Solving playback issues

[rockworm]

This is a relatively new problem.  I'd say it's only about a week old.  The problem persists after a complete reset, once you've used the Roku for a few hours.  So this is not a matter of some long-term power up corruption.

If you power on your Roku from a sleeping mode, are you back out of one channel like Hulu, and you're on the channel select screen none of the buttons do anything except for make a noise indicating that the button was seen.  Nothing you do moves the channel selection cursor.  The only option at this point is to hit the home button.

Once you have the home screen back up you can move back over to channels and select as normal.

This is definitely new don't know what you guys did but it's majorly annoying.

[DBDukes]

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@rockworm wrote:

... The problem persists after a complete reset,...

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What do you mean when you say "complete reset?" A full factory reset? Please clarify.

[rockworm]

Sorry.  Yeah, that's incorrect.  After a system restart.

But to add, I haven't changed any settings in months.  About the only thing different between before when it was find and now is a channel delete.

[DBDukes]

@rockworm 

You talk about "backing out" of apps. I assume you mean you use the Back button on the remote until you get an "Are you sure you want to exit" screen or something? You don't just hit the Home button to exit an app?

I understand that you've been doing it that way for years, and I understand a lot of people do that, but my question is, does using the Home button to exit instead of multiple Back presses still give you the same results?

This may help determine what is going wrong, or where. If it happens regardless of exit method, that could point to one thing; if it only happens on one type of exit, that could point to something else.

[rockworm]

I will have to be careful to be more aware of how to recreate the problem.

I can change how I use the device for a day, and always use home to exit apps instead of back and see if that changes things.  I can do the opposite the next day.

What I suspect may also be a culprit is watching a show on Hulu or You tube and the  simply hitting the power button when I get up to walk away (which also switches off my TV).

In most cases, when I see the problem, I am coming back to watch someything.  I hit power and I am in the channel select area (can't see the far left menu).  All buttons simply give me an audio beep except the home button which gets me back to the roku menu.  Then all buttons start working again.

So if might not be "back" or "home" but simply power button when I am done watching something.

I'll try to always do one of the above until I stop seeing the problem or can narrow it down.

All in all, having to hit home is no big deal.  Just odd.  Feels like the "cursor" is lost.  I'm a retired embedded SW guy, so it bugs me that I can't just fix it 😛

[rockworm]

Okay so here's how I duplicated it.

I went into Hulu and I selected a show to watch.  I then hit the power button on my remote.  Hitting power again and getting back in seem to work fine.  So I got back into Hulu selected a show to watch and hit the power button again.

This time I waited about an hour.

I opened up my Roku by hitting the power button on my remote.  I was presented with the channel list with no menu to the left and very briefly the Hulu channel was highlighted.

That highlighting went away and at this point hitting any of the buttons up down left and right just give you the audio reminder noise but do nothing.

I have to hit the home button on my remote to get back to the menu and then everything works.

Just duplicated this this morning.

[makaiguy]

Roku operating system version 10.5 added added a new "Power" item in the "Settings > System" menu for some of the latest Roku devices. The new "Auto power savings" item there will put your Roku device into a low power standby condition after a period of inactivity, such as when your tv has been turned off for a while.

Pressing the Home key on your Roku remote should bring the Roku out of standby and back to full operation. Pulling the power for a few seconds to restart the Roku will restore full operation as well.

If you have a "Settings > System > Power" menu item, deactivating any power saving options you find under "Auto power savings" will prevent your Roku from going into standby in the first place.

[rockworm]

Sounds like the issue.

Rather than disable power saving features, I think the feature should reinitialize properly rather than leaving the device in a defective inoperable state when I power it back up.

[rockworm]

So it does seem to be related to my TV going into power saving mode.  I duplicated it again simply by falling asleep while watching a show.  When I woke up I hit the back button on my Roku to find myself in the same mode.

By the way there is no power option under settings/system

[renojim]

@rockworm, what is the model number displayed under Settings->System->About?

The power button on the Roku remote doesn't affect the Roku device at all; it only affects the TV.