@supernumm , the way problems seem random (people with the same brand have different variations of the same problem; or one solution works for one person having a problem, but not another having the exact same problem): either 1) the hardware used on these tvs is so variable (undefined as a Roku spec. Varies from one lowes-bidder contract to the next at the tv manufacturer). Or, 2) there's some kind of "planned obsolescence" going on.
It could be both. There could be wildly varying hardware in these tvs (and no attempt by Roku to define a standard, nor hold manufactures to such). And, knocking tvs out at random could be a way to reduce the burden of supporting such diverse hardware over time. Leave people behind, encourage upgrades to the latest tvs.
That sounds paranoid. But, Apple was exposed to be doing that with their phones (slowing down old phones for no reason other than to "incentivize" customers to upgrade).
It's really hard to explain how my TCL tv has "recents" populated with antenna channels, but other TCL users don't. We have the same version/build of software update. How could hardware make that kind of difference? It often looks like someone sends "fail code #85G8A" to tvs to tell them to start acting flakey. ("Hmm? I dunno. Call the manufacturer.").
It's bizarre. Roku's seeming ambivalence to what is an obvious trainwreck adds to the wonderment. If there was no "plan" for this kind of outcome, you'd think leadership would be grabbing the brake right now. The complete disregard for customer experience (bug tracking, priotizing, fixing) makes you wonder how deep that mindset runs (as part of the business model).
"People are often amazed at how much we’ve done with the number of engineers we’ve got." (Roku CEO Anthony Wood, Austin Statesman, Oct 4, 2019). "Amazed" is one way of putting it.
