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Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV (arstechnica.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

231 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A patent application from the company spotted by Lowpass describes a system for displaying ads over any device connected over HDMI, a list that could include cable boxes, game consoles, DVD or Blu-ray players, PCs, or even other video streaming devices. Roku filed for the patent in August 2023 and it was published in November 2023, though it hasn't yet been granted.

The technology described would detect whether content was paused in multiple ways—if the video being displayed is static, if there's no audio being played, if a pause symbol is shown anywhere on screen, or if (on a TV with HDMI-CEC enabled) a pause signal has been received from some passthrough remote control. The system would analyze the paused image and use metadata "to identify one or more objects" in the video frame, transmit that identification information to a network, and receive and display a "relevant ad" over top of whatever the paused content is.

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[–] [email protected] 206 points 7 months ago (3 children)

tl;dr never buy anything Roku, ever again. Got it.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Roku has patented a way to ensure I don't buy their junk.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Roku about to patent a way to make you buy their junk.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just imagine they work out a deal with every consumer TV manufacturer to put this on everything.

[–] MaliciousKebab 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'll just buy a giant monitor then, it's better anyway.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 2 points 7 months ago

If only they made 60"+ monitors, I'd do the same. But since those don't really exist, the options are:

prevent TV from accessing the Internet
get a commercial grade monitor - more expensive
projector - most seem to not have smart nonsense
pihole - may or may not work

I'm going to try out the first, but allow certain accesses (Netflix and Disney+). If that works, I may not need to worry about the rest of the list.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Yeah... I've been evaluating moving to Plex or Jellyfin.

Kinda getting done with a lot of this smart stuff. The Monopolies are flexing and I don't enjoy it.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just do it. I ripped our DVDs and put them on my NAS with minidlna configured, and I can now stream my stuff directly to my TV through the "Photos and Videos" app. My other TV has a Raspberry Pi running Kodi, so if my next TV doesn't support dlna, I'll just do that.

Screw all of these companies and their predatory practices.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Jeff Geerling discusses having done the same, in one of his videos.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Fwiw, this was also on HN yesterday. Never tried it myself, though:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39941232

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Do it, it's great. The NVidia Shield is a great client for it but is getting more and more adds on the homescreen. The are alternative loaders without the add you can put on it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

You've got it the other way around. Roku sell their TVs at a loss. Buy one, use it as a dumb screen and help them go bankrupt faster.