Channels & viewing

[oesibius]

...ok so the list is a bit bigger, so what? Yet there is no reasonable, explainable, defendable reason to remove a most basic feature like Search function from the system in other countries/regions. Seriously, the point is not about which country it is or is not available, it's about the principle of removing such basic functionality from any country. Dumbest and most undefendable decision ever made in application design.

[DBDukes]

Buying something that isn’t supported and then complaining about it not working? Huh. 

[oesibius]

You clearly don't get my point... 

First of all, I have my Roku for about 3 years and I'm pretty sure that I had functionalities before that got removed during automatic version upgrades.

Then overall the Roku is working, we use it to watch Netflix on our TV without issue.

BUT, supported or not in whichever country, I'm addressing the conceptual idea that someone in a DevOp team decided to REMOVE a functionality, a BASIC one, from those countries. On what ground is that decision made??

Either they make the Roku system not available at all (but why lose potential sales?), or they say "it's available, it will most likely work, but we won't provide you support". Fine, I can live with that. But there's fundamental difference between that and a deliberate decision to disable a basic Search function. Seriously, what were they thinking???

[DBDukes]

You have a utility shed. You tell your family they can use your lawn mower. You leave the shed unlocked. Your family members use your lawn mower. 

I come along. Not a family member. But I see you have a lawn mower in an unlocked shed and lots of people using it. So I use it. 

Later, you put a lock on the shed. Now I can’t use the lawn mower. I see other people with a key using it. Should I complain about the lock?

[Strega]

For what it's worth, I used to work for one of the largest technology companies in the world and in my spare time I would sometimes check out various forums about us and I would often read "why"-type questions.  Of course, I wasn't allowed to respond (company policy), but I would still read the thread to see other people's guesses.  Often those guesses were wrong, sometimes they were right, and the OP and other posters frequently didn't believe either the right or wrong guesses.  Sometimes the real answers were pretty obscure such as patent or licensing issues, or the results of some focus group, or a someone's belief that a feature might generate "too many" support calls, or a belief by someone that a less-than-perfect implementation would reflect badly on the brand image. 

[DBDukes]

Excellent point @Strega. And as I am not a Roku employee, nor anyone with any inside information, any such statements I make are not from Roku, same as all the other users here.

I'm not even certain that Roku intentionally removed any functionality. After all, Germany appears to have lost everything, based on some posts others left, while Belgium appears to have lost some functionality. I'm simply pointing out that there has never been any expectation that anything from Roku would work outside their supported areas. Any expectation to the contrary is unwarranted, and any complaint is invalid.

I'm not unsympathetic to their plight, but anyone attempting to use a device outside the approved region should never be surprised when things don't work, or stop working.

My guess -- and it's only a guess -- is that something was rolled out, either as part of a minor update, or as part of preparation for OS 10 this fall (again, the timeline is a guess; I'm not a beta tester), that broke different functionality outside supported areas. Roku would not have tested such before rolling out; why would you verify something you don't support works? But, as pointed out, just a guess. And as you suggest, my guess could be way off the mark.

[makaiguy]

I am in the US. I have a Search item in the main Home page menu, which I understand it only available in a few countries.

I also have a Search item from within the Streaming Channels menu page. Is this one also not available for you?

[dbrooks]

Up until my recent purchase of a Roku Ultra I have been using a Roku 2 for several years without issue. I have a U.S. based account. I purchased my Roku Ultra from a brick and mortar store in the U.S. However, upon setting it up I realized that I do not have a search option under the Streaming Channels section where it is supposed to be located. This of course prevents me from adding common streaming channels in the U.S. like Prime, Hulu, Disney+, etc. In fact, I can't even access my Disney+ account on this device and there's a dedicated Disney+ button on the remote. Can anyone explain this? Is it possible that I have a device that was intended for sale in another region of the world? I guess I will have to return it.

[DBDukes]

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@dbrooks wrote:

Up until my recent purchase of a Roku Ultra I have been using a Roku 2 for several years without issue. I have a U.S. based account. I purchased my Roku Ultra from a brick and mortar store in the U.S. However, upon setting it up I realized that I do not have a search option under the Streaming Channels section where it is supposed to be located. This of course prevents me from adding common streaming channels in the U.S. like Prime, Hulu, Disney+, etc. In fact, I can't even access my Disney+ account on this device and there's a dedicated Disney+ button on the remote. Can anyone explain this? Is it possible that I have a device that was intended for sale in another region of the world? I guess I will have to return it.

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Couple of things I'd like to get clarification on. You said your account is US-based, but you didn't say you were physically in the US. Are you in the US and were you in the US when you set up the new Ultra?

Are you using a VPN?

You said your old device was a Roku 2. Was it a model 2720 or a model 4210? And, if as I suspect, you are currently outside the US, was the old device set up physically in the US?