Originally published at: Why Roku's Success Shows Everything Wrong With Streaming
Roku may dominate the North American streaming market, but their recent financial success exposes serious problems with their approach. Roku just reported impressive financial results for Q2 2025, with total revenue hitting $1.11 billion and platform revenue surging 18% year-over-year. While these numbers look great on paper, they tell a troubling story about the streaming…
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Wife uses Roku ,but, only to watch old comedy specials. I’m just not a fan of it. While I do have a Roku TV in the office I use a Fire stick. Of course till Amazon ticks me off again, then I’ll go with the onn box. Pair up nicely with 2 onn tvs
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And this is why I still prefer dumb tvs…at any point and time google, amazon, lg os, etc can start using the same tactics. I have a roku tv in the lr now and when the internet goes out it’ s a pita to get the home screen to load, which means I can’t even get to my shield or other devices. As far as the ads go they can all go jump off a cliff.
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WOW … I was never aware of the Roku products other than that they exist, but after reading the article Troy posted I can tell you one thing for sure, I will never own one no matter how good a deal or product quality/features 
Good point. Only problem with most older “dumb tvs” is most of them have lousy or outdated tone mapping, which can only be corrected so much with now outdated technology like Dolby Vision. Newer tvs have much better technology, including AI video processing, HDR capabilities and AI upscaling, which make for a much improved picture quality.
Dolby vision leads the way for imaging with 12bit colour and dynamic metadata.
Samsung’s HDR10+ has dynamic metadata but does not have 12 bit colour.
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Wow. I hope they don’t get approval for this technology to put adds on HDMI ports. Most of my family purchased the affordable ONN TV’s from Walmart due to affordability. I assumed the ONN tv and the ONN device both used google but recently saw that my friend had a Roku remote with her tv.
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Most TVs being made are either 10 or 12 bit. Anything higher drives up the price considerably. I have 2 LG Oled tvs, an older one that runs only Dolby Vision and a newer one that runs HDR10 and has AI upscaling technology for older, lower resolution media. There is no contest when it comes to which set has the more vibrant, detailed picture.
Trash all Roku devices but buy the stock?
I was talking about Dolby vision imaging and comparing TV panel technology is a different subject.
Dolby lead the way and it is used in Blu-rays, official streaming services and some high end movie theatres.
It is used by most top Tv manufacturers except Samsung who has their own HDR10+ but it is only 10bit colour and is not widely available on physical media because Dolby Vision 12bit is the preferred choice even though it has licensing fees.
Yea but if the consumer is forced into the roku, lg, samsung, google eco system they can ultimately force ads down our throats. It’s coming just wait and see. All these other manufacturers see the money roku is making and will want their slice of the pie. It’ll be to the point they say we own the s/w so we can do as we wish.
Just like the movie companies say yea you may own the disc, but we own the intellectual property. It’s a slippery slope and we all know that money and greed drives it all.
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Fire TV devices are approaching the same closed system model as Roku. I once owned a Roku system. Not anymore. I settled with the NVIDIA Shield Pro. It was easy to modify it with a launcher and have never looked back since. I never have to constantly retweek it just to maintain the same launcher interface.
If someone prefers to the babysitted or on strict supervision as if they were on parole, I guess the Roku is a good idea. I would be embarrassed to own a Roku device.
The best thing to do with a smart tv is to disconnect it from the internet once your initial set up is complete. Then run the internet connection through your android streaming device. That way you’ll avoid any shenanigans by your tv manufacturer.
The people here aren’t using Roku devices. Maybe their wives and children. Roku makes it next to impossible to pirate anything using their stuff. It’s android boxes for the win.
The only reason that I like the Roku TV is because of the pause playback feature. If there was another TV that offered this same option I would ditch Roku.
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I have to confess I have been a roku ultimate (I think that was the top box) for 12 maybe 15 years, never had any issues, and the ads, never paid attention, have netflix, hulu paramount plus and get peacock with my xfinity internet, and prime but not for the streaming. I have prime for the2 day prime delivery that takes a week. Have 3currently but have been using the Onn 4k pro since I bought it in March. I did find Smarters Pro and simlar apps in the roku channel store, may be a good thing if you have a roku and want a tv service.There are limitations on them all from what I see though.
No smart tvs, the main TV is a 46"sony bravia I bought in 2008.
Roku is garbage can’t sideload apps
That sounds good in theory, but at any point they could obsolete the s/w on your tv. Apps and devices get updated to no longer work with the old version you may have. Hoping it doesn’t come to that but they certainly could do something like that.
Lots of hate for Roku here. I have 2 Roku TVs with ONN Pro devices plugged in and love them. If you limit yourself to only ad free viewing, my opinion, you’re missing a lot. Roku has the BEST CLOSED CAPTIONS and easiest OS. I put a Roku on another HDMI along with Android/Google device and freed up storage. There is a lot you can do with Roku with a little effort to learn Roku plus secret and hidden menus, to get rid of some ads and much more. Here’s a start:
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Still, the smart tv would have to have internet access for the manufacturer to do any updating. I have a 2022 model lg set I bought in 2023. I did one update and then cut off the wi-fi connection. Haven’t used that since and rely on my android streaming box for everything. No problems.
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