System would detect paused content on external devices and show ads on top.

A patent application from the company spotted by Lowpass describes a system for displaying ads over any device connected over HDMI, a list that could include cable boxes, game consoles, DVD or Blu-ray players, PCs, or even other video streaming devices. Roku filed for the patent in August 2023 and it was published in November 2023, though it hasn’t yet been granted.

The technology described would detect whether content was paused in multiple ways—if the video being displayed is static, if there’s no audio being played, if a pause symbol is shown anywhere on screen, or if (on a TV with HDMI-CEC enabled) a pause signal has been received from some passthrough remote control. The system would analyze the paused image and use metadata “to identify one or more objects” in the video frame, transmit that identification information to a network, and receive and display a “relevant ad” over top of whatever the paused content is.

  • Teon@kbin.social
    25·
    3 months ago

    Sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.
    Imagine that you pay for an ad free streaming service through your roku, like HBO for example. And now you have ads streaming over it?
    People will sue for a way to disable it over ad free paid content.
    Also, this will lead to way more pirating. People are sick of advertisements.

    • whodatdair@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      141·
      3 months ago

      That’ll be why they just pushed a “agree to our new license with arbitrage or your tv is a brick” update

    • Drewelite@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      512·
      3 months ago

      Even if people sue, doesn’t mean they have any legal grounds to win. What law is Roku breaking? You can’t sue your TV manufacturer for not being 4k when you pay for 4k content. Your content display technology has the right to display content how they see fit.

      I see this as a job for the free market. As consumers we need to show Roku how we feel about that.

      • NounsAndWords@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        3 months ago

        If I purchase a TV, that I now own, and after I own it the company “updates” my TV that I now have to watch ads in order to use the TV I purchased without that condition?

        At minimum it’s a breach of contract

        • GooseFinger@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          Their recent ToS update: “We bricked your TV until you ‘consent’ to waiving your right to sue us if we do something illegal. Also, we won’t tell you what you’re consenting to up front, instead we’ll make you spend hours reading through pages and pages of legal garbage to find where we buried this statement.”

          They know that nobody would agree to this if they put it in big bold letters right above the “agree” button, so they bury it behind hours of tedious reading so that people cave in and just “consent.”

          If you roofy someone’s drink and pester them until they “consent” to sex, you would get thrown and jail and probably shanked in the liver. If Roku bricks the TV that you purchased and won’t let it work again until you consent to something that you’re nearly guaranteed to miss or not understand by design, their profits go up because people can’t sue them.

          This capitalism hellhole can’t burn down fast enough.