I've heard good things about the Nvidia Shield. I've even considered getting one to replace my Roku, but they cost so much more than all competitors it gives me pause. They do run Android, though, so that's pretty flexible. Does anyone think they're worth the price?
Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
281–290 of 407 posts
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
Though, you still get all the in-video promos, even when paying. That ticks me off a bit, but it's not too bad.
Promotion is baked into so many videos on youtube - just as it has been in television and film for decades. I'm not sure whether it's getting worse, or if it has always been this bad and I just didn't notice it as much.
The nice thing is that the format of promos are pretty consistent. Video intro, promo for about 60 seconds, then main video start. I've never felt bothered by skipping ahead past the promo. Actually many viewers feel really glad and supportive that the content creators they're fans of are getting sponsored and paid.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#283Roku and AndroidTV aside, has someone come up with an opensource alternative to either of these spammy services? Im in neither camp as I have had both functionalities preinstalled on a TV. Recently with my newer Android TV it is riddled with ADs and is noisy on my network with telemetry data, even when not in use. When I just want to turn it on and play PS4, it takes time to load the latest on Amazon Prime, Netflix a…
Kodi/XBMC? Plex?
Unfortunately that's only for local media. Obviously all the commercial streaming services have DRM that make them incompatible with open-source.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#284I've used Roku in various incarnations (box, TV) since it was released and was excited when the official YouTube app was finally available. But lately, it's been painful to watch YouTube due to the constant and disruptive advertising. Part of me is looking forward to the app being pulled from Roku, since it's so much like the cable TV experience I thought I was escaping. I don't feel this way about the other premium…
I think they really set the wrong expectation early on. I think the amount of advertising per hour is still barely 1/4 of what you'd get on commercial broadcast TV. They have to pay their creators and product teams to keep it running and it ain't free.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#285I've used Roku in various incarnations (box, TV) since it was released and was excited when the official YouTube app was finally available. But lately, it's been painful to watch YouTube due to the constant and disruptive advertising. Part of me is looking forward to the app being pulled from Roku, since it's so much like the cable TV experience I thought I was escaping. I don't feel this way about the other premium…
> Is it worth paying for YouTube? That depends on how much not seeing that 'constant and disruptive advertising' is worth to you.
I ended up paying for it. It’s too expensive. I’m not happy. But at the end of the day I spend too much time on youtube to waste it on ads.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#286I've heard good things about the Nvidia Shield. I've even considered getting one to replace my Roku, but they cost so much more than all competitors it gives me pause. They do run Android, though, so that's pretty flexible. Does anyone think they're worth the price?
The Shield is probably the most valuable bit of electronics in my home. It's the right level of complexity for family/guests to consume media. Gamestream, the Plex Server, and the ability to serve as a NAS are big wins as well.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#287A few weeks after all this beef started, Google emailed me with an offer for a free "Chromecast with Google TV" device. I thought it was weird, as the email (and the offer) was completely unsolicited. The email mentioned something about thanking me for being a YouTube-TV customer. I'm sure Google knows I watch YouTube-TV from my Roku-enabled TV, so I figured it was related to the beef. I just though it was weird at f…
Reminds me of the time Google made their products perform worse in competing browsers to drive adoption of Chrome.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#288Roku and AndroidTV aside, has someone come up with an opensource alternative to either of these spammy services? Im in neither camp as I have had both functionalities preinstalled on a TV. Recently with my newer Android TV it is riddled with ADs and is noisy on my network with telemetry data, even when not in use. When I just want to turn it on and play PS4, it takes time to load the latest on Amazon Prime, Netflix a…
KDE is making an attempt with Plasma Bigscreen:
It runs on the Raspberry Pi 4.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#289I've used Roku in various incarnations (box, TV) since it was released and was excited when the official YouTube app was finally available. But lately, it's been painful to watch YouTube due to the constant and disruptive advertising. Part of me is looking forward to the app being pulled from Roku, since it's so much like the cable TV experience I thought I was escaping. I don't feel this way about the other premium…
Why does their advertising feel so disruptive? Is it because it feels like something just broke for a moment? It seems that an ad will often be inserted right at a key moment. Maybe it is that I feel like I have to constantly hold the remote, ready to "skip" the rest of the ads, except now they are getting less and less skippable. Also, lately, they are running two ads instead of one. It is so annoying I have been wa…
I don’t know how people can watch ads. We went cable-free a few years ago, so now it’s all Netflix or other pay-to-stream services. When I watch YouTube, as soon as an ad begins, I usually click away. Same for freemium content on Amazon Video. Can’t stand it.
Re: Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube
#290A bad look when Alphabet is selling competing devices like Chromecast (at least partially competing) and then pull YouTube from Roku devices.
That's not "a bad look", it's continuing anti-competitive behaviour by an aggressive monopolist. Google using their dominance in one area "youtube" to hurt competitors in another space -- in this case to promote their Chromecast devices.
Google has already earned $8B in fines for similar behaviour in the last few years in some of their other product areas (ads, android, and search). This is just what they do at this point, it's not a "look".