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Roku files patent to inject ads via HDMI
- walterbell 2y agoRoku added and removed here.¹ ¹ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/30/nsa-sketches-explain-user-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/30/nsa-sketches-e...
- RockRobotRock 2y agoMcDonald's!
- callalex 2y agoFor those unaware, this is a reference to the real, actual patent Sony was granted that requires the user to stand up, T-Pose, and shout “MacDonalds!” in order to skip an ad. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sony-patent-mcdonalds/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sony-patent-mcdonalds/
- pawelduda 2y ago[flagged]
- kderbyma 2y ago[flagged]
- type0 2y agoHDMI is a farce https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/hdmi-forum-to-amd-no-you-cant-make-an-open-source-hdmi-2-1-driver/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/hdmi-forum-to-amd-no...
- codetrotter 2y agoThankfully we are not completely stuck with HDMI USB-C connectors using the DisplayPort protocol is the best of all worlds https://www.displayport.org/displayport-over-usb-c/ https://www.displayport.org/displayport-over-usb-c/
- SenpaiSilver 2y agoI still hate that turning off one of my monitors moves the windows to the other still on monitor...
- rylittle 2y agoanyone know if theres a way to fix this?
- samatman 2y agoI'd start with the question: where do you want them to go? Windowing systems generally don't have a 'limbo' where windows can live without being displayable, and that probably isn't what you want, either. Do you want them all to auto-minimize? You can probably get that. But it starts with answering the question.
- ryukafalz 2y agoI could imagine a tiling window manager like sway having a "temporarily gone" pseudo-workspace that holds windows that were on another monitor until you plug it back in or pull them to another workspace. Or to remember that workspaces 1, 3, and 5 were on another monitor recently, and to put them back there when you plug back in.
- NoGravitas 2y agoSway does the latter. When you have multiple displays, every workspace gets assigned to a display. When you remove a display, those workspaces move onto a remaining display, but, importantly, every window stays on the workspace it was on, so you don't get shuffling and rearranging windows. When you plug that display back in, those workspaces go back to that display. I get that there's no "perfect" way to handle this situation, but the way Sway does it is so much more simple and predictable than Gnome or Windows.
- Kim_Bruning 2y ago
- kstrauser 2y agoAnd it’ll probably be hard to opt out of it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39643421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39643421
- optimalsolver 2y ago"Say 'McDonalds' to end commercial": https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/bsx72f/say_mcdonalds_to_end_commercial_patent_by_sony/ https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/bsx72f/say_...
- exe34 2y agoI'll cut it out of the cable with a pair of scissors.
- chris_wot 2y agoIf it means that nobody else can implement this without costing a huge amount of money in licensing, this is a net positive.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- omoikane 2y agoI had a similar thought, I would assume the patent is meant to be used defensively to discourage something downstream of Roku from injecting ads. If Roku wants to display ads, they can already do so if the content originated from their system. If Roku is displaying content originated from an external system, that external system can display their own ads to defeat the detection of pause events. (DirecTV already does this).
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoRelated: Roku data breach: Over 15k accounts affected https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39674041 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39674041
- NoPicklez 2y agoRead further and you'll find it was just Roku identifying that users were using the same password across multiple services of which were separately breached and credential stuffed. If anything this reflects positively on Roku that they announced it
- fleshmonad 2y agoYou will rent "your" DRM protected PC, and we will inject Ads into your brain
- chgs 2y agoAds should only be on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky... But not in dreams.
- mlsu 2y ago[flagged]
- dreamcompiler 2y ago> When the media device pauses the media content, the display device can determine that a pause event has occurred and insert an ad shown on the display device. Hilarious. I love how all the streaming companies are hijacking the pause control now. Why do you think I hit pause? Pick one or more of the following: 1. I need to go to the bathroom. 2. I want to inspect the current frame more carefully. 3. I want to see an ad for psoriasis medication. Hint: One of the above answers is wrong. Think about it and get back to me. I'll wait. (I did hit pause after all.)
- whyenot 2y agoIt depends. How accurate is Roku's guess that you may have psoriasis? Now repeat this exercise but replace Roku with Meta or Google.
- JoshTriplett 2y agoIt does not, in any way, depend.
- Jochim 2y agoHow accurate they are directly correlates with how much pain I'd wish on whoever is responsible.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- neon5077 2y agoIf your only options are "bad" and "even worse", that does not mean that one option is good. They are both, in fact, bad.
- dangoodmanUT 2y agoHN comedy goes underappreciated
- dreamcompiler 2y ago[flagged]
- websap 2y ago[flagged]
- nzeid 2y agoIf I'm getting this right, any ads you'd see on a Roku would be hosted by the apps themselves e.g. Youtube and such. So Roku wants a piece of the ad action and this is the only way to do it without the burden of providing any actual content.
- lenerdenator 2y ago"Transfer more value! Transfer more value! Transfer more value!", the shareholders chanted, as the virgin shrieked on her descent into the throat of an active volcano. "It is done!", responded the CEO, eyes hidden behind the ceremonial quarterly meeting headdress, shielding them from the immense heat of the lava.
- SlightlyLeftPad 2y agoI, for one, would read the rest of this story.
- lenerdenator 2y agoFor the rest of the tale, I recommend you follow the stock symbol "ORCL" on the NYSE. Rather curious that Mr. Ellison owns an island in a volcanic archipelago, isn't it?
- aidenn0 2y agoSpeaking of which, the one question I've always wanted to ask bcantrill is if he meant to say "Don't make the mistake of anthropomorphizing Oracle" when he said "Don't make the mistake of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison." On purpose or not it was a great sentence, but if it were premeditated, that only makes it better.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago> if he meant to say "Don't make the mistake of anthropomorphizing Oracle" when he said "Don't make the mistake of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison." Perhaps not that exact phrasing, but I'd say he said both; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=33m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=33m - I have it in my quotes file as > You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it'll chop it off, the end. You don't think 'oh, the lawnmower hates me' -- lawnmower doesn't give a shit about you, lawnmower can't hate you. Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don't fall into that trap about Oracle. and a bit later, > Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison
- stein1946 2y ago[flagged]
- oddevan 2y agoReads like this is for Roku TVs. They've gotten wise to the fact that I'm using my Apple TV more (because I can't update the Roku software any higher), but they still want to sell me ads. I try to stay above stuff... but fuck this.
- deathanatos 2y agoRoku also recently disabled devices unless you "consented" to forced arb. (E.g., article from about then: https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/05/roku-disables-tvs-and-streaming-devices-until-users-consent-to-forced-arbitration/ https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/05/roku-disables-tvs-and-stre... ) (IANAL.) I'd like to remind Big Co's that contracts aren't valid if there isn't consideration. And continued use of my own TV isn't consideration. (And this is backed by legal precedent, too.)
- thih9 2y agoWhy are forced ads still a thing? When given choice, people escape them - via netflix or adblock. The same people spend their free time watching youtube reviews, chatting on gear forums, or recommending each other deals on social media; it looks like people genuinely want to learn about good and fairly priced products. I sincerely hope we’ll find a better way of reaching an audience than forced ads.
- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoIronically the fully skippable commercials on cable TV with a DVR are the best deal we can get anymore, anything in the streaming world can take control of the video stream away from you.
- chgs 2y agoPiratebay still works right? I just subscribe to paramount plus again to watch discovery. Seems perfectly reasonable, they give me a program I want (with no product placement from what I can gather - unlike the JJ Abram’s films with their “Budweiser classic”. I don’t think a self sealing stem boot counts), and I give them £8 a month. Everyone is happy. However you try to double dip and I don’t give you a penny.
- thih9 2y agoPiratebay may not work as smoothly. Content doesn’t appear effortlessly on all your devices. Some subtitle languages may be missing. Less mainstream content may be of low quality, slow to download or missing too. Plus, you have to plan ahead or wait for the download to finish. At this point I would double check the streaming plan price (as long as there is an ad free tier).
- chgs 2y agoI haven’t used pirate bay for a long time as I can simply buy or rent the material I want However start putting adverts in that and it’s changes, it’s either “don’t watch at all” or “get from pirate bay (or elsewhere)”, because the product I want isn’t available. 20 years ago I used to get tv from places like irc because it was the only way to get the material. 25 years ago I hd no choice by to wait for the vhs to come out. It’s a service problem, not a price problem. Sadly it seems companies want to make the service bad, which means they throw the baby out with the bath water.
- ARandomerDude 2y agoReason #27,621,938 to stop watching TV. The media creators hate you, the device manufacturers hate you, the streaming companies hate you. It’s amazing what hoops people are willing to jump through in order to poison their own minds.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- strunz 2y agoYeah, all that mind poison from nature and science education, documentaries, great films and TV shows that entertain and help us experience the human condition through great visual art and storytelling. Are you from 1950?
- thunky 2y ago> Are you from 1950? First tv ad in 1941, first radio ad in 1922, first newspaper ad in 1704, first known written ad in 3000 bc.
- dmix 2y agoAnd they all hated us
- hagbard_c 2y agoNo, just someone who managed to keep his sanity in the onslaught of advertising, someone who sees the forest through the trees. As to the nature and science education, documentaries, great films and TV shows that entertain and help us experience the human condition through great visual art and storytelling, those can be had without subjecting yourself to advertising (other than whatever advertising they put in the programs themselves) by using ad-free platforms like Jellyfin or Kodi running on whatever available piece of hardware (old laptop with broken screen and keyboard, SBC, discless workstation, ...). There is no reason to give in to the ad juggernaut, it can not force your door or pry open your eyelids to force you to watch. Just don't use anything which pushes ads and you're set. This is not fantasy, it is the daily reality of countless individuals and families. You don't need to give in to the advertising industry.
- stackskipton 2y agoThis seems like patent troll. HDMI-CEC would let you see the pause request if they are using remote not tied to the device. However, to display the ad, it would require you to hijack the input and would be extremely disruptive to the user. Unless they were already using Roku and Roku needs to know Pause command to be helpful to the user. So besides "Show ads" how is this any different from "We handle pause properly!" which is basic function.
- brevitea 2y agoAnd just like that, I recall I have a DVD collection and access to alternative means of streaming.
- emodendroket 2y agoWould have been smarter to invest in Blurays to watch on your massive HD Roku TV.
- howlegal125 2y ago[dead]
- xnx 2y agoHas someone patented a Pi-hole-like HDMI passthrough that blocks out and mutes all ads using SponsorBlock or "AI" mechanisms?
- dv_dt 2y agoHas someone created an enshittification standard scale (ESS) where we can just rate what stage a company is at? It could actually be useful as I would guess that there is probably a good correlation to poor long term financial performance at high ESS.
- Devasta 2y ago[flagged]
- robswc 2y agoAh, this is what Tesla meant when he said "You May Live to See Man-Made Horrors Beyond Your Comprehension."
- crtasm 2y ago(2022)
- forrestthewoods 2y agoI refuse to connect my TV to WiFi. I used to use a Roku for all my streaming needs. But I switched to an AppleTV because the Roku apps started to suck and they got into selling data. It’s a dang shame that AppleTV is the only streaming box that doesn’t track what I watch to sell. But that seems to be the world we live in. Aside from being expensive it’s a great product and I definitely recommend it.
- kobalsky 2y ago> I refuse to connect my TV to WiFi we are one deal away from having TVs that autoconnect to xfinity hotspots / amazon sidewalk, to upload telemetry and download ads. I can see people having to open their TVs to cut the wifi chipset's power/antenna in the future to avoid ads. If this crap isn't stopped by law it will just keep escalating.
- zug_zug 2y agoAs somebody who was a roku fan for a while (because I thought their UI/os was so much less clunky/noisy) I really can't recommend this brand. I wonder if there's a way to flash your TV with some OS that doesn't invade your privacy.
- grounder 2y agoHopefully I can still find a "dumb tv" when the time comes to replace mine.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- flandish 2y agoI fucking hate capitalism.
- move-on-by 2y agoCan anyone explain why there doesn’t seem to be a market for high-end dumb TVs? I want speakers, tuner, multiple inputs, HDR, 4K. That’s it. I would absolutely pay a premium price for such a dumb TV. I know others in the same position. Am I just in an echo chamber? Or is there something more going on?
- vinyl7 2y agoWe are in a infinite growth economy. Numbers must go up 20% year over year otherwise your business is failed and you should just file for bankruptcy. Gotta squeeze as much wealth out of the market regardless of everything else. Short term gains over decent nice to use product.
- move-on-by 2y agoHmmm… I suppose I’m looking for the wrong solution then. We need to jailbreak the smart TVs and load our own software on them instead- can be as dumb or as smart as you need.
- mmis1000 2y agoBecause it's already nearly free to add 'smart' functionality to a TV? High end boards these days are mostly arm boards at first place, and add a smart tv function to it don't really cost too much cents. (You probably just need some extra storage) Why would they want to sell a dumb TV if you can make it a smart one almost for free?
- NoGravitas 2y agoAnd if you include the smart tv board, you can then lower the purchase price of the TV and make it up on ads and subscriptions. The resulting price competition on smart TVs is what makes it hard to buy dumb TVs.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- downrightmike 2y ago#FuckThat
- chrz 2y agoWhy would I use that cable instead of normal one?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dzdt 2y agoI understand the conext to be that for a smart TV with Roku built in as the operating system, the idea is that if the TV is set to take input from a HDMI device which is idle the Roku OS might take over and display its own content. Like previews for other shows as a "screensaver" kind of thing.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- boudin 2y agoI had to check what roku tv was, it seems it's just a cheap (android?) tv box.
- iamjackg 2y agoNot Android: they run their own OS, they've been around since forever (they predate both Chromecasts and Android TV), and according to Wikipedia they are the "leading streaming TV platform in the US in terms of market share. The Roku OS also holds a noticeable 30.5% share of the global TV streaming hours". For a long, long time they used to be the "neutral" choice: while Amazon and Google were squabbling and removing each other's apps/products, Roku didn't have any beef with anybody and would therefore have the most complete selection of available streaming apps.
- Sylamore 2y agoWhich is why I have 3-4 of them across mine and the ex's house, but now with the changes they've had lately with showing more and more sponsored content in the home screen, issues with HDR10+ (mostly Paramount+), changing my theme for random reasons... I'm switching to Apple TV.
- boudin 2y agoAh ok, thanks for the information. I had never heard of them. Their website didn't make that really clear, it looks like a random rebranded android based tv box.
- graypegg 2y agoHow many companies out there make TV-sized LED panels? There's a market for dumb TVs obviously. Feels like you could buy the panels, put them in a case with minimal controls, and ship. If you market it as some sort of "pro videophile grade display" you can charge the true material cost + a healthy markup without relying on the recurring ad revenue from smart TV software. You could leave OFF common features like motion smoothing, saving you money, and it would honestly be a more "pro" TV.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 2y agoThis is a good idea that would be good.
- shimber 2y agoYikes, I thought HDMI was encrypted similar to DVD's "illegal number". Here's bunnie talking about dealing with HCDP when building out the netv. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZeCvEa7OqI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZeCvEa7OqI [starts around 14:30] I see in the article they mention a more passive monitoring identifying "when there are pauses", but how could that hold up to any scrutiny? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content... https://github.com/bunnie/netv-fpga https://github.com/bunnie/netv-fpga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number
- dogma1138 2y agoIt is its decrypted and displayed in a protected container but the TV can still show overlays. They aren’t injecting anything into the video stream they are just showing ads in the same way they’ll show a volume bar.
- wmf 2y agoDiscussion from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39936016 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39936016
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y agoAaaand Roku is dead to me
- jqpabc123 2y agoThanks Roku for explaining why I shouldn't buy a Roku TV or really any "smart" TV. "Smart" refers to how it benefits the manufacturer more so than the user.
- flashgordon 2y agoYou know Ive been looking for a dumb tv for so long - i just want the size, a bunch of HDMI/USB ports and wifi connectivity that i can stream to... Thats all. How is it that these "dumb" monitors are so much more expensive than smart tvs that dont last more than a year or 2?
- sifar 2y agosceptre tvs are pretty affordable. Have been using it for a while - no issues. No wifi though, just hdmi and usb.
- valleyer 2y agoI'm currently in the market for a 55-inch Sceptre "dumb TV", for a family member, having seen them frequently recommended on HN. But I can't find one anywhere! I even tried e-mailing the sales contact on their Web site, but I haven't heard back. Any pointers? (I can't find a 55-inch Insignia, either -- that's the other "dumb" brand that gets some recommendations, including in this thread.)
- jqpabc123 2y agoBestBuy house brand (Insignia I think) are dumb and cheap but no wifi. I use a mini PC with an air mouse to add my own "smarts" that I can control.
- flashgordon 2y agoHmm I suppose wifi can be augmented with some kind of connected nas. Still mess no?
- recursivedoubts 2y agoyou will live to see enshittification beyond your comprehension
- walterbell 2y agoIt's transient: a vendor goes too far, countermeasures follow, then economic consequences.
- MBCook 2y agoThat only works with real competition. How’s the ink jet printer industry doing these days? Yeah. If everyone does it the only fix is a law. And clearly we don’t pass those anymore.
- walterbell 2y agoOn the video front, low-cost and legal HDMI splitters and downconverters have appeared in recent years. HDMI includes multiple protocols: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31828193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31828193 HDMI blocked recent AMD contribution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39543291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39543291 Ink jet printing is protected by patents. They will expire eventually.
- eru 2y ago> How’s the ink jet printer industry doing these days? There's good competition from cheap laser printers. > If everyone does it the only fix is a law. What makes you think so? You could first try opening up the market more. You can lower barriers to market entry. Eg for new upstarts, for established companies in other industries trying to branch out, and for foreign would-be rivals, too.
- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoIt doesn't work that way anymore and people need to understand the old rules are gone. We've passed an inflection point where a few companies have dipped their toes into extreme enshittification or excessive price increases and survived, so we're seeing the start of a free for all. Think of Reddit and Twitter doing user hostile shit starting last year, and fast food raising prices beyond the point where it's a discount relative to better food anymore. A critical mass of consumers is now so passive and docile that they don't change behavior as they're boiled alive.
- tjpnz 2y agoBecause if there's one thing people can't get enough of it's ads.
- locallost 2y agoI don't get this bombardment with ads anymore. For all the talk of targeted ads I routinely get them for products like tampons which I definitely do not need. Most of the time it's some noise I hear until I can press the skip button. I can't really remember what's the last time I bought something I saw on an ad.
- smt88 2y agoJust because ads don't work on you doesn't mean they don't work. If ads are cheap and margins for your product are high, you don't care if your ad bounces off of 1,000 people as long as it turns 1 into a paying customer.
- gedy 2y agoThen why the "targeted" ads and data harvesting? For all the effort, ads are still mostly totally irrelevant and may as well be random.
- ijidak 2y agoTargeted is a relative term. It may be very targeted compared to traditional television and radio advertising. Yet it could still be less targeted than ideal. Let's say my ad was profitable via traditional radio and television advertising. If only 1% of viewers were in my target audience for traditional television and radio advertising, and Roku can get that number to 2%, they've just doubled my roi. Targeted doesn't mean perfect, it just means better.
- smt88 2y agoTalk to someone who heavily uses Instagram. I guarantee the ads there have gotten them to buy something. I never succumbed to ads until using IG in the last few years.
- gedy 2y agoI do as well and it's similar random stuff. I guess I'm not a heavy "liker" of posts so maybe that screws up the algo. I used to be a heavy Facebook user though and in spite of them having loads of data about me and my interests, the ads were crap.
- pierat 2y agoThis is why hardware that is still controlled by someone else should be classified as a rental, and not a sale.
- eru 2y agoWhat difference does it make? Software has been 'sold' as a license since approximately forever, and I don't see things being better there.
- koolba 2y agoOn this topic, what’s the best hardware and software to connect to a TV (assuming via HDMI) that allows for running apps for all the usual streaming platform suspects? It doesn’t even have to provide a combined search list. Just something to act as the base OS and launcher for each platform. I know what I want to watch and presumably which one provides it. I just want something to attach to my dumb TV that can play the video. No suggestions. No promoted content. No ads. No upsell. Does such a thing exist?
- lotsofpulp 2y agoApple TV is the closest.
- chihuahua 2y agoYes, a small-form-factor PC. You can get a decent one for under $200. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/what-i-learned-when-i-replaced-my-cheap-pi-5-pc-with-a-no-name-amazon-mini-desktop/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/what-i-learned-when-...
- happymellon 2y agoYou can get a used Wyze which is fast enough for any media consumption, and fanless, for <£50. However I wouldn't say that the streaming services make the interface suitable for consuming via a TV. Windows lost it's Media Centre interface, and most services are hostile to Linux. Video is still an area where piracy provides the best experience.
- ehPReth 2y agoApple TV seems to be the closest thing available. No home-screen/screensaver/random ads, but I only really launch Plex (looking into Jellyfin eventually), and streaming apps like Disney+.
- k8sToGo 2y agoI use infuse with jellyfin
- autoexec 2y agoAnyone who cares at all about their privacy wouldn't have a roku TV to start with. Roku is one of the most invasive companies there is. Their devices take multiple screenshots of whatever is on your screen every second and then uploads those images to their servers to be scrutinized so that they can make assumptions about you as a person. If you have a Roku TV they can do that for any non-roku device you're using too. LG, Samsung, and Skyworth TVs have also injected popup ads over games/DVDs/Blurays/whatever. LG's OLED monitors have even been pushing ads on PC users.
- heyoni 2y agoWith LG it can all be turned off and as a PC user using their TV’s it works perfectly offline. ACR is fairly easy to opt out of on LG while nearly impossible with Samsung. Their monitor/tv hybrid ultrawide would basically force you to connect to the internet once a month or else DRM content from my Apple TV would stop working.
- 8organicbits 2y agoI clearly made a mistake, but I bought a Roku after seeing how often my Samsung TV was pinging back on my pi-hole DNS logs (constantly). The last two years it's had an increasing number of ads on the home screen. I won't buy another.
- throwaway5959 2y agoI have to wonder what their end-game is. Eventually the word has to get out.
- autoexec 2y agoThere is no end goal. They're desensitizing consumers and their children until what they're doing is seen as normal and acceptable so that they can push a little farther. Except for the fact that ads didn't obscure the content, Idiocracy had the right idea https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/177/1166398973.jpg https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/177/116639897...
- sspiff 2y agoRemind me again, why do people connect their TV to the Internet? I used to work in the space more than a decade ago, and even then the privacy invasions most major brands did were inexcusable.
- supernes 2y agoConvenience and coercion - they don't want to fiddle with external devices just to watch a movie/show, and streaming services deliver content at a higher quality to these locked-down devices. Had this talk with my parents recently, privacy is infinitely less relevant to them compared to the ease of use.
- lstamour 2y agoAlso, the screens spying on you and showing ads are often very subtle about it. They don't tell you every time they take a screenshot, they don't make a loud "click" sound, they don't advertise it. They're not even legally obligated to do anything other than tell you about it in buried legalese. LG will say you need to agree to new privacy terms so that you can use the "microphone" button on your remote control, for example. I persist in ignoring that one, but I'm sure others wouldn't and haven't. Amazon lately has been blatant with how much advertising is ruining their services and sticks, to the point where I don't go to Amazon to search for products now, they've just ruined it. Not every spying, advertising-laden service provider is as obvious as Amazon about it, though.
- lstamour 2y agoMost people don't want an extra box or dongle? Everyone likes devices you can just plug in, push some remote buttons, and you're done. Even when the set top box works, something inevitably goes awry, such as audio issues non-HDMI sound output, or not seeing video because the soundbar isn't connected to the box or dongle, and so on and so on. Remember those households with the blinking 12 on the VCR? Yeah, folks just want to watch their movies, they don't need to know how this stuff works, even the basics. I know too many people who watch movies on Netflix on an iPad because it's easier to do that than to configure their smart projector every time. We really haven't made technology that much easier to use yet, but it's getting closer, maybe.
- snapplebobapple 2y agomisleading headline. It should read "Roku files patent to never do business with me again"
- 4926394057 2y agoThey’re clearly missing an opportunity here. My TV probably spends a whopping 20 hours a day turned off. Why settle for pumping out ads for the few moments it spends paused when there’s all that available screen time going wasted? How long before turning the TV “off” switches it to Billboard Mode?
- howlegal125 2y ago[dead]
- HereIGoAgain 2y agoAnd even deeper on my blacklist your company goes! Who did they think this was a good idea? They are doomed.. Who is going to buy this crap?