind of rug pull.
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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.
True, but most people are buying off-the-shelf stuff and they don't have their own localized piracy-enabled libraries with a Jellyfin server.
Further, I'm pretty sure you've got to connect your Roku at least once to install player apps like Jellyfin. But maybe you don't, I'm not at all familiar with if you can sideload on a Roku.
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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.
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Apple has absolutely no interest in injecting ads like this. That’s not their business model. Apple has a thousand things wrong but it’s reasonable to assume they aren’t going to pull this kind of rug pull.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1330127/apple-ad-revenue-worldwide/
They still have an ad business, and ads are what companies turn to when times get tough. There's no guarantees that Apple will stay on top for other reasons, and to assume such a thing will never happen is truly foolhardy.
It's like believing Valve will be the same after Gabe Newell dies.
Further, Apple relies deeply on TMSC and since the US is basically in a nosedive of idiocy and protectionist tariffs, there's a significant chance their supply line for their chips could be deeply impacted, and by extension, their profits from their computing products. Whether from tariffs or China taking over Taiwan, Apple could easily get fucked out of luck fast.
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They're working hard to make sure piracy provides the best experience.
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Looking around Roku's site, I found this email address: [email protected]
I'm planning on giving them a brief but firm "oh hell no" letter. I wonder how many others will do the same
