Forum Discussion

jabird's avatar
jabird
Reel Rookie
4 years ago

Getting ROKU to work with an old HDTV

Hello All,

I have a frustrating situation using my ROKU ULTRA LT with an old HDTV (JVC D-ILA).  The tv supports 480i, 1080i and 720p.  It has a HDMI port.  

Sometimes the ROKU is recognized and other times it shows up with No Program.

One time the ROKU letters were recognized (letters jumping up and down) and then the screen went blank (no program), but I could hear the remote signal sound when hitting any of the remote buttons.  Still no screen display though.  The remote seemed to sync up with the unit very quickly that time, other times it never syncs.

Other times nothing shows up on the tv at all except No Program.

I've tried using wired and wireless methods, but nothing consistent.

I've tried various combinations of turning on the tv first then ROKU and the other way around.  Nothing is consistent.  

ROKU works great with my smart tv.

Any suggestions?

thanks,

Jay

TV & Player Setup

14 Replies

  • atc98092's avatar
    atc98092
    Community Streaming Expert
    4 years ago

    It sounds like your TV isn't communicating correctly with the Roku about its supported resolutions. The HDMI protocol has what is called a handshake, and the two devices are supposed to understand and agree what each device supports. It sounds like the TV is sending incorrect data to the Roku, most likely that it is capable of 1080p. Unfortunately, there are some of those early HDTVs that had issues like this. 

    You might be able to press the remote buttons in the correct sequence to manually set the TV to 720p, but I don't have one of those players so can't say for certain what the sequence might be. You could take the Roku to a different TV that it works on and manually set it on 720p. In theory it should remain in 720p when you connect it back to the JVC.

  • remaker's avatar
    remaker
    Roku Guru
    4 years ago

    Autonegotation of resolution over HDMI does not always work correctly with older TVs, so you should lock the Roku to a supported resolution, like 720p.

    Connect it to a newer TV and then disable the automatic resolution, and set to 720p. 

    See: https://support.roku.com/article/115009246867

    • jabird's avatar
      jabird
      Reel Rookie
      4 years ago

      Thanks for the responses with my ROKU / TV issues.

      I was able to set the resolution on the ROKU to 720p by hooking it up to my newer smart tv.  I then went and connected to my old hdtv.  With most attempts the old tv didn't even recognize the ROKU input (thur hdmi cable).  But on a few occasions my old tv did connect to the ROKU and my hopes were raised high, success finally, I thought. 

      Then after moving around through the ROKU menu the connection dropped - "no signal detected."  I'm going to try switching the ROKU to 1080i and see if my old tv would recognize and keep this resolution.  (At this point I'd accept 480p if it is available on ROKU.)

      Now my smart tv won't recognize ROKU.  Could my ROKU unit be the problem?  My old tv doesn't have the capability to set the resolution, as far as I know, but I'll keep trying.

      thanks again for your suggestions.

      Jay

       

       

       

       

      • atc98092's avatar
        atc98092
        Community Streaming Expert
        4 years ago

        No Roku player supports 1080i, which is usually where the problem occurs with older sets. The handshake they offer misidentifies the set as 1080, so Roku sends a 1080p (progressive) signal. But the TV will only accept a 1080i (interlaced) signal, so you get that error. Unfortunately, there's little that can be done with TVs that misidentify themselves.

        As to why the Roku won't now link to the other TV, I have no good answer. You could try a different HDMI cable, or a different port on the TV. Make sure everything is turned off (TV and Roku) before making the connection. 

        No, there's no way to change the resolution at the TV itself. The display has a native resolution, and that's all it knows. The internal electronics will convert the incoming signal to the display resolution, within the limits of its hardware and programming. 

  • Dickyg's avatar
    Dickyg
    Reel Rookie
    2 years ago

    I have an HDMI connection on one end and composite on the other end.  This is a cable from my playstation 3.  With the remote, I can set my resolution on the tv to 720.  I am wondering if that would work with Roku as well.  Thanks for your reply's.

    • atc98092's avatar
      atc98092
      Community Streaming Expert
      2 years ago
      Dickyg wrote:

      I have an HDMI connection on one end and composite on the other end.  This is a cable from my playstation 3.  With the remote, I can set my resolution on the tv to 720.  I am wondering if that would work with Roku as well.  Thanks for your reply's.

      No, that won't work. The Playstation has the ability to set the resolution to work with a composite cable. The Roku has no such setting. A simple cable is not sufficient to convert the digital signal to the analog composite. That requires a powered adapter/converter box. 

    • remaker's avatar
      remaker
      Roku Guru
      2 years ago

      You probably want to make a new question for this.

  • MisterTrick's avatar
    MisterTrick
    Newbie
    2 years ago

    I think the answer from atc98092 is correct. I have a TV that supports 1080i but not 1080p. The Roku stick I bought would not operate properly. I have another small TV that *does* support 1080p. I put the Roku stick in that and it worked fine. Then I manually set the Roku stick to 720p rather than use auto-detect. After that, the Roku stick worked fine on the old TV at 720p resolution. If you don't have a 1080p television at all, maybe you could "borrow" a friend's TV to do the initial setup and set the stick to 720p.