Features, settings & updates

[Mariv]

This new channel banner at the top of the guide in no way "enhances" the user experience. If anything, it is annoying as f*ck! We now have extra clicks to get to the menu for use to scroll to where we want to go. The favorites on the side is there for us to add the channels we watch most. No need for the useless banner of channels I don't watch that I now must scroll through to get to the channels I actually do watch. Roku PLEASE REMOVE THE USELESS CHANNEL BANNER AND GO BACK TO THE WAY THE MENU WAS!! AND PLEASE JUST LEAVE IT ALONE!! STOP MAKING CHANGES ALREADY!!! STOP TRYING TO FIX WHAT IS NOT BROKE!!!!

[Mariv]

And OMG!!! Stop changing the backgrounds at your whim.  Leave it alone!!

[winston3338]

Hi fellow posters. Well Roku has done it again and wasted our time with their stupid upgrades. I'm 71 and I've been in the hospital. I'm a very simple man and want/ need to get rid of this nonsense. I'm wondering if it's Tony again. The inventor of Roku. Tony, will you retire please, go away. 

[winston3338]

Where is everyone getting the Google TVs? Is it at BestBuy? I'm 71 and just got out of the hospital and I don't have much time left and I'm sick of Tony and his Roku TV joke

[easytodobetter]

@winston3338 

Personally that's a bad recommendation to me. I don't know why anyone would think Google is an upgrade over Roku, they've routinely done this same thing to customers, like ignoring feature requests for over a decade.

You can simply install Plex, a free app that all Roku's can download, and use their MUCH BETTER free live streaming TV.

You might need to make an account, I can't recall. But it's free. You don't need their "Pass".

And then tadaa, a working TV guide and hundreds of the same channels like, one of my favorites, modern marvels.

Hope this helps!

[winston3338]

Hello Easy to do Better, thanks for your reply. I was also thinking the Bestbuy TV's are able to surf the web. I have Roku units in a box from years ago I'm willing to give away if someone wants them. My problem is I'm homebound and I would need them to pay postage.

Anyway, I love Roku and they are the greatest thing in TV entertainment in my lifetime. I was born in the 50's and remember when we had two channels on a black and white TV that would go off the air at midnight. What I don't like is not being able to choose if I want Roku's upgrades. Thanks again for taking the time to reply

[sailor10]

I do not like the update to the channel guide. The old format was much easier and more direct to navigate to other channels. Is there away to undo the change or to let Roku know of discontent.

[Moat]

Okay. Here we are, 8 pages in, and there's not a single positive comment regarding this change. All but one are overwhelmingly strongly negative, with the single outlier calling it "innocuous". 

To Roku staff ; Can there be any clearer indication that the vast majority of your customers feel this was an awful, poorly-considered and emphatically undesired change? All done without their knowledge, their consent - or even opinion??

The real question becomes; when will this be fixed/reversed. We'd like to see some honest movement in that regard. 

The fact is Roku understands they make little-to-no revenue off of their customers who primarily watch traditional Over-The-Air/antenna broadcast television. And so they attempt any means they can get away with in shoving revenue-generating streaming content down our throats - hundreds of thousands (millions?) of customers/device owners be d@mned. All done from some cubicle somewhere, thousands of miles away, with the simple press or two of a computer keyboard key. Without our knowledge nor approval, while allowing us no mechanism/option to prevent or roll back this unwanted change (i.e. - no control over our own, previously purchased devices).

This, to me as a buyer/owner of a Roku product, is quite disgusting, condescending and IMO ethically inexcusable coercion. I already bought your device - you already have my d@mn money. At what point in our device ownership do these completely unexpected, unwanted yet obviously new and repeated underhanded attempts at coercing even more money from our pockets, stop?

Although I agree with some others above that Plex can be an excellent alternative in many respects, as far as I can find in using it, it has no built-in Over-The-Air/antenna broadcast TV functionality - a key feature for my particular use case and likely a similarly key/required feature for a vast number of other television users (especially those with limited/no online web access).

And that's where this wholly undesired Roku change fails; it is literally crippling the fundamental functionality of our OTA/broadcast channel guide, by (underhandedly & blatantly) attempting to serve us revenue-generating streaming content - exactly what we are most probably willingly trying to avoid in the first place.

All-in-all, this is quite a detestable, intrusive, coercive and customer-indifferent behavior on the part of Roku UI management, IMO. 😠👎

...

[winston3338]

Well said Moat, I just wrote feedback to Roku support and Tony Wood, the inventor of Roku if he's still around (I believe he is). 

If we were given the choice to try their upgrades and decide for ourselves if we want to use them, we would be more likely to be open to change but Roku never gives us a choice 

[easytodobetter]

@Moat 

I agree with 99% of that.

BUT

Plex definitely has OTA and is compatible with every popular OTA streaming device... HDHomeRun, Hauppauge WinTV, etc etc.

Just google it, tons of results how to set it up.

That's actually wild to read, because for over a decade it's been popular for just that.

It has many plugins and a "jailbroken" plugin market too.

I'm not suggesting people ditch Roku, just temporarily use Plex's EXTREMELY SIMILAR live TV guide so maybe roku notices because they obviously don't care about this forum.

For years users have been telling them how to improve this garbage TV guide and all they have to do is listen.