Let me tell you about the hell that is Roku. They create so much wireless interference and I can’t just get rid of them.
The problem stems from WiFi direct. They automatically scan for the busiest channel and then broadcast full strength on that channel. I don’t know why they do this but it creates a crazy amount of interference.
And before you ask, no you can’t turn WiFi direct off. Also the remote uses WiFi direct for some reason.
WHY, ROKU WHY!
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Shield in the main room. Onn everywhere else.
They also spew tens of thousands of DNS requests per hour if you stick them behind pihole or another ad black hole resolver.
My mom’s Roku TV accounts for like 90-95% of all DNS requests on her network.
That’s because they are tracking what you watch to place relevant ads. You need more than pihole to stop them
Rokus are relentless
Yeah, I mean this is enough effort on The Mom’s network.
Also, they snoop on your HDMI signal if you have a Roku device, and push advertisements based on the media passing of HDMI. I will personally never own another Roku device.
About 5 or 6 years ago I interviewed a girl who had been working on that tech, and it stunned me that the suspicions folks like me had were being verified by a software engineer that had worked on the feature. I want to say that looking back may naïveté seems quaint, but it’s still terrible and unbelievable that most companies spy on all their users’ communications and lifestyles at literally every opportunity.
You’re much better off with a mini PC running Linux and Kodi.
I have a mini PC running linux and I use it for streaming (including a Jellyfin library) and gaming. I love it and use it almost exclusively. However I have not gone down the rabbit hole of HDR and Dolby Vision for 4K DRM content.
I have a Google TV stick for that content, which is very far from ideal, I know. But in fairness I find myself barely ever using it.
If 4K and Dolby is important, I saw someone else recommending an Apple TV box as you can easily disable telemetry and the device isn’t riddled with advertising or tracking, but then the apps you download would still be a law until themselves. But probably way better than Roku, Amazon and Google et al?
Yeah, that’s the big issue with Kodi. Good luck getting any legitimate streaming services to work at more than 720p at best. And you can forget about library integration with those legit streaming service addons too.
The best user experience is trying to find the most trustworthy pre-packaged/configured pirate “version”, and optionally paying for realdebrid.
I have an Nvidia shield for now, and run Plex on unRAID. I will be moving to a HTPC one the shield goes tits up. For the most part, I consume my media from my PC, but if I’m using the TV, it’s currently my shield.
