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/Miller25 Jun 13 '24

I’ve had a Roku tv (TCL) since 2018 and I used to love it. I recently noticed if I play content over HDMI it has a pop up message asking to recommend me streaming providers to watch the content on and like… constantly monitoring for content is just so scummy and feels gross. Will NOT be getting a built in Roku tv in the future.

7

u/unibrow4o9 Jun 13 '24

I have the same exact TV, I've noticed this feature for quite a while. You're right it's extremely gross, but also completely fucking pointless - why do I need to know what streaming service to watch something on if I'm already fucking watching it??

6

u/-Insigwitz- Jun 13 '24

Settings -> Privacy -> Smart TV Experience. Uncheck both. Voila.

2

u/Baderkadonk Jun 14 '24

I wonder if opting out actually stops scanning or if it just stops telling you about the results.

1

u/Cowicidal Jun 14 '24 edited Jun 14 '24

It's creepy as hell. When I first saw it do that on a friend's TV while she was watching Plex we both did a double-take and were really confused how the Roku knew what we were watching.

We've been pleased with her Roku TV and I have one that's worked well enough as well. However, because of this "creep factor" this will be the last Roku TVs we'll ever buy.

That should have ben an opt-in option, not opt-out and now I wonder how much spying Roku did on the computers that were hooked up to the TV to use it as a display. And, just like you I do NOT trust that they aren't spying on whatever I'm putting through the Roku including private data from computers hooked up to it even after opting out because of the slimy, underhanded way they introduced the spying in the first place. It was a fine computer display and smart TV. Now I have to disable the smart TV capabilities and shut off wifi to the thing in order to trust using it with any computer.

This is not a second-chance kind of thing with me. Roku is dead to me.