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Fox to buy Roku

wsj.com

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Re: Fox to buy Roku

#181

Post by iririririr »

literatepeople wrote: post #149
thayne wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any alternatives that are independent of streaming services?

Not really. Apple TV seems to be the closest ive found to not being riddled with ads though. the home screen doesn't have ads at all, the closest which exists is the "top shelf" feature when you hover over the Apple TV app, and that can be turned off in settings. But it has some other issues

how can you live with that awful remote?

not even a mute button. and it makes me earn for the old directtv remote! that's how bad it is. Everything is so unresponsive and odd.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#182

Post by TheCondor »

holistio wrote: post #130

I remember when Google buying YouTube for $1.6b sounded crazy. And then when then-Facebook Meta bought WhatsApp for 10 times that. $22b. Are there any companies left that are not in the decabillion range?

That's what I took notice of... About half their revenue is subscription and about half is advertising. 100m users. $220 per home? I would think that's high.

They certianly have enough to ice the carriers out. I wonder what an HBOMax subscription will cost in a year, I bet a fair bit more.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#183

Post by horsawlarway »

tmp10423288442 wrote: post #161
timeinput wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They (ETA nvidia shield) added ads many years ago. Really left a bitter taste in my mouth after paying for an ad-free "premium" device to have them shoved out there.

Who is they?

Assuming the nvidia shield.

I'll also echo my general disappointment with the direction of these devices. A decade ago, they were one of the best streaming devices you could buy.

then a couple years back it was "there's a new discover tab, filled with ads! Don't you love it?"

then it was "not enough people are viewing the discover tab, so we're merging the discover tab with the home tab! Don't you love it?"

---

They're still decent hardware for a streaming device (although somewhat dated at this point), but now you have to go out of your way to make the software not shitty.

Removing the stock launcher helps a lot, but requires ADB access. (easy enough, and [insert llm of choice] can both generate a minimal replacement launcher and install it for you for about $10 worth of tokens, so technical users are fine, but I can't really recommend them to non-technical family anymore.)

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#184

Post by iririririr »

marssaxman wrote: post #171
righthand wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can go to Walmart and buy a streaming box that is a Raspberry pi-sized board with custom Android installed and the package claims it has 700+ channels. But it just is an overlay for pirate streaming sites.

> just is an overlay for pirate streaming sites Now you're making it sound even more interesting. What is the name of this device?

just use something that you can run a torrent client (and use tpb.party with adblocker). Those apps are malware and botnets.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#185

Post by tadfisher »

righthand wrote: post #148
thayne wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any alternatives that are independent of streaming services?

You can go to Walmart and buy a streaming box that is a Raspberry pi-sized board with custom Android installed and the package claims it has 700+ channels. But it just is an overlay for pirate streaming sites.

It is also a gateway for "residential proxy networks", AKA botnets for rent.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#186

Post by freeAgent »

andrewla wrote: post #4

As a long-time[1] customer of Roku I am tentatively extremely pessimistic. I have always been unhappy with Roku's decision to get involved in streaming content at all, because it could potentially cut into their service-agnostic architecture. Bad enough in my mind that they had in-platform ads instead of just charging for hardware, but way worse when they are actively competing with streaming services. And now it loo…

Ironically, I think the Apple TV is the best streaming box out there. Of course, Apple is both the manufacturer and a streamer in their own right. And they definitely privilege their own store and streaming over other services. However, everything else already sucks so much with UIs chock full of ads that Apple wins anyway. It’s awful.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#187

Post by everdrive »

andrewla wrote: post #4

As a long-time[1] customer of Roku I am tentatively extremely pessimistic. I have always been unhappy with Roku's decision to get involved in streaming content at all, because it could potentially cut into their service-agnostic architecture. Bad enough in my mind that they had in-platform ads instead of just charging for hardware, but way worse when they are actively competing with streaming services. And now it loo…

Services are really never safe. Or at best, they should be considered temporary. If you like what they provide, know that what they provide could become worse and/or more expensive. This is the likeliest scenario.

At best, you should use services on a temporary basis and never allow yourself to get entrenched. Once you're locked in, you are part of the product to be sold to advertisers. The "install base" that is used as leverage for these sorts of shenanigans.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#188

Post by freeAgent »

andrewla wrote: post #4

As a long-time[1] customer of Roku I am tentatively extremely pessimistic. I have always been unhappy with Roku's decision to get involved in streaming content at all, because it could potentially cut into their service-agnostic architecture. Bad enough in my mind that they had in-platform ads instead of just charging for hardware, but way worse when they are actively competing with streaming services. And now it loo…

Ironically, I think the Apple TV is the best streaming box out there. Apple is both the manufacturer and a streamer in their own right. And they definitely privilege their own store and streaming over other services. However, everything else already sucks so much with UIs full of ads that Apple wins anyway. It’s awful.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#189

Post by doublepg23 »

iririririr wrote: post #181
literatepeople wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Apple TV seems to be the closest ive found to not being riddled with ads though. the home screen doesn't have ads at all, the closest which exists is the "top shelf" feature when you hover over the Apple TV app, and that can be turned off in settings. But it has some other issues

how can you live with that awful remote? not even a mute button. and it makes me earn for the old directtv remote! that's how bad it is. Everything is so unresponsive and odd.

? it has a mute button and I find it as responsive as my old shield tv.

Re: Fox to buy Roku

#190

Post by rurp »

horsawlarway wrote: post #183
tmp10423288442 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is they?

Assuming the nvidia shield. I'll also echo my general disappointment with the direction of these devices. A decade ago, they were one of the best streaming devices you could buy. then a couple years back it was "there's a new discover tab, filled with ads! Don't you love it?" then it was "not enough people are viewing the discover tab, so we're merging the discover tab with the home tab! Don't you love it?" --- They'…

Are there solid existing launchers that can be swapped in? Changing the launcher is one of the first things I do when I get a new Pixel phone and highly recommend it, but I don't really want to have to maintain a vibe coded one.
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