Remotes

[andyhoover]

Is private listening as an option on the remote going away? I ask because the second gen of the pro remote omits it and the first gen line that had it is sold out.

[RokuTakashi]

Hey, @andyhoover 

Greetings, and welcome to the Roku Community.

Thanks for sharing with us your inquiry regarding the Headphone mode on the Roku Voice Remote Pro (1st) Edition. This Roku remote model is currently out of stock on Roku's official website.

On the other hand, we suggest that you try the Headphones mode on the Roku mobile app and see how it works for you.

For more details, you can download the Roku mobile app.

Thank you for your participation, and Happy Streaming! 💜

The Roku Community Team.

[andyhoover]

I appreciate your response and thanks for the suggestion but the question still remains. Is the path forward for the company to stop implementing the private listening through a remote going forward.

The app, of course requires using your phone. We have tried this and while it works generally it presents several limitations over the remote.

First, almost all modern phones have eliminated a separate headphone jack in favor of a unified power/accessory jack meaning that you cannot charge your phone and use the headphones at the same time if you are using a wired headphone (we do).

Secondly, streaming audio through the app consumes a lot of power depleting the phone battery much faster than just about any other streaming - amplifying the point above.

Third, I have a company provided phone that restricts the apps that I can install making using the app on my phone impossible.

[atc98092]

If I had to guess (and that's all this is) I believe you are correct that they are moving away from having a headphone jack in the remote. Probably the major reason is battery life, as in the batteries only last a matter of days if the headphone jack is used heavily. The reason for that is when you connect ear buds/headphones to the remote it activates an audio amplifier in the remote to power the headphones, and this takes a lot of power. If people forget to unplug the earphones when not being used, the audio amp remains powered on and the batteries drain really, really fast.

Another reason is Roku is beginning to offer Bluetooth in their latest players so someone can simply pair Bluetooth headphones to the player and use it that way. So they end up offering a better user experience with either BT headphones connected to the Roku or using the Roku app on a phone/tablet and connecting headphones to that device.

[andyhoover]

I hope that isn't the case.
What that would mean for us is to choose on of the following:

1. Scrounge up as many 1st gen remotes as I can find and put them away for replacements
2. Use the app which is inferior to using the remote in sound quality and battery life (much higher cost to replace a phone battery in the long term)
3. Replace my current hardware to get newer hardware in favor of using more hardware (Bluetooth headphones) to maybe do what we have already been doing for years.

The selling point of roku is it's simplicity. Options two and three are much less intuitive than anything that they have released before. Not to mention the additional e-waste produced.

If I'm forced to upgrade/purchase other things then maybe a different platform might offer more for my money. I don't want to do that. A $30 remote replacement that they have been selling for years already would fix this problem.

[atc98092]

If you see all of the complaints Roku received about battery life in the remotes, you can understand their desire to move away from offering the headphone jack. But it would be nice to have at least one version still offer it.