Begin? I haven’t heard anything positive about Roku in 10 years or so. They had to race to the bottom to compete with Amazon and Google. And maybe they mostly survived til now, but all I hear is complaints about ads.

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SamBam 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Nah. I have a Roku 3 stick and a brand-new $700 projector with Google TV. The Roku 3 is light-years ahead in terms of speed and UI ergonomics over the Google machine. And both are better than the smart TVs I've used.

But I fear this need means this time is ending, and we'll only be left with crap.

	▲	usefulcat an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> both are better than the smart TVs I've used. I mean, ok, but that's still a pretty low bar. I used various Rokus for.. I dunno, must have been at least 10 years. Switched to the Apple TV last year because Roku keeps adding more and more ads to their devices. The Apple TV is much nicer than any Roku I've used. Performance and reliability are excellent, and ads are minimal. Only for Apple's streaming service, only when that app is selected, and no audio.

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legitster 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the complaint about ads is mostly a knee-jerk reaction by certain online communities. The ads are not particularly obnoxious - they are always off to the side and don't interfere in navigation in any way.

Furthermore, I'm on a Roku looking for content and the ads highlight content. It's not that different than seeing posters on the way to a movie theater.

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dweinus 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They routinely override the user-defined navigation to include whatever new content they are pushing. It was sold as an appliance without ads or subscription. Now it has become an ads platform that the user has less and less control over.

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pavon 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

On my Roku the ads aren't just off to the side. When I go to the home screen there are now "recommended" shows above and below my channels, and they are initially selected, so I have to scroll down past them to get to my actual channels.

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saratogacx 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Every one of those sections can be trivially turned off in the settings. Mine just have the list of apps I installed on my device.

	▲	hydrogen7800 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, which you have to do repeatedly after every software update when they change your settings.

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airstrike 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

my household and extended family has been running on roku for literally over a decade, in multiple countries, and not one person has complained. all of us, myself included, are perfectly happy with it