A patent application from the company spotted by Lowpass describes a system for displaying ads over any device connected over HDMI, a list that could include cable boxes, game consoles, DVD or Blu-ray players, PCs, or even other video streaming devices. Roku filed for the patent in August 2023 and it was published in November 2023, though it hasn’t yet been granted.
The technology described would detect whether content was paused in multiple ways—if the video being displayed is static, if there’s no audio being played, if a pause symbol is shown anywhere on screen, or if (on a TV with HDMI-CEC enabled) a pause signal has been received from some passthrough remote control. The system would analyze the paused image and use metadata “to identify one or more objects” in the video frame, transmit that identification information to a network, and receive and display a “relevant ad” over top of whatever the paused content is.
tl;dr never buy anything Roku, ever again. Got it.
Roku has patented a way to ensure I don’t buy their junk.
Roku about to patent a way to make you buy their junk.
Just imagine they work out a deal with every consumer TV manufacturer to put this on everything.
I’ll just buy a giant monitor then, it’s better anyway.
If only they made 60"+ monitors, I’d do the same. But since those don’t really exist, the options are:
- prevent TV from accessing the Internet
- get a commercial grade monitor - more expensive
- projector - most seem to not have smart nonsense
- pihole - may or may not work
I’m going to try out the first, but allow certain accesses (Netflix and Disney+). If that works, I may not need to worry about the rest of the list.
Yeah… I’ve been evaluating moving to Plex or Jellyfin.
Kinda getting done with a lot of this smart stuff. The Monopolies are flexing and I don’t enjoy it.
Just do it. I ripped our DVDs and put them on my NAS with minidlna configured, and I can now stream my stuff directly to my TV through the “Photos and Videos” app. My other TV has a Raspberry Pi running Kodi, so if my next TV doesn’t support dlna, I’ll just do that.
Screw all of these companies and their predatory practices.
Jeff Geerling discusses having done the same, in one of his videos.
Fwiw, this was also on HN yesterday. Never tried it myself, though:
Do it, it’s great. The NVidia Shield is a great client for it but is getting more and more adds on the homescreen. The are alternative loaders without the add you can put on it.
You’ve got it the other way around. Roku sell their TVs at a loss. Buy one, use it as a dumb screen and help them go bankrupt faster.
Good way to kill their product…
I can’t imagine anyone that would leave the device plugged in after the first ad comes up. Pretty much anyone using such a device would also know how to unplug them. They clearly have other uses for that screen, so it’s not a total loss to keep it unplugged till the user can switch to a different brand.Ah it’s a Roku TV entirely. Reminds me of the Samsung TV ads
Roku TV sets come with ads. Generally, these are restricted to Roku’s home and menu screens, its screensavers, and its first-party video channels, and once you start playing video, the only ads you’ll see are the ones from the service you’re streaming from. That said, Roku TVs have shown ads atop live TV before.
Now, the company is apparently experimenting with ways to show ads over top of even more of the things you plug into your TV. A patent application from the company spotted by Lowpass describes a system for displaying ads […]
Sadly they already have all the money
So we just ordered a new tv and just want the universe to know that Roku wasn’t even considered and this shit is why.
I mean, yeah sure, but are the alternatives that much better in this respect? Which alternative non-ad-ridden, privacy-respecting smart tv would you recommend (or ended up buying)? Asking for my future tv choice…
Commercial displays are your best bet, although they can be quite expensive.
Will probably last longer too since they’re intended for 24/7 or at least 16/5 continuous runtime.
Samsung, but I’d rather report back when I see if it’s a mistake.
I intend to keep using my AppleTV and hope that’s the end of it. But the Samsung was a process of elimination of Roku and LG via shitty experience with the WebOS on the work TV. If Tizen doesn’t stay out of the way then I’ll start playing router games.
I’m glad they patented it so that any of the products I actually buy won’t be able to do this
Parents can be licensed for use by other companies.
Autocorrect or comment on society?
¿Por qué no los dos?
If it’s patented, it can also be hacked more easily.
Why?
Well, the idea is that anything and everything can be hacked. It’s just that the difficulty varies wildly; some being trivial whereas others are impossible until someone finds an exploit. If you’re working with a total black box, you’ll have to make many assumptions, which means that figuring stuff out may take a while. If there’s at least some documentation, such as a patent, you won’t have to guess absolutely everything. That doesn’t guarantee that it’s going to be easy. Maybe the patent doesn’t go into much technical detail, but still manages to describe the product in just enough legal detail that the company can sue anyone trying to come too close.
It will be licensed to manufacturers with advertising incentives and packaged into consumer electronics.
Savvy electronics users will supply their own HDMI cables; this product will be for people who only understand enough to plug the ends between their box and the entertainment system.
Hell, you might even see these cables being handed out for “free”, akin to the AOL disc days.
The amount of ewaste they will be producing when they push that update. Should be against some environmental laws.
Not what laws are for.
Is what guillotines are for.
Give me freedom from advertising or give me death.
Roku would gladly do the latter if they thought it profitable
Roku somehow thinking that the Ferengi rules of acquisition was a how-to guide book.
Bread and circuses. They’re gouging us on the bread and making the circuses inaccessible, these dipshits are practically begging for a red terror, by making the worst outcome still better than the ongoing white.
If I were making their decisions for them; I’m not sure I could do much better at priming the populace for revolution.
Can’t we put these devices in some kind of dev mode and install software to stop this shit?
I assume these devices run some kind of Linux kernel, with a stripped down Linux distro.
The problem there is proprietary hardware blobs, no one’s made open-source drivers for any of the myriad TV manufacturers, each with their own OS.
How do emby or jellyfin devs develop clients on roku?
I would think, if you have that level of access, you could also stop or patch whatever OS services they run.
Surely you can ssh into these devices right?
The API for developing apps is absolutely open, but the OS isn’t. They’d give you some kind of development environment (like Android with Android studio), and a way to get logs out. The apps are often vetted by the platform like Android and iOS apps are, and they’d be able to override anything your app could do anyway.
So think consoles, phones, tablets, etc. The OS is locked down, but you can develop apps for it.
So probably no SSH access unless you find a backdoor or something. Your time is better spent buying something without that crap, like certain projectors, commercial displays, etc. They subsidize the cost of the TVs with that nonsense, so they’re going to prevent you from removing it.
roku generally puts a lot of effort into security
“security” for themselves, not the customer, I guess
i’m trying to say that they’re pretty locked down
Now, if only they would invent the exact opposite of this, I would buy it
I want zero ads. Ever.
They did! Its called a pihole plus ublock origin plus piracy.
You can’t buy it, only the hardware, but the software is all free.
Still doesnt block youtube ads 😩
For ad-free youtube on Android TV: SmartTube
For ad-free youtube on mobile Android devices: ReVanced
For desktop: Firefox + uBlock origin
Also for Android: NewPipe
Also for desktop: FreeTubeOr GrayJay for Android
Or Tubular
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Sadly, Firefox + ublock is becoming unreliable. I routinely can’t play YouTube videos on my desktop computer with that setup (+ a vpn) because google just won’t serve them. I just get perpetual loading screens.
Ad free YouTube on RokuOS? TIZEN?
Ad free YouTube on iOS?
Are you… Are you using the yt APP!?
Roku TV 😞
Oh. Oh no. Do you need a hug? A hammer?
So if you can side load check out smart tube app
Revanced only, bby!
Have you heard about our new ad-blocking TVs?
Thanks to our patented Ad-Away technology, they’re guaranteed to keep you free from all ads! Get yours now, Ad-Away subscriptions start at $49 a month!2 years later, somewhere in their sales and marketing departments:
“Hey, you know what would make us even more money?”
“No, but do tell”
“Advertising”
“Genius - how is it nobody has ever thought of this before?”
Lol 😂
Nice 😆💀
I’ve just invented a way to never use a Roku product again, and I’ve chosen not to patent it.
The process is this:
- Don’t buy anything from Roku anymore.
Or anything with Roku embedded in it already.
On this episode of Black Mirror…
I’m tired boss…
The best way to prevent ads is to figure out every way in which they can be served in the future, and patenting every one.
And then do nothing with them.
if they patent this, it could be slightly good thing because it might prevent other companies from doing it
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still, others will have to pay for it which might reduce how widely its used.
Sometimes i wonder if it could be worth it to invent shit like this and patent it just so no one else cant do it themselves
Nah, they’ll patent it anyway and then tie you up in BS lawsuits over it. Fighting it will cost you way more than you’re willing to spend, so you’ll settle out of court for a licensing agreement that definitely doesn’t benefit you but makes the lawsuit go away.
Hopefully this ends up something they never actually do like that sony patent for ads that only go away if you call out the name of the product.
Sony fabitch!
Sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.
Imagine that you pay for an ad free streaming service through your roku, like HBO for example. And now you have ads streaming over it?
People will sue for a way to disable it over ad free paid content.
Also, this will lead to way more pirating. People are sick of advertisements.That’ll be why they just pushed a “agree to our new license with arbitrage or your tv is a brick” update
People who don’t pirate already are fools.
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Let 'm pirate. Teach them how to do it better even.
That’s some scummy shit…
Everything owned will do this sooner or later.
owned
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
if the video being displayed is static
Imagine you’re playing Skyrim and while reading one of the books your TV covers up the content with an ad! That would be infuriating!
Or maybe just reading any text on your TV ever. Say you use an epub reader on your screen because you like reading rhat way. Do these corpo guys even think this will make ads any more effective and likable? The opposite! I’ve been avoid ads ever more and any time I see a new technology to bring ads in any context I leave a little middle finger behind.
I was thinking Diablo 2 is gonna be rendered unplayable. It’ll probably view “IL” in “SKILL” or a rune or small charm as a pause symbol and make it so you can’t open your inventory
Edit: Oh shit, the ‘II’ in Diablo II
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