Features, settings & updates

[atc98092]

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@willey11 wrote:

To change the Roku home screen app display from 4 columns to 3, follow these general steps (the exact steps may vary based on your Roku model and software version):

4. Look for the "4:3 Standard" or similar option and select it to switch to a 3-column display.

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The only Roku players that have a 4:3 display setting are the models that had an analog output option. Roku hasn't sold a player with that option since the Roku Express+ (3910) which was six years ago. That option will not exist on any currently available model, or one sold in the past few years. Your advice doesn't work. 

[Bob_Leonard]

@RokuCarly  - You're kidding, right?  This forum thread has 20 pages! 

I understand and appreciate your position as a Community Moderator, but please, don't say to us:

"Rest assured that our team will be aware of this..." Will be?  Are they aware?  After 20 pages of complaints, we hope they are "aware".

"In the meantime, your patience and understanding are highly appreciated."  Really.  you ask us to be patient without a hint of Roku's stance on this issue.  Does management plan to change it back?  (Because I suspect it is not a priority.) If so, how long do we need to be patient and understanding? 

"Let us know if there's anything else you'd want us to address."  Yes, there is something else, when will this issue be resolved?  Please don't give us lip-service...   Give us Roku's position on this and a time-table...

I know you can't create an answer, but please show this to your boss, the head of Customer Service, the head of Marketing and the President of Roku.  When we get an answer back, then we will be patient and understanding.

I not mad at your Carly, but Roku has put you in a difficult position, but please stop the patronizing lip service and tell us a little truth. 

[Strega2]

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@atc98092 wrote:
Your advice doesn't work. 

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Your response caused me to look up “his” posts.  “His” earliest post now has a spam link attached.  I suppose when you train an AI chatbot using the entire internet, it’s hard for that chatbot to figure out what’s out-of-date.  Something to work on in chatbot V2 I guess...

[Nosoynadie]

Best answer. Time table, you can tell me all that you want that it's going to fixed in update 12.5, but you wont' give a build number. I have 12.5 and it's not an option on 3 of the 4 Rokus that I have. When I try to update one it stays at 12.0. So a time would be great. I don't  have patience and understanding for something that I didn't ask to receive and have no way of opting out. You did it, you fix it or I will fix with my dollars buying others equipment. I don't like being treated like a child with the we know what's best for you attitude. So yet again I and many others will be voting with our feet in 28 days. Your choice, do you want more of my money, I'm buying a new TV on Black Friday or should  I spend it elsewhere never to return.

[atc98092]

@Strega2 one thing we streaming "experts" can now do is mark a post as spam and quarantine it. I just did so on that one, and it's obvious they will return and do it again. Thanks for the heads up, and we'll watch for more like that. 

[jimsz]

Not so much. Ancient Rokus have the 4:3 option but I have 6 and none of them have that.

[jakecentric]

I've been waiting for the update to the 4 across menu. I like the look and the fact that it means less scrolling to find apps lower in the list. Is there a way to turn it on if you don't seem to have it yet? I have 4 Roku TVs and none of them have it yet but a friend of mine has it on his Roku TV. 

[Strega2]

I don't have it either.  It seems some "random"? subset of people were chosen.  Some people who got it have lost it.  Seems like a really odd way to do it - almost like it accidentally "got out into the wild". 

[XT1]

What devices do you have? Maybe we could work out Trade.  Lol.  

The change was forced on me and my 11 devices. One word: Terrible. 

Don't be distracted by what sounds like an improvement: "4 icons across". That's really just to mask the shrinking of the space you control to make way,  not for the extra icon, but the growing number of ads and buttons to content Roku is marketing. 

Think of the formatting of clickbait. With shifting buttons and ads that appear and vanish seemingly at will.  Like that. 

You don't want this.  Nobody,  I contend, wants this. 

Nobody but Roku, that is. 

True,  this is likely the way the whole industry is going. For example: The company offering the free new tvs to those who agree to let them put advertising in a segregated attached space that can't be turned off or altered. 

But, at least for that example, the company in question only did this with a product they gave you for free, and they kept the content they control to a segregated area. They didn't seize control of a device you purchased, understanding that the device now belonged exclusively to you and was yours to control as you saw fit.

I contend that Roku didn't just change contentwhen they changed the interface you access, they changed a device they no longer owned.  It is the consumer's at the point of purchase. The company made substantial changes to the product when they downloaded, without consent, an "update" to certain customer's devices. 

(Notice,  by the way,  that whatever hack they used was not placed on the devices with a normal "update" like the ones a consumer consents to when they register,  it was downloaded to the device secretly in the middle of the night. Hence why it does not have a software build number and does not show up in the update log. 

I contend that makes this a hack,  not an update or consumer authorized improvement. 

This is a material breach of the consumer's trust. 

Seems almost like a civil issue to me. Especially when you consider how it impacts those with a disability.

[Strega2]

To be fair, other people have expressed their disappointment when they lost the four-column format.  I’ve neither had it nor lost it, but based on the picture in the 2nd post, I would probably select it, once it supposedly becomes an option.  I believe the 3-column format goes back to the beginning of Roku, when every Roku included composite outputs for old analog 4:3 TVs.  As such, the four-column format on 2008 or later TV is probably much more clear than 3 columns was in SD.  I do absolutely think it should be an option though and not an experiment foisted on random people.