Just started yesterday on live tv channel guide at top of screen when you press the left arrow to browse channels squares at top of screen appear that shows other shows playing now

Hey everyone! Thanks for sharing your feedback on the Live TV Channel Guide. This feature is designed to enhance your streaming experience by showing current shows when browsing channels. We value your input and have shared it with our team. If you have any more questions or additional feedback, don't hesitate to reach out! Note: We'll mark this post as solved for visibility and as a reference for other users.Thanks again,The Roku Community Team

Live TV Channel Guide: View Current Shows When Browsing Channels

156 Replies

randy8245
Binge Watcher
4 months ago
"We totally understand that having the favorites above the TV guide is inconvenient for you."
You're joking right?
If that's the honest answer and you realized that making this change would be scrupulous and no help, then why did you add it so that it would make it harder to use the channel guide in the first place?

Please change it back to the way the guide worked before when you didn't have to click through unsightly tiles.
There are 2 other places I can access favorites if I want to see them.
Kat56
Reel Rookie
4 months ago
Hate it, why Roku doesn't leave well enough alone !! I have to click vlick click ,ridiculous! Scroll down to get any type of guide to come up, no one likes the change, click on guide, want only guide, want apps we'll click on apps, the tiles take up the whole top of tv screen, only get 4 lines of guide, stupid!!
Rkusks777
Newbie
4 months ago
what solution, this just started on my tv today, February 20th 2025. what is the solution, this really sucks.
- tmitch120
  Channel Surfer
  4 months ago
  I also was just victimized by this. Thank you Roku for what is going to be a terrific, daily time-waster and I'm sure will be another opportunity for me to regret convincing my elderly father to buy a Roku TV. He rarely uses anything more than his OTA channels and he will no doubt call me in the morning to ask me to "fix it".
  
  Just for reference, many folks don't actually consider turning Live TV into a time-suck like typical streaming apps to be a positive thing. Please allow us to hide that row just like the "features" that we can hide on the home screen.
Barnabas
Channel Surfer
4 months ago
RokuEmmanuel-D, Thank you for responding, but you apparently missed or ignored my reply to your original post.
In your original post you said "Please let us (know) if you need further clarification or need more help." Did you really mean this?
We do need clarification. Can you please tell us why Roku thought this new "feature" is better. We are willing to listen. Please help us understand.
RokuMaryEFWhy does Roku get to decide which response to my problem is the "Solution"? Your Solution is NOT the solution, unless Rokus's policy is to ignore the customer.

O.P.
Joelsalinas
Newbie
4 months ago
Please remove them it is VERY annoying
JCG75
Streaming Star
4 months ago
Well, suck a bag of *****. I just went online and purchased a Google TV. I've been using Roku for over a decade and you finally ran me off.
- DJHawk
  Binge Watcher
  4 months ago
  I also just bought a Google TV to replace my old office TV at my store, and a Tivo stick for that old TV which I moved to the repair shop. I like Roku overall, but this new "Menu Feature" they jammed down our throats is absolute garbage and a non starter for me. No more Roku's unless they start actually listening to us.
- winston3338
  Roku Guru
  4 months ago
  Where is everyone getting the Google TVs? Is it at BestBuy? I'm 71 and just got out of the hospital and I don't have much time left and I'm sick of Tony and his Roku TV joke
  - easytodobetter
    Roku Guru
    4 months ago
    winston3338
    Personally that's a bad recommendation to me. I don't know why anyone would think Google is an upgrade over Roku, they've routinely done this same thing to customers, like ignoring feature requests for over a decade.
    You can simply install Plex, a free app that all Roku's can download, and use their MUCH BETTER free live streaming TV.
    You might need to make an account, I can't recall. But it's free. You don't need their "Pass".
    And then tadaa, a working TV guide and hundreds of the same channels like, one of my favorites, modern marvels.
    Hope this helps!
escapeartista
Newbie
4 months ago
This is a HUGE issue for me. I can no longer see what channel I am on. When I go to live TV and watch the show from the previously selected channel, I try to go to the directory to see what channel I am on and it no longer will show me, it just takes me to the main guide with the carousel above the guide showing my visuals of other channels. I DON'T need this, please tell me how to revert back to the previous version of the guide. I can't find the channel info or episode info, I want to see what show I'm watching and the description but this new format is now blocking that function.
StevenCee
Roku Guru
4 months ago
I'm watching a show on one of the Roku live channels, hit the left hand button, to see what's on some other channels, while a commercial plays, or as I listen to the news. But instead of showing me both the information about the show I'm watching, and enabling me to scroll through the Channel Guide, it immediately takes me to an entirely different channel!! WTH?

It seems that you've now put yet another layer of bells & whistles to the mix, which is of course, complicating the process of navigating channels. There's now a top layer of show windows above the entire Guide, so that once you hit the left hand button, poof, you're suddenly on the show that's first in that line!! Where of course, I had no intention of wanting to go, and now I'm in a completely different position on the channel guide, no longer seeing/hearing the show I was in the middle of, and now am forced to do a number of extra clicking around, just to get back to where I was, IF, it is showing up in the Recents list (as sometimes the most recent shows aren't).

This extra added layer of complication is hardly a worthwhile addition! There are already rows of "suggested shows" in the menu when you click on Roku Live, in fact, often I have to scroll way down, to finally get to the actual Roku Live option, so why add even more once someone is already watching a show??? If I want to see other channels, I have the Guide, or I can hit the "Recommended" list, or go back to the opening page! WE DON'T NEED ALL THIS REPLICATION!!
Plus, it means, I can't even use the "Last Channel" option to return to my show, once involuntarily taken away to another one! I have to scroll here & there, to finally get back. And it also cancels out any previous channel I had been going back & forth from, just more aggravation! Tell your people to quit dropping these redundant & unwanted complications into the mix. It's hard enough just to be able to do simple things as it is, why add more confusion?
- nixo
  Binge Watcher
  4 months ago
  TOTALLY agree with this user. I HATE this new channel feature. Yeah, it’s one click away from the channel choice selection menu, but it’s one click that I have to do EVERY SINGLE TIME I change the channel. (EVERY SINGLE TIME, EVERY SINGLE TIME, EVERY SINGLE TIME … point taken?).
  
  Atrocious interface design and so avoidable. Why not make this a user-choice selectable option in the Home prefs? Why force a totally untested, unwelcome and arbitrary major interface change on your unsuspecting customers? Very condescending and un-user-centric. Did you imagine you were trying to vaguely emulate TickTock? What a horrible, half-baked idea; pls toss it into the trashbin of history, asap. Thanks.
  - nixo
    Binge Watcher
    4 months ago
    And some related comments: As a user, I don’t want Roku’s channel suggestions. I’ll choose my own, thanks. The endless repeat Roku channel adverts during the show brakes are so very tiresome. I’d rather watch your partner Pluto TV’s mindless break time spacescapes.
    
    But what _astounds_ me is the amount of commercial revenue Roku is foregoing by not selling that break time. You have likely millions of eyeballs available for local/regional and national ad content/sales that you’re not monetizing, and giving up for nothing, 24-7. Plus Roku is losing out on all the massive amounts of related user data tied to ad views that it could be compiling and selling.
    
    Who on earth is running the profit-making side of the enterprise to be incurring these lost ad sales opportunities, ad nauseam? (Ha ha, what a pun… but actually sad.) Is Roku’s ads pricing model simply way off? There’s gotta be more of an ad market here for you.
    
    To be clear, as a user, I’d hate more ads. But ads filling up that unsold airtime would be no worse than endless annoying Roku channel promos and all the other duplicative content Roku and its partners serve up during the show breaks.
    
    At the same time, I want Roku to be as financially healthy and stable as possible, so that you can continue to serve up the content I do like and chose you for. So get with the ad $$ program, folks!
    
    => Would appreciate it if you’d share this comment with management, esp the marketing and business teams. Thanks!
- DarkAngel24
  Channel Surfer
  4 months ago
  StevenCee
  
  Oh, I SO agree with you!! You stated the issue so well.
  I don't understand why they feel the need to keep adding "features" that are just the same thing in a slightly different format. All it does is cause the user to have to go through more unnecessary steps to get to what they want to see.
  Why can't they offer a simple, slimmed down option for people who just want to use the TV without having to feel like they are being forced to go through a maze? Or jump through hoops?
  Especially since the remote sold with the TV is so limited and you don't even have numbers to use on it. (If anyone mentions the ROKU app to have a remote on your phone, I am aware of that option but for reasons unknown to me I can't get that to work with my TV. 🤷🏼‍♀️)
  At least, make it possible for users to go into Settings and either turn ON or OFF what they want or don't want. There are a few places in the settings with that option already (just a few) so please make that an option for more stuff like this new addition to the guide.
  I feel like the TV gets hijacked with each new, significant update. Can we please have a little more control** or say over how our purchased TV operates?
  ** And when I say "a little more control" what I really mean is "a lot more control" or preferably "complete control" but that's unlikely to happen.
  - easytodobetter
    Roku Guru
    4 months ago
    DarkAngel24Working in both hardware and software development for decades, I can bet that they won't add a setting for this, and further complicate their software.
    I'm just managing expectations here, not trying to be the bad guy.
    It's just how companies like this handle software, if they added settings for everything it would become a mess. It's extremely rare, preferable to have a proper solution like Google TV, Plex, and many others have. Plex just uses tabs at the top of the guide, SO EASY. Why Roku can't copy that is because they're bad at their jobs, simple as that. It's not patents or intellectual property or anything else, Roku has worthlessly bad software developers and isn't giving this project the right resources.
    They'll likely just roll it back if at all, so far there's no hope that they're hearing us or care, no official response, they're likely waiting for us to give up and get used to it or they've even calculated that losing a certain amount of customers is acceptable for "progress" if that's what they try to call this mess.
- andyross
  Roku Guru
  4 months ago
  It's all to "improve" the user experience!!
  
  Roku Upgrades Its Live TV Guide Upgrade for Enhanced Viewing Experience on Roku TV & Roku Players as The Roku Channel Tops 500 Free Live Channels
  - 3lliot
    Channel Surfer
    4 months ago
    How do you turn this off? It's annoying and means I now have to do *even more* navigation to get to my favourite channels:
    1. Down to get off the irrelevant 'On Now' list which I 100% do not care about.
    2. Left to get to the Categories and get off 'All Channels', which I also don't care about
    3. Down again twice to get past 'Recommended Channels', which I also don't care about, to my Favourites list, which amazingly enough I actually do care about, because IT'S MY FAVOURITES LIST.
    Every time you guys do an update you make things worse. If you're going to add new features to the guide, add an option to turn them off - it's basic UX design. Really guys this is junior level 101 software design principles.
    You should also provide options to set Favourite Channels as the default top entry in the categories. The whole point of a Favourites list is it's a shortcut. You shouldn't make people navigate through a menu system to get there - it should be front & centre when you open the guide.
    I don't want all this **bleep** that you *think* I want to look at. You've designed an extremely annoying UI. Get it together.
MickNeil
Newbie
4 months ago
This feature change does not improve anything. It is extremely annoying and to get where I'm trying to go I have to click more. FYI: More clicks to do the same thing is WORSE not better. This change is bad. If you insist on leaving this 'very bad idea' in place, please give us users more control over the TV's we paid for and let us turn this OFF. I do not enjoy these constant 'problems' called updates that Roku introduces to my devices and TVs. Please do more thinking and customer feedback research before doing this kind of stuff or you won't have any customers left to screw with. And while you're at it, QUIT changing my backgrounds and themes!!!
MickNeil
Newbie
4 months ago
Please give me instructions on turning off (or getting rid of) the change you made to my TV that puts favorite icons above the Live TV listings. It is NOT an improvement and has made my Roku experience less satisfying and less pleasant.
This feature change does not improve anything. It is extremely annoying and to get where I'm trying to go I have to click more. FYI: More clicks to do the same thing is WORSE not better. This change is bad. If you insist on leaving this 'very bad idea' in place, please give us users more control over the TV's we paid for and let us turn this OFF. I do not enjoy these constant 'problems' called updates that Roku introduces to my devices and TVs. Please do more thinking and customer feedback research before doing this kind of stuff or you won't have any customers left to screw with. And while you're at it, QUIT changing my backgrounds and themes!!!
- JCG75
  Streaming Star
  4 months ago
  You don't appreciate anything.
  Literally UI/UX design 101 is to minimize clicks and clutter. Fire whoever implemented this change without an option for people to disable it.
  - dogeatfish2
    Newbie
    4 months ago
    Is it possible to remove this feature? Every time I go back to the live guide it defaults to the top options, it is highly annoying and I’m thinking now about selling my TV.
- DJHawk
  Binge Watcher
  4 months ago
  Not a word for over 2 months when we were telling you what a bad idea this is, but now that you've apparently unleashed this garbage on more of your customers base and getting flooded with negative feedback, you're going to inform your "Team"? Should we believe you, this time? I quote; "Our team has acknowledged your feedback, and we'll review this further." Because you've done NOTHING up to this point except apparently dump this on more clients again without getting any input from any of us.
  As one of the previous poster suggested, maybe actually try asking your customers what they want before forcing unwanted changes on a product they already purchased and cannot return. This is NOT an improvement, not by any stretch. If anything it appears to be an attempt to push unwanted content on us that we're not looking for. At least give us the option to turn this "feature" off. Because the "Menu" button should actually give us, the menu.
- DarkAngel24
  Channel Surfer
  4 months ago
  MickNeil
  I wholeheartedly agree with you!
  Please let us have control over these "features" and let us turn them OFF if we want, on a TV we purchased.