fucking rip to the eleventy billion roku smart TVs out there
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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My Roku TVs have been so shit, riddled with ads to the point that they lagged on start, for so many years that they've both been factory reset without internet connectivity and set to boot directly to other hardware that runs the only app I used on the damn things better than they did despite being $40 purchases
Is it me? or does he have Marco Rubio ears?
Great... Now there'll probably be a $35 monthly fee just for having the damned thing plugged into the back of the TV and it will come with a mandatory enrollment in Truth+ and Fox Nation 🤮
Can you jailbreak a Roku and install something else onto it?
I have a Roku speakerbar because all new TVs speakers are horrible.
I looked into it a while back and the consensus seemed to be yes, but no one really works on it because there's hundreds of TV models out there and no way to universalize the process.
I had a patient today who could only repeat Fox News articles, and was mindlessly speaking into his remote while regurgitating what he heard on Fox News. He was without capacity, he voted for Trump last election cycle. He's not alert or oriented. This is America.
RIP
...in 2027.
Gives users a year to find an alternative and dump their new 'Fox News' overlords.
FYI: Roku intends to do mass layoffs prior to the sale in order to "save" $400 million.
Off the shelf Plug and Play (Jellyfin is NOT PnP) alternatives in no specific order:
- Apple TV
- Nvidia Shield
- Amazon Fire Stick
- Walmart Onn 4k Pro
Firestick is moving away from android to their own thing.
If you choose to get an Nvidia Shield, I would recommend the Projectivy Launcher to avoid the "recommended" content from Google on the home screen.
Any tips on how to keep Projectivity Launcher as the default? I tried setting it up, but eventually the default launcher took over again. I haven't looked into a more permanent solution.
I mean, you can technically remove the default launcher entirely via ADB if you want to.
if you run windows, you can use Android TV Tools to run the ADB commands for debloat and launcher control without having to type them out, but there are plenty of guides to do it via ADB manually.
on Shield TV I was able to just install projectivy and set it as the default launcher, never had an issue after that, but i still do some debloat to remove extra google and nvidia background tasks and trackers.
Apple TV is $129, Nvidia Shield is $149. I guess that’s closer to the real retail price of a device that’s not expecting to supplement revenue with user data?
Raspberry Pi's were like $65 last I checked. Not exactly plug and play but it's not difficult to flash lineageOS or even Android TV.
Great, 3 other ethically terrible companies or a 4th option that costs $150 per television... What a wealth of options!
Which is the non ethically terrible company in that list?
I've never heard anything bad about Nvidia but it's certainly possible that they could also be horrible
It's so expensive I didn't really bother to check.
I'm currently looking up how to run streaming services on my Raspberry Pi 5
I have a Pi5 8gb running a version of LineageOS that is pretty much a blank slate to roll-yer-own Android TV, at which point you can install Stremio and be off to the races. Requires a little bit of Nerd-Level setup, but wasn’t too bad. Pi4 ran a little hot, but the Pi5 crushed it. Any ole BT remote works. I started with a Firestick remote and upgraded to a 10€ remote later. Have to control my soundbar separately, but whatever. I’m freeeee to sail the seas!
Edit: me am a stupid typer
Just hypothetical idea here, what if we token max using billionaire class subsidized llm, on a pi5 like device and make our own roku with ab openscad body. Put the client on every TV possible and the thumbnail is a middle finger? Just hypothetical of course wouldn't actually use overly subsidized AI coding agents for open purposes... That's crazy talk.
I understood maybe half of that paragraph, but LibreELEC exists if you have a Pi already.
No Pi? OSMC Vero is a Pi-like device in that regard. It doesn't have a middle finger thumbnail, but I'm sure something could be figured out.
Or just get a second-hand mini PC that's a few years old for like a hundred bucks and set it up to do whatever you want.
All of these devices would be standalone, so I'm not sure what you mean by putting the client on every TV. If you want to do a server / client type thing, I'd go for Jellyfin. The client for Jellyfin is already available on most smart TVs, but I don't condone the use of "smart" features built into TVs. All of the abovementioned devices will have a Jellyfin client available as well. For the server, you can use your existing laptop or PC, or cobble something together / pick up another mini PC to act as the server.
The noisiest thing on my network by a mile is that damn Roku. It's spyware manifest so it's only going to get shittier.
You must not have any microslop devices on your network then. I have my sons Xbox and my work pc. The telemetry data it tries to call home with is insane. Roku however does send telemetry data to scribe.logs.roku.com quite often.
Time to disable every Roku TV in my house! Just got rid of any Fire TVs for their secret updating even when not connected.
I noticed a cheap TCL had updated ads despite never being connected to the internet. Turns out some proprietary radio built in. Fuuuuck that! I'm not paying for a cheaper TV with my data!
Well shit