Roku Client replacements

[trmb 2]

I'm happy with my Emby server setup, but I am growing increasingly dissatisfied with RokuOS. Roku's latest "experiment" with advertisements before you can get to the Home screen are signalling me I need to replace them with something ad free.

So I have 5 Roku client devices to replace, only one of which is even hooked up to a 4K TV. One Roku is the remote at my weekend home. Most of our content is 1080p originals with downconverted content alongside to stream to the remote location.

I'm looking for something with zero adverts in the interface, 4K decoding hardware and a good remote. In addition to an Emby App, my most used apps are: YouTubeTV, Netflix, HBO, and Amazon.

What little box do people recommend for the best ad-free client experience these days?

I'm perfectly fine spending some cash on replacements; I'd even consider N100s or similar running linux/android. Cheap is nice, but ultimately price is not a factor. I'm more worried about future-proofing; I'm hearing that ads are creeping into even Apple TVs.

Edited March 18, 2025 by trmb
grammar, as usual

[vincen 71]

Hi

 

Here so far the only player I'm more or less satisfied with for Emby is an Android stick (Mi Stick but there are some other ones similar). It runs natively the Emby Android app and it works fine (only problems are related at Emby server so same whatever app or interface used).

 

Vincèn

[Happy2Play 9780]

Guess one factor will be do you have Emby Premiere as Roku is one of the freee device clients where almost all other device client will not be.   But yes, potentially seeing this issue coming to all STB and TV platforms.

Some live by the Shield as being the most versital/powerful next just being a HTPC.

[Sammy 790]

I'd go with a mini PC or NUC with the Emby App installed and a FLIRC for remote control or maybe there's a Bluetooth solution these days, IDK?

[trmb 2]

Thanks for the replies. I'm beginning to realize that seeking that one perfect client device that is ad-free and does everything well is harder than it should be.

Happy2Play, I do have Emby Premiere... for over a decade now, since I converted from a Windows Media Center htpc. 

Sammy, What OS would you recommend to run the Emby app? Windows, Android, or a Linux distro like LibreElec or CoreElec? I tried to run Emby Theater  app in my living room on my server (a minipc) with a Flirc a few years back, and was underwhelmed with the launcher/user experience from the couch; I found myself having to use the OS too often.. I'm open to looking into it again though.

Vincen, I'll look into the Mi stick and boxes. I tend to think that some kind of Android TV solution may be optimal, because (as I understand it) with a custom launcher it will be ad-free.

Re the Nvidia Shield TV options, would the Tube be enough for my older non 4K Tvs or should I stick with the Pro for all 5 clients? I hate to buy 6 year old hardware. That's why I have been wondering about minipcs that I have control over. 

Since the $100ish N100 boxes are cheaper but faster than the NVidia Shield Pros, why not just run Android TV or even Linux/LibreElecon on them? A related question is whether a certified or a non-certified Android TV box or stick is a reasonable way to go for my streaming use cases? 

Generally speaking, for most of my use cases I don't really need the highest possible sound quality passthrough (most of my tvs are older, 720p or 1080p, smaller and in bedrooms) and I don't pay for 4K except on YouTubeTV, and I can always run the app the from the onscreen Samsung thing or use a dedicated device for 4K streaming on my one 4K setup. I do care about support for decoding h.265, particularly for the box on the cabin TV because bandwidth is an issue there. Looking through other threads, I see some pointers to some Dune boxes that might fit the bill, and a mention of a Ugoos, whatever that is.

But while I am upgrading, I'd prefer a remote without a Netflix or other stupid dedicated buttons (or at least be able to program such buttons to do nothing). 90% of the time we are in Emby and I can't tell you how many times I or my wife has accidentally hit one of those damn buttons and have had to deal with viewus interruptus. My low tech solution for the Roku remotes has been to pop out the button covers to make it harder to press them accidentally...

 

 

[ebr 16169]

22 hours ago, Sammy said:

I'd go with a mini PC or NUC with the Emby App installed and a FLIRC for remote control or maybe there's a Bluetooth solution these days, IDK?

If you like spending time fiddling with settings and getting stuff to work .  Otherwise, get a good Android box and be done with it.  The Shield is the best but only necessary if you want complete support for all the HD audio spectrum (and don't have AV1 video).

The tube would be fine for non-4k content. 

[all4dom 101]

@ebrdo you think the hdr issue will ever be fixed with windows or is that something emby can possible fix? It's a shame because other then the hdr issue i.would think emby theater would be the best client because it's on a pc? 

[Luke 42077]

2 hours ago, all4dom said:

@ebrdo you think the hdr issue will ever be fixed with windows or is that something emby can possible fix? It's a shame because other then the hdr issue i.would think emby theater would be the best client because it's on a pc? 

Hi @all4domif you are having an issue please open a topic in the Windows app section. Thanks.

[all4dom 101]

@Lukeno issue as i dont uae an htpc. I was just commenting.

[RanmaCanada 494]

You can keep your Roku and just build a Pi-hole. For your remote weekend home you would either make one for there also, or have your router at the weekend home tunnel into your home network.

[trmb 2]

2 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

You can keep your Roku and just build a Pi-hole. For your remote weekend home you would either make one for there also, or have your router at the weekend home tunnel into your home network.

 

This is an interesting idea. I know pi-hole has been used to block the Roku banner ads, but those aren't what ticks me off. Roku's banner ads are a mild annoyance I can live with; we are primarily in Emby with the occasional sojourn into Netflix HBO etc..

But do you know if pi-hole can block these new "before you can use your device" ads? I am seeing negatory info on reddit.

I've spun up a pi-hole docker in the past, but ditched it as I primarily use laptops with browsers running Ublock Origin (ie. no more Google Chrome), and on ios I use Orion with filterlists. But those solve the general "ads interfere with the web" problem and the RokuOS thing is a hellish new wrinkle.

So this reminded me about maybe trying my routers' adblock feature. I'll look into subnetting all the Rokus on it. Still, if Roku is serving the video ads from a whitelisted top level domain... could be a problem for most any filtering solution.

For some other writeups on what the exact issue is...

https://www.makeuseof.com/sell-roku-tv-after-enforced-advertising/

https://lifehacker.com/tech/roku-is-experimenting-with-unskippable-ads

https://www.theverge.com/news/631392/roku-immediate-video-ads-startup

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/roku-says-unpopular-autoplay-ads-are-just-a-test/

This sort of ad-besotten UX abominations are why Amazon Fire devices are totally out for me, and I'm leaning toward getting Shields or maybe trying out a cheaper sideloadable android box with a custom launcher. Whatever the solution is, I would prefer it be one that does not require fiddling with it all the time...

[RanmaCanada 494]

I personally have a TCL Roku TV and I get nothing on my tv. Mind you my adlist is over 1.6 million sites..I did have over 2 million, but I had to de-activate a list as it was blocking my Asus Router which also uses the Trend Micro stuff. I de-activated the list today at 11am, so the numbers are still skewed high. I need to look into why this one list I deactivated made my router go bonkers. I had to whitelist Amazon as blocking it stopped Emby from working on my FireCube..I did have a support post about that last year.

[Sammy 790]

14 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

I personally have a TCL Roku TV and I get nothing on my tv. Mind you my adlist is over 1.6 million sites..I did have over 2 million, but I had to de-activate a list as it was blocking my Asus Router which also uses the Trend Micro stuff. I de-activated the list today at 11am, so the numbers are still skewed high. I need to look into why this one list I deactivated made my router go bonkers. I had to whitelist Amazon as blocking it stopped Emby from working on my FireCube..I did have a support post about that last year.

where'd you get the time to blocklist 2 million sites?

I don't get ads on my Google TV's except at the main interface and that's just suggested content which I mostly ignore.

[Neminem 1516]

@SammyI use this source for my block listes

blocklistproject/Lists: Primary Block Lists

pihole-blocklists · GitHub Topics

Edited March 22, 2025 by Neminem

[RanmaCanada 494]

6 hours ago, Sammy said:

where'd you get the time to blocklist 2 million sites?

I don't get ads on my Google TV's except at the main interface and that's just suggested content which I mostly ignore.

There are sites dedicated to this. I have 36 lists in my pi-hole. I even made a txt file with all the sites so it's easy to copy and paste into a new pi-hole as I've made several for friends who got sick and tired of all the ads on the internet and their phones.

[Jdiesel 1431]

I use the Hagezi List

https://github.com/hagezi/dns-blocklists