Discussions

[Zonexero]

Ok, at this point I feel like Roku is just punishing us with yet another flawed update.....what is up with the station icons now?  I can't even see the station logos anymore on my TCL 55" in my living room---- with that odd grayed out square they added around the logo, it just makes it impossible to make out which station you are on.  This is just stupid, Roku= is an eight year old making updates for your Live TV app now?  Really? Seriously?  First the franken-guide and now this?  This has to stop, everything I liked about Roku and my TVs with Roku installed just makes me now want to sell all of them and never recommend these products anymore.  Stop messing with it, put it back the way it was and please put your eight year old programmer to bed!  Really this is becoming an accessibility issue, my eyesight is ok, but for someone who has issues, there is just no way you can clearly see the station icon/names anymore.

[jacknorth]

Oh, I hadn't noticed that until you posted this. The grayed box is not on every logo, but it is hard to see the channel on those it is on.

Gee, do you think Elon owns Roku now and is "improving" it like he's messing up Twitter? 😅

[Zonexero]

I sent yet another direct message to Roku about the guide issues (now three of them since the 'downgrades' over the past year), we will see if they reply.  I did point them to this posting board, and explained the issues, and how the fix them, we will see, I am not expecting much, but still hopeful they will see things they are doing is not making the app better.  As a company that is not doing so great, they really need to listen to people like us that take time out of our day to explain what is wrong, companies that listen and fix these issues only become better.  After all is said and done, it's the people using their product that keeps them in business and have a job to go to each day.  I strongly suggest anyone who has been having these continuing issues reach out via the Roku contact us link!  Complaining is one thing, and never gets anything done...... doing something about it and suggesting fixes is far more productive.  I just find it hard to believe a company so big would just let things go so bad before listening to their consumers, troubleshooters/consultants are paid big money for input like this to these companies, maybe they do have one, but apparently the wrong one. *Note this only applies to televisions which have the Roku platform built in to the television for the most part......

Guide Issue #1: The 'quick guide bar' on the left side of the screen is not working properly, it should only switch categories when selected, otherwise stay on 'All Channels', especially when scrolling backwards through the 'all channels' selection.  Fix 1: Get rid of it, not needed, no one wants it, Fix 2: If you really want it there, then how about left arrow is basic guide, right has the options to select categories?, FIx 3: Just offer an option to turn it off!   Simple.

Guide Issue #2: I move this up on the list, as I said I feel like we are being punished for speaking out---the new darker grey box around antenna or cable channels makes it impossible to see for those of us with accessibility issues, we use to clearly see the station icon, the new box effect is just ridiculous and not needed.

Guide Issue #3: With each of these downgrades that have done over the past year, it is making our televisions slow on response time from when we are navigating using the remote.

[westner]

@Zonexero, you make so many valid points and you, as some others before you, have gone through greater lengths not only to show Roku how to improve its product but also improve its image. Unfortunately, whoever is in charge of making all these awful changes to the Live TV Channel Guide, is adamant in his belief that these changes are here to stay - no matter what the user feedback is!

Last year I went shopping for a new TV because I was not happy with my Samsung's Live TV Guide. I spent a few hours in a store looking at various brands and was impressed with the TCL6. I was very happy with it for eight months until Roku started making those inane changes to the Guide. Every few months they added more changes that made navigating the Guide and Searches more difficult - the latest being is putting a grey box around the live channel logos. WHY???? I guess I made a bad $1,000 choice and now I'm stuck with it. Maybe Roku will come to its senses and get rid of the guy responsible for these changes.

I have posted on Facebook and Twitter about this fiasco to give this problem some traction. In the meantime, we'll have to learn to live with it. I'm sure that no Moderator or Roku Rep even reads this thread. They don't care!

[jacknorth]

My guess is that not enough people use the Channel Guide, since it's only (I think) on Antenna TV input. Overall, I still like the convenience of Roku TVs...I just don't like that they made it a bit harder to isolate OTA channels from their streaming channels.

(As an aside, it's amazing to me how many people under the age of, say 50, have no idea that they can pick up a bunch of free content over-the-air. Even my son, who lives in Queens, NY, says "no, we don't have any OTA stuff here!" (He tried with an indoor antenna, and couldn't really get much of anything.)

[westner]

@jacknorth, I have 2 outdoor antennas and I get about 90 OTA channels. I'm about 15 miles from NYC and have one antenna pointing at the World Trade Center, from where most channels broadcast. The other antenna points to midtown where I get channels 7 and 33. Roku has hundreds of streaming channels. The OTA channels are excluded from the "new" categories lists. Even when I try to reduce the OTC and streaming choices into a 'Favorites' category containing 20-30 channels that I actually watch, it doesn't remain as the default category when I turn the set off. It also changes the Guide to a different Roku category once you scroll past the end.

Tell your son to get a better antenna and make sure he does an auto-scan on his TV to tune in the OTA channels. The WTC or the Empire State Building are not that far from Queens. I was able to pick up over 40 channels with an indoor antenna from my house.

[jacknorth]

Oh, I know there are a ton of OTA channels in NYC. He just doesn't believe me 'cause, you know, I'm an old-timer! 😉 He was pretty adamant about that being "old technology."

Yeah, it was a cheapo indoor antenna, and I'm not surprised it didn't pick up much. But still, I would've thought he'd have found a handful, at least. He just moved from LIC to a new place in Forest Hills this weekend, so maybe I can talk him into trying again. Maybe his new place will have a community antenna on the roof. (I think one of his places years ago had one.) Is that still a thing?

I have our TV setup to be on antenna input when we turn it on, and it's always on the last OTA channel we watched. I don't generally even venture into the "live" streaming channels on the guide. When we stream it's generally Hulu, Peacock, Prime, or any of the other dozen or so streaming channels I've installed.

[Moat]

I so very strongly agree with Zonexero, westner and many other's complaints throughout this thread. Yes - these new channel icons are absolutely awful, and yet another pitiful example of 1) pi$$-poor GUI design, and 2) Roku's insistence on not caring what owners of these devices think.

Every one of these software changes/"updates" as discussed in this thread have resulted in functional regressions - either as impairments or removal in entirety of functions/features that I have paid good money for and expect to work as when I first purchased the device - these (forced) regressions thus being, quite literally, *damaging* to my device (as I'm quite sure a judge in a court of law would tend to agree).

"Forced" as in no way to optionally undo these regressions, nor the ability to prevent or rollback these unwanted "updates" and remain connected to the internet in order to utilize the TV's streaming functionality.

Therefore, I wish for Roku (NOT the television hardware manufacturer, as the hardware itself functions as expected) to refund the money I paid for this device. I believe the community/television owners should file a class action against Roku if these damaging OS changes are not reverted/addressed in a timely manner.

This is no longer the television I bought and paid for - it has since been damaged due to Roku's incompetence and/or deceitful marketing/revenue-generating practices (i.e.; "bait & switch"). It's as simple as that.

Roku's marked silence in regards to the many reporting dissatisfaction with these changes speaks volumes as to the questionable intent behind the changes. Roku surely knows their actions are "wrong" on numerous levels, yet they continue to rollout these changes/"updates" - little by little, chip by chip - likely in hopes that users will simply forget about them, and move on.

Not happening.

So, Roku; you d@mn well better get on the ball with this.

[RokuDanny-R]

Hi Community users,

Thanks for the posts.

We would be more than happy to look further into this issue, but will need more details. Can you please provide us the following information:

• 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

Once we have this information, we will be able to pass it along to the appropriate Roku team to investigate further.

Thanks,
Danny

[jacknorth]

Thanks for replying, Danny. I cannot speak for others, but for me, it's not actually a technical issue; as in something not working right. It's a usability issue since Roku added "features" to the system. Specifically, changes to the Channel Guide when viewing Live TV (Over-the-air antenna). This is the guide we see on the left side of the screen when we press the left directional arrow on the remote for our Roku TV. (In my case, this is a Sharp TV, which I believe is made by Hisense?)

If you can share my feelings (and the feelings of others who have posted to this thread) with the design team, then I'll be happy to provide further info.

Thanks again for taking an interest here.