Very Slow Roku Ultra Ethernet Speed
I recently purchased two Roku 4K Ultras (4802X). I have both of them connected via ethernet cable to my gigabit network. I stream content from both the internet and a local plex server. The issue I...
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That is definitely a possibility. I thought about that as I have a few spare, good routers laying around. I may end up doing that.
Thanks!
-Steve
We have a few roku tvs.. express 4+.. an Ultra box. Not one of them on ethernet will go over 100 mbs. So that tells me the port on the back of roku is 100 max. Which comes around 90-92 mbs. If you are getting less than 90 I would say a bad cable or something. But you wont get like 1 gb because from what I have seen roku ethernet does not support that speed. Actually when I look at my router dashboard page all the rokus show full duplex at 100 mb. So only way to get a faster speed would be wifi. But nothing far as I know uses anything close to 100 mb so faster would be overkill. However with ethernet your latency and stuff is better. And I will always choose ethernet over wifi. Usually more reliable and less lag. Less streaming issues. Just my 2 cents.
Justy74 Roku devices with Ethernet ports are all 100 BaseT, also called Fast Ethernet. Yes, that has a theoretical limit of 100 Mbps, but with network processing and overhead you are correct that they max out around 92 Mbps.
The fastest speed I can get on WiFi is using my Ultra 4800 connected to a 5 GHz access point that is less than five feet away from the Roku. It tops out around 230 Mbps, which I feel is the hardware limits of the Roku processor and associated hardware. Even playing a video using the USB port, which bypasses all networking within the Roku, I cannot play a fixed rate 250 Mbps video without some buffering. So the current hardware simply won't handle anything faster. My Premiere 3920 can't even reach 200 Mbps, again with an access point within a few feet. That tells me the hardware in the Premiere has less capability than the Ultra (which isn't a surprise given the price difference between the two and the fact it's only 2.4 GHz WiFi).
I wanted to give an update of sorts. I kept working on the ultras I had and even got a replacement from Roku. All three were the same. I could not get a transfer rate at or above 10Mbps. To watch shows buffer-free I had to have my plex server stream them at 4Mbps 720p or maybe 8Mbps 1080p.
I decided this was just unacceptable for a flagship product at this price point, and I returned them for a refund. Fortunately, I still have my old Roku 3 units that will get me by until I decide what is next.
Thanks for the good ideas. Roku on.
ChefLamont A bad Ethernet cable can reduce a 100 BaseT connection to a 10 BaseT, which sounds like your issue. There's 8 wires twisted together inside the cable, and if there's a break in any one of them you cannot get the full Fast Ethernet connection. Just a thought. Especially since you experienced the same issue with multiple devices, that really does eliminate the Roku as the problem.
