Privacy @lemmy.ml

1y ago

roku remote app showing ads now

My dog tore up the remote so we were forced to use the roku app to control the tv.

They’re showing ads on the remote app. It feels like we can never escape this dystopian hellacape.

113 comments

I mean... you bought a Roku.
Of all the streaming devices you can purchase, I'd argue Roku is the most privacy invasive: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/roku-streaming-sticks/
- Yes I am aware. I mainly use the Jellyfin app on it. I have a PiHole but I unfortunately can’t change the DHCP/DNS settings on my router (i have no admin access to it) so i have to rely change the DNS for every client on my home. But unfortunately Roku does not allow for changing their DNS server.
  I have heard about putting my roku on another submet but i don’t know how to do this. Any thoughts 🤔
  
  I mainly use the Jellyfin app on it.
  Hope it's working well for ya'!
  
  I have heard about putting my roku on another submet but i don’t know how to do this. Any thoughts 🤔
  I believe that would rely on the modem settings... If you buy a router (eero, Google WiFi, etc.) and connect it to the Ethernet port, you could create a separate network and your modem would see your router as a single device. I have T-Mobile Internet but don't trust them with my data, so in conjunction with the above, I have all my network traffic pointed towards AdGuard DNS (Personal Plan)(they have a free version that works well, but you can't customize it).
  
  Buy another router to stick in between your ISP device and the rest of your network. You won't notice.
  
  If you're running home assistant as well you can use that to create a remote card pretty easily, that's what I'm doing with my Nvidia shield.
- I didn't know it was quite this bad. App uninstalled, and TV blocked from WiFi. I have connected devices I typically stream from, but that data collection is crazy. Next TV I'm going to rip the WiFi antennas out of it if I have to.
  
  No worries.
  It’s a shame because if you look at the history of Roku, it was founded with technology and ease of access in mind. Unfortunately, like many things, advertising and invading a users privacy is the “best” route for these companies to become profitable.
  Google is a perfect example of this, especially after Eric Schmidt and the introduction of Google accounts.

That's crappy, but have you seen what other remote apps are doing?
Vizio has an ad that takes up around 25% of the screen!
MyQ has a large scrolling ad at the top, and they are actively hostile towards any integration that allows you to control your garage door without using their app (unless you use one of the very few subscription-based integrations they offer, of course).
- Honestly, if I saw this after installing a new TV, smart home appliances, etc. I would rip them back out of my house and return them all. That is absurd.
  
  HDMI port + your computer/some sort of more reputable 3rd party device. Just don't play ball lol
- hot damn 😵‍💫
- And at least when I tried to pihole the tracking bullshit, it got mad and stopped working.
- Rage against the garage door opener.
  https://paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/

Are you using the actual official remote app? It looks different from mine and doesn't have the "featured" tab shown
- Yeah, they updated it. Just opened my app and it has the Featured section.
  
  Damn, thanks I just turned off auto update for it so I can stay on this version as long as possible lmao 😂
  
  Apparently, they also worsened the UI
- Could be A/B testing that Roku is doing.

My dog tore up the remote so we were forced to use the roku app to control the tv.
Force your dog to watch ads as a punishment

I recently stopped using my firestick. Even though I only used it for Jellyfin, the ads on the home screen were too much for me. So I swapped it out for a Raspberry Pi with LibreElec as the OS, and there have been literally no downsides.
Jellyfin for Kodi add-on with Embuary skin shows your entire Jellyfin library on the home screen with continue watching and next up widgets right there when you turn on the TV.
You can set it up entirely through the GUI. Works with either keyboard and mouse or remote.
Uses HDMI-CEC so works with my TVs original remote and even my firestick remote.
If you want to use an app remote, Kore is officially supported and has no ads.
Invidious add-on with the Send to Kodi and libredirect Firefox extensions means I can cast YouTube videos to my TV with no ads.
You can even run an Ethernet cable from your router/Jellyfin server to the Pi. I did this and have not experienced any buffering since.
It even passed the spouse test. My wife says she likes that it's faster and more responsive. Plus she likes the asteroids screensaver.
- Pardon what might be an obvious question, but can you watch paid services using this set up? (Netflix/HBO/prime etc)
  
  Not easily. There are a few 3rd-party add-ons by random people which technically allow you to watch these services if you enter your account details, but the UI is generally just a list of movie and show titles with no or small thumbnails and no other info. It's worth doing this if you already have your own media server but not really otherwise.
  
  Jellyfin is for watching locally stored media so no. Why would you want to even use those
- I would love to give this a try. Did you follow any guides? Which Pi?
  
  Pi 4B with 4 gigs of RAM. You might be able to get away with 2gigs because of how well it runs for me, but idk. I didn't follow any guides for setting up the Pi or LibreElec. It's honestly super intuitive. Like I said, everything is set up through the GUI. The only slightly technical part is flashing the LibreElec image to the SD card, and even that is super easy. I did follow the Jellyfin documentation for setting up my Jellyfin server, but that's a whole other thing.
- Does Jellyfin save your watched history using that set-up? That's my main hangup to using Kodi.
  
  Yes, Jellyfin's Kodi add-on sends watch info back to Jellyfin which keeps track of the watch history. Just remember to install the Kodi Sync Queue add-on in Jellyfin too.
- What kind of Pi? Can you watch UHD without issues on it?
  
  Pi 4B with 4 gigs of RAM. And yes! I was surprised, but it had absolutely no trouble with playing 4k, especially after using a wired connection.
- Yeah I think an RPi is the best streaming box setup going forward unless you want to go ham and run an actual Mac Mini or PC.
  The Apple TV is decent and runs well and doesn't hit you with ads, but they're a bit pricey, they're in the Apple ecosystem (could be a pro or con) and doesn't support as many apps.
  The Nvidia shield is starting to cram in ads so that's a non starter as far as I'm concerned, especially for the price. The Amazon stuff is Amazon and is getting more aggressive with ads. Roku is getting worse every year and all their devices I've used sucked. Etc, etc.
  Every one of these made-for-purpose streaming sticks/boxes/etc are all gonna go down in enshittification flames. Mark my words.
  Edit: come to think of it, I'd say it's a safe bet that corporate America/etc is coming for any digital device or platform or service that feels nonabrasive and like a good value for the money/investment of your time. They're gonna make it more annoying, more ad filled, more data harvesting, and more privacy invading until they can't anymore.
- I was thinking about moving pihole off onto a docker container, and converting my pi to a streaming box. Thanks for posting this.
- How much it cost?
  
  It was a Raspberry Pi 4 model B. I got it for $60 and a 25ft Ethernet cable for $10 on Amazon just because I had a gift card. You can probably find it somewhere else for cheaper. You also need a small micro SD card for the Pi. Maybe only 8 or 16 gigs because it doesn't store the media locally.

RoMote (Turns your Android Device into a control center for Roku)
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/wseemann.media.romote/

Are you on Android?
If so: RoMote is pretty good. Here's the releases page for the APK. It's also F-Droid.

Use RoMote Roku remote: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/wseemann.media.romote/
- I was sent down a rabbit hole of iOS roku apps. Fuck the iOS ecosystem dude, I am not paying $20 a year subscription for a remote app.
  I did find a decent one for free, no ads (i have a pihole so it may show ads for people, idk yet) and only asks for donations from time to time. I had to scroll a bit far to find it
  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rocky-roku-remote-control/id1598795880
  
  Probably the biggest shock to getting a Mac for work is how all the basic QoL apps want $20+ a year subscriptions. I'm not paying a subscription to reverse my scrollwheel for my mouse.
- Oh that’s cool! Unfortunately I am on iOS.
  
  Hopefully sideloading becomes a thing for iOS users. Used to have an iPhone, can't say I miss it.
- Although, theoretically if a FOSS Android app can act as a remote, could there also be a way to self-host a Roku remote? 🤔
  
  There's code you can download from github that would let you control your Roku device from terminal on a PC. I've used it to facilitate the design of my own Roku GUI applications. I think there might also be a TUI you can install. A lot of this is going to be easier on Linux, if that's something you're familiar with.
- Thank you!
  
  You bet! I use it all the time, plus you can enter channels, which for the life of me, I cannot understand why Roku never allowed a long press on their reomte in order to enter a channel number with the arrows. 🎶Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb!🎶

To be fair the physical remote has had ads in it since the beginning.

I had something similar happen. You can find loads of replacement remotes online for very little money.
- A replacement remote for my roku stick cost more than a whole new roku box.

Enshittification marches on

This is not new

I’m not getting this, at least not yet.
Maybe it’s because I run Pi-hole; I know it filters out a TON of Roku’s telemetry and other traffic. Might be worth setting up Pi-hole on your network and see if stuff like that goes away?
- How did you set your roku to use your pihole? I have no router access so i have to change each client’s dns. Roku doesnt allow changing their dns
  
  It requires your pihole to act as DHCP server as well. From what I can tell, Roku is hard-coded to use whatever address is handed out. It's easily responsible for 60% of the blocked domains on my pihole.
  If you don't have admin access to the ISP router, your only recourse is to put a consumer router behind it (You'd just hook up the consumer router's internet port to one of the LAN ports on the ISP router) and connect all of your devices to that. That way you can disable the DHCP server on the router and enable it on the pihole.
  
  He probably had router access.

Roku to me has always seemed like a bogged down, spammy platform. I've always been surprised at how often it gets recommended in cord cutting and self hosting sort of forums.
- I have a fire stick and a roku device. The Firestick is a slow, ad ridden POS, the Roku UI is much more straightforward forward to me.
  
  Every Roku thing I've used was slow and had a bad remote and UI and I recall seeing ads of some kind in at least some of them.

Gross.

What Ads? I don't have Ads in the interface nor in the app. Okay the reason could be my openwrt router is set up with Stubby DoT and blocklists from AdguardHome.

There are no ads in your screenshot
- “Featured” tab on the bottom right
  
  Setup a pi-hole, you’ll never be happier.

Well, it is a Roku.
If you don’t want ads, spend more on an AppleTV, which seems to be the only thing that isn’t trying to jam ads down your throat.
I don’t think you need the rest of the Apple system, you can just install Netflix and Plex and whatever else you use.
- Don't buy apple's expensive garbage. If you are thinking about getting some Apple TV device you should get a shield, an Android TV, even a raspberry pi 4b would be better than bending over for apple.
  Just stop giving that fucking company your money.
  
  AppleTVs are really nice. It's easily the best streaming device for the layman and I say that as someone who generally dislikes Apple's products. It's solid, small, and is fairly easy to integrate.
  An Nvidia shield costs more money than an Apple TV. Unless you need those extra features, it's a waste
  It's insane that you'd recommend an Android TV, though. Shit performance and data harvesting galore. Never connect your tv to your network.
  
  Show us on the doll where Apple hurt you.
  
  I'll admit I don't know much about Android TV but is non trivial to set up a raspberry pi for TV.
  The apple solution just works and seemingly doesn't hate the user.

You’re mad that the free options has ads? You’re free to buy a new remote and avoid this….
- It’s a remote dude there are some boundaries. Not everything cheap or free needs to become a billboard. This isn’t Idiocracy despite how much people like to parrot that “it’s a documentary.”
  Also, it wasn’t free. They bought a tv and remote. They spent money.
  
  This
  Tech companies nowadays are so brazen on stepping and crossing boundaries.

113 comments