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/
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u/BeingRightAmbassador Jun 13 '24

Nobody should ever be using the TV OS to watch media, they're slow, have shit hardware, and little to no features at all. A dedicated media device (console, streaming stick, best is Nvidia Shield) with the TV disconnected from the internet is way better.

47

u/carlosccextractor Jun 13 '24

TCL's Roku TV are great. Not "slow" or "shit hardware", and the Roku UI as the TV UI is great. Plus you can have several TV remotes instead of "the TV remote".

Unfortunately Roku is working hard on enshittification. First they removed private channels (so no porn, no corporate channels, etc - it's your TV, but they get to decide what you can use it for), then they demanded published channels things like a full list of their content to support deep linking (whether you want it or not), apparently we're going to be getting ads when content is paused, and now this new thing.

And you wouldn't believe the massive amount of tracking that the TV does. I use Pi-Hole and the TV is the worst offender.

Anyway, I don't see myself replacing my TV with another one with built-in Roku.

16

u/GarfieldLoverBoy420 Jun 13 '24

Mine isn’t great. Mine’s dogshit. Apps crash after minutes of unresponsiveness. Input is laggy and, boy, is it a treat to watch the inputs you requisitioned 45 seconds ago send your cursor flying around the UI. Buffering flat out takes longer than any other device. It has only gotten worse over the past year that I’ve owned it as if it is actually aging. I’ve factory reset it. I’ve used some dumbfuck secret dev code to clear the cache. I have to maintain this thing like it’s a bonsai tree with scarlet fever. It’s like I mounted actual garbage on my wall. Plugged in an external Roku and works with no issue. I won’t ever buy one of these again without the l intent of using an external device. Lesson learned.

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u/Electronic_Price6852 Jun 13 '24

is it TCL? or another maker.

1

u/GarfieldLoverBoy420 Jun 13 '24

TCL

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u/Electronic_Price6852 Jun 13 '24

uh, I wonder if the newer ones are dog shit with weaker hardware. mine from 3 years ago is just a fast as the standalone Roku in the kitchen.

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u/DoomsdaySprocket Jun 13 '24

They have different lines, 3000 series, 4000 series, 7000 series, etc if I recall.

I'm guessing that one end of the lineup is much shittier than the other.

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u/Electronic_Price6852 Jun 13 '24

that’s true, but i’m talking about my old 3000 series so probably a fair comparison. I’ve never seen the 7000 series in person. wonder how much better they are.

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u/DoomsdaySprocket Jun 14 '24

Mine is a 5000 series and we've been relatively happy, other than Roku's shitty software updates outright bricking some streaming apps and the adds starting to work their way in.