Discussions

[Dogzilla]

Tidal claims that they've partnered with Roku to provide lossless audio service and if you read carefully it appears that they are only talking about Roku Tv and not the other Roku devices. If a moderator could possibly clear this up it would be appreciated. By the way I did sign up for Tidal HiFi using my Premier+ and it does not support lossless so I will be canceling Tidal and looking for a streaming device that does support lossless or passthrough for my next purchase, if Roku has one please let us know.

Moderator response would be nice.

[RokuKariza-D · Accepted solution]

Hey @Dogzilla

Thanks for posting here in the Community!

For more information about that channel's features and functionality, you'll want to contact TIDAL's customer support to inquire further. Many channels on Roku are developed and maintained by the channel provider themselves.

We appreciate your understanding.

All the best,
Kariza

[Dogzilla]

Thanks for responding Kariza,

I wasn't asking about  Tidals features and functionality I was asking about Roku's compatibility. I did contact Tidal and I will share the correspondence with you.

" 

Sep 9, 2021, 2:04 PM EDT

Apparently not all Roku devices allow for uncompressed flac files to be passed through to my receiver and it's DAC. My Roku Premiere+ insist on compressing your lossless stream to a 48khz sampling of unknown bitrate that sounds no better than a low level mp3 service. Any attempts to get Roku to clarify which of their devices have the passthrough options are ignored. Your announcement of getting the Tidal service on Roku was the soul reason for my signing up for your HiFi service but if the only Roku device I can get HiFi through is the Roku Tv then I can't use your service. If there is a device that allows for direct streaming (no mobiles) to my system please let me know as I would love to use your top tier service.

Much appreciation and Thank you."

Response from Tidal.

"

Sep 9, 2021, 2:16 PM EDT

Hello,

Thank you for reaching back out! My name is Jaquitta, I will be glad to 

I'd be happy to help answer your questions.

With the Roku app, the highest audio quality that is supported is HiFi - 1411 kbps - Lossless  (16/44.1 kHz).

MQA is not currently available on Roku TV.

In order to listen to the MQA format to its fullest extent, your equipment needs to be MQA capable. Otherwise, you will not be getting the full MQA experience but you will still be enjoying a better sound quality than HiFi.

If you do not use a DAC at all, the TIDAL client will decode the MQA in 1x unfolding. A DAC which is MQA capable can unfold up to 8x (provided the DAC has that capability). With the desktop and/or a non-MQA DAC you will get 24bit/88.2 (96) kHz . The stream quality of each album depends on the labels’ engineering of the album. Please ensure that the "passthrough MQA" is not enabled if you do not have an MQA DAC.

Click here to visit the MQA website to view all MQA-enabled devices.

Further information on TIDAL Masters with the desktop app can also be found here.

Let me know if you have any other questions - I'm always happy to help.

Have a great day!

My response To Tidal's response.

" 

Hello Jaquitta,

Thank you for your quick response.

I know that "With the Roku app, the highest audio quality that is supported is HiFi - 1411 kbps - Lossless (16/44.1 kHz)"

I know that "MQA is not currently available on Roku TV." and I'm not even trying to get MQA only HiFi - 1411 kbps - Lossless (16/44.1 kHz)

I do have DAC in the reciever that my Roku Device is attached to, the problem is that my current Roku device (Premiere+) insists on compressing your HiFi - 1411 kbps - Lossless (16/44.1 kHz) so that my receiver never gets the lossless stream but instead gets a 48khz unknown bitrate and format.

My question was which of the Roku devices actually support the transmission of HiFi - 1411 kbps - Lossless (16/44.1 kHz) without compressing it.

The only reason I'm asking Tidal this question is that I've asked Roku and they have ignored me and everyone else who has asked the same question and if I can't get your uncompressed 1411 kbps - Lossless (16/44.1 kHz) through my current or any other Roku device then I can't use your service.

Since claiming a new partnership with the Roku platform I thought maybe you would have the answer or maybe Roku would answer Tidal about the actual device support as this directly affects your customer base. Just because they support your app on thier service it doesn't mean they support the delivery of your lossless stream to your customers who will end up blaming Tidal they when pay a premium price for a service that sounds no better than a cheap mp3 service.

Thank you again, Jaquitta.

Please,please,Please pass this on to people in sales (or whoever) as High resolution music delivery is the newest thing but nobody has gotten it right yet, it's still too complicated and Roku is a large market with a possible simple solution to delivery "IF" the equipment works.

[Dogzilla]

I GIVE UP. 

This is my last response with Tidal.

TIDAL Support (TIDAL)
This really depends on the setup inside each Roku device, as a whole Roku does say they are FLAC compatible: 

https://developer.roku.com/docs/specs/media/streaming-specifications.md

It just depends, if Roku has certain models that cannot handle full lossless then the Roku Support Team would be the best ones to check on this, please check your model specifics to find which would allow the level of streaming you want.

Thank you for understanding and let me know if you have any other questions.

FAQs and general information can be found at support.TIDAL.com.

Best Regards,
Jaquitta
TIDAL Member Support

Hello again Jaquitta,

We gotta stop meeting like this (kidding)

I know Roku is FLAC compatible they just insists on compressing it instead of letting my DAC decode it (no passthrough) and as far as the Roku Support Team they have been ignoring the questions about compression and passthrough from lots of people for years (literarily) long before it became an issue with Tidal so expecting an answer from them is not an option. The only solution I can see is for Tidals higher management to give Roku a little flack….pun intended….this really will affect Tidals bottom line because if Roku can’t deliver the service paid for then Tidal takes the blame and loses the customers. Again, Roku has a large customer base with a possible simple delivery system if it would just deliver your signal untouched.

I really do appreciate your time Jaquitta.

Please pass this up the chain.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm quitting Tidal like I did Amazon HD, no use paying for lossless that you can't get because there's no streamer to support it. If some one wants to suggest Shield, don't, I checked it out and apparently they are now experiencing the exact same problem, they've had the passthrough option removed without explanation and left with same 48khz and no sample or bitrate info and a few pissed off and confused Shield  fans. 

[Tflo]

Same boat, I quit both, back to Sacd for now

[Nickbarcio]

Anyone try a Bluesound Node? Not sure that's exactly the same as what you're trying to do here, but I know they are very well reviewed.

[Tflo]

Running from tidal app on Sony a80j, works great now