cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13903698

Roku is exploring ways to show consumers ads on its TVs even when they are not using its streaming platform: The company has been looking into injecting ads into the video feeds of third-party devices connected to its TVs, according to a recent patent filing.

This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads. Roku engineers have even explored ways to figure out what the consumer is doing with their TV-connected device in order to display relevant advertising.

  • AbbysMuscles [she/her]
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    81 year ago

    On that topic, my trusty 55" dumb tv of over nine years died recently. Are there any decent dumb tv brands that aren’t too expensive these days?

  • roux [he/him, they/them]
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    111 year ago

    Thank fucking Christ my media server is over wifi. If I ever run into ads on my totally legally acquired array of horror movies, I’m going fucking nuclear.

  • oregoncom [he/him]
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    1 year ago

    Roku’s value was that it was a low effort way to use streaming apps on a TV, they don’t even have any network effect advantages. 90% of TVs already come with all the roku functionality built in. Absolute business suicide.

  • peeonyou [he/him]
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    41 year ago

    i will be trashing all my rokus if they go that route… hopefully there is a decent alternative by now

      • peeonyou [he/him]
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        51 year ago

        I have a jellyfin and a plex server, but nothing has ever been as simple as the roku where we can just hit the button to turn the tv on and fire up youtubetv or pick one of the media servers to watch a movie or show and then a menu item to turn the tv off again when we’re done… it’s more just the device that interfaces with the servers than anything else and it’s getting really cumbersome now. unfortunately we have one for each of the tvs… 1 in the living room, 1 in the kitchen, and 1 in the bedroom… my partner is a big tv junkie.

        is there something else that handles those three functions with a remote? that’s really all that’s needed to be honest

  • abc [he/him, comrade/them]
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    151 year ago

    mine literally already does this. I turned on my TV to play FF7 Rebirth the other day. It’s a Hisense (which is a Roku TV). Tell me why when I turned the TV on and it popped up on the PS5 HDMI connection (PS5 was still in rest mode so it was just the ‘no connection found’ screen) it pops up with a little ad telling me to watch FF7 Advent Children on Prime Video. Excuse me??

  • Tabitha ☢️[she/her]
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    341 year ago

    thonk I wonder when it’s going to become illegal to jailbreak (remove ads) from your TV, fridge, toaster, toothbrush, etc…

    • Des [she/her, they/them]
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      191 year ago

      even the commercial monitors are coming with bloat.

      you basically have to get the really expensive ones that you can swap the main boards out for whatever.

    • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]
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      141 year ago

      When my dumb tv dies I don’t think I’ll bother replacing it if I can’t find another non-smart tv. I barely use it anyway so I don’t think it’d be that big a problem. If monitors are all smart bullshit now then that’s a different problem

    • RoabeArt [he/him]
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      121 year ago

      I dread the day when TVs refuse to operate without a network connection. As it is now, even most smart TVs can be made dumb by never connecting them to WiFi etc., but I wonder how long that’s going to last.

    • blashork [she/her]M
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      171 year ago

      Was also struggling with this shit recently. I found out about the concept of “digital signage” which is like, the kind of screen that’s used for a restaurant menu or an airport display. It’s certainly a dumb display, so no smart tv crap. But the quality is all low, ain’t exactly meant for good sharp picture. I ended up just getting a stupid ‘smart tv’ and have not hooked it up to the internet ever. It gets a display feed from my computer and that’s it.

    • iridaniotter [she/her]
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      1 year ago

      You’ll still be able to buy them but you’ll have to get it from like Harbin Industrial Electronic Co., Ltd. who happens to be the only manufacturer of it in the entire world, and the minimum order size is 20.

  • RyanGosling [none/use name]
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    231 year ago

    why hasn’t the world moved to an open standard yet? seems absurd that we allow a bunch of bytes be controlled based on the cable you have

    This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads. Roku engineers have even explored ways to figure out what the consumer is doing with their TV-connected device in order to display relevant advertising.

    So they would be showing ads to no one? They’ll just be sending data to a TV that’s not on? And this would produce a profit?

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
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    1 year ago

    beep-beep beep-beep beep-beep not plugged in
    beep-beep beep-beep beep-beep not plugged in
    beep-beep beep-beep beep-beep not plugged in
    Etc.

  • SwitchyWitchyandBitchy [she/her]
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    371 year ago

    China pls sabotage TSMC so we can stem the flow of chips into every goddamn thing I can buy. I don’t want an ad burned onto my morning toast once dumb toasters aren’t sold here anymore.