I purchased a Roku smart TV and a Roku device to attach to a second TV, and I have been dissatisfied with these products. Here are only some of the reasons.
Channel Guide Inaccuracy. Perhaps the most annoying problem with Roku is inaccurate program information. The channel guide may say that a show called ABC is playing, but when you select it to view, the show actually playing is XYZ, an entirely different program. The following are only a few actual examples among the dozens I’ve encountered.
March 19, channel 301 (Samuel Goldwyn channel)
Guide says “Jungle Master 2” is being shown
But what is actually being shown is “Second in Command”
March 19, channel 301 (Samuel Goldwyn channel)
Guide says “Taboo”
But actually showing “Shottas”
March 19, channel 770 (Scream Box TV)
Guide says “Hatchet III”
But actually showing “Night of the Living Dead”
March 28 (channel not recorded)
Guide says “Assassination of JFK”
But actually showing “The Zodiac”
March 30, channel 770 (Scream Box TV)
Guide says “Day of the Beast”
But actually showing “Creature from the Haunted Sea”
Date unrecorded, channel 769 (Unexplained Zone)
Guide says “Who Is the Zodiac Killer?”
But actually showing a program on Egyptian pyramids
Date unrecorded, channel 321 (Classic Western Movies)
Guide says “Damsel”
But actually showing “Shane”
April 8, channel 321 (Classic Western Movies)
Guide says “Damsel”
But actually showing “El Dorado”
April 10, channel 321 (Classic Western Movies)
Guide says “The Quick and the Dead”
But actually showing “The Magnificent 7”
April 10, channel 770 (Scream Box TV)
Guide says “Trancers”
But actually showing “Puppetmaster”
This list could continue ad nauseam, but enough examples have been cited to make the point: program information in the guide is often wrong and therefore unreliable. A number of channels in the guide (such as 524, Crime Thriller) NEVER play the program indicated in the guide.
Isn’t there anyone at Roku monitoring performance? Have they not heard of quality control or quality assurance? This chronic inaccuracy can only be due to carelessness or incompetence (essentially a sloppy disregard of what’s going on), or it’s being done on purpose by malicious employees or managers. I can think of no other explanation for this gross delinquency. No one at Roku is paying attention.
Unrecognized Channels. Often, Roku can’t find its own channels. If you direct it to go to, say, channel 522 (Midsomer Murders) or 284 (Universal Monsters), its response is that the channel isn’t available or doesn’t exist. Yet there it is, in the middle of the guide listing; and you can scroll to it, select it, and watch its programs.
Why is no one at Roku aware of this problem—and then correcting it? Or are they aware but just don’t care, another example of Roku management’s disregard for its customers?
Promoting Inaccessible Services. Another problem—in some respects just the opposite of Roku not recognizing its own channels—is Roku repeatedly running promos that advertise certain channels or apps that customers can’t access.
For example, Roku frequently runs ads for Non-Stop 90s and for Scream Factory TV, but neither is listed in the guide. And if you use the search function, Roku can’t find them. I’ve tried typing a search for these channels, and I’ve tried using voice commands. And I’ve tried searching for them as channels and as apps. Nothing works. I can’t access them.
Why does Roku advertise something that’s not available? Or if it is available, why not tell us how to get to it? How hard would it be to include this info as part of the promo? For example, say something like, “Watch Midsomer Murders on Roku channel 522.”
Inappropriate Captioning. Another chronic problem with Roku is airing a program with the closed captioning from an entirely different program. That is, for instance, “Doc Martin” episode 5,6 is what’s playing, but the closed captioning being run along the bottom of the scree is from ”Doc Martin” episode 4,3.
Once again, I ask isn’t anyone at Roku monitoring this stuff? If someone from the company was paying attention, they’d realize within the first minute or two that the wrong captioning is being displayed and they would correct it. Either, on the one hand, they are too incompetent or too careless or, on the other hand, they’re aware of the problem and choose not to do anything about it. The only other reason I can imagine at play here is that they’re doing it on purpose just to irritate their customers.
Groundhog Day Syndrome. One last example of Roku’s inefficiency. Some channels (e.g., 500, the Crime channel) keep starting over from the beginning of a program each time you tune to it. If you’ve been watching a program for, say, 20 minutes, and you tune temporarily to another channel and then go back to 500, the latter channel doesn’t resume playing the program in progress. Instead, it goes back to the program’s beginning and starts it all over again.
There are other performance issues with Roku, but the foregoing are the most serious. Surely someone at Roku must take enough pride in their work and have enough integrity to address these issues and fix them, no?
The question that continues to arise—at least for me—is whether anyone who works for Roku actually uses the product themselves. If the employees are also users, they certainly must have noticed these problems and tried to get them fixed. Or maybe Roku employees, intimately familiarly with Roku’s inferiority, choose to use alternative services that are more efficient.
Frank V.
