Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV
Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV
System would detect paused content on external devices and show ads on top.
Roku has patented a way to ensure I will never own one of their devices, and I'll do my best to ensure no family or friends do either.
108I e already begun. At least 5 people around me will never buy Roku again. Fortunately, they're tech smart, so it was easy to explain and didn't actually require convincing.
9I replaced all of mine with Nvidia shield and Walmart onn streaming pucks. It's a better experience in every way (once projectivy is installed) and costs less too.
6Is there a lot of dev going on for the Walmart pieces?
2
You know, this a good thing. Now nobody else can do it, so I just need to never buy a Roku.
75I remember the first time I learned about patent licensing….
46☹️
5
Remember when Netflix started showing ads on a paid plan, and everybody was saying they'll quit.
"Haha! Look how Netflix will be thrown into the hole with Blockbuster, so nobody will follow."
So, where are we today? Everybody starts doing it, and Netflix is better than it was then.
Yeah, you'll have to forgive me for not being so sure Roku will eat too much shit over this, and that more companies will not follow.
I see Samsung's boner from here.
9
Roku just invented a way for me to never ever give them any of my money.
43Roku is really just trying to sabotage their reputation at this point, it seems.
40Roku was such an easy recommendation for a long time... Non-complex UI, long support for updates, not owned by google or amazon... Far cheaper than LG and Samsung... (Not that Samsung's UI is anywhere near as easy as roku)
But now I guess thats done. Unless an alternate firmware exists or this doesn't hit older TVs I guess I'll be looking for a new TV... Which is a shame because my current 4 year old roku TV is more than capable.
37This is burying the lead. It's not just about showing ads. It is tracking everything you on your TV, whether or not it a roku service
34Lmao they already do that. That's not new. They've been snooping on your signals for a while. My parent's TV sometimes shows a pop-up after watching certain things on antenna/satellite
5Wtf that's got to be illegal??
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24No Roku products. Gotcha.
21So they break HDMI compliance in other words.
21I wonder if it can be detected by the streaming apps. Some of them are really anal about ensuring you can’t record or whatever, and don’t work if it doesn’t get all the HDMI security stuff just right. I’ve had issues with bad cables and my portable projector(Anker) has to side load an alt version of Netflix because they couldn’t/wouldn’t get the device to pass Netflix “certification”.
I’m guessing this means new partnerships and money changing hands, or nobody on a Roku can watch Netflix anymore, or they put these ads at a higher level that bypasses whatever security/DRM Netflix uses. Probably the last one, but if Netflix thinks they will lost money to this they’ll probably just pull their certification anyway.
10I wonder if it can be detected by the streaming apps. Some of them are really anal about ensuring you can’t record or whatever, and don’t work if it doesn’t get all the HDMI security stuff just right.
If I'm understanding what Roku has done, this has nothing to do with HDMI (HDCP) security. Roku is inserting the ads after the signals has left the HDMI subsystem, and before an image is displayed on the screen. They can do this because the Roku is inside the TV.
13
How about no?
13This is like really horrific but if I'm being honest, it's not going to happen. I think LG did a patent where you had to shout the brand being displayed on ads to skip an ad— and they never did that. This is probably a good thing so that other companies can't use it for a few hundred years
10There's a big difference though. Making people yell is not the same as an ad being shown similar to a screen saver. Hard to believe but most people will just not care and those who do won't care enough to do much about it. There's a reason ads have become to main stream and normal they're yielding results the companies want.
A great example of how the mass majority of people not caring is look at the reaction to password sharing. Sure many people made a stink yet every single on of the platforms saw growth.
3It was Sony, which really surprised me. This definitely sounds like an LG thing.
1
It was Sony, which really surprised me. This definitely sounds like an LG thing.
1
This is just another really good reason to never buy a Roku TV.
9This is the best summary I could come up with:
Now, the company is apparently experimenting with ways to show ads over top of even more of the things you plug into your TV.
A patent application from the company spotted by Lowpass describes a system for displaying ads over any device connected over HDMI, a list that could include cable boxes, game consoles, DVD or Blu-ray players, PCs, or even other video streaming devices.
This theoretical Roku TV's internal hardware would be capable of taking the original source video feed, rendering an ad, and then combining the two into a single displayed image.
Among the business risks disclosed on Roku's financial filings from its 2023 fiscal year (PDF), the company says that its "future growth depends on the acceptance and growth of streaming TV advertising and advertising platforms."
If implemented as described, this system both gives Roku another place to put ads, and gives the company another source of user data that can be used to encourage advertisers to spend on its platforms.
It seems as though a Roku TV that was capable of this kind of ad insertion would need more sophisticated internal hardware than most current sets currently come with—this is the same company that feuded with Google a few years back because it didn't want to pay for more-expensive chips that could decode Google's AV1 video codec.
The original article contains 591 words, the summary contains 221 words. Saved 63%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
5I'm really hoping they patent this and lock it away so no one can do it...
I ain't holding my breath though
5Isn't there a Black Mirror episode of this
4Man, am I happy that I stopped using my Roku and switched to an Nvidia Shield TV. I'm also happy that I have a "dumb TV"!
41 step closer to "Drink Verification Can" becoming a reality
3I am on board for this.
Patent it and no one else can do it.
Then if you do get or have a Roku TV, just don't add the wifi to your TV. (I know this won't work for the sticks, but for the cheap TV, just don't add that to the wifi)
I know that defeats the point of a smart TV but its a lot cheaper than other screens.
1Companies can use it without much trouble. They just need to licence it
1True. Good point.
I was thinking more along the lines that most companies won’t license something unless they absolutely have to. I should have said not ALL the other company’s will do it.
1