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"Awful": Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen

arstechnica.com

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Re: "Awful": Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen

#6

Post by manyxcxi »

g-technology wrote: post #2

That would be a good enough reason to drop Roku if they start doing this.

I know Roku doesn’t exactly have the greatest track record but I’ve owned them relatively trouble free since at least 2010, having refreshed them all once or twice since.

Way back when Apple and Amazon were fighting Roku was the only one that had both on it.

I prefer all my TVs stay dumb, so I just plug a Roku box or stick into them. No more having to get a new TV because the Netflix app stopped working or whatever.

I hate the Amazon Stick UI and don’t want to pay 3x the cost for an Apple box- but I absolutely will eject from Roku completely if they start doing this stuff.

Re: "Awful": Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen

#7

Post by archon »

I switched from the Roku ecosystem to Nvidia Shield about a year ago because of Roku’s increasingly user hostile ad and tracking decisions and have been pretty happy with it. Android TV gives me enough control with a custom launcher that I can prevent ads.

Re: "Awful": Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen

#8

Post by ewzimm »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #3

I recently bought a new "smart" TV --- but only after confirming that my selected model could be operated in "dumb" mode without any network connection. Roku just validated my purchase choice.

From all of them I’ve used, ironically enough, Roku TVs are probably the best for operating without a network connection and don’t have any unremovable networked apps that pollute the screen. They just get much worse once you connect them, but they’re also easy to factory reset.

Re: "Awful": Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen

#9

Post by kjellsbells »

So...what is the current state of the art for people who want to defend against endless ads, have a minimally invasive install relative to the users' current setup, have to tweak every device in, and not have to do more than say quarterly maintenance?

Every time I visit a non-technical friend's home I am absolutely horrified by what their tech experience has become. Browsing, oh my goodness. What a dumpster fire.

What system can I build for them that I can drop off with say 30 mins or less of setup to get going that isnt going to generate callbacks?

I'm thinking pihole (as DNS, with the user's home router tweaked to point clients there). Maybe running on a pi or a fanless pc. But perhaps there is something else?

Browser extensions are too complicated for very untechnical folks so maybe pass on those, although I am partial to privacybadger, ublock and of course a pw manager.

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