Discussions

[Zonexero]

Danny, this is not an issue related to a specific model as another person noted.  It affects all users who have the televisions with built-in Roku that have the "Live TV" or "Antenna Channels" app/input.  This would include ALL televisions embedded with Roku which are brands such as TCL, HiSense, Toshiba, and so forth.

October 12, 2021: The guide/app worked fine, although the antenna channels lacked any type of station icon, it was ok, as shown in my video here: https://youtu.be/skGQPMQoawo

*November 10, 2021: The guide/app had been updated, and antenna channels now had icons that reflected their network, this version, is what I believe most of us considered the 'perfect' version, there was no reason to go any further, as shown here on November 15, 2021: https://youtu.be/I3gMy7pN7uc

(In between these dates, there was also another bug where the station guide had issues with identify correct station, this bug seems to come and go every since)

August 25, 2022: An update was issue that added that faulty 'quick guide' "update", no one likes this, no one wanted this, and it's never worked properly, again on all models of these televisions, as shown here on a video I did on August 25, 2022: https://youtu.be/yv8w-gevgIE

August 29, 2022: A further update was pushed through, that removed the 'quick guide' and restored the version from November 10, 2021, once again back to the perfect guide as shown here, I think someone knew that the quick guide was faulty and rolled back the update: https://youtu.be/N8w2x5akAa0

November 2022: Another update push through that had that brought back the faulty 'quick guide', again a terrible idea, this is funny because it was rolled back, then pushed back again with no a single fix.

January 25, 2023: Updated again, this time, the antenna stations logos are altered to appear with gray boxes around them, some channels not affected, on ones that are, you can barely make out the station logo anymore since the logo has been shrunk to fit into a useless grey box that serves no purpose, this is probably the second update that really has destroyed the functionality, I plan to do a video on this soon, but was hoping it was something that would be fixed by now.

....And now....  January 30, 2023: A 'Promoted' Channel randomly appears in the antenna channels lineup that is another truly annoying and useless 'feature'

....As you can see, that is why we are all upset with the 'updates' that really have degraded our televisions and experience with Roku, I was a firm believer in Roku having recommended my family and friends to the platform, but with all these issues lately, not anymore with all noted above.

*I have six TCL Roku televisions, all from different years from 2014-2022, same issue on all of them, other friends and people on these forum using products like the HiSense Roku television all have the same problem.

[IHiJump]

A great breakdown of an undeniable problem. 

[IHiJump]

Oh Joy! I got a gold star for ten replies on the site!! 

[Moat]

Fantastic work @Zonexero for taking time to lay these issues (and timelines) out so clearly. Thank you!

The "Promoted" channels that appeared briefly a few days ago - that was the last straw, right there, in which these deceitful pieces all finally fell into place;

Roku doesn't want "Favorites" being any kind of default channel menu - instead, they intentionally want us to scroll through endless channels so as we'll unavoidably run across these new, insidiously injected "Promoted" channel advertisements. (Coincidentally and conveniently, advertisements without the new, hard-to-decipher channel icon backgrounds - and with bold, oversized font, to boot. See what's going on here? Deceit... quietly, deceptively, little by little, inch by inch...)

This is akin to someone sneaking onto my lawn at night and - without my permission - setting up advertisement billboards. Rest assured, if this were to actually happen, the people responsible would be required by law to remove them or face time in jail.

In no way, shape or form did I purchase this television with any expectation whatsoever of it becoming an open, free-for-all marketing platform for a revenue-hungry Roku. This is so disingenuous and underhanded as to be disgusting. Let alone the stripping away of features/function that I paid good money for.

Enough of the intentionally deflective cut-and-paste replies, @RokuDanny-R - you are well aware of the issues, and now should be well aware that your employer - Roku - has been caught red-handed in employing devious, unethical and likely illegal practices in direct regard to the issues described in this very thread and across the forum community in general.

These are no "minor changes that customers will just have to become accustomed to" or whatever you're being told - not by a long shot. You've been busted.

The question is; what are you/Roku going to do about it?

[Zonexero]

Really? How many days has it been? At least fix the grayed-out station icons so we can see them again.  Just rollback that last stupid update to the 'Live TV' app, and of course other issues we have mentioned here!  I am sure there is some legality that can be applied with accessibility and people with vision issues, considering I have decent vision and cannot make out the channel icons now!  This has to be a mistake with the update, as I looked at some old footage I have from my videos, and channels that are not 'identified' show up with that strange grey box around them.  I will try to get some screen captures between the older versions of the Live TV app and where we are with the app now, as I do not think they are really looking at them.  PLEASE! Comment on this board...and offer suggestions to fix the issue, it's always better to point out a problem and suggest a fix, rather than just complain about it.  If there is enough of us, they will have to listen.

[westner]

@RokuDanny-R, what does this inane request have anything to do with what we've been posting on this thread for months?

• Roku device model, serial number, device ID, and software OS/version (these can all be found in Settings > System > About)
• tracker ID when this issue occurs (when you see this issue occur, press the Home button 5 times, followed by the Back button 5 times and provide us with this ID)
• steps to reproduce the issue you are seeing 
• screenshot of what is shown on screen so we can better understand the issue

This happens on ALL Roku devices, regardless of serial number or OS versions, which are updated by Roku without users' knowledge. We we've been talking about changes made to the Live TV Channel Guide that made it more and more useless. All you have to do is go back a few pages and read what all these crazy changes were and how they adversely affect us.

More and more of us are leaving the platform. It is no surprise that Roku is losing its market share. Those in charge would rather listen to clueless developers than to actual users of their product. Nothing has been done about this for months and I don't expect that this will change.

Do you really have the power to pass this along to the appropriate Roku team to investigate further?

[dcathome]

Danny

The information you requested has been sent many times by many people. 

When I change inputs and go back to the TV input I have to select filter to favorites again. It reverts back to all channels and you have to start at the first favorite channel and scan to what may be many channels from where you are to get to the next favorite channel. The same when turned off then on again.

 Roku TV C107X TCL Model 43S425

Please remove the "fixes" and go back to when it worked!

Thank You

Don

[Zonexero]

Keep it going.....voicing your concerns does help! 

.....And be sure to put in support ticket, I know it seems useless considering the  info they ask us for, but strange enough it does help...

[GKloepfer]

I guess I don't have too much too add at this point except that I concur, and this is not just a problem for the Roku TVs, but it's also a problem for the standalone players as well.

I have a model 4200X Roku player, and hardly ever use the "Live TV" functionality in it any longer because of the changes that were made to that function.  I used to be able to set a list of favorites and scroll through the favorites only by switching to that view.  It's now more of a "suggestion," and every time you go back from a selected channel, you end up back at all the channels and not where you were in the list.  It's a completely non-intuitive interface.  Using the * button and selecting the different views was a bit odd, but at least it worked as one would expect.

What I will say is that the software change, the lack of response from Roku to the comments in this forum, and the number of folks who are complaining, has caused me to reconsider purchasing a so-called "smart TV" that is Roku-based (or any Smart TV for that matter), or recommend it to anyone else either.  I don't know who is making the design decisions for these products, but they certainly have a very odd sense of what actually works for people, and don't seem to care to incorporate features that would allow someone the choice of setting how they want the interface to behave.  It's unfortunately no better with Google, Apple, or any other of these tech companies.  For a while Roku was different in that regard, but not much anymore...  When my "dumb" TV finally dies, I'm not sure what I'm going to buy to replace it.

[Moat]

The reality is that all of these negative changes to the Live TV channel guide as discussed in this thread are intentional, as part of Roku's underhanded efforts to discourage its users (i.e.; us) from watching live/OTA broadcast TV and not using the more revenue-biased streaming features. And if we DO choose to watch live/OTA TV, they don't want us to miss their newly-added Live TV Channel guide's advertisements (hence the intentional disabling of default "Favorites", the new, poorly-distinguishable channel icons and contrasting large-font, easily-distinguished "Promoted" channel advertisements).

Since these changes are intentional and profit-driven, Roku will *not* bother reversing them - regardless of how disappointed/disillusioned we may be. Driven by profit, tanking stock value and worried/angry investors - they simply no longer care about the user experience as they scramble for ad revenue.

Roku knows what they have done here is ethically (and possibly legally) "wrong". For them to respond positively to the requests in this thread would have to be either 1) an admission of guilt, or 2) dishonest/disingenuous/a lie - both of which could land them in deep(er) trouble. So I fully expect such responses are actively being avoided by Roku employees on this forum.

What Roku *doesn't* appear to understand is that this represents the typical downward spiral of many a media company that has come and failed before it; the no-holds-barred chasing of ad revenue to the exclusion of the quality of the customer experience (up until now, something they liked to boast about). A "race to the bottom", until their reputation - followed by sales - flops. The post-Covid-boom advertising fallout and consequent revenue scramble will leave some companies standing, some failing - given Roku's current "screw the user - profit at any cost" model, my hopes are not high for this company.

This is all just my opinion, FWIW...