@Muleskinner wrote: ... Pretty annoying since I’ve only had the tv for a week.
If I knew what I know now (when I had my tv only a week), I'd return it.
I agree with people who say all their Roku tvs have worked fine for 10 years. I don't doubt that. I've had mine a couple years, and no complaints. The problem is: when something goes wrong, you find out that there's virtually no support. Worse, things can go wrong because Roku doesn't test its software updates. You can't opt out of them; you can't go back to a prior version that worked for you. So, it's a like death ride. As long as nothing goes wrong, you're oblivious to it. But, when it does, you can be mighty angry that you found your tv broken by an update, told to talk to the tv maker (with a canned, impersonal robotic reply), and unable to go back to what you had.
It was the 9.4 update that brought me here, and I am beyond shocked by what I've seen. It's contemptuous. It inspires negative respect, non-stop.
I don't know what the odds are that you could be one of the lip-synch, green-screen, black-screen, recovery-loop, mac-addr all zeroes person. Maybe it's small. I don't have an agenda to cause you to not have a Roku TV. But, spend some time looking through the last 5-10 pages of this forum. Look at the Roku employees. Click on their profiles & look at their posting history. You'll only need to see one page to know what's going on here. Support is like some marketing department's version of support. It's all happy talk. "Pass it along, talk to the tv maker." (silence). There's no honest conversation. The idea of formal bug tracking & status updates is like daylight to a vampire.
They do not care (the company doesn't at least. I feel sorry for the people who have to carry that water here).
Also, be aware that Roku has a beta program which (from what I've read) pays people. So, sometimes you can't really tell how biased positive sentiment may be from long timers, who might have vested interest in the status-quo. There could be an element of astroturfing.
The bottom line is: the forum speaks for itself. Read it. It's remarkable. Nobody's responsible for anything. That's the constant message. It's like the partnership with Roku and tv-makers is designed for this squishy evasion ("collusion tactics."). Everyone points the finger at everyone else, with no clear getting to the bottom of the problem. That's what's constant evaded.
If you're fortunate enough to never be hit with a problem, you'll think everything's fine. (I did.). But, like I said, the non-option updates are killing people's tvs. That's not hyperbole. There is no responsibility for that, AT ALL. You're rolling the dice with a Roku (especially TCL & Onn Roku TVs, and especially the higher series models which seem to be the most prone to update problems, not tested, etc.).
For me: looking back:
1. I would definitely buy the extended warranty (longest available). I usually don't buy those. I think they wouldn't be sold if the seller weren't making money (meaning the odds are I wouldn't need it). But, in the case of Roku, I'd buy it. (Especially TCL, Onn. There's something even worse happening between Roku & those guys. It's not clear who's dropping the ball. All that's clear is that Roku doesn't want it to be clear.).
If you have a warranty, then the tv maker (or the retailer) is on the hook to replace the tv if Roku's untested updates hurt you. At least someone's responsible for reckless and non-optional updates. If you don't have the warranty, you're out of luck. Nobody's responsible. There's no going back. No disabling updates when your warranty is up. You're living on the edge then.
2. Roku's CEO has always said he wanted to be Android on the TV.
Well, Android exists now. There are TCL Android TVs. You can opt out of updates. You can (from what I've read. I'm getting one next month) install a prior version that worked better for you. Android has years of structuring partnerships with hardware makers, divisions of labor/responsibility. (If you read this forum, imagine what Android would look like if they pushed out the updates that weren't tested, and then told the users of phones to talk to Nokia & Motorola about the resulting breakages. And then, Nokia & Motorola said to talk to Android? Nobody would put up with that. But, it's the status quo here.).
Another upside: TCL Android (from a video I saw on youtube) will recognize numeric keys on a universal remote, and change directly to an input channel number. It doesn't come a numeric remote. But, from what I saw: it will work with an aftermarket. (I have URC-7880 universal & programmable remote. I'm going to replace one of my TCL Rokus with a TCL Android next month. I'll have more firsthand knowledge.).
If I had to do it over again, knowing what I've learned the past 3 months, I'd buy TCL Android (with as much warranty as I can get, not knowing how much TCL contributes to the problems with TCL Roku tvs. I'd hedge my bet on that. I'm pretty sure a lot of it is Roku. How could TCL cause an update to break tvs? But, nonetheless. I'd be careful.). Or, I'd do a less-smart LG OneOS tv (LG's own software). I don't need a lot of latest/greatest streaming. I'm sure that would work for me.
I would never buy a Roku TV again.
By most accounts the external streaming devices are good. But, this marriage to TV is not good. Something wasn't planned correctly, treated too lightly; responsibilities weren't defined. Whatever it is, Roku's in complete denial about it. For that reason I wouldn't buy another.(If I knew then what I do now, I wouldn't have.).
Inform yourself while you have the opportunity to get out. Informed consent is never bad.
Maybe you can still buy the extended warranty. Maybe that would be the right thing to do after looking at a few pages of the forum. I think it would be very wise, especially if your TV is TCL or Onn. I'd return the tv and buy it again just to buy the extended warranty (if you want to keep the tv). If I had to, that's what I'd do.
As Sgt. Phil Estherhaus (NYPD Blues) used to say, "Let's be careful out there."
"People are often amazed at how much we’ve done with the number of engineers we’ve got." (Roku CEO Anthony Wood, Austin Statesman, Oct 4, 2019). "Amazed" is one way of putting it.
