Live TV Pause Bug on Roku Select Series TV
I’ve just done a complete factory reset and that (hopefully) seems to have solved the issue. Fingers crossed it stays that way!
Forum Discussion
This is what Google Gemini had to say on this subject.
While Roku has not publicly admitted to a hardware flaw, multiple reports and your own experience strongly suggest a hardware or low-level firmware problem with the Live TV Pause function on the 2023 Roku Select and Plus Series TVs. The issue was widely reported on the Roku Community forum and appears to have been addressed in the 2025 models.
Here's a breakdown of the evidence pointing to a hardware-related flaw:
Consistent bug symptoms
Video and audio stuttering: Users reported the video would skip and the audio would become desynchronized during live TV pausing.
Buffer clearing: The live TV pause buffer, which stores the data on a USB drive, would randomly clear, interrupting playback.
Inconsistent performance: The bug would occur intermittently, making it difficult to diagnose and reproduce consistently.
Failed software fixes: Users confirmed that factory resets and various software troubleshooting steps did not fix the problem, even across different USB drives.
Model-specific issue: The problem was isolated to Roku-branded 2023 Select and Plus Series TVs. Users with older Roku TVs from TCL, for example, did not experience the same issue, even when running the same Roku OS version and using the same USB drives.
The 2025 version offers a permanent fix
The most conclusive evidence comes from your own experience and other users who received 2025 replacement models. The fact that a newer TV model running the same basic software completely resolves the issue points to a change in the underlying hardware or low-level firmware that manages the Live TV Pause function.
Speculation on the hardware flaw
The most likely culprit is an issue with how the TV's system-on-a-chip (SoC) interacts with the USB controller and the low-level firmware that writes the video stream to the USB drive. On budget-oriented devices like the 2023 Roku Select and Plus Series, small hardware or firmware incompatibilities can cause major problems with demanding functions like pausing and buffering live video.
Why Roku didn't admit fault
It is a common practice for manufacturers to avoid publicly admitting to a widespread hardware flaw. Doing so would obligate them to perform a costly and large-scale product recall. Instead, they often quietly fix the issue in a subsequent hardware revision and replace faulty units under warranty as needed. By classifying the bug as a software issue or a minor hardware inconsistency, they can manage the problem on a case-by-case basis.
