AI generated ads
It doesn't happen a lot that headlines make me vomit a little in my mouth but this one did
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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Man it must be rough out there for regular people that put up with that kind of bullshit.
You're Not Buying a TV; You're Buying a Roku
My TV (dumb but attached to a Roku Express) died last month and since then I've been watching on computer + Zen Browser + uBlock Origin, with zero ads.
And noticing that I don't see a single TV for sale in nearby shops that is not a (usually Roku) smart TV, i.e. data surveillance capitalist tool.
Instead of looking for a tv, look for a commercial display. They’re basically a computer monitor the size of a TV. Samsung makes a line that we use at work, and the cost is similar to a mid-range TV. They can function completely without internet.
Something like these: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/commercial-displays/ci/35567/N/3538895735
Awesome advice
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Why not librewolf, Firefox has native vertical tabs since Firefox 136
Video playback smooth in Zen but jerky in Firefox. Haven't tried in Librewolf or Firedragon.
Are you using Linux? Do you have the right codecs installed? Firefox shouldn't be jerky.
Linux: Yes, Linux Mint Xfce 22.1
Codecs: Yes, mint-meta-codecs.
Everything seems fine in Zen, Falkon, FreeTube, SMPlayer, VLC etc.
But the one time I tried watching video in Firefox recently, it was jerky.
A quick way to test would be installing the Flatpak version of FF. As far as I know it should contain everything you need in one go, plus super easy to uninstall.
The funny thing is you can just use an external box and never connect your tv to the internet at all. Let it collect all the data it wants. It’s not like it can tell anybody.
It may not be that way for much longer. Take a look at Amazon Sidewalk. They're using low power, long range mesh technology so Ring Doorbells and Echos can communicate without access to the internet. That may not sound like a big deal, but the potential is huge.
If companies like Amazon/Google are able to create a "side network" they could use it to provide low bandwidth backhaul for other companies that want to get telemetry from their airgapped devices.
So, for example, you get a new Roku smart TV and don't connect it to your Wi-Fi, but your neighbour has a Ring doorbell so it just uses that.
Mesh tech is awesome, and so is tech in general, but we are so slow at regulating it. This stuff needs to be opt in at the absolute minimum.
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I'm fearing when my tv finally dies. It's a 15 year old 75", and I know i won't have the money for a new one when the time comes. Especially not enough to shop around for a dumb tv the same size.
That's why I'm never letting your access the internet, Roku.
You're the cheapest TV I could find to use as a monitor
Just stay in your line, or else
Also I can't root Roku 12 ?
What in the absolute bullshit is that ?
Not root on my own fucking TV ?
Someone needs to 9/11 that entire company !!
I want Roku to eat shit.
my roku TV can't talk to the internet anymore because it was foolish enough to show me a banner ad while I was gaming
its a dumb TV now 🥰💕
good luck. recent update blocks all apps from loading unless you have their most recent ads. I let one sit for four hours before I gave up.
now looking at replacing all my rokus(6) with Linux.
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Any Android TV OS > Roku. Dumb TV > Roku. Outside > Roku.
Kinda. I recently got a shield pro to replace my roku. Customization, and no ads are nice, but for what it cost, what a fucking piece of shit. Hard freezee that require unplugging is the main issue, but it also doesn't respond to remote presses frequently on start up. Takes 30+ seconds sometimes before the remote works.
For more than double the cost it shoukd blow the roku ultra away in every sense. And I shouldn't have to adb hack it to install a custom launcher.
Thank you for this. I was setting up to buy an nvidia shield to replace my roku ultras.
FWIW, I have so far tried:
-
Onn Google TV 4K: Returned it, freezes constantly.
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Jailbroken AMZ fire stick w/ LineageOS. Buffering issues and wireless issues in general. I still use it, but not my favorite.
So for now it seems my next purchase will be a TiVo Stream 4k android device or a jailbroken fire tv cube and if that fails, I may just have to DIY an android Pi system lol.
I did the same replaced a Roku device with a shield when Roku started doing startup ads. Seems to work fine then won't respond to remote and needs a reboot, some weird stuff with the VPN too. Should have probably just got a mini form PC instead.
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I don't want to see Roku anymore.
Roku is so far away from their golden era, why are we still talking about them?
They subsidize the cheapest TVs
We need to subsidize de-fingering their engineers in response
I’m Sure the engineers weren’t crazy about this idea either. The business majors are to blame, not the engineering majors.
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So long as their ads keep getting blocked my my pi-hole I won't notice.
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“This company is too cheap to pay someone for a proper advertisement.”
Using AI like this seems like a counter productive way to build brand awareness.
I'm about to be seeing a lot less Roku...
They know they're entirely replaceable right? Like the Amazon fire tv, apple tv, Chromecast... Making their platform shittier really shouldn't be their top priority if they want to stay in business.
But the masses have shown that they won't do anything about it, despite caring and being annoyed.
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I think I will start buying mini PCs with Linux starting next year!!! :-)
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What a coincidence; I've been seeing no roku laetely
Roku can suck it.
I've always said I want to see more commercials made by people who have no idea what they're doing and with near zero oversight for quality or taste.
Could be entertaining if somebody accidentally flips the "allow slop machine to make up fake products" switch from off to on.
That sucks. People already have to pay to get rid of ads on streaming services last I remember. I wish companies would stop aggressively showing ads everywhere.
I pay extra for paramount+ ad free version and they still show me periodic ads. Its infuriating. And they are much louder than the show content, as a cherry on top. What an awful service.
I still use a Roku that was gifted to me, but only thanks to also having a pihole. The amount of logging & ads it blocks on the Roku is insane. If that ever stopped working I would ditch the Roku in a heartbeat.
I want Roku to fuck all the way off with that plan.
Roku, was cool.
I'll be honest... advertising is the one industry I wouldn't be sad to see get completely cannibalized by AI.
Truth. Before there was at least some sort of pressure on the ad industry to incentivize our attention. They had to make it interesting or funny.
Now, it’s a far less consensual arrangement. “I will hold your Skinner box hostage until you listen to me!”
UBo, pinchflat, SponsorBlock, jellyfin, WireGuard, Apple shortcuts for auto connect and activation when I get in my car, and now I get my stories while I’m driving and those obnoxious vultures can fuck right off.
If Adblock blocking goes away, so will I. This is already more work than I feel like putting into it and the quality of online content has really gone downhill. The enshittification is so extreme now that it’s just not worth paying for things anymore.
On the plus side, AI will make the obnoxious ad goblin career track less profitable now. So, good news.
I bought an external hard drive and downloaded all my sons media on it. No more commercials and no more pushed content
Commercials over the basic channels on the basic TV is its own curse but It's difficult for me to understand why would someone want to watch YouTube through their smart television since the service pumps lots of adds in those videos as well - after years of me watching everything at home via my computer screens that are guarded by the amazing solution of AdBlock ♥️
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