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Comment by ehPReth | Hacker News Reader

I really hate Roku as a product, ads on the home screen and the remote(??) of something I paid for? No thanks. Though, I will concede it is cool to load mostly "unapproved" apps if the developer shares the app ID. (Certain x-rated sites liked to advertise they have a Roku app, something that would never make its way to most other TV boxes)

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That's par for the course nowadays, unfortunately. I couldn't name a smart TV system that doesn't have ads.

Roku is far from being the worst offender, my LG C2 that I paid out the nose for has the majority of the home screen taken up with ads.

> I couldn't name a smart TV system that doesn't have ads.

What do you consider to be ads? Apple TV is pretty tasteful in this regard. It never feels like I’m getting served an ad at all. In fact, with all Apple products I never feel like I’m getting served an ad.

I feel the same way about tvOS, but I've not used it without being subscribed to Apple TV, so I don't know if it pushes that hard if you don't have it. Otherwise the default screen has their service's stuff mixed in with other services (if they support that—some don't, like IIRC Netflix) and the amount of promotion isn't worse than if you're in another streaming app and they're trying to show you shows you're already paying for, that they want you to watch—and the actual app menu has none of that, no ads at all.

> but I've not used it without being subscribed to Apple TV, so I don't know if it pushes that hard if you don't have it

It doesn’t. The only apple product I’m pushed to use is iCloud on my phone and computer which is quite aggressive because it’s a notification you can’t disable .

Apple TV shows promotions for apps in the top row. These are ads. They are often shows the user isn't interested in, but the service is interested in pushing.

I'm pretty sure thats a feature for any app you put in the top row. If you have Netflix in that row it will show you recommended.

It is. Each app decides what goes at the top, not tvOS or some ad system. It’s why some apps show nothing there.

But I don't have to pay extra for those Netflix shows. If you don't have Apple TV+, those cost extra, making it far more of an ad than Netflix simply displaying other shows on their service.

They're still ads, though.

Yes, I meant Apple TV the device.

my samsung has a permanent ad for appletv, and I'm an apple hater, so I will never buy it and I can't easily make it go away, which makes me hate it more.

...Dear God, it's been so long since a time where there wasn't continuous exposure to ads, that people are starting to argue that certain types of being advertised to aren't advertisements.

Truly, we have have fallen far away from the light of $DEITY.

Apple TV doesn’t have ads.

It basically has ads with the default home screen setup to show you what's new on ATV+ and iTunes. Slightly more tasteful than McDonald's McDelivery Banner ads but it's essentially the same.

The background-banner at the top of the Home Screen shows banners from the currently highlighted app - if you remove the AppleTV+ app from the top-row of your home-screen then you don’t see any promotions of any kind.

> It basically has ads with the default home screen setup to show you what's new on ATV+ and iTunes.

This objection perplexes me. What would you rather have on the Home Screen? A blank screen? A list sorted from A-Z. Oldest to newest (for the most compulsive of TV viewers?)

Something not trying to sell me something or get me to subscribe to a service? You know, not ads?

> I couldn't name a smart TV system that doesn't have ads.

Which is the #2 reason why I won't ever own a smart TV system.

I went away from it, but ultimately came back because its universal search worked best for me. Fire Stick, Chromecast w/ Google TV, and Apple TV all routinely were unable to inform me that a show or movie I searched for was available for me to stream on a service I already subscribed to.

At least on my Roku I can turn most of the fluff off, and I'm much more confident I won't spend money renting something I have available to stream for free. Beyond the basics of 4K and HDR support, I didn't realize this would be the most important thing to me.

Edit: saw this article not 60 seconds later haha https://www.theverge.com/23621907/streaming-tv-boxes-roku-am...?

I promise you, LG's WebOS is worse in almost every conceivable way.

Rubbish. My webOS TV has proper filtering at the router level and has exactly 0 ads on it. Having full root access is great too.

I also think it’s appalling how much input lag there is with these devices. It’s 2023 and there’s seconds long delay between input and response with these things. I get they’re cheap but how much CPU is needed to move a cursor?

I’ve tried pretty much all of them except Apple TV, and I’d say Roku is the least laggy overall. Our FireTV devices became so laggy they were unusable. Android TV isn’t too bad, but Roku feels a bit more responsive to me.

This depends highly on the app that's being used. The Roku OS itself is responsive, but app quality varies widely.

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