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Already switched to an Android box since Roku was getting crappy fast. Projectivity launcher. Still need a fork to go mainstream to reign in Googles app developer shenanigans. If memory prices weren’t so screwed up, would have been a perfect time for Steam Machines to push regular Linux as an HTPC closer to mainstream
The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year. It still needs approval from Fox and Roku shareholders and also regulatory approval.
Hahaha, regulatory approval is f@ing guaranteed these days, as long as the proper fees are paid in advance. F@ck you, felon in chief. 😡😡😡
fuck is the word.
you know: you can swear here
Nope. Don’t like that 🤢
One of the things on my FOSS wishlist is an open source alternative to Roku/GoogleOS/Apple TVos, etc. there are lots of FOSS apps on these various platforms, but those apps almost always have varying levels of quality and availability across them.
Right now the closest you can really get is media center PC, but what I really need is something relatively plug and play I can send to family members, preconfigured.
Plasma Bigscreen is coming
Looks very promising
Yeah. The closest I’ve gotten without a media center PC is using remote adb to remove all the bullshit from my Nvidia shield.
Can you configure and ship it?
Best solution would probably be a mini PC running a web app dashboard like they do with kiosks. I would tell you to get a rasp pi but they went up in price by quite a bit. You would still have to order it for them and spend a few hours tinkering and installing everything.
Yeah and the experience just wouldn’t be very good. I have a lot of experience with mini PCs auto loading into web dashboards and it never works quite as well as you want it to
As a family we rarely watch “on demand” or live TV. We have a mini hooked up to our TV and sail the seas for shows we want and watch them that way. We have a Roku stick in our bedroom TV and it works great, but if I get the feeling it starts to go all Project 2025 its getting ditched, but I’m in the UK so it’ll be interesting to see how it changes here.
Yeah, a jailbroken Roku OS would actually be fantastic. The actual TVs aren’t bad. Roku has actually figured out how to do streaming decently. It just sucks that the entire company seems to be going down the shitter, and they’re determined to drag all of their screens down with them.
I blocked by Roku TV’s telemetry BS with my pi-hole, at least. But that won’t stop them from trying. Having a way to flash a new FOSS/jailbroken OS onto it would be ideal.
Google TV is the least worst option in terms of open source optionality, Apple TV is best for privacy as is
Why tf does everyone trust apple for anything? They’re a pretty awful company.
Because as of now their main financial structure isnt based on selling personal information for ads. They make most there money selling products and services. And I think trust isn’t the right word. Apple is normally the least shitty out of all the shitty big tech companies with modern day convenience.
They’re the only mainstream hardware company that takes user privacy seriously. Bad on right to repair and openness though
Why tf does everyone trust apple for anything? They’re a pretty awful company.
Is Apple TV hardware any good because the app is appallingly bad. Even on a gigabit network connection it will drop connectivity and lag out. If you pause for more than about 1 minute it crashes and kicks you back into the main menu. It never seems to keep track of current shows and just shows a bunch of irrelevant stuff at the top which you have to always scroll past in order to get to what you actually want.
It makes Amazon TV look like a well polished product.
The hardware is actually one of the better streaming boxes on the market. Good direct play support for most of the big codecs, so your Jellyfin/Plex server isn’t having to transcode things. And it was (not sure if it still is) one of the few that wasn’t completely riddled with ads.
We need to develop an open, modular or all-in-one NAS with easily enabled services like Jellyfin, Navidrome, Paperless, Home assistant and so on.
With IPv6 we could avoid having to deal with CGNAT, but that could be solved as well.
People have been trying to do that for a long, long time, with various levels of success. There are a dozen options out there to try, but the scope of that kind of project huge compared to a simple streaming appliance OS.
I’d like for something like that to be sponsored by the EU
I’d like it to be sponsored by no one but the people that make it personally.
Yeah but as you said, that didn’t work so far
yes I totally don’t know why this isn’t more of a thing. here’s hoping that “plasma bigscreen” will change that. https://plasma-bigscreen.org/
A FOSS alternative would likely be missing or have meh performance from many of the streamers. All the big ones use proprietary codex that are expensive annual licenses. And even then the streamer controls what various access methods are allowed to see and at what quality. I think netflix still limits web browsers to 720p, for example. And straight web access isn’t great, you want an interface that can ideally be controlled with about 6 - 8 buttons (4 directions, OK, and Back are the minimum) which might require API access to these services, which introduces more access control. Netflix (and maybe others) even have hardware installed at the ISP level that give them a lot of control over individual access as well.
Basically for a full featured FOSS service you’d need to start with getting grants to buy to codec licenses, and then you’d need to hire people just to maintain your relationship with the streaming services to stay in their good graces while they know you’re working against their bottom line.
Same. I’m currently doing the mini PC media center. It’s nice but I don’t see my family doing something like that. It’s a bit too expensive and less plug and play than a $40 Roku/Chromecast unfortunately.
What would be amazing is if there was some way to have a fully declarative system that was integrated with a system update UI.
You would upload the config somewhere, your family’s streaming box would see a new update is available and either prompt them to install it or install it for them overnight.
I’ve never used it before but it sounds like you’re sorta describing NixOS? That might be an option to sorta Jerry-rig this idea together.
I feel like Kodi mediacenter app is one of the main things to consider putting on it. Like, booting some Linux and instantly launchung it, so it’s UI is the main UI for user to interact with. It covers most TV usecases of mid 2010s and shines if you have a medialibrary on the network.
But it doesn’t cover occasional web browsing, DRMed videostreaming platforms with their own apps, etc. Worse than that, if we don’t limit it to just Kodi, we’d need some UI to pick apps, swtich apps, etc, and if that’s critical, it’s probably worth it to rip an image of some WebOS, like on LG TVs, or an Android fork like on SmartTV boxes/sticks, whatever is less combatative, and methodically carve out bloat and adware, forming an image of inherently insecure/outdated OS that has the UI thing working right.
Outside of SteamOS idk if Linux (not Android) had slick console/SmartTV-like DEs/system-wide GUIs. But since the problem is on the surface, I believe there are some who tried, or configured/themed their environment to act like it.
😳
KDE is able to release plasma bigscreen. That, or frankly gnome would be fine with an air mouse.
For me it’s kind of JellyFin + TailScale, but that probably isn’t going to work with less tech savvy family members or on all devices. Plex works well enough, but then again it’s the same thing that someone has to be responsible for the ‘media’ portion, and a lot of people enjoy live sports, which seems difficult through the open source things.
Yeah JF + Tailscale in one of them $20 Walmart Google TV boxes works well enough but like, I’d love to drop the Google part entirely.
Yeah, I just use the web interface, so I end up having a cheap PC with a keyboard/remote which works pretty well, then it doesn’t matter the TV and get’s away from Google altogether.
Can you imagine what it must be like to have a stake in roku when you get the news that the company is going to be sold for 22 billion? Do you just immediately nut and throw up at the same time?
This is the same Fox that owns Fox News. So now Roku’s advertising push can include a side of misinformation.
Side?
Okay, okay… the entire goddamn buffet AND the drinks from the bar.
Don’t forget the sundae bar.
I was just at my father in laws house and he has roku, it already does that. He went from voting for Harris to last week saying “Trump is the smartest president we’ve ever had”.
Sounds like dementia.
Fox news is specifically designed to target the elderly as their critical thinking skills are fading, targeting their most triggerable fears. Fox Brain is a known phenomena, one which can usually be reversed if easy access to Fox News is removed, as seen in this documentary.
I myself was able to stop my mother from going down that path with the help of a browser add-on that let me block right-wing rage bait news from showing up in her YouTube feed, which had an almost immediate and lasting effect.
Link to the addon instead of a preview of a comment with the link https://github.com/amitbl/blocktube
Ah, I didn’t realize the Voyager app worked that way when using it to share links, which is really weird and awkward. I edited my comment to a direct lemmy link now that I’m on a PC. Thanks for the heads up.
And for others reading, I linked to my older comment since I briefly explained how I used blocktube to be effective, but I’ll add it here as well:
At some point she had an appointment to go somewhere and I happened to have an opportunity to access her computer for an extended amount of time.
What I did was subscribe her youtube account to a bunch of left-wing news sources, and more critically, I installed the browser addon BlockTube, which allows you to create a blacklist that seamlessly prevents videos or channels matching any keywords you choose from displaying on youtube. I added words like Trump, Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, Fox News, Sean Hannity, etc.
The comment does contain tips on how to set it up though
Yeah, that doesn’t sound like Roku’s fault.
Dementia doesn’t automagically make one rabid for Trump.
There seems to be a pretty strong correlation though
Same with the level of propaganda.
No, but it does often lead to sudden, late-life personality changes
Welp, time to discard all things Roku in my house. I’ve already been trying to make everything “dumb” again.
No, microwave… there’s no fucking reason you should be “phoning home”… get the fuck outta here with that shit.
Welp, time to discard all things Roku in my house. I’ve already been trying to make everything “dumb” again.
As if Roku is some great company beyond Fox lol
No, more like as if this is the straw that broke the camel’s back
Yeah, all corporations are bad… sure. My point was the tipping point for me personally breaking away from the convience of Roku’s all-in-one streaming would be the addition of Fox’s no doubt right wing propaganda injection, even more malicious privacy invasion, and data tracking.
I didn’t say Roku was a “great company” just because I may have a few of their devices already… we all have crap in our house from one bad company or another, no one can fully escape corporate consumerism, and if they can they wouldn’t be on here to read this, more than likely.
@ComradeMiao @technology I have a RokuTV, but I blocked it from my network. All I wanted was a dumb screen for my set top box, and I am now even happier I did that
If you had to choose, would you rather:
-
a turd with flies all over it?
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a turd that a drunk also puked on, with flies all over it?
-
I purposely didn’t buy a Roku
$22 billion to get the maga propaganda machine front-and-center on more screens than cable tv ever did, and timing is just right to get it all going in time for 2028.
Tons of older folks (like my Mom, grandma, my aunts) have Rokus set up to replace cable. They don’t know how to operate individual apps, but they love Roku TV (which pops up by default), and kinda just watch whatever comes in.
So… Yeah.
That’s not worrying at all.
A lot of the stuff that comes over the online TV channels is also broadcast over the air, have you considered getting them an antenna?
They all have one! In the attic, with an amp. I installed them myself.
It’s not the same as the Roku TV app though. Those channels are like older person catnip, and the duplicated ones don’t cut out unpredictably.
It’s also understandably difficult for some folks to remember how to change TV input, rescan channels and such.
KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI
Don’t be lazy. Put some work into customizing your setup. Enjoy a better life.
Fuck Fox and Fuck Roku. It will only get worse. My Roku is already the top blocked device in my Pihole, making thousands of telemetry requests for no good reason. Time to remove…
It’s not about laziness. Roku is used by a ton of people who don’t know what a linux is.
The best solution would be for an open source roku alternative that is plug and play
Thank you! For a 54yo non-tech person I’m keeping my head above water, but please don’t ask me to learn a whole new something in an area that I have no skill or interest in.
Re Fox buying Roku, it makes me want to throw up.
Also, can you run common streaming services on Kodi without having to fight endlessly with their countermeasures?
I would love to dump all of this crap and just run a pc with a browser on the tv, but there is no clean interface that I could use with a remote.
Google TV is the closest
Kodi keeps clunky and old honestly.
heck we need to go out evangelizing kodi
Eh, fuck you Roku I never trusted you.
Corporations shouldn’t be allowed to buy each other
Already replaced my Roku with an Apple TV.
That’s disappointing.
It would certainly be a shame if some rogue Roku employee deployed an update that stripped ads and broke automatic updates for all devices right after Fox finalizes the deal but before they get anything out of it.
I’d settle for a crack so I can make it a plain ole linux htpc.
Bonus points if I can configure the remote.
that’s a nice idea, but when they catch-on it probably wouldn’t survive six months before breaking changes are implemented on the backend somewhere.
aaand then they just broke millions of TVs. there goes the brand recognition
On the day of the handover lock it up with ransomware.
