Channels & viewing

[BreadNCircuses]

I just logged into Disney Plus and got a message from the app that after May 30th 2023 I will not be able to play Disney Plus on my device which is only a year or two old and was not cheap. There's no reason this device should not be playing Disney Plus or I should have to shell out another 120 or $140 or whatever it was to get another ultra high-def 4K Roku. We're people who cut the cable and it's absurd that you think or Disney Plus thinks to watch Disney plus were upgrading our device at our expense. This will lead people to abandon your platform en masse. Fix it or give a free upgrade, that's your biz decision. Will be looking forward to your reply as you have no way for me to talk to a person.

[Strega]

A couple of thoughts:

Roku doesn’t control what models Disney supports.  That’s a conversation to have with Disney. 

If you’re talking about the Roku 4 (model 4400), that one came out in 2015, so it wouldn’t surprise me too much if someone dropped support for it.  However, lately, it seems to me that some people are confusing the name of the old Roku 4, with some much newer models that have “4K” in their names.

Here is what Disney says they support. (Notice, no “Roku 4”, but many models with 4K in the name.)

Does that help?

[renojim]

To add to what @Strega said, if you really have a Roku 4 (model 4400) Roku dropped support for it recently and it will no longer receive updates.  That's probably why Disney isn't supporting it anymore.  If it's only a year or two old then you either got a used device or it's been on a shelf somewhere for years.

[nismo80]

Same problem. Roku wants to stop support/updating working devices that in result loses paid subscriptions, then Roku should offer a credit to loyal customers to upgrade.

OP has an excellent point. 

This now has me concerned about our 2 large Roku TVs. So basically you'll stop support for them some day, and although still functional they too will lose apps. 

[Strega]

Hopefully you selected TVs with HDMI ports, so you’ll be able to add whatever cool new streaming/media devices that come along.

[atc98092]

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@BreadNCircuses wrote:

 There's no reason this device should not be playing Disney Plus or I should have to shell out another 120 or $140 or whatever it was to get another ultra high-def 4K Roku. 

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You don't have to spend that much money. Even the highest priced Roku player (Ultra) is $100. The Roku Express 4K+ is an excellent player at $40. If you need Dolby Vision support (which your current player does not have) it's only $50 for the Streaming Stick 4K. 

As others have mentioned, If you have the original 4K Roku player, the Roku 4 (model 4400), it's an 8 year old player, and if you bought it recently for a high price you were scammed. If your 4K player is newer than the 4400, it's likely still going to work with Disney+ just fine. But since you received the warning through the channel itself, it does sound like you have the old 4400. 

[atc98092]

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@nismo80 wrote:

Same problem. Roku wants to stop support/updating working devices that in result loses paid subscriptions, then Roku should offer a credit to loyal customers to upgrade. 

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Roku generally supports their products for at least seven years. And once support stops, they will still work with the functionality they have at the time. My old Roku 2 XS was supported for years beyond it was actually usable. The issue is Roku continues to improve the hardware in their products, then the channel developers make their channels use those improvements. Which often makes the channel unusable on older devices. While unfortunate, that's the way most consumer electronic devices are made and supported. 

[Bradusername]

I saw that message too this week. I might, well, probably will at this point, just get the little Apple TV box thingy to replace my Roku. I tried one in the apple store yesterday and it’s pretty neat. 

[atc98092]

Both the Apple TV and Fire TV products are fine streaming players. But with both you have user interfaces that immerse you in their world. Apple of course is all Apple-centric (and not inexpensive), and their requirements to have apps available for the device is even stricter than Roku. And the Fire TV buries you in an Amazon world, which I personally don't care for. 

But I remind you again that both Apple and Amazon will drop support for older OS versions when they won't perform well with newer app updates. Roku is not alone in this. Apple in particular will stop supporting an OS version after about 4 1/2 years, according to data I found online. The Android OS seems to stop supporting OS versions after about 3 years. Apple seems to still support their iPhones for 7+ years, and from the info I can find the Apple TV 3rd Generation (released in 2012) is now considered only "somewhat" functional.

The bottom line is that all consumer electronic devices have a useful life, and in most cases that's from 5-8 years, depending on the device and how it's used. Streaming players seem to have a bit shorter life, but that's mostly because the technology continues to advance so quickly. That is the biggest issue with Roku players. The newer hardware is just so much better than the older players that the apps/channels created for them simply won't work on the older hardware. 

[nismo80]

You make valid points about tech advancing, but it's incomplete. Streaming will always be limited by Internet. Even if it advances to get close to the massive data on a 4k disc, there are still costumers with older TV's and slow Internet.

So these old devices still are functional.

My first Roku worked until it was inoperable since so slow. But this Roku 4 is rated 4k. Not even close to obsolete yet.

By not supporting perfectly fine devices, you're forcing rebuys.

But I'm sure like anything bean counters assess cost vs loss vs whatever and don't care since they expect to lose some over this. 

We have 5 Roku devices. Once this one loses function doubt I'll replace it. A shame since I've also bought rokus for others.

Basically they should last longer than the TV used for. Workarounds should be firmware updates and require SD cards if necessary.

Otherwise a simple offer for a newer version half off or something. That builds a strong customer base.