Remotes

[Bethiah]

I love my Roku. Over the many, many years, I have only upgraded once. And that was only for the new remote.

I have gone through so many remotes,  so much more money than the Roku device itself.

Because the Roku remote is one of the few that you can attach earbuds to, that is the remote I need. Not want, need. I need it to sleep not only for me but my partner, so we can both get a decent nights sleep.

The 3mm jack works for a while, then it wears out quite quickly, not to mention it absolutely sucks up the batteries. And I willingly paid for those batteries, but it adds up.

You can imagine how excited I was that Roku has a new rechargeable remote. It was a gift from heaven.

Except they keep using the same cheap tech. The 3mm jack is wearing out where I have to have it "just so" for it to work and don't get me started on trying to get my remote to recharge.

I plug it in and it says it is charging and several hours later, it has no charge. It doesn't work.

And that is not the end of my frustration. Once I get it to hold a charge for a few minutes, it decides what I want to watch. I want to watch Justified: City Primeval, it just yippy skippy says I should watch Only Murders in the Building. And no amount of coercion will allow me to get to the program I want to watch.

Insult to injury. My Roku remote app on my phone works perfectly every time. I just can't use my headphones.

[AvsGunnar]

@Bethiah 

Regarding the mobile app. you can purchase some bluetooth earbuds (or even bluetooth headphones), and connect those to your phone so you can use the mobile app's Private Listening.

I have older Android Moto ZPlay phones just because I like the 3mm jack on it for headphones.  You can certainly buy a cheap phone on Amazon or Ebay with the 3mm jack.  You do not have to use as a phone. You don't even need to put a SIM card in it for it to access your network or to use it solely for apps. (basically, it is a mini-tablet).

I actually only use the mobile app for Private Listening just so i don't kill the batteries in my remote.

[HDMIGuy]

@Bethiah To add to what AvsGunnar said you can also get a bluetooth transmitter that connects to the optical aduio out of your TV and use any bluetooth headphones or earbuds with it.  Under $40 and use can use any remote you want for your Roku.

[Strega2]

If I had some of the old remotes where the jack got bad, I would probably be inclined to experiment on them – for example, see if I can pry one open and then solder the headphone leads straight to the circuit board and then strain relief it with some hot glue and/or silicone adhesive/caulk.  Since you already have them, and they've gone bad, it seems like there’s little risk in experimenting on them. (The jack probably has a simple switch in it, which will need to be shorted or not, depending on which way indicates something is plugged in.)