Discussions

[warles]

I have the issue as well but it was primarily on one streaming stick+ and not my premier+ (although it did happen once on this device last night) or on another streaming stick+. I put a 3rd stick+ in place of the one with the issue and it has not shown the problem. All Rokus are on version  12.5 build 4178 (the premier+ is 4178-29 and the sticks are 4178-E6). All Plex apps are ver 7.11 build 2. 

FWIW, after looking at "about system" on the Roku I had to reboot it to see the "about Plex" information. I was able to see the "about Plex" info before looking at the Roku "about system" info but not after. This happened on the two sticks. 

[bigcat]

Same here. Plex crashes on my Roku TV from my local network at the start or end of many Plex shows as well as other Plex use. This is a recent issue. The whole TV is also much slower.

[BigfootIndy]

Same here, started mid October, temporary fix is to turn off MPEG2 in the Plex settings. Not ideal, but it is a workaround.

[warles]

Unfortunately, turing MPEG2 off kills closed captions for me.

[RokuJanadeeK]

Thank you for keeping us in the loop, @warles.

It seems that this issue may need an in-depth investigation. That being said, would you be so kind as to provide us with the following information?

• Roku device or TV model, serial number, device ID, and software OS/version (these can all be found in Settings > System > About).
• Tracker ID when this issue occurs (when you see this issue occur, press the Home button five times, followed by the Back button five times, and provide us with this ID).

Once a few more pieces of information have been gathered, we will be able to pass them along to the appropriate support team to investigate further. We look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,
Janadee

[TulsaTV]

@RokuJanadeeK By 10/13/2023 (see above), I had submitted a full description of the problem, exact specifications of my Roku devices and Tracker IDs for the two devices that were exhibiting this behavior. Has an investigation not yet been launched?

[RokuJohnB]

Hi @TulsaTV,

Thank you for informing us!

Currently, our appropriate Roku team is still investigating this issue that you're experiencing.

We sincerely appreciate your understanding and patience.

Kind regards,

John

[Jazzman00]

I have the same exact problem!  Please fix!

When only playing back 1080i content saved from the HD homerun, or when streaming live TV that's 1080i from the HD homerun, after a few minutes, the Plex app just crashes, and goes to the Roku homescreen. 

This happens only with my 5 Roku streaming stick+'s.  I've purchased these in 2020, 2021, and 2022.  They are not the same batch.  

This happens with any of the settings changed in the Plex settings section.  I meticulously changed each one at a time trying to figure out what the cause is. 

This DOES NOT happen with an old Roku 3 I purchased in 2016.  It's running the same Plex software version as the above.  I've tried both WiFi and network.  This one doesn't have the problem.  

All of my other streaming apps on the Roku work perfectly, even at 4K (on WiFi).  e.g. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon prime, Disney+, Discovery+, Pluto.  It's only the Plex app that gives me the issue.  

I've used theses streaming sticks for 3 years, or so, and never had a problem with Plex. It started in October.  I think there was an update.  This royally messed up my Plex's ability to let me watch my live OTA content!

I even tried a different way to make my Plex server.  Instead of my Synology, I used an up-to-date Ubuntu desktop on the LAN.  I then used a Windows 11 machine.  The only thing that I have in common is the Plex app.  

I've tried different TVs, different HDMI ports, different USB power adapters for the Roku.  Nothing is the culprit.  Just the app. 

I can watch my content on my desktop computers without an issue.  

Please fix ASAP!  

[RokuTakashi]

Hi, @Jazzman00

Thanks for posting, and welcome to the Roku Community.

We acknowledge your concern, and we'll need additional information on this. Could you please provide the details that @RokuJanadeeK requested above this thread? This information would be helpful for us to investigate this issue.

Additionally, it's an excellent option to contact Plex's support directly and inquire further about the issue so the channel providers can provide a workaround and an app update.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

All the best,
Kash

[TulsaTV]

Here is a detailed response from Plex employee "ljunkie" today:

------

sorry, everyone, for the delayed response! We have been investigating the issue and have isolated this to some changes in the Roku 12.5 OS update, specifically memory issues with MPEG2 streams in an HLS container. Roku enforces apps to use up to ~300MB of memory. Once an app goes over the threshold, Roku will terminate the app, which is what we are running into while direct streaming MPEG2 with a resolution of 1080. Lower resolutions are not immediately affected. However, those streams use much more memory in this scenario than they should. We are looking to see if we can do anything to limit the memory usage, but this may be something that needs an OS update/fix from Roku. The playback stack and memory management are part of Roku’s OS, which developers cannot tune or modify.

In the meantime, to work around the issue, we will turn off direct streaming of MPEG2 if the resolution is over 720p. While the “Allow MPEG2” setting is not technically supported, you can still benefit by enabling it for resolutions lower than 1080p. If the Live TV channel is 1080p, the setting is ignored and will require a transcode to convert from MPEG to H264 (essentially, what happens with the setting disabled). We will be publishing a preview update shortly and plan to include this change in the next official release.