How to view Broadcast Antenna TV on a Roku TV
Yes, it has been frustrating trying to set up the Roku(TCL) TVs to watch local broadcast channels. Most of the articles on the Roku web site were incorrect. Even the ones written by Roku technical people. For the last couple of months the process seemed to work sometimes, and, not other times. Or, you would turn off the power and when you turned it back on, all the local channel setup was gone. I don't know if there's a glitch in the software or, the database for the setup is remotely accessed from Roku servers and get corrupted.
The good news is the local TV channel setup seems to have stablized. Over the last month or so all the setup is still there and works fine on my TCL 55S405 running version 14.1 of the Roku software. If you want to check your own TV, from Home on the startup screen, down arrow to System, OK, then right > About >. This will display the model number and software version. You have obviously figured out how to scan for local antenna TV channels and how to select them as favorites. I have included the setup process I use for others to review. There are two "Live TV" selections. Do not select "Live TV" from the vertical side menu. Instead, from "Home", right arrow > over to the channel icons and then up/down arrows to "Live TV"(OK).
Here's the process I used to setup the local broadcast(antenna) TV channels on a TCL TV with builtin Roku. There should be a more straight forward way but, there's not. I don't know if it works with an external Roku box.
Do this setup once:
Make sure you have some kind of antenna connected to the antenna input on the TV set. A “rabbit ears” is OK for urban areas. I was able to catch 115 channels in the Las Vegas area.
Step 1: Home, down arrow to “Settings”(OK), “TV inputs”(OK), “Live TV” > Manage channels(OK), > Hide Streaming Channels (check the box), left arrow <, “Scan for Channels” > “Start Finding Channels”(OK), “Scan”(for channels) This process can take 5 minutes or more. My scan in the Las Vegas area found 124 channels.
Step 2: (Back arrow to) < “Manage Channels”(OK) then (left arrow) <, You should see a list of all the channels and their sub-channels. “Favorites”(OK), Select just the channels(and sub-channels) you want to be listed under the “Favorites” tab in the channel listing.
Step 3: Push “Home” button to return.
Do this every time you want to watch local antenna channels
Home, then(right arrow) > , up/down keys to “Live TV”(OK). You should see all the local antenna TV channels scanned earlier. Select “Favorites”(OK), to see the favorite channels you selected. To return to the channel guide when watching a channel, use the UPPER, LEFT arrow key <.
B. Bevan, version: 1-12-2025
