Remotes

[Touches_plants]

My new ROKU remote just came with shortcut buttons for C-SPAN2, Lifetime, QVC, and Fox News. Well, it's not quite that bad, but almost as annoying. And it's not like I was only annoyed with it when I first opened the box, I'm ever so slightly annoyed, every time I pick it up. I'll survive this, but a couple programmable buttons in place of these rigid ones would bring me much pleasure.

[pmcurator]

"reddice" wrote:
Maybe you are better off getting a older Roku 3 remote, no voice or stupid shortcut buttons if it will pair with the new Ultra.

Bingo. That's what I did. The Roku 3 remote paired up just fine with my Ultra. 

[fastm3driver]

"Binarygeek" wrote:
Hi all,

New guy (and Roku victim) here.  Regarding the Roku remote, there is just something inherently wrong when the first thing I did was physically remove the Hulu etc...buttons.  What's wrong with this picture?  This is not about "subsidizing" the cost of the Roku.  This is corporate greed running rampant and adding to the company profit line.  I can't believe I saw jeffrok suggesting "getting a new remote".  WTF??  On top of the cost I just paid for the remote?  That statement is absolute asinine...ASININE. Who are you, a Roku employee?  And let's make something absolutely clear:  This is not about "liking" or "using" these buttons.  If that's all it is, then there wouldn't be an issue.  This is about those buttons interfering with my use of the Roku.  Do you understand?  INTERFERING.

What's interesting is that these buttons are impacting the company line.  I just bought a Roku for my wife.  Instead of buying the new Roku Ultra 4660, I got her a used Roku 3 4200R for (40 bucks off of e-bay), without those buttons.  So there you go.  You've lost a sale.  Because of the remote.  Buying that used 4200R certainly doesn't help YOUR bottom line.

I've been using Roku or about 7-8 years and used to love and adore the Roku remote.  Just sheer simplicity.  No need to look at the remote to use it.  And then you blew it.

Should we take a poll?  See who supports those four shortcut buttons, and those that want them disabled/removed.  My guess would be that 85-90% of the users (Roku employees excluded) would like them gone.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Thanks for the tip.  I can confirm another lost sale.  I was going to get the 4k but without reprogramable buttons and the old one has the services I use, I'm going that route.  
Personally I'd like the see a 4k Blu-ray player with integrated roku as well but that haven't materialized either.  I'm sticking with ps3's for now for this reason.  

[blade_005]

"Touches plants" wrote:
My new ROKU remote just came with shortcut buttons for C-SPAN2, Lifetime, QVC, and Fox News. Well, it's not quite that bad, but almost as annoying. And it's not like I was only annoyed with it when I first opened the box, I'm ever so slightly annoyed, every time I pick it up. I'll survive this, but a couple programmable buttons in place of these rigid ones would bring me much pleasure.

Those buttons generate revenue for Roku and I can't see them going away anytime soon. When RDIO went bankrupt it was reported that they still owed Roku $2 Million for button placement. If that is what was remaining on their payment, who knows what the total amount might have been? We can choose to believe this additional revenue subsidizes the hardware cost, or there are some that believe this is purely an extra revenue grab and would prefer programmable buttons and paying a higher price for the hardware. I would suggest four (4) strips of black electrical tape over the buttons to relieve your visual angst.  😄

[beq]

Seems a divisive issue, people have various suggestions such as this one on the other, parallel thread.

[mikebdoss]

"beq" wrote:
Seems a divisive issue, people have various suggestions such as this one on the other, parallel thread.

And as I said in that other thread, that suggestion ignores that the main thing these companies are paying for is guaranteed placement of their channel and their name. No company would pay to sponsor a re-programmable button. 

[DubTaylor]

Note to Roku and their Button Advertisers:

The Roku Channel - No Thanks
Hand Held Advertising - Not For Long

While I was ripping their buttons out of my remote I also wrote on a Post-It Note which services to NEVER use - EVER.
I didn't really need the Post-It Note because the Advertisers' Buttons are the services that charge for said service AND pollute their service with additional advertising in an advertising tsunami wave that never stops. I am absolutely certain I will NOT be paying to watch advertising, so those buttons MUST go (easily done... problem solved).

I bought my Rokus to isolate myself from the advertising bombardment. I pretty much only use my Rokus for Plex and to date Plex hasn't started including advertising in My Media (only a matter of time) opting instead (for the time being) to mine my data with their '50 clicks to nowhere' app design and then sell it off to the highest bidder.

It is what it is. The customer has been The Product for a while now. I don't expect that to change. Every day I live it becomes more and more necessary to take more and more extraordinary measures to avoid advertising, but at this point it's kinda my hobby and I'm getting really good at it.

I'm certain I don't know which paper towel to buy when I go to the store - that info hasn't been drilled into my head via a repeating advertisement that comes stacked 3-5 deep every 7 minutes. I walk aimlessly through retail establishments - having not been subjected to Manchurian Candidate Type Brain Washing - buying a trusted brand, or what's on sale and at the end of the day I feel pretty good about it.

Shopping, for me, isn't a pre-programmed-event. It's like a mystery only solved at the checkout.

😄

[wmichaels1]

Best remote?  The ROKU app.

[twiceover]

"wmichaels1" wrote:
Best remote?  The ROKU app.

No tactile feedback and you have to go through the steps of unlocking, opening app.  Might as well get a chromecast.  Lack of a real remote is the only reason I didn't move to Chromecast.

[nocable]

"twiceover" wrote:

"Binarygeek" wrote:
Hi all,

New guy (and Roku victim) here.  Regarding the Roku remote, there is just something inherently wrong when the first thing I did was physically remove the Hulu etc...buttons.  What's wrong with this picture?  This is not about "subsidizing" the cost of the Roku.  This is corporate greed running rampant and adding to the company profit line.  I can't believe I saw jeffrok suggesting "getting a new remote".  WTF??  On top of the cost I just paid for the remote?  That statement is absolute asinine...ASININE. Who are you, a Roku employee?  And let's make something absolutely clear:  This is not about "liking" or "using" these buttons.  If that's all it is, then there wouldn't be an issue.  This is about those buttons interfering with my use of the Roku.  Do you understand?  INTERFERING.

What's interesting is that these buttons are impacting the company line.  I just bought a Roku for my wife.  Instead of buying the new Roku Ultra 4660, I got her a used Roku 3 4200R for (40 bucks off of e-bay), without those buttons.  So there you go.  You've lost a sale.  Because of the remote.  Buying that used 4200R certainly doesn't help YOUR bottom line.

I've been using Roku or about 7-8 years and used to love and adore the Roku remote.  Just sheer simplicity.  No need to look at the remote to use it.  And then you blew it.

Should we take a poll?  See who supports those four shortcut buttons, and those that want them disabled/removed.  My guess would be that 85-90% of the users (Roku employees excluded) would like them gone.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Ugh.  They are a company, companies need to make money.  Get over it.

So, I guess Spectrum/Time Warner Cable, as a "company" is incredibly stupid, because, instead of putting per-labeled channel buttons on their remotes, they put 4 programmable buttons.
Actually Specturm/TWC needs to make money too, but, they draw a line somewhere, on being customer friendly. A line that Roku crossed. Becuase Roku is so much smarter than little 'ol Spectrum/TWC!!