Channels & viewing

[jbalboa]

Not true.  I never had that happen to me, until I replaced my roku with the express version, then it happens every time I wake up my TV from sleep mode.

[jbalboa]

No, because it only happens when you wake your TV from sleep mode.  It's Roku been stupid and greedy pushing apps without permission to gain profit from providers.

[jbalboa]

We should not have to click on a special button to avoid Roku from doing stupid stunts to generate more profit and piss off their customers.  It's a very desperate tactic and makes Roku look really bad.  It thought they had good business practices.  To wake up your TV, you should just hit "any" button, not some special button to avoid Roku's new annoyance.

[jbalboa]

Roku is becoming 3rd world desperate.

[jbalboa]

That sounds like a good idea, I'll set a PIN and hopefully that'll stop Roku from being so f*kng "unethical".

I used to look up to Roku, now they are totally devalued in my opinion...on par with FireStick...kind of creating the dilemma.

[jbalboa]

You should not have to bee careful what you press on.  You should be able to press any key to wake up your TV and not play the st*pid Roku greedy games.

[Roger_B]

If you are using a universal remote, it may be sending a "play" command at startup.  If Roku is set to use the default screen saver with quick-links for channels and shows, it may be selecting them with the "play" function at startup.
I use the Logitech Harmony remote and I had this issue.  However, in the Harmony setup application, I changed the settings for the Roku activity to NOT send a "play" command at startup.  It is easy!  For the Roku activity, select "customize options", then in the "play on enter" section select the "Do not send play" option.  So easy ... once I figured out what was happening.
Hopefully this will work for others!

[kharrrisma]

No "universal remote;" never use 'em.  Using original Roku controller that came with the Roku.  Channels are as I left them at power-off, and new ones are there on power up.  Stop pushing channels, Roku!

[atc98092]

I've been using Roku players for 10 years. The only time I've had channels added that I didn't explicitly select was when I added a new device to my account, and Roku always added a couple of "suggestions" that I simply removed. They never appeared again.

Roku doesn't make any money by pushing a channel to your device. They would only potentially receive something if you actually used a pushed channel and subscribe to something. 

If you don't want a channel added unless you explicitly request it, use a PIN to restrict channel installation and always use the Home button to wake the device out of sleep or screensaver. I don't consider using the Home button to be a significant effort on my part to wake the device. It's right there on top of the remote.

[Strega]

Years ago (5 or 6 I think) when my Roku was new, I pressed the play/pause button when the (probably default) screen saver was showing and it added a channel that was being advertised.  So, I just selected a screen saver without ads (such as the Roku clock screen savers) and haven’t had a channel added since then.  It's an odd thing for a screen saver to do, in my opinion, but as long as there are ad-free screen savers, then there is an easy fix.  (I'm pretty sure you can also turn the screen saver off entirely, and pressing a different button even in a screen saver with ads also works.  So lots of options - I'm sure most people can find some method that they are happy with.)