Don’t buy these Roku players, farewell to Freevee

Jared Newman   |   November 15, 2024

Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, and this is Cord Cutter Weekly, my newsletter on how to save money on TV and make the most of streaming.

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This week on TechHive: Roku’s bogus Black Friday offers

Roku is once again rolling out a set of cheap streaming devices for Black Friday, which means it’s time for my grand holiday tradition of imploring you not to buy them.

As in years past, Walmart has the exclusive on these budget Black Friday streamers, which include the $15 Roku LE (on sale from November 25 through December 1) and the $18 Roku Premiere (available now through November 17). Both are among the worst streaming devices you can buy at any price, and neither are worth buying on Black Friday except in a few narrow use cases.

Read the full column on TechHive →

Want more tech advice from me? Check out Advisorator, my weekly newsletter covering all things tech. Some things I’ve written about lately include my search for a new wireless carrier, a simpler iPhone setup, and my overdue embrace of virtual desktops.

Weekly rewind

Farewell, Freevee: Amazon is shutting down Freevee, its standalone app for free, ad-supported video. Freevee’s entire catalog is already available through Prime Video without a subscription, so it doesn’t make sense to maintain an entirely separate brand just for free content. (Besides, Prime Video subscribers have to watch ads now too, unless they pay an extra toll.)

If this sounds familiar, Freevee’s demise was rumored back in February, and Amazon never really denied it despite reports to the contrary.

PBS on Prime Video: In other Amazon news, the company says it will start streaming local PBS stations and PBS Kids for free (with no ads) via Prime Video in the coming months. It’s also planning to launch additional PBS-themed channels, including PBS Drama and PBS Documentaries.

Having access to PBS through Prime Video will be convenient, but it’s not required. The PBS app and website already stream local stations for free.

Tablo’s Roku issues: For the past week or so, some Tablo over-the-air DVR owners have been unable to watch live broadcast channels on Roku devices. At issue is Roku’s OS 14 update, which doesn’t support the full AC3 surround sound audio passthrough that Tablo depends on.

Tablo says it will push an update by year-end that will let users disable surround sound, which should restore playback, and it’s working on a longer-term fix as well. In the meantime, the company suggests tweaking Roku’s audio settings as a potential workaround. (Users of older Tablo devices can already disable surround sound under Settings > General > Surround Sound.)

Correction: A few weeks ago, I misread the comparison between Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick HD and earlier models. They all have 1 GB of RAM, so the new model is not a downgrade in that department. Apologies for the error.

More catch-up

Save more money

In case you didn’t click through to my TechHive column this week, the one Roku Black Friday deal that’s actually worth considering is the Roku Ultra LT, which Walmart is selling for $34 through November 17. For a streaming box with hardwired ethernet support, Dolby Vision HDR, and a remote with TV volume, power, and voice controls, that’s a pretty solid offer.

Other notable deals:

Thanks for reading!

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Until next week,
Jared