<laughs in pihole>
does the UI just render blank squares in that case?
Yes. It’s obnoxious.
I think it hides the big ad area if it can’t get the data, but I haven’t used my Roku outside of the setup in so long I don’t know what the UI would look like.
I’ve done this on VIDAA (Hisense) and there’s a placeholder for the homescreen ads that just say “VIDAA”.
On my parent’s it doesnt render anything at all. Just shows the wallpaper.
In some cases. There is a blank square on the main menu. The idle screen also normally had an ad. The idle screen looks like a scrolling cartoon panoramic shot of a street, and the ad is a billboard on the side of the street. That billboard simply isn’t there at all if the ad is blocked.
I use adguard on my opnsense with several lists… one of them snags it by default. the big blank border of a square is still lame.
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yo this looks like a good gist, thanks!
whoops! deleted it because it was posted elsewhere in the thread but i hadn’t noticed yet.
here it is in case anybody wants it. https://gist.github.com/sidward35/cea28bedd0ec0b1bceec8c2b22c163c4
This is technically correct, but it’s not new. They’ve had this ad for years.
looks like they shrunk the menu to icons in order to make room for the ad on the same view, not just when you arrow over to the app icons.
Yea I’ve been ignoring that forever. I jsut go to my Jellyfin app at square 1
I know everyone shits on Apple but … my cheap Apple TV has 0 ads, except the ads the apps may have.
I assume Google has, and probably killed, at least 1 variant?
They updated my roku a few months ago with this and there was an opt out to revert, and I took it. It asked if I really wanted to change back to the old UI as it would be unable to swap back. I hope that stays true!
My understanding is that they pushed it to some people as a beta and eventually they would roll out the update to everyone even if they opted out of the beta. I opted out to go back to the not as bad homescreen and blocked it from the Internet in my router settings
That’s what I figured. I havent blocked the device completely, but I would like to block the update if possible. I just need to look and see if I can block just the update dns query. Was your fix a total block?
Roku is another prime example of enshitification.
Now I have all my “smart” TVs disconnected, and I hooked up some inexpensive Android TV boxes (with a couple minor modifications). No more ads!
can you go into detail on the boxes and your mods? interested in getting some of my family off of Roku for this reason
I got some cheap ONN boxes, Which seem like the best value for true Android TV devices. If you have the funds NVIDIA Shield TV is probably the way to go.
It’s possible to skip the Walmart account login at setup, but probably not possible to skip the Google account sign-in (let me know if you find a way!).
Setting up side-loading is trivial, although largely unnecessary. I loaded Stremio, Jellyfin, and a VPN for better streaming experience and control. I replaced the default home screen with Projectivy Launcher. You don’t need to go into ADB shell or anything like that. There are also other home screen launchers that fix the major problems with the default GoogleTV screen; Emotin UI (closed source), FLauncher (dormant), Leanback Launcher, ATV Launcher (closed-source).
There are lots of options for web browsing, File Explorer, on-device media, stores, etc. that are easily available.
very neat! thanks!
So how long before ONN gets enshitified?
Always a concern. They will eventually require a Walmart account I guess. I’ll have to remember to disable updates.
I would love to exit the Roku ecosystem. I don’t use any Apple products and I’m not interested in starting.
It’s amazing how there are really no open-source products in this category of devices.
Enshitification is just business doing business. It suck as much value as it can out of anything it touches until it’s barely worth it then just let’s the quality hover there. They call it “the price the market will bare”, also known as, giving as little value as possible.
Everytime something turns to shit it’s because the business side of the endeavor has started making the decisions.
I’m also curious what you ended up with
Roku is another prime example of enshitification
Agreed, but are there any realistic alternatives in the android space to firestick and roku?
People love to hate Apple, and that’s fine (Tim Cook sucks ass), but the AppleTV is honestly the best streamer and you can’t change my mind.
Zero ads on the Home Screen, and even the first gen 4K box that came out 8 years ago is still fast as hell and getting updates.
I know this because I had one in my closet and just took it out the other day when setting up a TV in my bedroom. It downloaded updates and is now rocking and rolling again.
It’s best because everything else is worse
My family knows me as the anti-apple IT Guy. So, it shocked everyone when I brought home a Best Buy open box Apple TV 4K (saved me $20US).
Honestly, this is my first Apple purchase since my ipod and I have to admit: it’s good.
Roku has lost their way and my 3 Roku Ultra devices are all dying for reasons unknown (freezing, random reboots, spinning endlessly when trying to open an app). I’m just so done with them (and Nvidia) for my streaming hardware business.
I bought an AppleTV device and it is by far the best out of the box TV product I’ve purchased. It’s pricey but I highly recommend it if you don’t want to self host.
They are certainly more expensive, but it’s a “buy once cry once” type of thing. You pay a little more but the box works SO MUCH better and for longer than the cheap junk that’ll show you a bunch of ads.
I have two of them at this point and zero regrets.
Plus, it´s pretty easy to find used ones that are cheaper.
I wanted to buy one but Apple banned stremio recently…
I’ll see you walled garden bullshit and raise your an nvidia shield. I think I Stoll got till September before I’m in the sane boat.
I know it’s not for everyone but fuck nvdia too, I build a pc next to my tv it’s everything and then some.
Again, I know it’s not for everyone.
My other tv’s just have onn 4k seems non enschitified yet… And is dirt cheap
I wonder how much of the anti-apple stuff comes from the extremity of the person’s views. I have always preferred PC/windows due to familiarity with it, but I’ve used iphones for 12 or 13 years, and by extension, some of apple’s services (like icloud). They’ve been pretty great this whole time. And, as a normie, I’ve been happy with what I’ve heard and seen about their stability, general lack of ads, and security/protection of customer data. I doubt there’s many others on the Fediverse with similar views due to the nature of this place, but anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that it seems like some of the dissent toward apple is inherent to their position relative to the opinion holder.
I definitely think it’s “linux brain” that exists around here to a degree. You can see it on any given thread that talks about…well…anything technical. “Just download Linux!” they’ll say. And I say this as someone who LIKES Linux. I have it on two of my pcs (and I have a Mac and iPhone/iPad, etc. as well). It’s great. But there’s a zealotry around here around it.
That said, it’s not hard to dislike Apple right now. I’m pretty mad at them for cozying up to trump all the time. I’m glad Cook will not be leading Apple soon (though I wish he’d just leave outright. He’ll still be at the company). But it’s hard to deny the hardware is great and the software is generally good and generally works well.
But Lemmy is certainly a niche population of nerds. And that’s fine! It’s great! But a lot of those nerds seem to love the “console wars”-type mentality of “MY thing is the best and anything else is bad.”
MacOS is on a steady decline though. Since Jobs died, it has become worse with each release.
Apple TV is great, though.
I really appreciate your response and I agree completely. Linux seems awesome (I’ve played with Mint a little bit, and have heard a lot about Bazzite and Kinoite, and I do plan on moving over when I have the time/energy/motivation. It does seem significantly better than the commercial offerings once one gets past the (often exaggerated) learning curve.
Would you mind expanding on the Apple stuff? I haven’t looked into them as a company since they told the courts to fuck off during the Snowden trial or something like that. I’m realizing that I’m not an Apple fanboy, but I also don’t have the data pool to really form an opinion one way or another.
I grew up an apple fanboy but in my early twenties I realized I couldn’t afford to stay one. Since the iPhone came out they’ve gotten more and more closed off and hard to modify. The last straw for me was realizing you couldn’t install older versions of software (someone gave me a 1st or 2nd Gen iPad) and I couldn’t even put an older version of home assistant on it. That really showed me how hard they push for “you must buy the newest thing” because they’ll deliberately break the old one
We really need to figure out an open source TV OS or something. I want a Linux based OS for a small PC explicitly to stream Plex or other streaming services. I think I read that licensing for the transcoding or something was the hang up.
I think I read that licensing for the transcoding or something was the hang up.
There’s several problems. Transcoding is one but there’s also issues with content providers requiring the use of their own apps along with Linux not (until very recently) being able to use any HDMI spec beyond 2.0.
I’ve been a ROKU user for over a decade but the last year has had me thinking more and more about boxing up my devices and sending them to their HQ with a note “Since you treat these like you own them I figured I’d just send them to you.”
I am really REALLY tired of them dicking with my boxes and updating / reconfiguring things however and whenever they see fit.
I’ve been a ROKU user for over a decade but the last year has had me thinking more and more about boxing up my devices and sending them to their HQ with a note “Since you treat these like you own them I figured I’d just send them to you.”
I’ve been considering what to do with mine that has been in a box since they pushed spyware to them. I might do that.
Roku solved my wifi/buffering issue way back in 2015 or so, when i was using a Sony bluray player that had built in streaming capability. I became a devout user after that.
Also the UI isnt clunky, laggy like so many cheap TVs and such (except the Youtube App is fucking laggy trash).
Is the recommended ONN streamer (see above) as good as the Roku at all the same shit?
I would love to ditch the rokus for all the same shit.
Roku’s slide into corporatism kinda hurts. I really liked their product and their lead developer came from the Amiga Universe.
Is the recommended ONN streamer (see above) as good as the Roku at all the same shit?
I honestly don’t now. I haven’t owned a Google Streamer since the Asus days.
Are you familiar with Kodi?
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KDE Plasma Bigscreen is joining the Plasma release schedule next month and will then be available in distro repositories. That at least will be a big deal for Linux HTPCs.
There are solutions aiming to help with that like LibreELEC (basically a minimal backing OS for Kodi). But unfortunately any Linux-based streaming solution will have issues with DRM connecting to Netflix, Prime, etc. There are sidesteps around that too but starts to get more and more challenging for the average user
Great, I got rid of Amazon fire stick after they stuck ads in movies and got a Roku.
Now I’ll have to switch again or start pirating. Another loss for civilization
Used a fire TV stick for a long time but multiple factors made me finally switch to an Nvidia shield.
Worked great for a year and then an OS updated made the home screen 60% ads, especially those that started to play with sound when I was on them for like 2 milliseconds. Installed projectify on it and now I only see what I want to see.
It is always disturbing to me how much ads I see when I am using someone else’s system, because I banned everything at home.
Is anyone running https://plasma-bigscreen.org/ yet?
From https://plasma-bigscreen.org/get/
Plasma Bigscreen is not yet widely available.
We are planning to join the Plasma release schedule starting with Plasma 6.7 (in June), which will make it possible for distributions to ship it in their repositories.
In June, so almost!
want to. Got a rpi5 sitting waiting but too many other projects ahead of it.
I did try android TV on it. it was utter horse shit, so I’m hopeful for pbs.
I’ve got Android TV on a Rpi5 and it works fine. It does have some bloat but it gets the job done.
playing anything 4k makes it too choppy for my taste. even 2k has issues.
It’ll be packaged up in plasma 6.7, I think mid June. Then it’ll be easy for distros to make it available. I want to try it but I don’t want to change distro or build it myself. When 6.7 rolls out, I got my computer plugged into my TV with CachyOS handheld edition. Right when Plasma 6.7 is available in the Arch repos, I’m installing it
How do people tolerate this? Just looking at this pic makes me want to turn it off and throw it out the window.
Literally nothing about the interface is about the user. It all screams everything except what you might want or need. Well, maybe the Zootopia tile is good, of all things, but not much else.
They were born in it, moulded by it, they’ve never seen a world without an add somewhere in it.
*molded.
*Mauled
Madded, the ad version of being mogged.
I’m on the home screen for one second. The remote, in fact, has buttons on it, I don’t even need to look at the home screen.
You can add or remove tiles as you see fit (although they definitely like to add some for you from time to time), but like I said, I barely use the tiles.
I love people on here who don’t and have never used it expressing any feelings on it at all. Like, why do you care, other than were all here (on the internet) just to get mad about shit?
They “don’t have” the technical expertise or energy to avoid it.
That’s very true. I don’t mean they should run their own Linux on their TV’s or something, I’m more like…not having a smart TV at all must be better than this abomination.
So I have one of these pos “onn.” Wal Mart brand Roku tvs. It was legitimately the cheapest 40 something inch tv (250bucks?) they had to offer, I did not realize that the smart part isn’t like an input it’s the home screen every time u power it on. Had I known, I would have spent up to 100 bucks MORE to just have a regular ass TV. Live and learn I suppose.
You should get a Google TV one. You can select basic TV mode and it lets you set it up without Wi-Fi and has the option to power on to last input.
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Insanity ensues
Smart TV is basically what most people would buy if not an apple TV. Amazon and Roku sticks are still around.
Roku had the best ui a few years ago, everything i dont contol is just shit now.
Fast and responsive UI, easy for older people to use. Too bad it is getting worse but I still find it more usable than Google TV.
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Buy one or more NVIDIA Shield Pro 2019 editions for whatever TV (and make sure whatever brand TV you use is itself completely disconnected from the internet) you like watching things on.
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Replace the built-in NVIDIA / Google Launcher with a custom one like WOLF or FLauncher completely free of ads.
There are completely ad-free wonderful little alternatives to every ever-enshittifying service out there…
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YouTube- > SmartTube Next -
Subscription Streaming Services- > Plex (or Jellyfin if you’re just doing local and no special devices that need transcoding) -
Twitch-> S0undTV
- Combine that with a NAS of your choice and (optionally) a few pieces of free software setup through a containerized deployment system like docker by following the guidance of Dr. Frankenstein along with an account with Mullvad.
…Any other steps there may or may not be are for you to figure out on your own.
I dont have ads on my Nvidia shield but I never updated it either.
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I built Kyu Launcher so you can get Roku experience on your Android TV.
Roku has had a big ad on the side for a while now? I’ve been blocking it with DNS.
The easiest way to avoid ads is use an android streamer (I use the Google tv streamer) and install projectivity launcher. You get the cleanest UI that’s fully customizable with only what you want to see. I also installed a button remapper app to change the netflix button on my remote to open Plex. It’s a very easy stress-free experience using my tv
