NAS Crashes Roku Media Player
The Roku Media Player seems to be crashing when used to play NAS video files that are more than approximately 120MB. I have 3 Roku boxes, a Roku 2, Roku 3, Roku 4 Ultra, all connected via ethernet. ...
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Thanks for the quick response.
I know it is not the NAS/router because I am able to stream videos from the NAS to 3 other devices simultaneously without issues, but on every Roku when streaming to just the one Roku device, the media player consistently locks up at 13% before exiting to the Home menu. This only happens with files that are bigger than about 120MB. Smaller files load and play fine on the RMP. I have folders with files of identical types in them varying by only about 10-20 MB and have seen that the inability to play them occurs around the 120MB threshold.
If this is related to the router/NAS it must be the interplay between the router and the Roku Media Player software. Perhaps related to the size of the file parts sent to the RMP to be buffered which might grow relative to the file size but for which RMP is programmed to have a set amount it can handle.
The RMP is the only reason I have bought so many Roku's already so it is unfortunate that is has been neglected. Over the years I have switched back and forth between using the USB connection and NAS. I know that in the past I was able to use RMP with this exact same NAS/router setup without any issues so this seems like the result of a software update which has previously caused me other issues with the RMP.
Is there any way to revert to older firmware on a Roku?
ReignRichie wrote:I know it is not the NAS/router because I am able to stream videos from the NAS to 3 other devices simultaneously without issues, but on every Roku when streaming to just the one Roku device, the media player consistently locks up at 13% before exiting to the Home menu.
If this is related to the router/NAS it must be the interplay between the router and the Roku Media Player software. Perhaps related to the size of the file parts sent to the RMP to be buffered which might grow relative to the file size but for which RMP is programmed to have a set amount it can handle.
Is there any way to revert to older firmware on a Roku?
There's no issue with RMP playing larger files. When I saw your message I started playing a ripped DVD in the MKV container (MPEG-2 video, AC3 audio) and it's been playing for over 20 minutes without a problem. Since the Roku supports this container and both codecs, it's playing the same as if it were directly connected to the Roku. The file is almost 4GB, so far larger than yours. I made this test with a Premiere 3920, which is a lower performance Roku player compared to my Ultras, my Stick or my Express 4K+. This was using a 2.4 GHz WiFi connection, so not even the best network possible for video playback.
The fact it works with other devices is meaningless, since they all use a different operating system. Yes, it does appear to be something related specifically to the Roku OS, but since the files will play over the USB connection, that really points the finger at the router/DLNA server.
No, it is not possible to revert to older firmware on any Roku device.
Thanks for doing that test, I really appreciate it. The reason why I mentioned that the files play on multiple devices at once was too say that the problem isn't related to the speed of transfer capability of the NAS Readyshare router set up.
After trying many different things, I found that the problem is related to the creation of thumbnails for the files. You see, I have hundreds of videos, most of them also have a .jpeg image file with the same name which is the way Roku Media Player displays an image for the video.
I found that there is a file called .readydlna that is created which includes a path to a folder that contains thumbnail versions of the pictures which I have that match up with video files. Roku Media Player seems to cause the generation of these files when it first connects to the server which takes some time. Sometimes it won't create a file for some reason that I didn't completely figure out but does in some cases seem to be due to the image file's size, although there seems to be other variables because shrinking the images and matching the resolution and 16x9 dimensions didn't always correct the problem.
However, when I delete all the image files from the video folders, it resolved the video playback issue. So, it seems like there is some kind of time out or other issue closely related to the creation of these thumbnails but which also seems to involve the video file size. I'm noting it here for future users who might encounter a similar problem.
The thumbnail issue is unfortunate because these videos are for my young children to watch but it is not crucial. I have decided that I will try a Jellyfin server set up because it is free and open source and seems like it won't have the issues that made me not want to use Plex or other server options.
Nice troubleshooting. My DLNA server uses the metadata stream to provide image thumbnails, so I have no separate images on my server.
