Channels & viewing

[atc98092]

No, it makes perfect sense. I completely understand your need. While your Roku is still "officially" supported, it is now seven years old, and some channel providers no longer support it. Still, you're stuck with finding a solution for your travels. If you have any sort of Internet available wherever you are, you could connect to Plex from your home system. I use a Roku Stick for that exact purpose when I travel. But if you don't have a connection, that's no help. 

The only player that I have personal knowledge would work is the Nvidia Shield Pro, but that's $200. I did a quick look on Amazon and found this player. It's less than $40, and being Android based it should run any of the freely available player apps in the Google Play store. Kodi is a bit of work to configure, but is an outstanding player. VLC is a great player with a less than stellar user interface. It has the following listed for video media support:  Video: MKV, AVI, TS/TP, MOV, VOB, and M2TS files using H.264/AVC, VC1 or MPEG2/4 codecs, up to 1920x1080p resolution, 30 fps, and 10mbps. MP4 and M4V files are supported up to 4GB file size. NOTE： 4K and H.264/HEVC videos are not supported! You would have to determine if your media is supported, but if they played fine on a Roku, the only issue might be the file size for a MP4 container. From the description, it doesn't even appear you need to install any separate media player, as it seems to have one already. However, I just scrolled down to the comments, and there are some less than satisfied users. 

The only current Roku player with a USB port is the Ultra. It's currently on sale for $70, and you can probably get that price at a local Best Buy or other retailer that carries Roku. There are several other Roku models that have mini-USB ports for power, but I have no idea if any of them would support connecting a USB hub and a connected hard drive. The same goes for the Fire TV: I don't know if the mini-USB port is also capable of being a data source. And unfortunately, there's no way to roll your Roku 3 back to the previous OS version. There is a hidden menu that sometimes permits a single rollback, but it's less than reliable and unless you then immediately take it off any network it's going to self-update back to 11.0.

[AirMojo]

I am also having this problem... tried connecting my 2TB USB external hard drive, and got the same Roku Media Player message screen (see photo)... I posted a separate thread the other day (did not see this one).

I tested with a couple of 16GB flash drives, one with mp3 files, the other with some mp4 files, and both would work with my Roku 3 that was updated to software version 11.0.0, as noted on the screen photo.

I have another Roku 3 that is still on the previous software version 10, and it works fine with the 2TB drive.

I'm looking into try to connect the drive to my local network, but that is not going very well at this point.

[AirMojo]

@AvsGunnar Thank you for the reply... I looked to see if there were similar posts, but must've missed it !

Not sure exactly how to connect my USB external drive to my network... looking into it, but so far it is not going very well !

I replied to the other post, to see what happens there too !

I did disconnect my other Roku 3 for now.

[atc98092]

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@AirMojo wrote:

Not sure exactly how to connect my USB external drive to my network... looking into it, but so far it is not going very well !

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Some routers offer a USB port that allows a hard drive to be visible to network connected devices. That's the simplest way to make it available. You can also get a NAS enclosure and put your drive inside (or connect it via USB as well). And of course you can plug it into a Windows PC and enable media sharing (it's done via DLNA). If you have a Mac or Linux computer, there are DLNA servers for all of them, as well as better servers for Windows than the one that is included by Microsoft.

[AirMojo]

My Spectrum router only has ethernet connections... I'm looking at setting up a network connection to the external hard drive on my Windows 10 PC, but haven't been successful yet... trying to first test access from my other PC, but seem to be having creditional/permissions issues... nothing is easy !

[atc98092]

Windows has a terrible built-in DLNA server, but it works adequately if your media is all supported by Roku. I finally just completely disabled it on mine, so it doesn't even appear in RMP as a source. But I don't recall having to do anything special to make it appear there. When you are referring to permissions, that is usually only required with file sharing. DLNA doesn't use any of that. You simply add your media to the Windows Media Player library, and then enable media sharing. 

It looks like Windows 10 now calls it Movies and TV. That's a change from my past experience with the Windows version, so perhaps they've changed things. This link might be of assistance getting it set up in Windows 10.

[AirMojo]

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@atc98092 wrote:

Windows has a terrible built-in DLNA server, but it works adequately if your media is all supported by Roku. I finally just completely disabled it on mine, so it doesn't even appear in RMP as a source. But I don't recall having to do anything special to make it appear there. When you are referring to permissions, that is usually only required with file sharing. DLNA doesn't use any of that. You simply add your media to the Windows Media Player library, and then enable media sharing. 

It looks like Windows 10 now calls it Movies and TV. That's a change from my past experience with the Windows version, so perhaps they've changed things. This link might be of assistance getting it set up in Windows 10.

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Thanks Dan... I managed to get the video files into Media Player (kind of messy since it does not seem to identify the different folders that I keep various movies, etc in to keep them organized--have not explored the "playlists" because I do not want to bother with that right now).

But my Roku 3 did connect to my Windows Media Player), and I could play them... although I would HATE to use it for the lack of folders that the Roku USB Media Play can identify)... but it still will not properly connect the 2T external hard drive, even though it must detect it to "Launch" the player... it could still play the videos on my 16GB flash drive.

The beauty of the Roku USB connection is that I can use it while away from home on vacation, etc, as I think others who are having this issue also do... don't really need a wifi or network connection to do so.

[AirMojo]

Please note I do not use the micro SD slot card with my Roku 3... not sure what it is even used for... recall it may have to do with quick connections to various channels... makes me wonder if the Roku 3 has some sort of "memory" issue... maybe the size of the Version 11 software used up too much of it's memory... ????

[atc98092]

Well, your player has 512 MB of operational memory, which is the same amount as the most current versions of the basic Express models. I don't think Roku would have released OS 11 for devices if the memory was insufficient for it. But it likely is approaching the limits of that amount of memory. All new players (except the Express models I mentioned) have at least 1 GB of operational memory. Roku might be approaching the limit of what the older hardware can support. And of course, the CPU differs greatly between the older and the newest models.

Thanks for mentioning the SD card. You are correct that some users have had issues with operations with an SD card installed. All the SD card does is enlarge the storage available for channel installation. It has zero impact on the amount of operating memory, and unless there's an issue with the card it doesn't impact the Roku's operation at all. Roku has eliminated the SD card slot on all models now, as it's simpler to just install a bit more on-board memory, and avoid those sorts of issues. 

[AirMojo]

@atc98092

I'm thinking that maybe with the large volume of folders and files on a large external hard drive, the directory size being loaded in the Roku Media Player may be pushing the limit or exceeding the memory.... since it does seem to be working on smaller USB drives.