Channels & viewing

[Frustrated64]

I hate that Roku no longer has live support for issues.  I have tried in the past to resolve this issue and Roku couldn’t resolve it back then.  It is still occurring years later, same issue, and now I can’t connect with an actual person to talk to.  I’m angry that I pay for Roku and then can’t even play the free movies offered to subscribers.  What are my options?  Can anyone else help me?  I have tried all of Roku’s “Help” solutions and nothing has solved this issue.  HELP!!!!

[renojim]

Who are you paying?  Roku is free and you often get what you pay for.  If there's a specific title that you're having a problem with, you can report it here and hopefully a moderator will look into it.  Note that this only applies to The Roku Channel.  If you're having an issue with another provider you'd need to report it to them.

[Frustrated64]

Roku is not free!  I pay a monthly fee to Roku.  It’s Roku movies on the Roku Channel that won’t play.  A list of all the movies I have tried to play that the only sound I get is loud static:  My Boss’ Wedding, Lost In Love, After The Storm, Elf-Man, Alone for Christmas, Sappy Holiday, Christmas on the Carousel, Holly Star, Christmas in Paris, Angel’s Perch, 10 Steps to Love, Together Forever Tea, Christmas Together, You May Kiss the Bridesmaid, The Open Road, Quest for Love, A Christmas Wish in Hudson, Cupids on Beacon Street, Wedding Cake Dreams, A Love Yarn, The Right Kind of Wrong, and Written in the Stars.  

[renojim · Accepted solution]

@Frustrated64, if you're paying a monthly fee to Roku, there's two possibilities:

1. You're paying for a subscription to a premium service through Roku.
2. You're being scammed.

Free on The Roku Channel means just that - it's completely free.  I've had a Roku device practically since day one and I've never paid Roku a dime.  You can see what subscriptions you have through Roku by signing into your account at https://my.roku.com using the email address that's shown on your device under Settings->System->About.  If there's none listed there, that "fee" isn't going to Roku.

As for your sound issue, that's too many for it to simply be a bad video, although those do exist and you'll often see them reported here.  Do you have audio issues with other apps or just The Roku Channel?

[Frustrated64]

You are correct.  The charges through Roku are for 2 other channels.  But the issue is with playback on The Roku Channel itself.  Many movies play just one.  It’s only the ones I listed that won’t play with sound except loud static. 

[renojim · Accepted solution]

I tried My Boss' Wedding and Elf-Man and didn't have a problem.  My Boss' Wedding only has one audio track, but Elf-Man has three - two English and one Spanish.  Try selecting the other English track.  When you start the video, there's a "Captions & audio track" selection you can get to by pressing the up arrow.  From there you can select a different Audio track.  You can also get there while the video is playing by pressing * on your remote and going to "Accessibility and language".  The only other thing I can think of to try is "Volume leveling".  If you have one of the modes enabled, try setting it to "off".  On my device you get there by pressing * while the video is playing and going to  "Sound settings".

We often see reports of movies with audio issues, but not that many from one person.  It points to something about your setup or a problem with your Roku device.

[Frustrated64]

I changed the sound track and it worked!!  Thank you!  I didn’t know there were different tracks.  But why do I have to switch sound tracks?  Why don’t they all just “play” normal when I press play?

[renojim]

Some movies have a stereo and a "surround sound" track and your equipment may not be compatible.  It's supposed to automatically use the track that's compatible, but it doesn't always work that way.

[Frustrated64]

Thank you so much for all your help.  I can finally play all my movies!!