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Advertising Television

Some Roku Smart TVs Are Now Showing Banner Ads Over Live TV (arstechnica.com) 57

Posted by BeauHD from the ads-ads-and-more-ads dept.
Some Roku smart TV owners are seeing banner ads appear over live content, according to a thread on the r/cordcutters subreddit. Ars Technica reports: [A photo posted by the Reddit user] shows a Sharp TV running Roku software and displaying an ad for a bed over a live sports broadcast, plus a prompt to 'press OK to get offer.' These ads don't seem to appear on Roku's own hardware, like the Roku Ultra, Express, Streambar, or Streaming Stick. Rather, they show up on certain smart TVs running the Roku TV platform -- and it might just be certain brands, like Sharp. Some owners of TCL Roku TVs commented that they had not seen the ads. Fortunately, users in the thread reported that the feature can be disabled in privacy settings. But it's possible that doing so may disable other Roku features.
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Some Roku Smart TVs Are Now Showing Banner Ads Over Live TV More

Some Roku Smart TVs Are Now Showing Banner Ads Over Live TV

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  • The near future... (Score:5, Funny)

    by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @09:36PM (#62186447) Homepage
    Here's what TV will look like in a few years. [scifiinterfaces.com] From a famous documentary by Mike Judge.
    • Go away. Bating.
    • So it will mostly look like a PC running Windows 10, an Xbox, or like using AOL?

    • Here's what TV will look like in a few years. [scifiinterfaces.com] From a famous documentary by Mike Judge.

      Truly, when life imitates parody!

    • Nah, all those ads are politely sitting in their own little boxes away from the actual content. Real ads will overlay the content area so you canâ(TM)t ignore them. And theyâ(TM)ll be content-aware, so they can be positioned to hide critical parts of the show unless you click on them. No more free boobies on Game of Thrones, now you get an ad for Starbucks on the left one and Target on the right.

  • That My Pillow guy ... (Score:3)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @09:43PM (#62186459)

    ... sure gets around.

  • Serious pwnage

  • They're all mooning the ad.

  • You didn't buy a product. You are the product (Score:3)

    by thesjaakspoiler ( 4782965 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @10:13PM (#62186509)

    What were you thinking when you bought this cheap-ass product?

    • Considering how cheap a Roku 4K streaming stick is, why not just get a decent 4k tv and plug it into one of the HDMI ports and the 1A USB port? Avoids any issues with inputs and you can get a better TV in the process. Only a couple Roku TV are even decent QLED TV. Not great, just OK. I like Roku's interface for some situations (the ability to do headphones off the remote or your mobile app is great, so is the feature for guest mode if you are doing airbnd so guests can input their logins and you can pu

      • Re: You didn't buy a product. You are the product (Score:4, Insightful)

        by narcc ( 412956 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @12:00AM (#62186717) Journal

        Considering how cheap a Roku 4K streaming stick is, why not just get a decent 4k tv and plug it into one of the HDMI ports and the 1A USB port?

        I have a "smart TV", but I steadfastly refuse to use any of the so-called 'smart' features. I've disabled as much as possible. I instead use a separate Roku 4K and a Bluray player for everything but live TV which, naturally, requires the use of the TV tuner.

        Why do I have a "smart TV" then? I have one because it's really hard to buy an ordinary television these days. There was not a single television in any store local to me that wasn't a so-called "smart TV". Believe me, I spent a lot of time looking. It was ridiculous. The worst part about it? The sales staff pushing me to buy a "smart TV" the entire time as if I had any other option!

        I'm reminded of 1984 every time I turn the damn thing on.

        • Most "smart" TVs come with a pretty bad system with apps that dont update. The Roku and FireTV ones are a bit diff since they have daughter boards to work and they are also stand alone products. Whereas the offbrand OSs are usually not high priority to keep updated on a 3yo set. I have used every streaming box there is. they all have their pros and cons. The embedded smart tvs that arent roku/fire are among the slowest response times and loading times of all of them. But Im sure they have a purpos

          • I have found the apps on "smart" TVs tend to be junk, and likely useless after a few years. They likely won't be updated past a few months if that. Best thing is to just have the TV do what it is originally designed to do... take signals from something else and throw it on a screen, as well as optionally do sound, and don't do much over that. Let an AppleTV, a Google Chromecast with the Ethernet adapter, Roku, or some other appliance do the heavy lifting.

            • The only smart feature ive used on my Samsung QN85 is the ambient mode to display some low lit background color to cut down on the black mirror effect when its not running; such as when guest come over. It also does a great job detecting the PS5 and automatically enabling Game Mode on the input. Between the AppleTV, FireTV Cube, and PS5 I have just about all the media apps covered. For other rooms with less entertainment audio setups, its the roku streaming stick 4k and a soundbar system or stand-alone audi

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Monoman ( 8745 )

          I own several Rokus an AppleTV, a FireStick and a few Samsung "smart TVs". I would rank them in that same order I have seen a few other "smart TVs" in use. I imagine the Roku TVs are very similar to using a Roku. I have never experienced any overlay ads while watching content.

          In my experience the "smart" experience on the Samsung and others was a joke. I treat them as monitors and do not let them connect to my network.

          I am considering an NVidia Shield next time just to try something different and if Roku

          • I imagine the Roku TVs are very similar to using a Roku. I have never experienced any overlay ads while watching content.

            They are similar except that, as the summary states, Roku TVs are getting ads whereas separate Roku boxes are not.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Monoman ( 8745 )

              Thanks. I was just adding my experience just in case anyone came forward stating they had experienced issues with Roku boxes.

            • They are similar except that, as the summary states, Roku TVs are getting ads whereas separate Roku boxes are not.

              NO.

              Sharp brand tvs are... other tv brands running the Roku OS are not.

        • Just disable to WiFi and make it a dumb tv. Its what I did.

          My TV even had the option at start up to not use the other functions and make itself a basic tv. My TV doesn't need internet access, so why should it have it? If I want to stream something, I can use my Chromecast.

          I'm just worried about the day when a TV demands a WiFi connecton though. Was looking for TV's and saw one (granted only one) TV that had a giant banner on the screen saying how it couldn't connect to the internet. After that, really limi

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by narcc ( 412956 )

            Just disable to WiFi and make it a dumb tv. Its what I did.

            If only it were that simple...

            My TV even had the option at start up to not use the other functions and make itself a basic tv.

            Lucky you. This doesn't appear to be the common case.

            I'm just worried about the day when a TV demands a WiFi connecton though.

            That day is here! Mine required an internet connection just to get past the initial setup.

            • Really?

              I got a Sony Bravia in December, so not that old.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by narcc ( 412956 )

                Really. I wasted a whole Saturday on that project. This is 2 or 3 years ago.

                Three counties, who knows how many stores visited or called, nothing but smart TVs. I'm still irritated by it.

        • Smart TV's take advantage of dumb consumers. :-/

          The only way to stop the visual vomit of advertising is to vote with your wallet. Unfortunately companies know that the majority of people are apathetic so they continue to sell this garbage.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by narcc ( 412956 )

            The only way to stop the visual vomit of advertising is to vote with your wallet

            You say that like you can buy a TV that isn't a smart TV. I tried every place that sold televisions in thee counties without success.

            It's like voting in Iran, where you can select from any of the candidates approved by the Ayatollah, but no others.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by samdu ( 114873 )

        What makes anyone think that these ads won't start coming through the separate Roku devices as well?

    • I use mine as a monitor.

  • Fuck TV (Score:3)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @10:24PM (#62186533)
    I gave up TV when Charter dropped the analog signal and I've never looked back
  • does weird things. How very unexpected.

  • ATSC 3.0 Preview (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DewDude ( 537374 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @10:31PM (#62186561) Homepage

    The vast majority of ATSC 3.0 changes are to deliver targeted ads. The best advice is to just stop watching this garbage. Don't subscribe to anything, don't do free viewing...just simply flat out tell the content providers "fuck you".

    • Tried this, yet my local media company made $3.5bn in revenue last year so they didn't care.

      People have an overinflated perception of how much power a boycott actually has. In nearly all cases it is happily ignored by the companies in question.

    • Soon it will be like a mix of 1994 and Dark mirror: 15 million merits. There are protests for idiotic stuff (Stop the steal anyone?), but we don't do anything to put a stop to this clearly exploitative and abusive thing. I dont even know why I complain, I will just sit at home stuffing my face, while our privacy and freedoms are taken away in the name of profits. Back to the Robber Baron era we go.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      ATSC is for over-the-air (OtA) broadcasts and it is impossible to do targeted ads in that medium. Sure if you plug your receiver into the Internet it can sync the OtA content with targeted ads but all you need to do is "unplug" the Internet connection and there is no longer anyway to target ads at you (or see what you are watching).
      So you are correct that ATSC 3.0 adds targeted ads as part of the package but I'm not sure if it is really the majority of the changes. You don't have to stop watching broadcast

  • Just block *roku.com. Easy peasy.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by narcc ( 412956 )

      Things aren't quite that simple. Ignoring for the moment that most people aren't running their own DNS, there are users like me, who have a "smart TV" but use an external device instead. In my case, a Roku Ultra 4K. The goal would be to block ads on the TV without affecting the function of the external Roku.

      There's also the fact that there is no guarantee that ads are being served from a *.roku.com domain.

      No, the easy thing to do here is to disable that "feature" in privacy settings like it suggests in t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hatchet ( 528688 )
      Some devices ignore DNS servers altogether, and use hardcoded 8.8.8.8

      • And on your router you cannot intercept everything on port 53 to redirect it to your 127.1 DNS that is asking everything from your favorite DoH or DoT ?

        • Yes, it's important to reflect port 53 to e.g. your pihole or some devices stop working. So far they're not checking for signatures.

          Also block public DoH servers on your IoT interface or they will tunnel around you. Most devices will begrudgingly fall back to your local DNS but some won't if you just block outbound DNS.

          It's easy to imagine how this behavior could help some people as well as surveil them but it's certainly not your grandpa's nsfnet.

  • I don't have any TV's or even streaming accounts anymore. In fact I am not sure I will ever buy another TV. Been several years now and things are going just fine without their ad crap. Not sure anymore what the draw of TV was.

  • Don't buy a device that takes away control (Score:3)

    by jonwil ( 467024 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @11:26PM (#62186667)

    I do my OTA TV watching on a 32" Samsung dumb TV connected to a Topfield DVR (one that has no connection to the internet and no "smart" features).

    Everything else I do is done on my desktop PC where I have more control. With the exception of Netflix (which I watch through the Windows Netflix app), my DVD collection (which I use VLC for), everything else I watch (including YouTube) is done through a web browser with a good ad blocker so I don't have to worry about invasive ads getting in the way.

    The only ads I have to deal with are the regular ads on OTA TV (which, while annoying, are simply part of the video signal and have no impact on my privacy) and the ads before the movie starts at the cinema (again, no impact on my own privacy)

  • Don't buy a 'smart' TV. Get a dumb TV & then decide which hardware & software will be connected to show you content. If any item misbehaves, remove or replace it.

  • Vizio's main revenue is no longer from TV sales (Score:3)

    by Jaegs ( 645749 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2022 @11:37AM (#62187847) Homepage Journal

    Per many sources, such as The Verge [theverge.com], Vizio makes more money on ads/data/subscriptions than it does on its TVs.

    This is why it is becoming impossible to buy a "dumb" TV. I really wish larger monitors—sans "smarts"—were more widely available. Let me plug in my preferred streaming device—or no device at all—rather than relying upon whatever half-baked solution most of these TVs come with, which will likely be outdated in a few years, anyway.

  • Given all the problems with smart TVs (poor/slow interface, tracking/spying, etc.), why do people still buy these things, rather than just plug in any of the numerous external devices available?
  • Stick with Sceptre - they still offer current tech dumb 4K TV's up to at least 75" https://www.walmart.com/browse... [walmart.com]

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