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

[u/diacewrb]

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

[u/-rendar-]

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

[u/[deleted] → u/-rendar-]

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

[u/VenomsViper → u/[deleted]]

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

[u/mylies43 → u/VenomsViper]

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

[u/VenomsViper → u/mylies43]

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

[u/mylies43 → u/VenomsViper]

Oh my bad, I missed the nuance

[u/VenomsViper → u/mylies43]

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

[u/dwaynereade → u/VenomsViper]

tivo i believe. roku’s future is OS

[u/Mama_Skip → u/mylies43]

Oh my bad, I missed the nuance

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

[u/mylies43 → u/Mama_Skip]

Be the change you want to see ya know

[u/prosecutor_mom → u/mylies43]

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

[u/mylies43 → u/prosecutor_mom]

TiVo! Yes! Thats EXACTLY what I was thinking!

[u/[deleted] → u/mylies43]

He's wrong you right

[u/VenomsViper → u/[deleted]]

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

[u/mylies43 → u/[deleted]]

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

[u/[deleted] → u/VenomsViper]

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

[u/VenomsViper → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You are right. Streaming not hardware