Opinions on the Roku TV that they are now advertising on Roku free channels?

P

philb2

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 26, 2021
Messages
1,860
We have been watching the Great British Baking Show using our Roku stick. (It's a free program.) Lately we get 1-2 ads an hour for Roku TV. The ads are pretty stupid, really. "Just trust us," seems to be the underlying message. No real reasons to actually buy a Roku TV instead of the latest SamSung or LG.

Anyone have any opinions or perspectives on why buying a Roku TV is a good idea or a bad idea?
Is Roku itself the manufacturer? Or is someone else making the sets, and adding the Roku-specific features? Who? What are the specs?
 
I bought a Roku TV, and ditched cable. For me, it saved me about 175.00 per month. Cable was a additional 90.00 per month,, plus the additional shows that I wanted to watch "in prime" aka new releases were 40 per month. The rest were niche shows, and I realized I didn't need them.
 
philb2 said:
We have been watching the Great British Baking Show using our Roku stick. (It's a free program.) Lately we get 1-2 ads an hour for Roku TV. The ads are pretty stupid, really. "Just trust us," seems to be the underlying message. No real reasons to actually buy a Roku TV instead of the latest SamSung or LG.

Anyone have any opinions or perspectives on why buying a Roku TV is a good idea or a bad idea?
Is Roku itself the manufacturer? Or is someone else making the sets, and adding the Roku-specific features? Who? What are the specs?
Click to expand...
I've been dealing with Roku since at least 2015 when the cable company wanted to charge us an additional 'broadcast fee' for having news on a tv in our hotel lobby. I got a roku and started streaming some sort of live news that was 'good enough'.

The roku devices are by roku and the channels can be created by others or are by roku (there's a whole underground set of adult roku channels if you look for them and manually add the channels). The roku interface is quite nice and simple. I actually prefer it to most tv's built-in interface. One additional feature that's nice about roku is that it can search many 'services' at once if you're looking for something. It's not 100%, but sure beats loading up each service and searching each one individually.

The roku tv's are not made by roku and are basically a roku interface as the only interface for the tv. Personally, I think it's too limiting, but I can see how its simplicity is appealing.
 
SamirD said:
I've been dealing with Roku since at least 2015 when the cable company wanted to charge us an additional 'broadcast fee' for having news on a tv in our hotel lobby. I got a roku and started streaming some sort of live news that was 'good enough'.

The roku devices are by roku and the channels can be created by others or are by roku (there's a whole underground set of adult roku channels if you look for them and manually add the channels). The roku interface is quite nice and simple. I actually prefer it to most tv's built-in interface. One additional feature that's nice about roku is that it can search many 'services' at once if you're looking for something. It's not 100%, but sure beats loading up each service and searching each one individually.
Click to expand...

Nice.
SamirD said:
The roku tv's are not made by roku and are basically a roku interface as the only interface for the tv. Personally, I think it's too limiting, but I can see how its simplicity is appealing.
Click to expand...
So I just looked up "Roku TV" and got a list of different makes and models. I was not impressed. I am not super knowledgeable about TVs, but it seems to me that these are all second tier brands. Nothing from Samsung or LG,etc.
 
philb2 said:
So I just looked up "Roku TV" and got a list of different makes and models. I was not impressed. I am not super knowledgeable about TVs, but it seems to me that these are all second tier brands. Nothing from Samsung or LG,etc.
Click to expand...
Yes, generally they are second-tier brands. All the top tiers have their own interfaces, and you can always just get a roku box. That's what we did when my parents sharp thx display built-in netflix could no longer do 4k (or maybe it was prime? one of the services).
 
SamirD said:
Yes, generally they are second-tier brands. All the top tiers have their own interfaces, and you can always just get a roku box. That's what we did when my parents sharp thx display built-in netflix could no longer do 4k (or maybe it was prime? one of the services).
Click to expand...

The Roku TV's generally stop getting updates after a year or two as well. They support their standalone boxes for a lot longer time period.
 
ND40oz said:
The Roku TV's generally stop getting updates after a year or two as well. They support their standalone boxes for a lot longer time period.
Click to expand...
Good to know.

I was in the local Best Buy store today to buy a new Ethernet switch (TL; DR) so I also checked out the TVs. Amazing how good the picture looks in 4K. Much better than our old Samsung 720 vertical lines. But I did not see a single TV with a Roku sign, even though Roku includes a line about their TVs being available at Best Buy.

The more I learn about these Roku TVs the less I would ever buy one.
 
philb2 said:
Good to know.

I was in the local Best Buy store today to buy a new Ethernet switch (TL; DR) so I also checked out the TVs. Amazing how good the picture looks in 4K. Much better than our old Samsung 720 vertical lines. But I did not see a single TV with a Roku sign, even though Roku includes a line about their TVs being available at Best Buy.

The more I learn about these Roku TVs the less I would ever buy one.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's totally ridiculous how good the picture looks on some of these things (see them all the time at costco). The Roku TVs are more of a walmart products line.
 
SamirD said:
Yeah, it's totally ridiculous how good the picture looks on some of these things (see them all the time at costco). The Roku TVs are more of a walmart products line.
Click to expand...
I really don't get what the Roku management is thinking. Common sense is that you partner with the leading brands. Partnering the crap brands make you also look like crap. But hey, Roku didn't ask for my opinion.
 
philb2 said:
I really don't get what the Roku management is thinking. Common sense is that you partner with the leading brands. Partnering the crap brands make you also look like crap. But hey, Roku didn't ask for my opinion.
Click to expand...
70 Polara said:
Actually Roku is making their own branded TVs now. Friend of mine bought the one above a few months ago and so far so good.
Click to expand...
Interesting. So they pulled a Hyundai/Kia, lol (anyone remember their crappy early cars?)
 
We have a TCL TV with Roku interface. It's been pretty damn good to us. Interface is nice, it updates, plays 4k HDR, Dolby Vision, etc. all beautifully.

However, keep in mind that Roku sends out an absolutely insane amount of information. Pretty much every damn button press on that remote is uploaded.
1692054437731.png

I block a roku domain about once every 5 seconds. That's with the TV "off" as well. And those are just the domains that I can block and still have everything working correctly.
 
I currently have 4x of their standalone boxes (since 2012), as well as one of their recent "StreamBar" combo units, and have been very happy with all of them...super nice interface and zero issues over the years...

HOWEVER, I don't think I would buy a Roku "TV" unless they could prove that the TV parts were made by someone like Sammy, Sony or LG and merely loaded up with their software/interface....and since the ones I have seen are relatively inexpensive, I don't think that is the case...

I know all "smart" tv's can access the majority of the streaming channels, but 99.9% of the TV makers have interfaces that absolutely suk wallah, even the top tier brands...
 
I have a 43' Hisense 4K /60Hz Roku with built in gaming mode for consoles, it was cheap at Wal- Mart for $228 and it has done a good job for what it is and new last November, it's not Free Sync but AMD does a good job on the TV paired with a RX 6600 or RX 6700 and gaming or desktop as to scale a little better than RTX 3070 with the TV.

Not long ago we were at 4K 30Hz.
 
TheSlySyl said:
We have a TCL TV with Roku interface. It's been pretty damn good to us. Interface is nice, it updates, plays 4k HDR, Dolby Vision, etc. all beautifully.

However, keep in mind that Roku sends out an absolutely insane amount of information. Pretty much every damn button press on that remote is uploaded.
View attachment 590352
I block a roku domain about once every 5 seconds. That's with the TV "off" as well. And those are just the domains that I can block and still have everything working correctly.
Click to expand...
I was curious about this myself, so I checked what my parent's roku is attached to as it is currently 'off'. Just one IP, but it's been attached for a long time:
192.168.1.513.94.211.12350Outgoing2,342,9788 bps550:15:35
 
SamirD said:
I was curious about this myself, so I checked what my parent's roku is attached to as it is currently 'off'. Just one IP, but it's been attached for a long time:
192.168.1.513.94.211.12350Outgoing2,342,9788 bps550:15:35
Click to expand...

Absolutely insane the amount of "telemetry" ROKU acquires...

But.. as that famous saying goes.. "If it is free... .. "
 
crazycrave said:
I have a 43' Hisense 4K /60Hz Roku with built in gaming mode for consoles, it was cheap at Wal- Mart for $228 and it has done a good job for what it is and new last November, it's not Free Sync but AMD does a good job on the TV paired with a RX 6600 or RX 6700 and gaming or desktop as to scale a little better than RTX 3070 with the TV.

Not long ago we were at 4K 30Hz.
Click to expand...

We have a couple of Hisense 4K Roku's.. and one being from Wal-Mart... interesting results on the one from Wal-Mart though.. .I'm a believer these things from Wal-Mart are exclusive in some way... The Emby application on the Wal-Mart one will buffer some of my content that will play just fine to the Roku TV in our bedroom, which is on the other end of the home.. furthest away from the wifi and emby server ...
I wouldn't be surprised if the "Wal-Mart" ones are neutered/crippled in some way..
 
jlbenedict said:
We have a couple of Hisense 4K Roku's.. and one being from Wal-Mart... interesting results on the one from Wal-Mart though.. .I'm a believer these things from Wal-Mart are exclusive in some way... The Emby application on the Wal-Mart one will buffer some of my content that will play just fine to the Roku TV in our bedroom, which is on the other end of the home.. furthest away from the wifi and emby server ...
I wouldn't be surprised if the "Wal-Mart" ones are neutered/crippled in some way..
Click to expand...
Likely a lower power chipset to save costs.
https://developer.roku.com/docs/specs/hardware.md

You can find out exactly what chipset you have by going to options - System - "About".

Our living room roku - which can handle pretty much anything (was a top end unit in 2019)- is an A115X, the bedroom Roku, lower end 4k from 2015ish, is a 7105X.
 
Last edited:
jlbenedict said:
I wouldn't be surprised if the "Wal-Mart" ones are neutered/crippled in some way
Click to expand...
Yep, they are, because lets face it...wally offers contracts to any mfgr that can make stuff for them that will hit it's target price point, regardless of how many corners have to be cut in the process...

My son found this out the hard way...

He needed tires for his car last year, and found some budget "Goodyears" at wallyworld with a so-called 60k mile tread life.... they lasted all of 21K miles.....and yes, his car has always been very well maintained, with alignments/rotate/balance, pressure checks, shocks & struts on the mfgr's recommended schedules etc...

But when we asked wallyworld about a prorated warranty replacement, they said "we don't make the tires, so take it up with Goodyear", so we did, and Goodyear said " you bought them at wallyworld, so take it up with them"

Life lesson learned :D
 
I've been using Roku devices for ages and prefer TVs with Roku OS now when possible. That said we don't use any of the free chanels \ content. We primarily use Netflix, Hulu, Plex, Paramount plus, and Peacock.

We have a Samsung smart TV that is admittedly older, but the OS is total garbage with constant performance issues and no apps for more recent streaming platforms. Similarly we have a Roku box that's 2-3 times older on a dumb TV chugging along without any trouble.
 
philb2 said:
I really don't get what the Roku management is thinking. Common sense is that you partner with the leading brands. Partnering the crap brands make you also look like crap. But hey, Roku didn't ask for my opinion.
Click to expand...
Leading brands? Several of the "popular" candidates are pushing their own "smart" OS's. Not saying there still aren't some choices, just don't expect folks like Samsung or LG.
 
dogDAbone said:
Yep, they are, because lets face it...wally offers contracts to any mfgr that can make stuff for them that will hit it's target price point, regardless of how many corners have to be cut in the process...

My son found this out the hard way...

He needed tires for his car last year, and found some budget "Goodyears" at wallyworld with a so-called 60k mile tread life.... they lasted all of 21K miles.....and yes, his car has always been very well maintained, with alignments/rotate/balance, pressure checks, shocks & struts on the mfgr's recommended schedules etc...

But when we asked wallyworld about a prorated warranty replacement, they said "we don't make the tires, so take it up with Goodyear", so we did, and Goodyear said " you bought them at wallyworld, so take it up with them"

Life lesson learned :D
Click to expand...
FWIW, tires and brakes are the two areas I'll never compromise in terms of performance. So I'm getting the highest performance tires and brakes at the cheapest possible price, which is usually on par with what 'regular' stuff costs without shopping around.

I've bought all my tires except one set for my Porsche from a particular Firestone that for decades now has given 'me $1 over cost' prices. Basically this amounts to just at or under Tire Rack's cheapest for the exact same tire. Plus, I know exactly who I'm working with and they typically let me in the shop to help mount/dismount the tires from my car since I use hand tools only and torque wrenches. Having proper traction in the worst conditions has saved me much more than even if I bought the tires at full price--it's the only thing between you and the road as some famous brand tire company once stated in an ad campaign decades ago.

Brakes are something that you can do yourself with time and patience and are far better than what any 'discount shop' is using. Those brake pads were $5/ea wholesale 15yrs ago and are probably now still the same price. Same for the rotors. A significant quality drop from factory, and far worse than performance parts that are around factory replacement prices, but offer better performance. I know my brake upgrades have also paid dividends many times over.

It's horrible that companies are playing those third world games here as this is typical what you will find in...you guessed it...the third world. Games, shenanigans, bait and switch, flat out lies--all this stuff we've started to deal with once we entered the 'global economy'. :rolleyes: Consumers didn't have the foresight to realize that they got more than just cheap prices when dealing with the third world--they'd also got the business practices. :banghead:
 
Kardonxt said:
Similarly we have a Roku box that's 2-3 times older on a dumb TV chugging along without any trouble.
Click to expand...
This is what the Roku boxes are great for. I've tried to add it to one of my newer work monitors, but that didn't work so well since it was going through a kvm, lol.
 
Here is my RX 6600 on the $228 Roku TV, the stand alone 4K UHD box is $99, buying the TV gives you that built in and as you see some have a built in Game Mode for Consoles that work well with X Box game bar and direct storage, WD SN570 1Tb is running the game on B550/5600x/32Gb of system memory 4 x 8Gb and the RX 6600 is in PCIe 4 via HDMI with Sam on running driver 23 .7 .2 with Re Live recording , if you can provide the horsepower it will give all the 4K gaming you want at 60Hz and it's not so cheap looking that one would think on Image for what you pay!
6Series43 (RKU0000)
1440p and you will never get this review from LTT


View: https://youtu.be/z4zT6w1RgII

2160p, video still doing 4K processing.


View: https://youtu.be/8w4XSfYHR2Y
 
Last edited:
I have a related question on Roku Ultra: if I want to watch 2 hr. of CNBC, (8 to 10 am, Squawk on the Street), and CNBC Themselves does NOT have it as On Demand, is there a way to record w/ the Roku?

because w/ Youtube TV you can record your own show, but I don't know how it works w/ Roku Ultra

and if there is no way to record, say Roku doesn't sell cloud storage, is there a 3rd party cloud storage that can work w/ CNBC
 
Last edited:
SamirD said:
This is what the Roku boxes are great for. I've tried to add it to one of my newer work monitors, but that didn't work so well since it was going through a kvm, lol.
Click to expand...
Yep. I use a Roku with a 47" TV from 2009. Ok, so I don't watch much TV. IMHO smart TVs are a waste. A TV should just be a monitor, maybe with an OTA tuner and speakers. Unless you want to upgrade all the time whatever smart TV you buy is going to turn into a monitor eventually. It'll be like "new TV or new $50 streaming stick." Not a hard choice unless you're one of those people who has to have the latest and greatest TV all the time. I don't use the tuner or speakers in my TV. It's hooked up to a receiver and speakers for sound, and I use a Tablo + Roku for OTA TV. Tablo is a network DVR & OTA tuner, so I can stream live or recorded broadcast TV to any device on my network, including the Roku plugged into my TV.
 
Happy Hopping said:
I go thru the fine print of a gadget called AVermedia, I think it's the same as Tablo, but it says it won't record HDCP copyright material. I wonder if anyone has try this box and is able to record tv show or not

https://www.avermedia.com/product-detail/ER330
Click to expand...
Judging from the specs it's totally different. That AVermedia gizmo records from HDMI, so you can run a signal into it from a PC, Console, etc. and it doesn't look like it has a TV tuner. HDCP is a security spec for DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort (and USB-C/Thunderbolt) The Tablo only supports watching and recording over the air broadcast TV from an antenna.
 
then it's too many unknown. Which streaming provider has the lowest price when it comes to say only less than 10 hr. of recording needed? Realistically, I only need 3 to 4 hr. So I don't need hot shot like Youtube TV
 
Happy Hopping said:
I go thru the fine print of a gadget called AVermedia, I think it's the same as Tablo, but it says it won't record HDCP copyright material. I wonder if anyone has try this box and is able to record tv show or not

https://www.avermedia.com/product-detail/ER330
Click to expand...
I have an Avermedia gaming capture card, pretty nice card - captures 4k60 perfectly. https://www.avermedia.com/product-detail/GC553

I'm sure this is similar tech, just repackaged and with slightly different software to make it more "media" instead of "gamer."

Mine also doesn't do HDCP. It's absolutely by design. I don't care though, because for my use its unnecessary.
 
Happy Hopping said:
so just to be clear, when your one doesn't do HDCP, then you can't record any show?

since I post the above, I have found this soln:

https://www.playon.tv/cloud
Click to expand...
You can record over the air TV but you can't record cable, movies or most streaming networks. You also need to change a setting in a weird place to stream PS5 through it (which disables blu-ray playback and some streaming services.)
 
I want to understand this: in the days when we use DVD recorder, we recorded a show, say it's a 2 hr. business news segment, and I need 10 min. out of the 2 hr., I would cut out the before and after segment, and leave the segment I wanted in my DVD recorder. But if you record it in the cloud, how would you keep a segment and transfer it somehow?
 
Happy Hopping said:
I want to understand this: in the days when we use DVD recorder, we recorded a show, say it's a 2 hr. business news segment, and I need 10 min. out of the 2 hr., I would cut out the before and after segment, and leave the segment I wanted in my DVD recorder. But if you record it in the cloud, how would you keep a segment and transfer it somehow?
Click to expand...
You don't.
 
There are ways to do this with Plex using an OTA tuner, but I don't think this device works that way.
 
TheSlySyl said:
There are ways to do this with Plex using an OTA tuner, but I don't think this device works that way.
Click to expand...
Yeah a clear Ota signal with no copy protection flag can be recorded even today. :)

He's asking how to record cable news off of a cloud provider though which isn't an option.
 
so the old days of recording a segment of a program is gone? but what happens if that piece of news is important or you want to keep a copy
 
Happy Hopping said:
so the old days of recording a segment of a program is gone? but what happens if that piece of news is important or you want to keep a copy
Click to expand...
You gotta find a different way of recording it.
If its a major news network, they probably have a clip on YouTube or whatever. If it's a local news network, gotta record it from a local channel. Pretty much everything is backed up somewhere today, no show is aired without a copy somewhere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top