Channel Issues & Questions

[Emissary35]

I'm having a problem on my Roku HD model 2500X units. For some reason when I hook them up with a composite connection (Red, White, Yellow inputs) and play videos on youtube it won't give me a full screen picture. I am getting a thin black border on all four sides of the image if on a 16:9 TV, and getting a thin border on the top and bottom of the screen only if on a 4:3 TV. It's not just doing this on the videos but on the app itself. If I connect with HDMI instead and set it to 720p then I get a full image on a 16:9 TV but that's the only way it displays correctly. Anyone else experiencing this issue? I used to get a full screen with composite hookup until updates a while back changed something and now this issue has arisen. I don't have problems with any other apps, this is only happening with the youtube channel. A fix for this would be great!

[jeffrok]

If the tv is HD, you should be hooking up to the tv with HD (HDMI cables), otherwise you won't get a correct display.

Not sure why you'd want to hook up to an HD TV with composite cables to begin with.. if you're out of HDMI ports, you should either get an HDMI switcher, or manually swap HDMI cables as needed.

On your 4:3 tv, you are probably viewing content (most content these days) that was filmed in widescreen. Your TV is displaying bars on top, to allow you to see all of the picture.

[Emissary35]

"jeffrok" wrote:
If the tv is HD, you should be hooking up to the tv with HD (HDMI cables), otherwise you won't get a correct display.

Not sure why you'd want to hook up to an HD TV with composite cables to begin with.. if you're out of HDMI ports, you should either get an HDMI switcher, or manually swap HDMI cables as needed.

On your 4:3 tv, you are probably viewing content (most content these days) that was filmed in widescreen. Your TV is displaying bars on top, to allow you to see all of the picture.

Thanks for taking the time to reply but I don't think you fully understand what I am reporting, unfortunately nothing you've told me is helpful or something I didn't already know. First off, just because you are watching on an HDTV which has HDMI ports doesn't mean that you have to use those. The composite inputs work just fine, they just won't give you an HD quality picture. Saying that you won't get a correct display unless you use HDMI is absolutely ridiculous. The Roku HD has a 16:9 composite setting in the menu and I AM getting a correct display on all other Roku channels, this is only a youtube issue on that one channel.

As far as my 4:3 TV is concerned I fully understand what letterboxing of widescreen videos is and that is not the issue I'm talking about. Even 4:3 video is not filling the screen properly. I can go to a 4:3 video on the youtube website and the player transforms to 4:3 mode, I can enter full screen mode and it displays properly. Yet on the Roku youtube channel those same videos aren't  filling the screen properly because there are thin black bars on the top and bottom of the screen.

Something has changed with the youtube Roku channel recently where you will not get a full picture unless you are hooked up with HDMI and it's ludicrous. This needs to be looked into and addressed by someone at Roku.

[twiceover]

So, as you stated, it is a YouTube issue.  Have you contacted YouTube about it?

[Michelle3]

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@jeffrok wrote:
If the tv is HD, you should be hooking up to the tv with HD (HDMI cables), otherwise you won't get a correct display.

Not sure why you'd want to hook up to an HD TV with composite cables to begin with.. if you're out of HDMI ports, you should either get an HDMI switcher, or manually swap HDMI cables as needed.

On your 4:3 tv, you are probably viewing content (most content these days) that was filmed in widescreen. Your TV is displaying bars on top, to allow you to see all of the picture.

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This answer contains revealing that they’re in the wrong question, and a false reason for some reason.

First of all, when the Roku models with RCA output are set to 4:3 standard via Settings > Display type, and a 4:3 YouTube video is played, there are the following different issues:

For some older Roku models,

4:3 videos act like they were cropped to 16:9, so they contain letterbox bars horizontally at the top and bottom sides, and so does the YouTube app’s main menu, but that means that YouTube seems to only support 16:9, not the video was uploaded in 16:9.

For the Roku Express+ models with RCA output,

They act like the signal is 16:9, so they contain squishing and pillarbox bars vertically at the left and right sides.

Second and last of all, HDTVs are Made in China junk, because when you use the HDMI ports on them for only a few years, months, weeks or days, they get blown out, especially by a lightning thunderstorm strike, then you would have to only use the analog audio and video ports, especially for adapters that convert HDMI to them. You would be better off continuing to use an old 4:3 CRT TV.

~Jordan

[Michelle3]

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@twiceover wrote:
So, as you stated, it is a YouTube issue.  Have you contacted YouTube about it?

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We have contacted their complaint page, even to do that, an account was not required. Hopefully, they accepted our complaints. If they did, they should fix the issue. 

~Jordan