478
Roku will automatically switch the Aquatic Life screensaver on affected devices to the Roku City screensaver, another popular animation that includes subtle advertisements, according to the user notice
Ugh.
Surprise! They're not subtle.
Yeah, it's literal billboards that slowly pass in the cityscape, looking like a flat PNG pasted over it, not matching tone or theme in any way. It's not subtle in the least.
I have this screensaver enabled on my home TVs. One day I went to a restaurant and they had the same screensaver showing on some of it's TVs but they had these giant billboard ads scrolling by covering parts of the screensaver. That's the day I learned that AdGuard DNS blocks the billboards (not just the ad but the entire billboard).
The subtle ones are probably the movie references in the background. The Avengers tower is a subtle hint to watch the MCU, etc.
Roku has been a poster child of enshittification for a long time. I struggle to think of any ways they could get worse. But I'm sure they'll think of something.
Last month I took my Roku offline but let it connect to LAN so the Jellyfin app would work (for now until it gets too out of date probably). I knew Fox would fuck things up somehow and I was right sooner than expected.
As an aside, it’s still connected to my pihole and for about a week it tried to send logging data to 2 different websites every 3 seconds for around a week. It was funny seeing my blocked percentage at 91.5%, even funnier that it’s programmed to give up.
It probably gives up only not to accidentally DDOS their own telemetry servers
Or maybe it's just a reaally slow exponential backoff
Linear backoff. Add one millisecond per retry.
Last time I put a Roku behind DNS filtering it just started spamming it's logging server because it couldn't make contact. I ended up just letting it through instead of going through the hassle of spoofing a response to make it shut up.
Why do that? It's not hurting anything.
Pi-hole at the time had a default limit of 1000 requests per minute before it would time-out requests from all clients for 60 seconds and I didn't know how to change that. I'm using AGH now though.
Piracy is the only moral choice when it comes to large services
My nephew has a Roku in his bedroom for the screen saver. He’s severely autistic. He is not good with change. Losing those damn fish will be a HUGE problem in that house.
disconnect it from internet?
It already got the update and threw the warning and will flip it off by itself. I’m going to try and cavenga an old Pi or mini pc to run the OG screensaver version for him
"still flip by itself", I think I understand that.
Cavenga?
Scavenge, I think. I had to think hard on it.
Bless you.
CEOs are the dumbest pieces of shit on the planet. Roughly could have set up their own fish tank and recorded it for 10k and I'm inflating that number by about 9k. Then they would have owned it and paid no license at all
Same fishtank screensaver as you might remember from the early 00s, in case you’re wondering.
Well, this explains it.
I changed the screensaver to the fish tank because the default cityscape on has all those stupid ads plugged in.
The other day, it had a banner that said the fishtank was being removed. I couldn't figure out why.
I guess I will have to find a new streaming box? Sheesh.
I had long ago blocked all telemetry at my edge network box for the whole house. Now I presume it will not be sufficient.
I was curious what the reason was behind this. As good of time as any to setup some different streaming sticks/machines I guess. Anyone have any suggestions? FOSS is preferred.
I know this goes against the fediverse but I pirate my shit via an outsourced (paid) plex provider [gasp] on an Apple TV box. The device itself is reliable and has no ads and has a very high spouse approval factor.
Depends on your needs. If you just stream via Jellyfin/Plex I'd recommend Kodi+Linux on a raspberry pi or something. There are premade distributions like OSMC for this niche. If you need Netflix/Disney+ etc you're basically fucked on the FOSS front, the only option I know is either LineageOS's TV version though that isn't as well supported as the mobile version and there are some DRM shenanigans or just using Linux with a keyboard+mouse combo and a browser, though you will be limited by resolution. On the non FOSS front I have heard good things about the NVIDIA shield/apple tv though that is expensive, or using Windows with the native streaming apps and a frontend (eg Steam Big Picture).
Pi devices have gotten so expensive due to RAM shortages you're probably much better off repurposing any of hardware you have or can grab from a secondhand place.
I went all in on Roku years ago because it worked so well with Plex. The menus and remotes were consistent across all the TVs, so nobody had to learn anything new. Now Fox will probably turn it into another advertising platform. This sucks.
I also went all-in, but in the last year and a half, the ads went bonkers. I went all in on ONN 4k boxes with projectivy installed. I get smarttube now and it's the tits. Sure, the chinese are spying on me now, but at least it isn't murdoch.
Roku used to be the safe haven from ecosystem lockin.
Now with free-my-tv and other projects, this can be resolved.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Any not terrible alternatives that my parents will actually be able to use without me?
It's pricey but I have heard good things about Apple TV. I think someone else in the thread has a list of FOSS alternatives but you'd still have to set them up.
The used ones aren’t too expensive and they last forever. But I have found the AppleTV to be kinda crappy for old people because it constantly updates and moves things around and interrupts what you wanted to do with some kind of screen after updates telling you some bullshit or asking you some bullshit and that can scare old people.
But it’s still worth it, because there aren’t any fucking ads.
Eh, they should pitch it as promoting brain elasticity and combating dementia. There is evidence of new situations and/or problem solving is helpful in old age. :]
load more comments
(1 replies)
Onn Android boxes work well for my parents. As long as you install Projectivy launcher to get rid of ads and clean up the UI. I make it so there are three app icons and nothing else on the screen, then it's easy to understand and navigate.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Reset the TV, don’t choose Internet during setup. Connect something like an AppleTV. In Roku settings, set the TV to automatically switch to the AppleTV on power up. The remote for the AppleTV box can be used to power on/off the tv and control volume.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Support standing up, support Sachs at Serene Screen!
Odroid-c4 with LineageOS has been my favorite streaming box. Just need to get a wireless remote with a dongle (non-bluetooth).
Wait, is it Fox Disney, or Fox News?
I thought NewsCorp/Murdoch doesn't have ownership of MOST of Fox anymore, just Business, Sports, and News.
still evil; still enshittified
I mean, yes, but one is Evil with a pretty bow on top and all your childhood heroes.
The other is Evil with a SKOAL tin and a reaaaaally big flag that says "offended yet? "
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2026
478 points (99.8% liked)
Technology
89729 readers
4670 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS