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The reason I picked and stay with Roku is that they aren't married to a single Big Tech co. I already suffer the lack of a proper YouTube app on my Echo Show be

The reason I picked and stay with Roku is that they aren't married to a single Big Tech co. I already suffer the lack of a proper YouTube app on my Echo Show because Amazon and Google are having a tiff. I don't want to pick an ecosystem and live exclusively inside of it. As it is, I'm already in a mixed household (Me with iOS and my wife with Android) and it's a pain to deal with the lack of cross-platform playing together.

FriedrichN 6y ago
This whole thing where you have to sacrifice everything to big corps and buy new devices every year makes me not want to bother consuming any media at all to be honest. When I see people wrestle with all kinds of devices, services, and subscriptions I just get sad and start thinking if the juice is actually worth the squeeze and coming to the conclusion it really isn't.
- tnzm 6y ago
  So much this. Sadly, you and I are exceptions - caring about it only enough to voice our disregard for it. Usually, by the time a person is old enough to not need the churn of mass culture to be relevant to their peers, they're usually hooked on some brand or other of high-quality spam. Unlike street drugs, mass media rots your brain with full societal approval. This is nothing new of course - many writers, musicians, and filmmakers of the 20th century have expounded on the soul-crushing effects of commercialized culture. As expected, they have ended up being more obscure to the general public than the ones who embraced it. It was weird seeing for the first time a mainstream artist or work that risked to be slightly more original than the industry average (in order to reach a previously uncaptured audience segment) being lauded as some sort of genius, while its subject matter was the same old "hey you, yes you, buy a bigger TV!" Allocating resources and incentives (economy) and collectively deciding what's valuable and worth incentivizing (culture) are two separate layers of the social "stack". Advertising couples them in the worst possible way, effecting a positive feedback loop of wastage. The possibility that the emergent adtech hivemind's ultimate purpose is to measure and hone the efficiency of this mass pacification strategy is Orwellian par excellence. My answer to this? Just enough economic productivity to afford unabashed dirtbaggery on the cultural plane. Anyone who does not share this perspective is watching a different movie.
- ksec 6y ago
  >This whole thing where you have to sacrifice everything to big corps and buy new devices every year makes me not want to bother consuming any media at all to be honest. People said something similar 10 -15 years ago about pirating with bit-torrent. There was certain rage with them I couldn't understand. Now I finally feel the same. I think the age of Napster and BT will be back.
CarlosEscobedo 6y ago
why would you use a roku over NVIDIA shield?
npsimons 6y ago
> The reason I picked and stay with Roku is that they aren't married to a single Big Tech co. Same. I'm so sick of being locked into one system or another, having my eyeballs monetized, or getting the shitty version of an app because it isn't the vendor's platform. I got a Roku because they're as neutral as one can get, and so far I'm happy paying for YouTube Premium, Amazon Prime and Netflix. You tell me I can't run those on my Roku, well fuck you and your service.
- judge2020 6y ago
  > You tell me I can't run those on my Roku, well fuck you and your service. The thing is that Google shouldn't be forced to make their apps for the 30 different streaming box app stores if they don't want to. If there's no money to be made and they inherently lose money by tasking a team to keep the Roku app (or LG app or Samsung app, etc) up-to-date then they shouldn't have to. The Google Cast protocol is actually pretty open in this regard - the apps are just a combination of html, js, websocket, and a protobuf server with no need to publish anything - all the TV makers would have to do is embed Chrome (they would also have to use a not-e-waste chip to do so, though, as supporting 4k hardware vp9 and drm is intense and expensive). There also really isn't an app store that needs moderation or business deals to happen for your casting to work - the only registration is really so Google has a paper trail of accountability in order to prevent malware and perform some API calls (https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/registration https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/registration).
  - chrismcb 6y ago
    They shouldn't be forced to... But their is money to be made. YouTube TV is a paid service. If I owned a Roku and YouTube TV want available for it I may cancel my subscription.
    - katbyte 6y ago
      Or you may drop the roku and get a device that supports YouTube. People can go either way
  - 6y ago
scarface74 6y ago
Roku is actually more heavy handed than Apple. Apple allows any streaming provider to be on the AppleTV without making any kind of deal or negotiation. No, streaming providers do not have to give Apple a cut. They can force you to pay on their website. You can not pay for Hulu Live, Youtube Live TV, Netflix or many others through the App Store.
- BeetleB 6y ago
  > You can not pay for Hulu Live, Youtube Live TV, Netflix or many others through the App Store. Is this a comparison with Roku? Whenever I buy stuff using a Roku app, Roku is not involved.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    The main point was that you can not just download the Roku SDK, make sure you follow their rules and submit it for approval. Roku wants revenue sharing deals - even for advertising - and sometimes asks for ad inventory. The comment you quoted was specifically for people who I knew would reply about Apple “forcing” content providers to use in app purchasing.
- nl 6y ago
  > Apple allows any streaming provider to be on the AppleTV without making any kind of deal or negotiation. Content providers do have to make deals to get on AppleTV. You just don't hear about it. Here's an example: "WarnerMedia has firmed up a distribution deal with Apple for distribution of its forthcoming streaming service HBO Max.... Under the deal, HBO Max will be available on Apple devices and integrated with the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV." (note the words "the deal") https://deadline.com/2020/04/hbo-max-apple-streaming-distribution-1202918784/ https://deadline.com/2020/04/hbo-max-apple-streaming-distrib... And there are few details around the HBO and CBS deal to get on Apple TV here: In a second sign of frayed relations between the two companies, Netflix has decided to opt out of the Apple bundle, which will upsell subscriptions to HBO and CBS in addition to its original programming https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/multimedia/netflix-apple-tv-streaming.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/multimedia/netflix-apple-...
cortesoft 6y ago
Although it sounds like you aren't immune to big tech riffs by using a roku, as this article shows.
wyldfire 6y ago
That's why I went all in on Rokus. But then there was a new tiff between Roku and WB/HBO. Can't win, I guess. Now I've got AppleTV and Rokus.
Causality1 6y ago
Personally I use Roku because it's the snappiest experience with the fewest crashes. I started with a Chromecast but its integration with Android was a little too deep: leaving wifi while casting YouTube would cause the YouTube app to hard lock into a "connecting to chromecast" error that persisted even after force-stopping the YouTube app. The second time I had to restart my phone because of that I chucked the Chromecast in the trash. Fire Stick is a joke. The wifi reception is terrible, the entire UI is laggier than my old cable box, and the apps crash on launch more often than not. Roku just works, and it works like something that was designed by professional adults and not blood-sucking marketeers eager to screw over their users to make an extra ten cents.
- indigodaddy 6y ago
  I have an older Roku 3 and a (2nd gen?) Amazon FireTV box (the flat box thing not the stick), and the sound from the FireTV box is far far superior than that of the Roku 3 (did a test using the same soundbar). Not sure if Roku has improved on its sound output since then or not (the Roku 3 I have is of course pretty old).
  - zadkey 6y ago
    Also having sound output issues especially with a soundbar. It's kind of sad. I've decided it's better to just not use the soundbar.

FriedrichN 6y ago

This whole thing where you have to sacrifice everything to big corps and buy new devices every year makes me not want to bother consuming any media at all to be honest. When I see people wrestle with all kinds of devices, services, and subscriptions I just get sad and start thinking if the juice is actually worth the squeeze and coming to the conclusion it really isn't.

tnzm 6y ago
So much this. Sadly, you and I are exceptions - caring about it only enough to voice our disregard for it. Usually, by the time a person is old enough to not need the churn of mass culture to be relevant to their peers, they're usually hooked on some brand or other of high-quality spam. Unlike street drugs, mass media rots your brain with full societal approval. This is nothing new of course - many writers, musicians, and filmmakers of the 20th century have expounded on the soul-crushing effects of commercialized culture. As expected, they have ended up being more obscure to the general public than the ones who embraced it. It was weird seeing for the first time a mainstream artist or work that risked to be slightly more original than the industry average (in order to reach a previously uncaptured audience segment) being lauded as some sort of genius, while its subject matter was the same old "hey you, yes you, buy a bigger TV!" Allocating resources and incentives (economy) and collectively deciding what's valuable and worth incentivizing (culture) are two separate layers of the social "stack". Advertising couples them in the worst possible way, effecting a positive feedback loop of wastage. The possibility that the emergent adtech hivemind's ultimate purpose is to measure and hone the efficiency of this mass pacification strategy is Orwellian par excellence. My answer to this? Just enough economic productivity to afford unabashed dirtbaggery on the cultural plane. Anyone who does not share this perspective is watching a different movie.
ksec 6y ago
>This whole thing where you have to sacrifice everything to big corps and buy new devices every year makes me not want to bother consuming any media at all to be honest. People said something similar 10 -15 years ago about pirating with bit-torrent. There was certain rage with them I couldn't understand. Now I finally feel the same. I think the age of Napster and BT will be back.

CarlosEscobedo 6y ago

why would you use a roku over NVIDIA shield?

npsimons 6y ago

> The reason I picked and stay with Roku is that they aren't married to a single Big Tech co. Same. I'm so sick of being locked into one system or another, having my eyeballs monetized, or getting the shitty version of an app because it isn't the vendor's platform. I got a Roku because they're as neutral as one can get, and so far I'm happy paying for YouTube Premium, Amazon Prime and Netflix. You tell me I can't run those on my Roku, well fuck you and your service.

judge2020 6y ago
> You tell me I can't run those on my Roku, well fuck you and your service. The thing is that Google shouldn't be forced to make their apps for the 30 different streaming box app stores if they don't want to. If there's no money to be made and they inherently lose money by tasking a team to keep the Roku app (or LG app or Samsung app, etc) up-to-date then they shouldn't have to. The Google Cast protocol is actually pretty open in this regard - the apps are just a combination of html, js, websocket, and a protobuf server with no need to publish anything - all the TV makers would have to do is embed Chrome (they would also have to use a not-e-waste chip to do so, though, as supporting 4k hardware vp9 and drm is intense and expensive). There also really isn't an app store that needs moderation or business deals to happen for your casting to work - the only registration is really so Google has a paper trail of accountability in order to prevent malware and perform some API calls (https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/registration https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/registration).
- chrismcb 6y ago
  They shouldn't be forced to... But their is money to be made. YouTube TV is a paid service. If I owned a Roku and YouTube TV want available for it I may cancel my subscription.
  - katbyte 6y ago
    Or you may drop the roku and get a device that supports YouTube. People can go either way
- 6y ago

scarface74 6y ago

Roku is actually more heavy handed than Apple. Apple allows any streaming provider to be on the AppleTV without making any kind of deal or negotiation. No, streaming providers do not have to give Apple a cut. They can force you to pay on their website. You can not pay for Hulu Live, Youtube Live TV, Netflix or many others through the App Store.

BeetleB 6y ago
> You can not pay for Hulu Live, Youtube Live TV, Netflix or many others through the App Store. Is this a comparison with Roku? Whenever I buy stuff using a Roku app, Roku is not involved.
- scarface74 6y ago
  The main point was that you can not just download the Roku SDK, make sure you follow their rules and submit it for approval. Roku wants revenue sharing deals - even for advertising - and sometimes asks for ad inventory. The comment you quoted was specifically for people who I knew would reply about Apple “forcing” content providers to use in app purchasing.
nl 6y ago
> Apple allows any streaming provider to be on the AppleTV without making any kind of deal or negotiation. Content providers do have to make deals to get on AppleTV. You just don't hear about it. Here's an example: "WarnerMedia has firmed up a distribution deal with Apple for distribution of its forthcoming streaming service HBO Max.... Under the deal, HBO Max will be available on Apple devices and integrated with the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV." (note the words "the deal") https://deadline.com/2020/04/hbo-max-apple-streaming-distribution-1202918784/ https://deadline.com/2020/04/hbo-max-apple-streaming-distrib... And there are few details around the HBO and CBS deal to get on Apple TV here: In a second sign of frayed relations between the two companies, Netflix has decided to opt out of the Apple bundle, which will upsell subscriptions to HBO and CBS in addition to its original programming https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/multimedia/netflix-apple-tv-streaming.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/multimedia/netflix-apple-...

cortesoft 6y ago

Although it sounds like you aren't immune to big tech riffs by using a roku, as this article shows.

wyldfire 6y ago

That's why I went all in on Rokus. But then there was a new tiff between Roku and WB/HBO. Can't win, I guess. Now I've got AppleTV and Rokus.

Causality1 6y ago

Personally I use Roku because it's the snappiest experience with the fewest crashes. I started with a Chromecast but its integration with Android was a little too deep: leaving wifi while casting YouTube would cause the YouTube app to hard lock into a "connecting to chromecast" error that persisted even after force-stopping the YouTube app. The second time I had to restart my phone because of that I chucked the Chromecast in the trash. Fire Stick is a joke. The wifi reception is terrible, the entire UI is laggier than my old cable box, and the apps crash on launch more often than not. Roku just works, and it works like something that was designed by professional adults and not blood-sucking marketeers eager to screw over their users to make an extra ten cents.

indigodaddy 6y ago
I have an older Roku 3 and a (2nd gen?) Amazon FireTV box (the flat box thing not the stick), and the sound from the FireTV box is far far superior than that of the Roku 3 (did a test using the same soundbar). Not sure if Roku has improved on its sound output since then or not (the Roku 3 I have is of course pretty old).
- zadkey 6y ago
  Also having sound output issues especially with a soundbar. It's kind of sad. I've decided it's better to just not use the soundbar.