this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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That's why I never used it, because I knew it will happen. Better to use some other solution. I wish there was a third party option to google chromecast and all the home devices that works as well.
I can't speak for the rest of the home products, but Roku is a pretty good alternative to Chromecast
I hate that all the TCL TVs this year changed from Roku and Google this year to just Google. Give me some variety and competition. Also, I like their simpler out-of-the-box interface better with less ads and such, even though the Google TV interface is more customizable.
ROKU TV HAS ADS AS WELL?
Yes they do. Usually one big ad on the side of the screen. And they may if you use certain screen savers. I think the city scapes one puts ads in it. Note: all the ads I mention are static images without sound.
Is there any TV software without ads that works well?
Hoo BOY does Roku have ads! When I installed PiHole on my network and used it as my local DNS, the TOP blocked domain was "scribe.roku.com". It was calling home like 5000 times a day. We were thinking every single remote push maybe.
Blocking those domains made the entire interface speed up drastically, and got rid of the giant box ads on the side as well. (It's just a big empty frame now lol).
Rokus are nice and cheap if you can mitigate their rampant data harvesting.
I just gave up and attached a small form factor PC to my TV.
What are you using for control? I wouldn't mind scrapping my Roku for something a little more robust but using a mouse and keyboard on my home television seems kind of ...awful.
I picked up a Logitech K400, it's working well enough for now. I'm still evaluating the best use cases and access methods for everything but it's good enough for when I need to just toss a browser up on my screen. Much more convenient than going to my PC in another room to cast a tab; I got tired of getting off the couch just b/c a stream needs to be refreshed.
Thanks for the response
Yeah, I have one of those at work on a central presentation machine. It does ok
Maybe my problem is more getting away from windows and moving to kodi or something. Trying to run a regular desktop GUI from across the room is just an uncomfortable thing.
FWIW I'm dealing with that issue, too. You can size things up and make it work okay but it's not an amazing experience. I'm also looking at an alternative UI since the vast majority of what I want it for is browser based. I'm exploring some flavors of linux, but I have yet to encounter something that gives me the TV-like interface with PC functionality behind the scenes.
A Trackball is a lot better than a mouse.
That said, I haven't found anything beats both.
They make mini keyboard/trackball things but they're all such low quality crap.
Steam Deck ftw.
It is my everything. Seriously.
Pocketcasts is great and supports Chromecast
Thanks, I know.