Technology

59446 readers

3756 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

1296

Roku explores taking over HDMI feeds with ads (www.lowpass.cc)

submitted 7 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

488 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] deur@feddit.nl 6 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Does nobody in this thread know about HDCP? This wouldn't fly at all.

[–] getynge@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

They'd be doing this change on their TVs, in principle this would be no different from displaying the settings menu that comes up when you press the * button, no tampering of the HDMI signal required. HDMI inputs are their own "channels" in the UI so it's pretty trivial to put ads on the screen periodically when one such channel is open.

[–] ulterno@lemmy.kde.social 6 points 7 months ago

HDCP signal is decoded by the TV before being displayed on the screen. The TV has complete control over what is shown to you.

Don't get it wrong: HDCP was not made to protect user interests, but specifically for the publisher and display device OEMs who subscribe to it.

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Can you elaborate? I thought hdcp was mostly about preventing piracy type of things, what does it do for this situation?

[–] khornechips@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago

It (in theory) prevents signal tampering of any kind, which would include injecting advertisements into the stream.

[–] VR20X6@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 months ago

Have you heard of the analog hole? Or wondered how your TV can display things like volume changes over the program you're watching?