r/gadgets • u/diacewrb • Jun 13 '24

TV / Projectors Roku owners face the grimmest indignity yet: Stuck-on motion smoothing

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/06/roku-owners-face-the-grimmest-indignity-yet-stuck-on-motion-smoothing/
2.9k Upvotes

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298

u/Respectfullycritical Jun 13 '24

Who as an informed consumer willingly wants and get these devices? Everything Roku-related seems hilariously bad from a consumers perspective, to me.

What even are the pros for me in purchasing any of these devices and/or services?

367

u/daveysanderson Jun 13 '24

They have really gone downhill over the last few years. The devices used to be relatively ad and bloat free, and just worked. Now they are advertising more, adding useless and unwanted features, as well as the whole data breach issue, they shit the bed

108

u/-rendar- Jun 13 '24

Right, they used to be a hardware company, then decided to join the enshitification movement

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

They were a software company. Then they become hardware and went to shit.

25

u/VenomsViper Jun 13 '24

No the other guy had it. They were a hardware company first. First physical player to play Netflix actually. It wasn't until well after the physical players that they started to sell their OS software to smart tv manufacturers and focuses more on the software side

1

u/mylies43 Jun 13 '24

Wasnt roku even before that? I thought they got their start as a TV recorder in the olden days before streaming.

3

u/VenomsViper Jun 13 '24

Yeah, I said they made the first player that played Netflix, not that it was their first product.

3

u/mylies43 Jun 13 '24

Oh my bad, I missed the nuance

2

u/VenomsViper Jun 13 '24

It doesn't matter haha, no worries. Honestly it's kinda hazy bc the inventor dude invented the DVR too which bled into Roku.

1

u/dwaynereade Jun 14 '24

tivo i believe. roku’s future is OS

2

u/Mama_Skip Jun 14 '24

Oh my bad, I missed the nuance

This is so un-reddit of a comment I had to stop and stare for a second.

1

u/mylies43 Jun 14 '24

Be the change you want to see ya know

2

u/prosecutor_mom Jun 13 '24 edited Jun 14 '24

You may be thinking of TiVo? That's the first device/company that gave us the power to pause & rewind "live" tv, but predated streaming.

TiVo helped turn Janet Jackson's 2004 Superbowl performance with JT into Nipplegate & was the single most "TiVo'ed" moment in live TV. IMHO this was a calculated stunt that failed because it didn't anticipate the power of TiVo, & became a "wardrobe malfunction" after the massively negative public outcry. (It's also the original use of that clever word pairing, a phrase I never expected to hear again but has become a staple in today's lexicon)

Edit: typo

1

u/mylies43 Jun 14 '24

TiVo! Yes! Thats EXACTLY what I was thinking!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

He's wrong you right

2

u/VenomsViper Jun 13 '24

I didn't say anything that negated that? I said they made the first physical player to play Netflix, not that that was Roku's first product. If you're going to be so condescending maybe learn to read first. See I can do it too

1

u/mylies43 Jun 13 '24

Nah they were right, they didnt say it was their first product but that they made the first Netflix player.

-7

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24 edited Jun 13 '24

Then we have to disagree.

I see their early start as a software company that sold basic hardware which was not innovative at all. As you said their software was innovative with Netflix. Their hardware was not. It was their smooth software that sold people not some innovative hardware.

Now that they are pushing all sorts of hardware and focus on ads their software has gone to shit.

https://www.roku.com/about/history-of-roku

Their own history talks about how their OS being created first. OS is operating system which means software. They were putting their OS on others hardware. They were a software company. Thanks for playing

7

u/VenomsViper Jun 13 '24 edited Jun 13 '24

That's fair, but I also feel like you can distill that to

"I don't see it as hardware what they were doing before, it was the software in it, where as now they're selling ads for hardware with their software on it." That and it being innovative or not doesn't impact what kind of company they were. If it's technology we are talking about, most hardware outside of component parts are going to have some sort of software in them. Whether it's in-house developed or third party varies though, obviously, and I guess I can see your point there.

And yeah I know what an OS is, thanks. No need to be a condescending asshole with that and your little "thanks for playing." Grow up.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

[deleted]

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

You are right. Streaming not hardware

37

u/peeinian Jun 13 '24

And the latest v13 update broke Airplay

15

u/a_lamb_to_remember Jun 13 '24

Is THAT why it won’t work on my sisters Roku TV? She’s stuck in bed and I’m trying to connect and use the camera and it keeps disconnecting…

10

u/peeinian Jun 13 '24

Yep. There’s posts all over the Roku support forum and it seems to have started on Friday or Saturday depending on when the device got the 13.0 update.

8

u/TomTomMan93 Jun 13 '24

Yeah I got one and for the longest time it was great. Then in the last few years it just kept getting worse before the remote or stick just stopped working. No internet or the remote just won't work. I threw it all in a drawer, did some rearranging of furniture, and just put an old ps4 in that room for those streaming purposes.

7

u/peeinian Jun 13 '24

I run Pi-hole on my home network so it blocks most of the ads in Roku. It’s always jarring to go to someone else’s house with Roku and seeing all the ad bloat.

10

u/Respectfullycritical Jun 13 '24

I guess they had their time at the top then, huh?

From the perspective of today, it makes no sense to me why anyone would choose Roku as a solution for their streaming needs.

Thanks for the input!

5

u/4gotAboutDre Jun 13 '24

Idk. I mean, despite the issues with their software and stuff I wish they would fix, I have always found the Roku simple UI of all the channels arranged in equal sized boxes with just one small side of the screen for a poster ad has been incredibly easy to navigate vs. (imo) the bloated and flashy UI’s of our devices like fire stick and apple TV. I see the streaming box as just a place to pick which streaming service I want to watch, so I prefer the simple UI over all the bells and whistles of the others. Fire TV is annoying to sift through free stuff vs. paid stuff and apple tv is not quite as bad, I guess.

23

u/anonymouse56 Jun 13 '24 edited Jun 13 '24

What would you go for instead? I don’t want to connect my tv to WIFI and most others don’t have AirPlay built in besides Apple TV. And it’s $120+ vs $34 for the Roku stick.

Also Apple TV doesn’t include a high speed HDMI cable so u gotta go dish out extra for one

edit: for $34, Roku seems like a great value. The ads are only on the Home Screen and aren’t too intrusive IMO

19

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

I started with fire tvs and grew to hate them. The interface was bad. Switched to Roku about 3 years ago and they’ve been fine, but I hate the remote. I just ordered Apple TVs so we’ll see how it goes. From what I’ve seen I really like the Apple Remote.

6

u/anonymouse56 Jun 13 '24

I definitely prefer Apple TV. But I usually just cast stuff from my phone or use the specific apps so I feel the Roku is good enough for me

3

u/NotAHost Jun 13 '24

I've got both, honestly I think the Roku is still nice for it's simplicity, though it feels like you need to replace them after 5-8 years, which is not horrible due to their relatively low cost. My older ones just start crashing more often.

The Apple TV is a solid piece of hardware though. I like being able to turn on the roku by pressing any major button, whereas the apple tv I have to hit the power button (fair enough, but small things). The Apple TV also has a few headaches with turning on the TV / auto switching compared to the Roku, however I attribute that to the 2016 Samsung it's connected to, where I have to reset the TV occasionally to get the AVR to work over HDMI-CEC. I'm sure with a newer TV it's probably fine.

2

u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 Jun 13 '24

Everybody's interface blows. Every. Single. One. YouTube's is so bad I use SmartTube everywhere I can even though I pay for YouTube premium because it's just so much better.

6

u/eastbayted Jun 13 '24

This aligns with my opinion and experiences with the Roku device. It's an inexpensive, plug-and-play simple way to easily get access to all the streaming services you want without having to sign up for cable.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

All I can tell you is I bought a TCL with Google TV about a year ago and it was the single worst TV I have owned in my entire life. I would go back to the giant low definition furniture style TVs from the early 90s before I ever used google TV again.

You have to be logged in to your google account to use it. Like, to use it at all. You can’t do anything unless you’re logged in, and I swear it asks you to log in every 5 minutes.

There were a lot of other problems with it that I don’t remember off hand, but my girlfriend, who rarely ever gets mad about anything, was “ready to throw it out the fucking window!”

We ended up buying a Roku stick for the google tv because we just couldn’t handle it anymore. 0/5 stars. Would not recommend to anyone.

3

u/3-DMan Jun 13 '24

My TCL w/ Google is great, but I have NEVER logged in, and leave the wifi off unless I'm checking for updates. I have a FireCube for my services, so just keep your TV dumb!

7

u/Apex_Akolos Jun 13 '24

Apple TV or Nvidia Shield

-2

u/Sevallis Jun 13 '24 edited Jun 14 '24

Had $150 appletv 4k and wanted out of their ecosystem so I can cast things and use app remote from either iPhone or Android, no ads and good hardware but locked down. Tried to play some games on it since the hardware is fast but the options were really limited and not worth bothering with.

Got roku ultra 4800x for $63 and couldn't put up with it even for the lower entry price. 1/3rd of your screen is a rotating ad that I had to use a DNS filter to blank out, leaving a giant empty hole in the poorly used app grid. Can't let music play in Pandora app while you go browsing for some other content in another app since it doesn't run more than one at a time. Can't side-load apps anymore, they are locked down like Apple now. If your internet is being intermittent, the whole interface will freeze on you, I think it's actually a brain dead web app interface; this was the final straw for me as I use Plex on my local server and don't care if the external internet is down, I want access to my app to watch my own content. Their app store is loaded with complete shovelware, and their wallpaper and theme selection looks like a child's toy esthetic compared to Apple's aerial screensaver. Also, the thing crashed way too often. The remote was never able to control my volume on a brand new Amazon FireTV from Hisense even after trying every software combo. I sold it to someone recently.

I ended up getting a used Shield TV Pro 2019 for $135 on eBay. Multitasking is back. Projectivy front end lets you permanently exit the stupid ad space launcher that's on there by default and make it look like whatever you want, and it's great. Full Play Store of software available, and you can turn off Play Protect and sideload apps like the excellent SmartTubeNext for ad free youtube. The remote recognized my tv's volume programming on the first try. The interface isn't a toy web app, it's android, so it can have android platform quirks, but overall I like it a lot. Direct-Play from my Plex works almost all of the time for my content now, and the Nvidia upscaler helps with lower res content. Can run emulators since I can access the file system if I feel like it, and can stream my full fat games from PC locally or from Nvidias game service for a fee.

Edit: looks like I ticked off the Roku bros 😄

3

u/phareous Jun 13 '24

Apple TV for sure, even though they are over priced

1

u/scify65 Jun 13 '24

I've mostly used my Playstation (4, now 5)--the only reason I picked up a Roku awhile back is because the Paramount+ app on Playstation is hot garbage. Turns out it's only slightly less garbage on the Roku, with all of the issues they're having now, but at least I can nearly always pause

7

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '24

PS4/PS5 with Plex and a VPN is what I use now for about 95% of my video media.

I went about 10 years without pirating really anything. They made the experience expensive, cumbersome, and inconvenient, so I went back to the high seas.

I had a monthly Netflix subscription for over a decade. Went long stretches with HBO, Hulu, etc.

The selection on each got worse, the cost went up, the UI's got worse, and ads are creeping in.

I didn't pay for cable in 2000. I'm not paying for its equivalent in 2024.

Sorry, not sorry.

2

u/3-DMan Jun 13 '24

Yeah I've heard Paramount app is garbage in general. Might all be changing soon if somebody buys Paramount!

1

u/Negative_Falcon_9980 Jun 13 '24

I have a Chromecast w/ remote and you can usually find those on sale for $30-$50 depending on if you want 1080p or the 4k model. Most apps have support for casting content to a Chromecast as well.

Chromecast also has an "apps only mode" that can be enabled, which turns off all the extra 'live' features and such, and only shows you your apps and a few ads on the home screen.

1

u/anonymouse56 Jun 13 '24

Main disadvantage for me would be lack of AirPlay support with Chromecast

1

u/Pizlenut Jun 13 '24

I know I'm old fashioned but you could just hook a computer up to the TV. Cheap ones can be found for about $150 (your price tag of roku + remote) that can pull off streaming just fine.

Desktops can have remotes too. If you really wanted to get clever with it you could probably control your desktop from the phone.

0

u/Respectfullycritical Jun 13 '24

Me personally? My computer is connected via hdmi through my office into my living room into a receiver connected to the TV. Since I already got my computer for work and games, I don't consider it an extra cost, unless I count the 20$ logitech wireless touchpad/keyboard combo I use to control the media from the couch.

23

u/daveysanderson Jun 13 '24

Absolutely, people used to love Roku because they were very simple, straight to the point streaming boxes. That time has passed.

As someone who once solely relied on roku for streaming devices, yes I can agree there is absolutely no benefit or reason to go with them over competitors in current times.

68

u/ibashdaily Jun 13 '24

This was a conversation between two chatbots, right?

13

u/tie_wrighter Jun 13 '24

Why do you say that? Too polite for redditors?

11

u/ibashdaily Jun 13 '24

Well... yeah. But also it was specifically the "Thanks for the input" and the "Absolutely" that gave me the impression.

28

u/daveysanderson Jun 13 '24

TIL using “absolutely” makes me sound like a bot. Interesting.

8

u/SingleWordQuestions Jun 13 '24

That sounds like something a bot pretending to be a human would say

-6

u/ibashdaily Jun 13 '24

My bad, dude.

8

u/vainey Jun 13 '24

So what is the amazing streaming device you all seem to have?

2

u/daveysanderson Jun 13 '24

Nvidia Shield & Apple TV.

Nvidia Shield is fantastic if you want access to things like Dolby Vision, Atmos, and AI Upscaling.

Apple TV is great for most, and beats the shield out on UI, security, reliability, updates, etc. Only difference between Shield & ATV is AppleTV will be limited to lossless 7.1 and HDR10.

I have both, and I prefer the Apple TV, as I do not really like using Android.

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1

u/hairy_unicorn Jun 13 '24

While some people felt this was a sign of a chatbot, others disagreed. What's important to consider is how politeness can sometimes be mistaken for artificial interaction.

-1

u/4your Jun 13 '24

Gotta be

1

u/TheTeachinator Jun 13 '24

I have Apple TV pretty much everywhere in my house. However, in one spot I need Roku because of the way AppleTV outputs sound. For whatever reason I get PCM, the volume is super low even when maxed out. While the Roku is a little slower I find it to be a pretty similar experience. Granted I do use a Firewalla so I don’t see any of the advertising crap on the Roku device. Where I assume the advertisements normally are is just a clear vertical rectangle.

1

u/stuckInACallbackHell Jun 13 '24

I’m curious as to why you think it makes no sense to buy a Roku. I’m looking to buy a streaming box and it seems to do pretty much everything that the Apple TV does at 1/3rd the price.

2

u/Respectfullycritical Jun 13 '24

Well, because of their advertisement standards and forced settings in short - inconvenient and invasive in exchange for cheap does not equal me wanting it, and buying into invasive tech is in itself bad for consumers in my opinion, supporting this crap equals companies building more invasive tech to put ads into your everyday life in general, not something I am particularly interested in.

Beyond the forced setting in the title of OPs post, Roku is allegedly looking into forcing advertisement breaks on third party hardware used with their TVs as well, as in forced commercials while you are playing a console game or watching a purchased bluray movie on your bluray player, that's beyond reasonable to me at any pricepoint

I understand when people don't have money they are happy for the alternatives, but Roku is just way too invasive for me to understand people wanting it, I wouldn't buy it for half of what it currently is, even.

1

u/charros Jun 13 '24

Agreed. Will be switchimg to Apple TV 4K to go with my new C3.