Roku TVs could one day show ads as soon as you pause playing a game on a connected Xbox, or stop a stream on an Apple TV.

Roku is exploring ways to show consumers ads on its TVs even when they are not using its streaming platform: The company has been looking into injecting ads into the video feeds of third-party devices connected to its TVs, according to a recent patent filing.

This way, when an owner of a Roku TV takes a short break from playing a game on their Xbox, or streaming something on an Apple TV device connected to the TV set, Roku would use that break to show ads. Roku engineers have even explored ways to figure out what the consumer is doing with their TV-connected device in order to display relevant advertising.

  • rolaulten@startrek.websiteEnglish
    3·
    8 months ago

    +1. We are a household of sysadmins/engineers. Sure I or my wife could design a PC for media in an afternoon - but I don’t want to deal with it.

    An apple TV was a no fuss, no headache media box that can interface with the servers that store my media.

    • tjhart85@kbin.social
      1·
      8 months ago

      Yeah I used to have a PC and a Harmony remote that would send macros to a custom script and Kodi would do different things or it could switch to Netflix and … Like, we just want to watch a movie or TV show not have to perform tech support whenever Netflix changed their webpage!

      • rolaulten@startrek.websiteEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        Id say if it’s in your budget - get one. We have no other apple products in the house but that. The biggest annoyance was making an apple account (for some stupid reason they require it…)