Discussions

[Zonexero]

westner = Fully agree, yes.

[CactusCat]

Since all of our requests have fallen on deaf ears (why does the Roku team remind me of the ex-Twitter team? They must think they know what's best for me), I have simply taken a few extra minutes to resolve my problem with the Live TV guide myself. I, of course, have my Favorites setup the way I want but all the extra button pushes to get there is a PITA. So I went the extra mile to HIDE every channel in the All Channels except the few that I want to see. Yeah it took about 5-10 minutes to hide those channels, but now when I want to watch Live TV channels, I do not have to wade through all the BS. The All Channels guide is now exactly the same as my Favorites guide. I just got tired of messing with it. If I want to watch streaming stuff, I just use my other device plugged into the HDMI port.

[westner]

@CactusCat, good for you. I did the same thing a few weeks ago and now the pain isn't so great.

I also found a solution for my other pet peeve: the bombardment by all the repetitive Roku promos. It's like Groundhog Day every hour of the day on all Roku streaming channels. I either push the 'mute' button on the remote and look away from the screen or press the 'previous channel' on the remote.

[jackalope]

I also did the "Hide" channels thing, which helps, but still sucks. I have a fair amount of channels that I keep unhidden and when you get to the bottom of the list it doesn't scroll back to the 1st channel. So I either continue to scroll through whatever they have put in the catagories, or I scroll backwards all the way. And I can't enter a numerical channel number, even though my universal remote has, and transmits them, to the tv. AND, if you have to rescan all of your antenna channels, all the streaming channels are unhidden! Rehiding those channels gets old real quick. This kind of incomplete coding is what you get from the "Skateboard Kids".

Anyway, I'm done. I tried to go through support for the antenna problem and they were just terrible. Oh, they were nice, but they didn't seem to comprehend the issue, just ignored some questions, and in the end told me that's the way it's supposed to work (which was one of the questions I asked earlier that they completely ignored). 

So as soon as I am able I will be moving to another brand. And I will not hesitate to tell everyone I know about the failures of the Roku brand.

[jacknorth]

Yeah, I hid a **bleep** load of channels a while back. I didn't think to go back and hide the streaming channels when they were added. What the heck...I'm retired, I've got the time. 🙂

And tech support wasn't wrong when they said "that's the way it's supposed to be," of course. It's just that a lot of us don't like the way it is. In major markets, like ours, there are probably 30+ OTA channels, and each one has at least 4 or 5 sub-channels. Since the remote has no numbers the User Interface team needs to come up with a quicker way to change channels. Holding down the Up/Down direction key and slowly scrolling past all those channels is almost worse than having to get up and physically change the channels (for those of us who remember those days...when there were only 4 or 5 channels to choose from!) It is LIVE TV after all, and by the time you scroll to the channel you want, you've missed the show open!

It's the User Experience that needs tweaking. (I've learned this from my daughter who does that sort of stuff for big online companies. 😋)

[westner]

@jacknorth, good for you, man. Pretty soon everyone will be using this trick and Roku's scheme to make us jump through their hoops by using those stupid categories and skipping over their 'All Channels' list, will be defeated.

Power to the People!

[westner]

WOW! Nobody posted in three weeks.

I guess we have thrown in the towel and succumbed to the idiotic changes to Roku's Live TV Channel Guide. I know of no other brand of TV that doesn't let you choose a set of "favorite" channels.

I have replaced my 50" Roku TV and will probably replace the larger one when prices drop. Can't deal with this anymore.

[Zonexero]

Despite videos I have done on my youtube channel (which I have sent them), showing exactly what is wrong with the channel guide, nothing.  At this point, the towel is in the washing machine, and I am just dealing with the detergent I don't like.  Going forward, NO, I will not recommend anyone buying these products. It is just another product that issues "upgrades" that are truly "downgrades". They have totally disregarded input and concerns of the users which make up the main stay of people like us who are always asked by family & friends what to buy. 

1) Put the channel guide back to the way it was -or- offer a option to shut off or disable the left useless 'quick guide'.  Just an option would be nice.  First clue should have been the first release, which was instantly recalled a week later, then released again with not a single fix.  Stop trying to replicate Pluto, it is not that great. JUST ASK US!  We can give you suggestions to make it better!

2) Stop adding other menu options we do not want.  Keep them in the advertising area that is already there, we do not need to have a new left side menu appear for "New Years", really?

3) Fix, fix, fix, the brightness levels on the main menus on televisions that run on the Roku platform!  We do not need to be blinded on our televisions which have the Roku TV built-in on panels like TCL, Insignia, Toshiba, and others.  It does not make any sense, some of us ARE light sensitive, that is a condition, while you have accessibility controls, why is there not one for this?  Even then if the system knows I want all my backlight settings at 40%, the main menu should be part of that.  (and yes, my brightness thingy is set to 'darker', this is another issue.

4) NEW ADD: I used to be able to use my official Roku remote that has the headphone port on the remote itself and volume control for private listening......as of a software update a year or so ago, nope, no longer works, why?  This makes no sense.  It's like having a car you bought with auto-start, the dealership does an upgrade, and it no longer works, insane!

5) Stop degrading the old Roku products and televisions (with the built-in app).  I rather see it fade away, then try to use one of my older panels that has a delay that truly is aggravating.  Not everyone can afford a new Roku or TV every two years, to that point...in this era of being 'eco-friendly', you need to make your products last longer and still be effective.  Some people would just toss out something when it gets to that point, that is NOT being environmentally responsible.

Sorry for making this more of a rant, but really, I think they need to realize the people that are posting and speaking up are THE PEOPLE THAT MATTER.  If I was a CEO in this organization I would be listening and learning from us.

[IHiJump]

I got on a live chat with Roku. The analyst was adamant that "favorites" was a consistent setting. After my sending a few screenshots to him, he had to relent and admit there wasn't a consistent setting for favorites. So, he turned this issue over to their development team as a bug (at least that's what he said he was going to do).

Unfortunately, he closed my ticket, so there is no way for me to track any progress on the bug. Now, in my 30 years of IT/Development work, tickets like mine, for bugs, are added to the work ticket as references and are tracked as such. So, I don't know how we will ever know anything unless and until they resolve the problem. 

I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with Roku by the day. I'm researching android TVs now. Walmart has a $20 AndroidTV puck with a remote that might be just the ticket. 

[westner]

We've been complaining for over six months now. I don't think Roku is listening despite their slumping sales. Someone up in his Ivory Tower believes that these changes are the "cat's meow" and we should get used to them.

What's disheartening is that the Moderator (@Roku-Danny) refuses to chime in. He has a direct link to management. Our goal is to make the product better and maybe reverse the trend to Roku's bottom line. Some, like @Zonexero and @IHiJump , are going above and beyond to show Roku the path.